Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Truth Deficit

House Speaker Paul Ryan is trotting out an old lie about Social Security and Medicare in order to justify cutting “entitlements.”

He told Fox News Sunday that the only way to deal with the looming deficit caused by the GOP tax cuts that give millions of relief to the poor Koch brothers was to cut back on the payments to Social Security and Medicare recipients because, well, they don’t deserve them or something.

The truth is that both programs are designed to be self-sustaining; take a look at your paycheck and note the fine print that designates the deductions for FICA and Medicare.  It totals about 15% and it goes into a separate fund that then pays out to the people who are receiving it.  In other words, you are paying now for people who are getting it, and when you retire, the people who are working will be paying for you.  The problem for these programs isn’t that they’re hitting the deficit, it’s that there are more people who are my age (65) and older who are drawing on the fund.  It has nothing to do with whatever the hell the GOP did to assure us that by the time we get them out of office we’ll be back in debt up to our eyeballs.

And don’t get me started on the misuse of the word “entitlement.”

At any rate, Paul Ryan is a lying sack of shit who would starve his own granny to get the largess from the Kochs.

3 barks and woofs on “Truth Deficit

  1. Thank you. I’m the only other person I know of who has pointed out that Social Security and Medicare are not part of the General Fund. (Actually, a small proportion of Medicare’s administrative costs does come from the fed.) In fact, last time I checked, Social Security was the fed’s biggest creditor, just edging out China.

    So, Paul Ryan (and every other Republican) is lying about Social Security and Medicare contributing to the deficit. Why am I not surprised?

    • Oh, and about the term “entitlement”: Yes, Social Security and Medicare are, in fact, entitlements: I paid into them my entire working life, and I’m entitled to get something back.

      • In grant-writing terms, i.e. Title I etc., an entitlement program means the school district doesn’t have to start from scratch every year when they send in their application. The allocation is based on the number of schools, the poverty level, and other factors. Not exactly a giveaway, either.

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