Mitch McConnell says it out loud—Republicans are coming for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

Jen Hayden  

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday October 17, 2018 · 9:17 AM PDT

RSS

PUBLISHED TO

• Scout Finch
• Daily Kos 
• Rim Country Gazette Blog

In December 2017, the Republican-led Senate took a 2 AM vote to pass one of the largest tax cuts in history, cuts that would grossly benefit corporations and the wealthiest Americans, leaving nothing but crumbs for most Americans. Like thieves in the night, they made off with billions of tax revenue. Here’s how Rolling Stone described on the day of the vote:

Long after midnight, following a chaotic scramble that saw tax legislation being re-written on the fly, with handwritten edits in the margins and full pages crossed out, Senate Republicans passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – a bill that would ultimately hike taxes on millions of middle-class Americans, swell the ranks of the uninsured by 13 million and explode deficits by $1.4 trillion in the first decade alone.

The winners in this bill are the Republican donor class: Corporations that would see their tax bills slashed by more than 40 percent – and get to bring home trillions in offshored profits at shamefully discounted tax rates as low as 7.5 percent; executives at companies with “pass through” earnings, who would get to deduct nearly a quarter of that income; heirs who would get richer from a doubling of the estate tax exemption, to $22 million for couples; and even private jet owners, who would get to deduct aircraft maintenance from their taxes.

Everything predicted about this greed-drive tax cut has come true. The U.S. deficit has exploded, adding an expected 17 percent increase in 2018 alone and no end in sight. With the deficit headed toward $1 trillion, Mitch McConnell, Donald Trump, Paul Ryan, and their greedy congressional pals are setting their sites on three of the most successful and important social programs in America: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

You see, the ballooning deficit is a feature of their tax cut, not a bug. This is what Sam Brownback did in Kansas. Cut taxes and then scream there isn’t enough money to pay the bills—all they can do now is slash education, health care, and other essential services. This has always been the Republican plan. They have wanted to destroy these programs since the day they were launched. And with a president free of any morals or values, they see their opportunity.

Listen to Mitch McConnell in his own words pivot from promising the tax cuts would not only be “deficit neutral” to less than a year later saying we cannot balance the budget without cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. This would cause an economic apocalypse for millions of Americans.