McConnell Calls For Cutting Government Programs To Deal With ‘Disturbing’ Debt

[libbylu]

The Republicans have been trying to eliminate Medicare and Social Security for years. And the working class and rural poor (ie their base) keeps voting for these schmucks.

They’re clueless.
They honestly don’t know what’s happening.

Ok. Please share. What exactly is happening?

Before you reply, just don't if your only answer is to dodge the question and say 'go research'. You are saying something is happening - so please explain.

In my own words
There have been articles explaining that the massive tax cuts made by this administration has increased the deficit by a huge percent. Then, some republicans such as Mitch McConnell said they might need to take money from Social Security and Medicare to pay down the deficit.
SS and Medicare is a separate fund that holds money from everyone’s pay checks for as long as people have been employed. SS has been earned by salaried employees .
They can’t take it to reduce the deficit.

Now, if you’d like I’ll find articles and links.
Here:

https://www.newsweek.com/deficit-budget ... 2941?amp=1

[KnotaDinghy]

No one has and no one will touch the funds that are withheld from payroll... the 'people's money they paid in'. Not since the creation of the programs. Here - read from the SSA:

https://www.ssa.gov/history/InternetMyths2.html

The SSA has freely admitted that by 2034 their funds will only allow people to receive back 79% of what they should receive. (Taken from the bulletin my husband just received on his life time benefits).

The cause of this shortage is due to the change in workforce. The fewer people paying in, the less others can receive. The money I pay in does not sit in an account earmarked for me when I retire and want to collect. I'd love it, if it did. I could control my eventual retirement. But, nope. People want us to still have this system when the Government manages the money. So what I pay in is paid out to a senior now.

Follow the workforce participation rate. Fewer working means less funds to be distributed. At some point, some people will get nothing.

In comes additional budget money. Allocated to help build the fund while people are not working. If the tax cuts were substantial enough to stimulate more jobs and increase the workforce participation rate, then less additional is needed and there are monies that can be reallocated from the BUDGET into other programs.

The deficit is huge from spending. All spending. The past few years the increased spending has come largely from the military budget. So President Trump said this year the budget for the military was $716 billion. He is taking back $16 billion from them. Other Deartments have money to give back and this will help the deficit directly because it is a cut in the GROWTH of spending - but not the spending directly. Deeper cuts INTO programs should occur - across all areas - to help significantly improve the deficit and head us to balanced financials.

President Trump has a solid plan, it will work over time, but I'd like to see more immediate changes. Changes that toss people off programs when they don't really need them.

They’re clueless.
They honestly don’t know what’s happening.

Ok. Please share. What exactly is happening?

Before you reply, just don't if your only answer is to dodge the question and say 'go research'. You are saying something is happening - so please explain.

In my own words
There have been articles explaining that the massive tax cuts made by this administration has increased the deficit by a huge percent. Then, some republicans such as Mitch McConnell said they might need to take money from Social Security and Medicare to pay down the deficit.
SS and Medicare is a separate fund that holds money from everyone’s pay checks for as long as people have been employed. SS has been earned by salaried employees .
They can’t take it to reduce the deficit.

Now, if you’d like I’ll find articles and links.
Here:

https://www.newsweek.com/deficit-budget ... 2941?amp=1

[Seashell77]

You really cannot blame the tax plan at this point. It went into affect January 1st and we haven't paid in against the new plan yet. Only time will tell if we lose revenue or remain neutral as a result.

McConnell is correct, we have a spending problem. Have had for at least 30 years. If they'd only pass a balanced budget - I'd be happy.

The tax plan is costing American tax payers way too much in my opinion. We will be in terrible debt as a result. As far as cutting back cost with medicare and social security, it's not far to the elderly people who payed into those programs all of these years.

How is the tax plan costing tax payers?

We have been in terrible debt - for many years - due to both parties. That is not Trump's fault. I'd like him to solve the issue, but he didn't get us here.

People crying about him cutting spending are the ones getting us into more debt. And since I started working MANY years ago, I've heard about these programs running out of funding - again this is nothing new.

However, if programs are brought back into line where a budget can be balanced, people who need and rely on the programs will have what they need while others will be forced to get off their asses and work themselves.

The tax plan raises the national debt with the huge tax cuts to the mostly 1% richest in our country. As a result there is a lot less money collected from this tax cut. So where does our country come up with the money we are no longer collecting from the top 1% from the tax break is the big question. Now McConnell is suggesting we use money from cutting funds from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Only American's who have made over and beyond $700.00 have received a significant tax break. The average American or our middle class have not been given significant tax cuts and are not benefiting like the wealthy. The whole idea of the Trickle Down Effect was very unsuccessfully tried with giving these types of tax breaks to the rich with Reaganomics decades ago.

Yes, Americans heard about the medicare and social security programs being in trouble for a while. That is because across both parties, funding from those programs were used to fund other things. If medicare and S.S. were not robbed of their funds and if this exploitation of funds were to stop now, then we could reverse such damage. Government created the problems with robbing medicare and social security, there fore the tax payers shouldn't be punished by not receiving benefits they have paid into all of these years.

In regard to your "get of their asses" statement, it's a well known fact that most Americans receiving medicaid are not abusing the system. A very small percent of people receiving such benefits are committing fraud. In regard to what you said about "those crying about spending cuts", there are plenty of citizens and government officials opposed to making cuts in the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs that are not personally benefiting from them, including myself. In my humble opinion, Instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, we need to improve programs, which includes finding creative ways to weed out the small percentage of those committing fraud. Worldwide, those countries that do not care for their sick, youth, disabled, elderly and poor are not first world nations, nor are they highly regarded for such lack of policies, nor would I care to be living in such a country. Would you?

[KnotaDinghy]

You are not quite accurate on many points.

Money is not and has not been robbed from those programs and is not proposed to be.

People of all in one brackets are benefiting from the tax plan. It is nothing but a liberal talking point to say only the 1% will benefit. This is not trickle down economics. It is a comprehensive restructuring of the tax rate system. And you need to look at comprehensive revenues, not only corporate taxes, to determine if this plan will work.

At this point, the tax plan has not increased the debt or deficit. Let's talk about it next May after the filing deadline for the first year under the plan.

And there are way more people now qualified for benefits. The plans were extended to include more people and its more beneficial for a percentage of people to collect than go to work when they are able. I didn't say there was wide spread fraud. I believe there is fraud in the program but not vast. It's the expansion that hurt us from a spending perspective.

When you spend more than you take in, you have a deficit which requires us to borrow and increases our debt. It's a cycle both parties need to come together and get us out of.

The tax plan is costing American tax payers way too much in my opinion. We will be in terrible debt as a result. As far as cutting back cost with medicare and social security, it's not far to the elderly people who payed into those programs all of these years.

How is the tax plan costing tax payers?

We have been in terrible debt - for many years - due to both parties. That is not Trump's fault. I'd like him to solve the issue, but he didn't get us here.

People crying about him cutting spending are the ones getting us into more debt. And since I started working MANY years ago, I've heard about these programs running out of funding - again this is nothing new.

However, if programs are brought back into line where a budget can be balanced, people who need and rely on the programs will have what they need while others will be forced to get off their asses and work themselves.

The tax plan raises the national debt with the huge tax cuts to the mostly 1% richest in our country. As a result there is a lot less money collected from this tax cut. So where does our country come up with the money we are no longer collecting from the top 1% from the tax break is the big question. Now McConnell is suggesting we use money from cutting funds from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Only American's who have made over and beyond $700.00 have received a significant tax break. The average American or our middle class have not been given significant tax cuts and are not benefiting like the wealthy. The whole idea of the Trickle Down Effect was very unsuccessfully tried with giving these types of tax breaks to the rich with Reaganomics decades ago.

Yes, Americans heard about the medicare and social security programs being in trouble for a while. That is because across both parties, funding from those programs were used to fund other things. If medicare and S.S. were not robbed of their funds and if this exploitation of funds were to stop now, then we could reverse such damage. Government created the problems with robbing medicare and social security, there fore the tax payers shouldn't be punished by not receiving benefits they have paid into all of these years.

In regard to your "get of their asses" statement, it's a well known fact that most Americans receiving medicaid are not abusing the system. A very small percent of people receiving such benefits are committing fraud. In regard to what you said about "those crying about spending cuts", there are plenty of citizens and government officials opposed to making cuts in the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs that are not personally benefiting from them, including myself. In my humble opinion, Instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, we need to improve programs, which includes finding creative ways to weed out the small percentage of those committing fraud. Worldwide, those countries that do not care for their sick, youth, disabled, elderly and poor are not first world nations, nor are they highly regarded for such lack of policies, nor would I care to be living in such a country. Would you?

[Seashell77]

The social security trust has accrued trillions of dollars in a huge surplus over the years. The government has been repeatedly borrowing money from that trust in the form of special US bonds and none of the borrowed monies has been paid back to The Treasury to date. The government has used these bonds borrowed from the surplus money from the social security trust for a variety of things, from war funding to tax breaks. For example President Bush's administration used these specific bonds to help pay for the Iraqi war and a sizable tax break which amounted to over 700 billion dollars. All of the administrations have done this with these bonds, so it is not a party related problem. Currently the amount of the bonds government has taken out to borrow money over the years is approx. 2.8 trillion dollars.

Can you imagine what type of funding our government would have right now for our social security trust if it had not been touched and allowed to accrue interest? We wouldn't have the current problem of facing the monies running out, but just the opposite. We'd be able to actually allocate quite generous monthly S.S. payments to seniors currently collecting social security and non of our seniors would be living in terrible poverty.

Everything I have read about these special bonds taken out of the social security trust, The Treasury is obligated to be repaid the money back, so the social security trust will not be depleted. The bonds were never intended to be used and not repaid. This is what should happen to resolve this very serious matter, instead of allowing the social security trust to just run dry in the coming years, at the expense of the seniors who paid into the program all their working lives.

I'll try to get back in later to reply to the other things you said.

You are not quite accurate on many points.

Money is not and has not been robbed from those programs and is not proposed to be.

People of all in one brackets are benefiting from the tax plan. It is nothing but a liberal talking point to say only the 1% will benefit. This is not trickle down economics. It is a comprehensive restructuring of the tax rate system. And you need to look at comprehensive revenues, not only corporate taxes, to determine if this plan will work.

At this point, the tax plan has not increased the debt or deficit. Let's talk about it next May after the filing deadline for the first year under the plan.

And there are way more people now qualified for benefits. The plans were extended to include more people and its more beneficial for a percentage of people to collect than go to work when they are able. I didn't say there was wide spread fraud. I believe there is fraud in the program but not vast. It's the expansion that hurt us from a spending perspective.

When you spend more than you take in, you have a deficit which requires us to borrow and increases our debt. It's a cycle both parties need to come together and get us out of.

How is the tax plan costing tax payers?

We have been in terrible debt - for many years - due to both parties. That is not Trump's fault. I'd like him to solve the issue, but he didn't get us here.

People crying about him cutting spending are the ones getting us into more debt. And since I started working MANY years ago, I've heard about these programs running out of funding - again this is nothing new.

However, if programs are brought back into line where a budget can be balanced, people who need and rely on the programs will have what they need while others will be forced to get off their asses and work themselves.

The tax plan raises the national debt with the huge tax cuts to the mostly 1% richest in our country. As a result there is a lot less money collected from this tax cut. So where does our country come up with the money we are no longer collecting from the top 1% from the tax break is the big question. Now McConnell is suggesting we use money from cutting funds from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Only American's who have made over and beyond $700.00 have received a significant tax break. The average American or our middle class have not been given significant tax cuts and are not benefiting like the wealthy. The whole idea of the Trickle Down Effect was very unsuccessfully tried with giving these types of tax breaks to the rich with Reaganomics decades ago.

Yes, Americans heard about the medicare and social security programs being in trouble for a while. That is because across both parties, funding from those programs were used to fund other things. If medicare and S.S. were not robbed of their funds and if this exploitation of funds were to stop now, then we could reverse such damage. Government created the problems with robbing medicare and social security, there fore the tax payers shouldn't be punished by not receiving benefits they have paid into all of these years.

In regard to your "get of their asses" statement, it's a well known fact that most Americans receiving medicaid are not abusing the system. A very small percent of people receiving such benefits are committing fraud. In regard to what you said about "those crying about spending cuts", there are plenty of citizens and government officials opposed to making cuts in the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs that are not personally benefiting from them, including myself. In my humble opinion, Instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, we need to improve programs, which includes finding creative ways to weed out the small percentage of those committing fraud. Worldwide, those countries that do not care for their sick, youth, disabled, elderly and poor are not first world nations, nor are they highly regarded for such lack of policies, nor would I care to be living in such a country. Would you?

[libbylu]

The tax plan is costing American tax payers way too much in my opinion. We will be in terrible debt as a result. As far as cutting back cost with medicare and social security, it's not far to the elderly people who payed into those programs all of these years.

How is the tax plan costing tax payers?

We have been in terrible debt - for many years - due to both parties. That is not Trump's fault. I'd like him to solve the issue, but he didn't get us here.

People crying about him cutting spending are the ones getting us into more debt. And since I started working MANY years ago, I've heard about these programs running out of funding - again this is nothing new.

However, if programs are brought back into line where a budget can be balanced, people who need and rely on the programs will have what they need while others will be forced to get off their asses and work themselves.

The tax plan raises the national debt with the huge tax cuts to the mostly 1% richest in our country. As a result there is a lot less money collected from this tax cut. So where does our country come up with the money we are no longer collecting from the top 1% from the tax break is the big question. Now McConnell is suggesting we use money from cutting funds from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Only American's who have made over and beyond $700.00 have received a significant tax break. The average American or our middle class have not been given significant tax cuts and are not benefiting like the wealthy. The whole idea of the Trickle Down Effect was very unsuccessfully tried with giving these types of tax breaks to the rich with Reaganomics decades ago.

Yes, Americans heard about the medicare and social security programs being in trouble for a while. That is because across both parties, funding from those programs were used to fund other things. If medicare and S.S. were not robbed of their funds and if this exploitation of funds were to stop now, then we could reverse such damage. Government created the problems with robbing medicare and social security, there fore the tax payers shouldn't be punished by not receiving benefits they have paid into all of these years.

In regard to your "get of their asses" statement, it's a well known fact that most Americans receiving medicaid are not abusing the system. A very small percent of people receiving such benefits are committing fraud. In regard to what you said about "those crying about spending cuts", there are plenty of citizens and government officials opposed to making cuts in the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs that are not personally benefiting from them, including myself. In my humble opinion, Instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, we need to improve programs, which includes finding creative ways to weed out the small percentage of those committing fraud. Worldwide, those countries that do not care for their sick, youth, disabled, elderly and poor are not first world nations, nor are they highly regarded for such lack of policies, nor would I care to be living in such a country. Would you?

Good points. Well said!

[libbylu]

Exactly.
Thank you!

The social security trust that has accrued trillions of dollars in a huge surplus over the years. The government has been repeatedly borrowing money from that trust and none of the borrowed monies has been paid back to The Treasury to date. The money has been borrowed by the taking out of US bonds. The government has used the bonds borrowed from the social security trust for a variety of things. Currently the amount of the bonds is approx. 2.8 trillion dollars. Can you imagine what type of funding our government would have right now for the social security trust if it had not been touched and allowed to accrue interest? We wouldn't have a problem of facing the money running out, but just the opposite. We'd be able to actually allocate those seniors currently collecting social security a sizable amount of money, so that non of our seniors would be living in terrible poverty.

Everything I have read about the bonds, The Treasury is obligated to ask to be repaid the money back so the social security trust will not be depleted. This is what should happen to resolve this very serious matter, instead of allowing the social security trust to just run dry in the coming years, at the expense of the seniors who paid into the program all their working lives.

I'll try to get back in later to reply to the other things you said.

You are not quite accurate on many points.

Money is not and has not been robbed from those programs and is not proposed to be.

People of all in one brackets are benefiting from the tax plan. It is nothing but a liberal talking point to say only the 1% will benefit. This is not trickle down economics. It is a comprehensive restructuring of the tax rate system. And you need to look at comprehensive revenues, not only corporate taxes, to determine if this plan will work.

At this point, the tax plan has not increased the debt or deficit. Let's talk about it next May after the filing deadline for the first year under the plan.

And there are way more people now qualified for benefits. The plans were extended to include more people and its more beneficial for a percentage of people to collect than go to work when they are able. I didn't say there was wide spread fraud. I believe there is fraud in the program but not vast. It's the expansion that hurt us from a spending perspective.

When you spend more than you take in, you have a deficit which requires us to borrow and increases our debt. It's a cycle both parties need to come together and get us out of.

The tax plan raises the national debt with the huge tax cuts to the mostly 1% richest in our country. As a result there is a lot less money collected from this tax cut. So where does our country come up with the money we are no longer collecting from the top 1% from the tax break is the big question. Now McConnell is suggesting we use money from cutting funds from Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security.

Only American's who have made over and beyond $700.00 have received a significant tax break. The average American or our middle class have not been given significant tax cuts and are not benefiting like the wealthy. The whole idea of the Trickle Down Effect was very unsuccessfully tried with giving these types of tax breaks to the rich with Reaganomics decades ago.

Yes, Americans heard about the medicare and social security programs being in trouble for a while. That is because across both parties, funding from those programs were used to fund other things. If medicare and S.S. were not robbed of their funds and if this exploitation of funds were to stop now, then we could reverse such damage. Government created the problems with robbing medicare and social security, there fore the tax payers shouldn't be punished by not receiving benefits they have paid into all of these years.

In regard to your "get of their asses" statement, it's a well known fact that most Americans receiving medicaid are not abusing the system. A very small percent of people receiving such benefits are committing fraud. In regard to what you said about "those crying about spending cuts", there are plenty of citizens and government officials opposed to making cuts in the Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security programs that are not personally benefiting from them, including myself. In my humble opinion, Instead of throwing out the baby with the bath water, we need to improve programs, which includes finding creative ways to weed out the small percentage of those committing fraud. Worldwide, those countries that do not care for their sick, youth, disabled, elderly and poor are not first world nations, nor are they highly regarded for such lack of policies, nor would I care to be living in such a country. Would you?

[KnotaDinghy]

It's not exactly.
She correct about the bonds. But that's not what we were talking about here or where this thread started.

If Predident Trump cuts spending, that will not change the borrowing from the Trust.

Exactly.
Thank you!

The social security trust that has accrued trillions of dollars in a huge surplus over the years. The government has been repeatedly borrowing money from that trust and none of the borrowed monies has been paid back to The Treasury to date. The money has been borrowed by the taking out of US bonds. The government has used the bonds borrowed from the social security trust for a variety of things. Currently the amount of the bonds is approx. 2.8 trillion dollars. Can you imagine what type of funding our government would have right now for the social security trust if it had not been touched and allowed to accrue interest? We wouldn't have a problem of facing the money running out, but just the opposite. We'd be able to actually allocate those seniors currently collecting social security a sizable amount of money, so that non of our seniors would be living in terrible poverty.

Everything I have read about the bonds, The Treasury is obligated to ask to be repaid the money back so the social security trust will not be depleted. This is what should happen to resolve this very serious matter, instead of allowing the social security trust to just run dry in the coming years, at the expense of the seniors who paid into the program all their working lives.

I'll try to get back in later to reply to the other things you said.

You are not quite accurate on many points.

Money is not and has not been robbed from those programs and is not proposed to be.

People of all in one brackets are benefiting from the tax plan. It is nothing but a liberal talking point to say only the 1% will benefit. This is not trickle down economics. It is a comprehensive restructuring of the tax rate system. And you need to look at comprehensive revenues, not only corporate taxes, to determine if this plan will work.

At this point, the tax plan has not increased the debt or deficit. Let's talk about it next May after the filing deadline for the first year under the plan.

And there are way more people now qualified for benefits. The plans were extended to include more people and its more beneficial for a percentage of people to collect than go to work when they are able. I didn't say there was wide spread fraud. I believe there is fraud in the program but not vast. It's the expansion that hurt us from a spending perspective.

When you spend more than you take in, you have a deficit which requires us to borrow and increases our debt. It's a cycle both parties need to come together and get us out of.