President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

So Congress got in there and figured out how to shore them up, right?

 

Meh ... you can’t say that the tax cuts killed SS/Medicare and then say, well, the problem with the tax cuts is that they didn’t fix SS/Medicare. Not if you care about not being a dishonest hack.

 

When the retrospective takes hold, Ryan will probably get credit for doing some good on the issue. By now most of us have seen the numbers and know those programs need reform. (Means testing and adjusted ages for SS? DEATH PANELS!!!! for Medicare?) I'm not sure that was the case eight years ago.

He won't ever get to claim victory, but he did move the ball.

 

I didn't say that. I said that with $800B deficits this year which will grow to over a trillion a year starting in two years, per the CBO, that Congress was going to be faced with some hard budget choices. As some point Congress will no longer be able to kick the can down the road without the whole budget collapsing under its own weight.

No, I didn't explain it that way. I tied together Ryan's two biggest wet dream legislative goals, huge tax cuts and huge cuts to SS/Medicare, and was snarky about it.

Good to see you back, DQ.

 

That's right, now everything in this ad is in edible form.

 

Oh, bullshit. McConnell and Pelosi just can't imagine not being in office.

 

There is nothing wrong with Medicare and Social Security that can't be fixed by reasonable tax increases on the affluent. Nothing. And few things are more depressing in our politics than how many non-affluent people accept that it's somehow a necessity to condemn large numbers of older people to grinding poverty, medical bankruptcy and premature death.

 

Opinion | The Law Is Coming, Mr. Trump

 

Man, that Paul Ryan triggered the liberal tears by announcing he'd leave Congress. #winning

 

Given the lifespans at the time Social Security was enacted and lifespans now, the math isn't going to work by keeping the ages where they were 80 years ago. This was not a program designed to carry people for multiple decades.

 

I don't see how the math or politics works out for either side if they completely got what they want. (And that's what we do. We veer wildly from one extreme on entitlements to another extreme).

I've always assumed the solution is everyone taking a little bit less and some sort of modest tax increase on the rich. Asking for anyone under 40 to take less is becoming less and less of a political liablity. We already assume it won't be there at all. I'm 33 years old. If you offer me 75 percent of what I'm supposed to get in retirement, I'd be thrilled at this point.

This would assume a functional government in a country full of sane people, though.

 

tl;dr ... “This is a wonderful thing that somebody else should totally pay for.”