>

The GOP's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing
The Democrats better not agree to anything on this. It is better for the country to default than to give them cuts to these vital programs. The Republicans will be blamed if this happens. >

When they had best not, they inevitably will if the past is any guide. >

Based on what? When Senate Republicans pulled the same shit in 2021 Democrats didn’t back down, McConnell ended up being forced to back down and even agreed to a one time temporary filibuster exemption for the debt ceiling so that way Democrats can raise it without a single Republican vote. The only time Democrats actually gave into Republicans when it comes the debt ceiling was in 2011. >


“We have no choice but to make hard decisions,” said Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), the leader of the Republican Study Committee, a bloc of more than 160 conservative lawmakers that endorsed raising the retirement age and other changes last year. “Everybody has to look at everything.”

I assume he means "everything" except increasing the maximum taxable limit for earnings paid into Social Security.  It simply won't do to inconvenience American's wealthy. >

And still losing an estimated 2 Trillion dollars a year because they are not taxing the rich a fair percentage on profits. >

They want to take away the things you have already paid for. Fucking hell it's theft. They are trying to steal from the entire god damned country. >

Business as usual then? >

Social Security and Medicare are paid for with a separate tax. Neither program adds to the national debt.
Social Security taxes are paid on only the first $147,000 of income (increases to $160,200 in 2023). If the cap was increased or removed, Social Security could be solvent in perpetuity.
Social Security has about a $2,500,000,000,000 surplus.
Congress has borrowed trillions from Social Security for government spending. >

Aren't those both self-funded though? As in they will have zero impact on the debt/deficit. >

If I understand correctly, the National Debt is serviced by selling Treasury Securities, and the excess SSA funds collected each year are used to buy Treasury securities. The feds use a bookeeping trick to claim the SSA bought securities are equivalent to the debt sold securities, so essentially the excess SSA taxes that are collected each year are used to directly service the National Debt, but both bookeeping ledgers look legit.
Not sure exactly what happens with the interest the Securities are supposed to accrue: The SSA puts its accrued interest back in its trust, and the entities/people who buy securities to service the debt are supposed to receive interest as a reward. Kinda looks like the SSA accrued interest is just funneled directly to the debt servicers, which again is bookkeeping magic.
Right now the SSA fund has a surplus each year, but around 2034 it won't collect enough money to make payments for that year. The SSA will either have to reduce payments or reverse the bookeeping trick and "borrow" money that will increase the National Debt. One proposed fix is to reduce payments to around 75% of what was promised, continue the shady bookeeping, and this will extend the crisis year from 2034 to sometime in the 2090's. >

what i will never get is why democrats almost never go on real offense when republicans do this shit
every (D) even near a camera/mic should be hammering them on this
repeat after me: republicans are coming for your social security >

THIS! They need to go start playing hard ball. So over them being "polite." It's need to be on every ad and speech nationwide. How many old people (both Dem & Rep) will suffer because of this and it's literal theft for people who have been working/ paying a this tax since starting to work. Millions and millions of people's ability to retire would jut vanish overnight... >

Why more senior citizens are not yelling from the rooftops that these Republicans are trying to destroy their safety nets is alarming. Wake the fuck up. Republicans are trying to destroy your safety nets because their tax cuts for the rich and corporations skyrocketed our national deficit.
Yes, both parties have raised the deficit, and yes we need to address it.  But don’t try to fix that on the backs of hard-working Americans who have put money into these programs for decades.  Tax the ultra rich. >

Trump raised the deficit more than any other person in 100 years. This isn't a "both parties" thing. Trump. Trump did that, by handing out tax breaks to the rich and raising our taxes for years. 
And why aren't seniors screaming from rooftops? Because so many of them live and breath Fox, who is keeping them stupidly busy with faux outrage against anything they can throw up against the wall and make stick. >

This sounds like fake news cuz r/conservative told me they’d never go after social security or Medicare and that it was just a scare tactic being pushed by the left. >

Except under Bush they already tried …. I remember Mc Carthy holding “ town meetings “ to explain why privatizing social security was the only way to save it . Fucking scum. >

Tax-cuts for billionaires are safe then? >

Rest assured, the GOP has no higher priority. >

Further proof that the main agenda of the Republicans is to roll back the new deal and weaken civil rights. >

Go ahead. Let them vote out a bill cutting social security and medicare. Put all those Republican boomers in a hurt. >

And a whole lot of Democrats, and younger people too.
If you are the unmarried child under age 18 of a worker who dies, you can be eligible to receive Social Security survivors benefits. You can also be eligible, if you are up to age 19 and attending elementary or secondary school full time. >

I received one of these benefits for a few months when my mom died in a car crash during my senior year of high school. I think it was a little over a hundred a month, so slightly better than nothing. Thankfully, I had grandparents I could move in with.
The Trump admin made me pay that back in 2017, since they reinterpreted the guidelines. Being 18 years old disqualified me despite the fact I was in school. I'm not sure if those guidelines were ever fixed. >

Clawing back social security benefits from an orphan?  How on brand for Trump and the GOP.  Sorry you had to go through all this.