title:  House Republicans Just Introduced Bill To Slash Social Security
text: The Republican effort to let Social Security  whither on the vine and die  just became reality as Donald Trump prepares to take office and become their puppet.Last month, House Speaker Paul Ryan made it clear that he wants to privatize Medicare and phase it out. That means anybody who is on Medicare or hoped to be on it soon are shit out of luck because Ryan s plan gives Medicare to private insurance companies, which means higher costs to get insurance and paying more for healthcare, even if the government offers pathetic vouchers to help pay for it.But now Republicans have unveiled their plan to cut Social Security as well.On Thursday, GOP Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas introduced the Social Security Reform Act of 2016 or H.R. 6489.The bill claims to be  saving  Social Security even though it is fully solvent through 2034 and could be infinitely solvent by applying the payroll tax to all income over $100,000. Republicans, however, like to complicate things and punish Americans at the same time.The most important part of the Republican plan is that they intend to raise retirement age from 67 to 69 for anyone who is 49 or younger. The GOP cites longer life expectancy as their reason for this change. In fact, life expectancy actually dropped in this country for the first time since 1993.So this is really all about screwing Americans out of their Social Security longer by making them work longer. Let s call it the GOP s  work till you drop dead  plan.The Republican plan will also slow the growth of benefits by basically changing the inflation metric so that benefits do not keep up with inflation, which means the cost of living will go up, but Social Security benefits won t.Furthermore, Republicans want to eliminate taxes on income after retirement, which would only take away from Social Security revenues.And that doesn t mean Republicans have given up the idea of privatizing Social Security. After all, President Bush wanted to do exactly that. He didn t get to, but had he been successful Social Security would have been wiped out by the Great Recession in 2008.Donald Trump promised his supporters that Social Security and Medicare would not be touched if he was elected. But apparently they got duped again just like he has been duping them about everything else, and they are about to pay a hefty price for it. Republicans DO NOT care about the American people. They only care about themselves and destroying the government and any program designed to help people.Featured Image: Mark Wilson/Getty Image