(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Trump's Ace For Winning The Presidential Nomination In 2024: His Stance On Social Security. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-03-01 Trump will use his previous stance on not touching Social Security and Medicare as a weapon for defeating any other Republican running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. It’s a lie though that Trump will never cut either program because he talked about cutting both programs as “second term projects.” But I have my doubts that the other Republican presidential wannabees will attack Trump on his hypocrisy and lies because — so far — all the entrants want to attack both Social Security and Medicare. Considering most Republican voters do not want to cut Social Security and Medicare, this is a political loser for the likes of DeSantis, Haley, and Pence. And I am betting that this is will be one area that will distinguishes Trump from the rest of the Republican pygmies. This political malpractice really does boggle my mind. It’s not rocket science, but Trump realized that Republicans saying outloud they wanted cuts in popular social insurance programs was a political loser for Republicans. Whatever you think about Trump, he looked at what that fraud intellectual heavyweight Paul Ryan proposed in 2012 as a VP candidate, and Democrats were able to paint Ryan as a Granny Killer. And Trump has decided to remind everyone that DeSantis agreed with Paul Ryan. On Tuesday, Trump logged on to Truth Social and told his followers: “Great Poll numbers are springing forth for your favorite President, me, against Ron DeSanctus (& Biden). I guess people are finding out that he wanted to CUT SOCIAL SECURITY & RAISE THE MINIMUM AGE TO AT LEAST 70, at least 4 times. LIKEWISE WITH MEDICARE, WANTED BIG CUTS. HE IS A WHEELCHAIR OVER THE CLIFF KIND OF GUY, JUST LIKE HIS HERO, failed politician Paul Ryan, the FoxNews ratings destroyer who led Mitt Romney’s Presidential Campaign down the tubes. GLOBALIST’S ALL! WE WANT AMERICA FIRST!!!” Trump isn’t right about a lot of things, but he is correct in his claim that former House Speaker Paul Ryan famously dreamed of gutting Medicare and Social Security, as well as Medicaid and other key aspects of the social safety net—which he once described as a “hammock that lulls able-bodied people into complacency and dependence.” Sadly for Ryan, not enough people in Congress wanted to commit political suicide, and he retired before he could get the job done. Emphasis is mine. By the way, Ryan is still preaching that we need to wipe out the social safety net. But DeSantis has a record on supporting cuts in Social Security and Medicare. (CNN)Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed support for privatizing Medicare and Social Security during his first campaign for Congress in 2012, giving political rivals who have pledged to protect the programs an opening to attack him ahead of DeSantis' expected run for president in 2024. Democrats have already signaled plans to weaponize DeSantis' comments against him, should he announce for president, and subsequent votes in Congress for non-binding budget resolutions that privatized Medicare and raised the retirement age to 70. Former President Donald Trump andhave already signaled plans to weaponize DeSantis' comments against him, should he announce for president, andCongressnon-binding budgetthat privatized Medicare and raised the retirement age to 70. A CNN KFile review of comments from DeSantis' 2012 congressional campaign found he repeatedly said he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid for partial costs of private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported "the same thing" for Social Security, citing the need for "market forces" to restructure the program. DeSantis' office declined to comment on his position on Social Security and Medicare. It gets worse. political football in the 2012 presidential race, when Ryan was chosen as Mitt Romney's pick for vice president. Democrats argued in 2012 Ryan's budget plans turned Medicare into a "voucher" system, whereas Republicans called it "premium support." Under the proposals, the government would subsidize seniors by partially paying for private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. During his 2012 campaign, DeSantis embraced then-Rep. Paul Ryan's budget which became ain the 2012 presidential race, when Ryan was chosen as Mitt Romney's pick for vice president. Democrats2012 Ryan's budget plans turned Medicare into a "voucher" system, whereas Republicans called it "premium support." Under the proposals, the government would subsidize seniors by partially paying for private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. in a video that was posted on YouTube at the time. "I would embrace proposals like [Rep.] Paul Ryan offered, and other people have offered, that are going to provide some market forces in there, more consumer choice, and make it so that it's not just basically a system that's just going to be bankrupt when you have new people coming into it," DeSantis told the St. Augustine Recordat the time. "Social Security, I would do the same thing," he added, later saying it was "unsustainable" to allow seniors to retire in their late 60s. That’s going to go over like a turd in a punchbowl with the voters, especially the seniors in the Republican primaries. Now, DeSantis is trying not to comment on his past support as a Granny Killer. But eventually, he will. Trump will force him to say something. And like most elitist Republicans, DeSantis will probably double down on gutting Social Security and Medicare. DeSantis is hanging around wealthy Republicans who want to end all social insurance programs, and I’m betting the closest he gets to those Republican diner folks the NYT loves to interview is throwing racist policies at them from the governor’s mansion. But hang with them at a country club? Forget it. And it’s a compulsion for Republican politicians to claim to be brave for addressing “the deficit” while putting the financial pain on the middle class and poor by gutting social insurance programs. It’s what that Man of Iron Mike Pence thinks: Former Vice President Mike Pence dipped his toes into the presidential campaign waters Feb. 2 with a proposal that would mean the death of Social Security. Pence made his remarks on stage during a conference of the National Assn. of Wholesaler-Distributors in Washington. The event wasn’t open to the public, but a video and transcript was posted by American Bridge, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party. That’s when Pence unearthed the old Republican idea of privatizing Social Security wholly or partially. — Former Vice President Mike Pence, airing out a never-fulfilled GOP promise “Give younger Americans the ability to take a portion of their Social Security withholdings and put that into a private savings account,” he proposed. “A very simple fund that could generate 2% would give the average American twice what they’re going to get back on their Social Security today.” Pence didn’t say outright that he advocates killing Social Security. Instead, he took the course I reported on just last week. That’s the Republican and conservative habit of employing plausible-sounding jargon and economists’ gibberish to conceal their intention to hobble the program. But make no mistake: Diverting any significant portion of Social Security taxes into private accounts would make the program unworkable, funnel untold wealth into the hands of Wall Street promoters and leave millions of families destitute. It’s amazing that Pence would air out the private-account idea now, after a year in which the stock market returned a negative 23% (inflation-adjusted, as measured by the Standard & Poor’s 500 index). It was just such a dose of reality that helped kill the same proposal when it was put forth by President George W. Bush in 2001; Bush abandoned the idea in 2005, after the stock market return for 2001 to 2005 came to negative 2%, including two years of double-digit losses. And Pence keeps repeating the Republican lie that Social Security is set to go bankrupt. In his Feb. 2 appearance, Pence attacked Social Security by employing the bog-standard GOP rhetoric about fiscal policy and “entitlements.” He whined about “this trajectory of massive debt that we’re piling on the backs of [our] grandchildren” and attributed most of it to Social Security and Medicare (the “entitlements”). Never mind that well more than $1 trillion of that debt was incurred when his party passed a massive tax cut for the rich in 2017. Mofo. We all know that he will get stomped on during the primaries and deservedly so. By the way, Pence and his wife are millionaires. And speaking of millionaires, there is Nikki Haley: And Nikki Haley leaned into her past call to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. Haley: “The younger generation – we go and we do a new system on how they’re going to get [Social Security and Medicare].” Washington Post: “Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador who is planning to announce her own presidential bid this month, also praised Ryan’s Medicare proposal at the time and said lawmakers should examine Medicare and Social Security spending to address federal debt.” “‘What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements,’ Haley said in a 2010 interview on Fox News. ‘Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.’” Semafor: “As governor of South Carolina at the time, Nikki Haley praised the [Paul Ryan] fiscal blueprint for ‘trying to bring common sense to this world of insanity.’” As for the other possible contenders (Hutchinson, Pompeo, Tim Scott, and Youngkin), how much you want to bet they will all say something about the dangers of the budget deficit on America? This always leads to everyone needs to “make sacrifices.” And dollar to donuts, they will all say that we need to look at “entitlement programs.” They cannot help themselves. And Republicans always KNOW that they are RIGHT! Most of them will climb out on that proverbial limb and Trump will saw it off. Never mind that Trump would slash those programs if given the chance of another term. Hell, if he wins, there will be no more elections, so why should he have to worry about political repurcussions from angry voters? The main thing is that Trump is telling his base what they want to hear. And it is why Trump will be the nominee for 2024. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/1/2155562/-Trump-s-Ace-For-Winning-The-Presidential-Nomination-In-2024-His-Stance-On-Social-Security Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/