It’s not even three months since Republicans accused President Joe Biden of lying when he correctly said they want to “sunset” Social Security.
None other than Speaker McCarthy, himself, was one of those accusers: “Social Security and Medicare are off the table,” McCarthy told his Fox Friends in February. He went on to accuse Biden of employing scare tactics as “a political ploy” and “trying to play politics with the debt ceiling” and “lying about our position.”
Well, guess who was really lying? Yes, cuts to Social Security and Medicare were off the table for the debt ceiling negotiations but the ceiling was not yet raised before McCarthy told his Fox News peeps that he’s looking for ways to cut benefits.
Current reporting is that McCarthy faces blowback, but not removal (yet) for not making life enough harder for everyday Americans via the cuts in the debt ceiling deal. So, in an obvious move to appease his hard-right caucus, he’s dangling the “treat” of more serious benefit cuts for the country’s most vulnerable.
Here's McCarthy pretending that cutting benefits is a gift to Americans: “Now we’re cutting and you know what? I’m going to make some people uncomfortable by doing that but I’m not going to give up on the American people.” Fox host and GOP propagandist Harris Faulkner murmured appreciatively as he spoke.
The debt ceiling deal is only “the first step,” McCarthy added. “I’m gonna announce a commission coming forward, from the speaker, from bipartisan, from both sides of the aisle.”
McCarthy now blamed Biden for not having already cut Social Security and Medicare. “We only got to look at 11% of the budget to find these cuts,” he said. “The president walled off all the others.”
Then bingo: “The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending. It’s Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt,” McCarthy continued.
Make no mistake, McCarthy and his Republican pals will pretend their cuts are designed to save and strengthen Social Security and Medicare. But they could do that without cutting benefits, just by eliminating the $160,200 income cap on Social Security and Medicare taxes. As it stands now, the super rich are exempt from paying their fair share. The fact that Republicans never mention this as a solution shows you where their real priorities lay.
