The Republicans are coming for Social Security... Again

"As you know, the Social Security System is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy," Ronnie Raygun letter to Congress May 21st 1981.

Glad to be here!

A key plank of the Republican Party platform is destroying Social Security.  Since at least the 1970's Republicans have declared Social Security is on the verge of bankruptcy.  Now, 50 years later the perfidious Republicans have gained control of the US House their first priority is to eliminate social security.

"My friend Jody Arrington wants to look into the budget and also look into entitlements. Do you know social security is going to be insolvent in 2035?" well-known thief and bribe accepting Republican Byron Donalds told Joy Reid as Republicans yet again lie and declare the Social Security Trust Fund on the verge of Bankruptcy.

Republicans always make time to craft a plan to end Social Security because Republican hate that SSI and the Social Safety Net even exists.  Republicans chafe and become incensed at the idea of Americans living long lives after retirement.  What Republicans want is for Americans to go to work as young as possible and work their entire lives before dying quickly immediately upon retiring.  Republicans dream and want you to have the dignity of working yourself to death.  This is the Republican version of the American Dream, and as we've seen for the past 40 years Republican Dreams are Nightmares for everyone else.

Back in 2004-2005, Bush and the Republicans were certain they could swindle American Seniors out of their Social Security, "I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it,"  Bush declared as he embarked on his plan of stealing Social Security.

In 2010, George W(orst POTUS Ever) Bush famously stated his only mistake while in office (His Only Failure!) was not privatizing SSDI and "In terms of accomplishments, my biggest accomplishment is that I kept the country safe amidst a real danger." (WITH RARE EXCEPTIONS!) 

The Republican Plan for SSDI was to roll it into the Stock Market Balloon, which at the time was expanding and would never burst!  What Republicans knew then was they desperately needed to prop up the Stock Market Bubble with real money to back all the gambles that were about to go full tilt. You see if W(orst President Ever) had managed to put the US backed Two Trillion Dollar Trust Fund into the Stock Market it would have forestalled the Great Republican Recession of 2007 by several years, instead Bush oversaw the destruction of decades of wealth and the worst economic disaster since the Great Republican Depression of 1929.

"Republicans' agenda is what it always was -- turn the Social Security seniors worked hard to earn over to Wall Street," said Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Press Secretary Ryan Rudominer. "If Republicans has their way, seniors could have lost 40 percent of their retirement investments when the market crashed. America's seniors deserve better."

After the Tea Party waltzed into the White House on the backs of White Hot Anger over Obamacare and President Obama himself, the John Boehner, Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor (and Kevin McCarthy) Teabaggers aided by the Republicans in the Senate engineered the debt limit crisis and government shutdowns to try and goad, cajole, or convince President Obama to sign a Social Security "Entitlements" reform package slashing benefits for Americans.  How close President Obama came to signing such an agreement is debatable and bad faith dirtbag leftists have been claiming Obama wanted to do it for a decade now and using that as justification for voting against Democrats.  In reality, there was no Boehner entitlement "reform" despite years of the Corporate Media trying to force it happen.

Speaker Pelosi's office released a succinct analysis of John Boehner and Paul Ryan's House Leadership, "Instead of helping seniors," explained Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, "Republicans, backed by their allies on Wall Street, are threatening to privatize and cut Social Security, just as they tried to do under President Bush." 

Now it's 2023 and the Zombie Lies of Raygun refuse to die as we see Bryon Donalds repeat the moldy canard of 'Social Security going bankrupt'.  Meanwhile, every other Republican Congressman can't wait to tell the old people who love Faux News that; 'Why...Yes we are coming for your benefits.  Yes we are coming for your meager medical coverage.  Yes we are coming to put you into the grave.'

"If we really want to talk about the debt and spending, it's the entitlement program that's 70% of our entire budget. So, if we want to talk about big reforms I look forward to hearing that from those folks who are pushing towards a balanced budget," Republican Michael Waltz told Stuart Varney and all the elderly rightwing faux devotees who enjoy cutting their benefits because they know it'll hurt those people more!

Meanwhile, Steve 'David Duke without the Baggage' Scalise gleefully took to the podium to announce to Corporate Media that why yes the Republicans will most definitely Fuck that Chicken of the Debt Ceiling in order to force President Biden into cutting Social Security.  Because "working the refs", i.e. getting the Corporate Media to uncritically repeat rightwing talking points is a successful strategy to advancing the Republican Agenda of Intolerance, Oppression and reducing the American people to Penury and Eternal Wage Slavery.

Crime and Gas! Republicans push Fear & Anger for the 2022 elections.

'Belive a Crackerhead' polishing his snub-nosed phallus

In a unoriginal rip-off of the apocryphal Khrushschev joke of The Two Letters, the Republicans run with the strategy of; blame everything on Biden and the Democrats.  Then continue to blame everything on Biden and the Democrats. 

The Republican 2022 election game plan is simple, obvious, and most disheartening, effective.  Frighten people with crime and anger them over the price of gas. 

You can see this strategy of Fear & Anger in everything Republicans talk about;  Education (Fear: They are indoctrinating you children into woke gay CRT).  Immigration (Anger: Those people aren't following "the rules" they way your grandparents did).  Be afraid or Be angry are the only things Republicans tell the American people. 

Because, sadly, Republicans have to offer nothing else to offer the American people.  Nothing.  No hope.  No future.  No vision.  No ideas.  Just Fear & Anger.  Because Republicans hate America.  The GQP hate an America that offers people choices and protections.  For 90 years Republicans have been trying to undo FDR's New Deal,  LBJ's Great Society, every small victory Democratic Presidents, Congress', and Supreme Court ruling which have made life a little better in the Untied States.

Undoing the Progressive Era is succinctly captured in the Republican 2022 Legislative Agenda, "Commitment to America";  the America which Republicans are talking about, is one in which workers, women and non-white people have No Rights.  And Government's monopoly on force is used to quell all domestic dissent at home and open up foreign markets for exploitation.

Unfortunately, the latest polling seems to indicate Republicans are poised to regain control of the House and Senate and possibly various levels of power in State governments.  Every time a Republican speaks, every debate they engage in, as we approach the 2022 elections Republicans demonstrate the abject vile hatred they have for Americans.  Despite everything the Republicans have done and the stated GOP goals of eliminating Social Security, Medicare, and curtailing all manner of aid and assistance to Working Class Americans, White people seemingly don't care.  It must be that while white people know Republican policies will demonstrably hurt them and their families, they believe Republicans will hurt those people even more.

Republicans have given up on the concept of the United States and want to replace the Nation with a facsimile.  Now, the Republicans are smart enough to keep the trappings of America as window dressing in their new Nation; conceived in oppression and dedicated to the concept that only white evangelical men are equal.

Revenge of the Thin Blue Line 15: DCFS, Pepper Spray, the Social Safety Net

The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services is overworked and underfunded.  DCFS case workers are also put into dangerous situations.  In January an Illinois DCFS case worker was stabbed to death while conducting a welfare check in Sangamon County.  A bill to provide them with the ability to carry OC spray or Mace passed the Illinois Senate unanimously.

In the current world of guns everywhere and the NRA forcing the passage of laws to allowing wanton and reckless concealed and open carry I'm surprised more case workers haven't been murdered.  Of course, guns are most often used by domestic abusers to murder their families before turning the guns on themselves. 

As a mandated reporter, by law, I must report suspected child abuse or neglect.  I've accompanied DCFS case workers to calls but, unfortunately where I work mission creep has settled in and I've been required to call the DCFS hotline in almost every incident involving a juvenile.  This is not what the system was designed for, nor a good allocation of limited state resources, even if the DCFS call taker puts the incident into a no response category.

One of the problems with the modern 911 system is Police respond to every type of call; be it a village ordinance violation, medical emergency, child custody exchange, or a customer upset over a bill and poor service.  Many times these are not police issues, sometimes they require a mediator to keep things civil but, don't more often than not it's not a Police matter and I have to refer the matter to the proper authority or department.  Even worse some police officers don't want to or are terrible at handling these issues; because of a variety of factors like training and education but also annoyance and boredom.  And when they show up they make matters worse, ratchet up the tension, and sometimes this can be fatal.

So, what's a solution?  Well, multiple services from a fully functioning municipal, county and state bureaucracy staffed with dedicated workers.  But, that type of functioning apparatus has been demonized and attacked by Republicans and conservatives as SOCIALISM! Nanny State!!! for decades, and most importantly a functioning Social Safety Net costs money (i.e Taxes).

Everybody in America wants services and Nobody in America wants to pay taxes.  Now many think taxes suck because you don't have kids but, taxes are the price of civilization.  Of course, when you are struggling with low wages and hellish working conditions at the Amazon Fulfillment Center, seeing money come out of your slender paycheck does hit hard but, of course it is the very rich who have caused this problem by shirking their responsibility.

The Capitalist Class and Very Rich don't see much use in a viable, working Social Safety Net because they don't need it.  The 1% can hire security so they don't need a police force for themselves (the rich do want a violent racist police force keeping the poor and the Other in check), they don't need state funded child support, they sometimes don't need public water, they don't need public defenders, they don't need snow plows.  The Rich see little ROI (return on investment) on a fully funded, comprehensive, liberal democracy.  They never signed the Social Contract.  The Rich have only need of a domestic police force to quell dissent at home and a war machine to open up foreign markets for exploration.  Everything else the government spends money on is superfluous and wasteful.