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Owning the Republicans [1]

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Date: 2023-02-08  

You doth protest too much

From the moment Senator Mike Lee realized he was caught on camera when President Biden brought up the GOP plans to gut Medicare and Social Security, Mr. Biden had laid the blueprint for how Libs can own the Repubs. Lee looked as shocked as if he was asked on a dinner date by Rep. George Santos. Senator Lee was incensed that Mr. Biden would dare accuse the GOP of putting a stick in the spokes of grandma’s wheelchair. “The President of the United States looked us right in the eye and mischaracterized what half the people in the chamber believe… it wasn’t true,” said Lee after the State of the Union address. Democrats are not in favor of cutting either Social Security or Medicare. Therefore the question has to be asked what about the other half of the Republican caucus?

Mr. Lee’s incredulous outrage has one problem; Lee’s own words:

“I’m here right now to tell you one thing you probably have never heard from a politician: It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up from the roots and get rid of it,” Lee said during a campaign stop February 23, 2010, in Cache Valley, Utah. “People who advise me politically always tell me it’s dangerous, and I tell them, ‘In that case, it’s not worth my running.’ That’s why I’m doing this, to get rid of that. Medicare and Medicaid are of the same sort, they need to be pulled up.”

Toying with the characters in the back of the Congressional peanut gallery is easy pickings, MTG, Louis Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Matt Gaetz. In contrast, Lee is considered a serious and sober member of the Republican party. He, along with the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, are among the leaders of the party; or are they? During his speech before the bicameral Houses of Congress, Biden challenged anyone interested to call his office for the plan of Republicans to gut Social Security and Medicare. Senator Scott (R-FL), much to the chagrin of current Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, not only floated the idea of sunsetting the programs but put it in writing. Scott proposed a sunset of federal programs every five years, including Medicare and Social Security. So not only was Biden not lying as yelled by a prominent peanut gallery member, but he has receipts. McConnell was so incensed that Scott tossed the GOP onto the third rail of politics in a water-soaked suit; the shock has still not healed.

President Biden’s aww-shucks manner, filled with stories of his Dad and Uncle Joe charm, pulled in 43 percent of Republicans who viewed the President’s speech favorably. While Biden read off a litany of accomplishments, the Republicans sat poised, waiting for their moment to boo and jeer. Unfortunately for them, looking even more foolish as Speaker McCarthy pursed his lips to shoosh the Republicans in a vain attempt to get his caucus to remember his caution of decorum earlier in the day. Famously former First Lady Michelle Obama said when they go low, we go high. Biden metaphorically added when they go low, make them own it.

Continue to Vote for Change

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