Republican math.

[captain queeg]

I got to thinking today, what if we really have a million people die from Covid-19 before it’s over? It’s certainly in the realm of possibility. Trying to think like a rethug, let’s assume they are all older and getting SS. A rethug would think of all the money that could then be funneled into rich people’s pockets. Let’s say the average SS beneficiary gets $10k per year. That’s only 10 billion bucks. That’s chump change compared the money they are sucking up right now. Add in Medicare and I don’t have a good idea about that but say it’s several times more than SS and total payouts might add up to 50 billion. Still nothing compared to the 2+ trillion to bail out businesses and stocks. Check my math, Ive been known to misplace some zeros.
1. These “entitlements” are paid by the workers and their employers. It’s not supposed to be coming out of the federal budget.
2. It’s a relatively small amount of money compared to the annual budget
3. The easy money going to corporations are more than any taxes they’ve paid

But I can’t help but think at some level the rethugs are looking at the pandemic as a way to reduce the senior rolls and it’s extra disgusting that it’s relatively small amount of cash. They all seem to have very selective thinking, just like them thinking unemployment insurance makes poor people want to stay home. So many of these ass hats pay a much smaller portion of their checks into these programs. And so many were born into a life of ease if not outright privilege.

You’d think a lot of them have older relatives they’d be worried about, but maybe they’re just hoping to cash in on the estate. It’s too bad that I attribute these kind of motives to a large swath of America but there’s some real messed up people in our society. And they are very good at convincing the very people they are hurting that they are one of them.

[Karadeniz]

1. How can anyone support them?

[abqtommy]

2. In 2016 the majority elected Hillary but the Ratfucking reTHUGS brought their boy into power.

The ratfucking continues since that's the only way the reTHUGS know to gain and keep power...

[Igel]

3. OASDI doesn't come out of general revenues.

In a few years it'll affect public treasury note sales as the debt is shifted from in-house (where the federal government is the only legal purchaser of SSA debt) to the public, which means instead of paying interest to the SSA the feds will pay interest to the public (possibly Americans, possibly not).

Medicare and SS disability is a large chunk of the deficit. It was predicted back in '14 and '15 to start skyrocketing in 2016 and 2017, and has. Remember--if nothing changed from the laws in 2016, before Trump was elected, the US deficit was expected to hit $1 trillion in either 2020 or 2021. The Trump tax cut (and the smaller bipartisan ACA-tax pre-implementation reduction) fiddled with the deficit around the edges. Look at the deficit curve under Obama and it decreased and then bent upwards again.

Most of the "easy money" is either loans or it's pass-through payroll.

Medicare in 2019 wasn't $50 billion. It was at least $651 billion. $582 billion in 2018. https://www.cbo.gov/publication/55342

Just going from that last link, it's worth noting people don't distinguish between mandatory and discretionary spending when it suits them, and only discuss discretionary spending. For 2018, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt exceeded all discretionary spending--that's adding together everything for NASA, SNAP, housing, education, military, EPA, ...