Republican leaders are threatening to take the debt limit hostage unless they get Social Security and Medicare benefit cuts.
www.latimes.com
In its latest manifestation, four Republicans angling to become chair of the House Budget Committee in a Republican House talked openly about holding the federal debt ceiling hostage to an agreement on “entitlements” — that is, Social Security and Medicare — plainly aimed at cutting benefits.
In interviews with Bloomberg, the four laid out their vision. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) said the GOP’s focus in budget cutting has “got to be on entitlements.”
Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), told Bloomberg that the party caucus would oppose options for shoring up Social Security’s fiscal condition that included tax increases, but would look kindly on raising the eligibility age for that program and Medicare.
McCarthy was cagey about whether he would tie the debt ceiling to benefit cuts,
telling Punchbowl News in an interview that he would not “predetermine” the options. But his fellow Republicans were not so evasive in their Bloomberg interviews.
“The debt limit is clearly one of those tools that Republicans ... will use to make sure that we do everything we can to make this economy strong,” said Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee.
This isn’t the first time that the GOP has tried to depict Social Security and Medicare as enemies of sound fiscal policy.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spelled it out in 2018. Sen. Joni Ernst
(R-Iowa) talked openly about making cuts
“behind closed doors.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) cooked up a plan for family leave funded by
raiding future Social Security benefits.