How Trump Screwed His Own Campaign With One Executive Order

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-trump-screwed-his-own-campaign-with-one-executive-order

Earlier this month, Joe Biden flew to Wisconsin to address the mounting punditry that his election chances were spiraling downward over Donald Trump’s focus on “law and order” in Kenosha. That same day, his campaign put out a new advertisement that suggested they had a different conception about what issue would shape the presidential race.

The ad, released on Sept. 3, bludgeoned Trump directly on a historically reliable Democratic turf: Social Security. In it, the narrator said the president was plotting to leave the much-loved entitlement program “permanently depleted” in just a few years.

The spot was delivered to little fanfare and was overshadowed by Biden’s decision to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man shot and left critically wounded by a white police officer. But for some Democrats, it was a signal about where the party’s nominee placed his electoral and legislative priorities. And an overwhelmingly positive one at that.

“This isn’t like every other election where seniors who have happily retired in Florida have had the opportunity to sit back in comfort and assess the political campaigns,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) told The Daily Beast. “They know this president’s failures got us to this point and they’re paying close attention when he tells them that his goal in the second term is to bankrupt Social Security.”

*snip*

[OregonBlue]

1. I wish Biden would start releasing ads that hammer Trump on Social Security and Medicare.

[Nevilledog]

2. I agree.

[ooky]

8. Me too.

[Paper Roses]

12. Don't know how long I will be above ground but if Social Security is stopped, I'm in trouble.

Worked all my life and contributed just like millions of others. As I reach the ripe old age of 79, with no other income, what is the point of hanging around?

Never would I have thought that the government would renege on the SS income program. Pay now, die later...but not too much later!

[ooky]

14. In 2023 I will turn 71 if I haven't already died from Covid.

If Trump and Republicans are allowed to steal our social security, I'll be able to keep living off my 401k savings for about another 10 years, if I'm frugal, and if don't get sick, which is a very big "if" at that age. Unfortunately for my children, their inheritance will be consumed, and they will have to either take me in at the age of ~ 81 or let me die.

Not much to look forward to in a Republican world under a Trump family dictatorship.

[BComplex]

3. Not just trump, but McConnell, too. Hell, ALL the republican senators.

Republicans don't want health care, medicare, or social security. Democrats should be hammering out short, catchy ads 24/7.

[Sherman A1]

16. The GOP

Has been trying to kill Social Security since its inception this is nothing new, but they are getting much more obnoxious.

[Eyeball_Kid]

4. It's a winning message. Trump clearly promises to end Social Security and Medicare...

... by cutting off the funding for those two programs.

Seniors beware. And those younger than seniors, beware. Your future is at stake.

[Traildogbob]

7. Right!

And younger voters saying I am not thinking that far ahead....My amazing wife died at 41 after a long battle with cancer. Our daughter was 10. My wife’s Social Security started paying $1,400 a month survivors benefits for our once double income slashed in half so I could care for my daughter until 18. A chuck of that helped put her through college at Tennessee.
And disabilities can happen at any age. A crash, or many other accidents can end your ability to work for life. SS steps up to pay you, even if you have barely paid anything in at a young age. So, wake the fuck up. GOP gives all money to billionaires. 3/4 of a trillion, with a T, to the wealthiest, from our tax dollars. Remember who gave us SS, Medicare and Medicare. And who has tried to destroy it every year since inception.

[AZ8theist]

6. He has already!!!

Just watched a great ad this morning in Arizona. It starts off with "Trump is LYING AGAIN". Then Joe explains how Doturd is defunding SS. Joe then FORCEFULLY promises to defend SS and Medicare. It's a very powerful ad.

[jb5150]

18. I live in Central Florida,

and just in the last few days, I have seen Biden ads that do just that.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. There really needs to be a much longer piece

showing how SS and Medicare transformed old age. For my own grandparents, the SS amount was quite modest, and they all still wound up living with their children in old age. Only one grandparent was alive when Medicare went in to effect, and I'm not sure how much of a difference it made for her.

Do an ad showing the impoverished conditions most old people used to live in. Compare that to the relatively security of now.

As it is, a shocking number of people get all or most of their income from SS, and why that's so is a completely different conversation. The point is, without it, they'd be on the streets for however long they could survive, crammed into a small extra room in the house of the one child who can free up that room for them. Or they'd quietly starve to death in their own home. Without Medicare a lot of basic health issues would be unaddressed. That can be shown also.

[RussellCattle]

10. Thank you. This is a great website that we should promoting every day.

[ooky]

19. Excellent. Thanks for sharing, and welcome to DU. 👋🙂

[PatrickforO]

11. Well, at nearly 62, I'll tell you I am happy about this.

Biden is a decent man, and he will do his best to fix the myriad of things Trump has messed up.

[DinahMoeHum]

13. G*d help ANY politician who tries to take my Social Security or Medicare.

I start Medicare next year, SS thereafter.

ANY politician who tries to screw around with my hard-earned benefits is asking for grievous bodily harm, courtesy of me. And I'm not alone in this.

[lagomorph777]

15. I remember when Junior Bush tried to steal SS, they worried about seniors burning cars in the street

Same now, terrible idea.

[Sherman A1]

17. +1

I recall that as well and the plan fell flat very fast as I recollect.

[alfredo]

20. Picture thousands of seniors

with their canes, walkers and wheel chairs protesting outside the white house. Their greatest weapon is a chant that will bring the mighty to their knees, Trump, you want to see pictures of the grandkids?

[calimary]

23. I'm with ya, Dinah!

I’m supposed to start collecting Social Security in 2023. Right when he plans to have it spent down to nothing.

[Cha]

21. Oh I like the sound of that! Rt..

[Sogo]

22. I'm planning to write a letter to my

Trump-voting relatives and friends and explain the position I and millions of others (including some of them) will be in if Trump is re-elected and does away with the FICA tax. Most people just don't understand what that means. The fact is that that tax pays most of the current SS liability, with the balance coming out of the SS Trust Fund. Without that tax, the SS Trust Fund (the only remaining means of paying SS benefits) will be depleted by 2023. I'm sure Trump doesn't understand that and probably doesn't care if he does, because I'm sure the only reason he wants to do away with FICA is that it will save another 6+% taxes to the corporations (including, of course, the Trump Organization).

Just recently, after the big uproar about eliminating SS, he came out and said he would pay the liability out of the General Fund and would never abandon the seniors. That's what makes me know he doesn't know what he's talking about. The FICA taxes became part of the General Fund under Reagan. Quite simply, there will be less money in the General Fund if FICA is eliminated and, as a result, there won't be anything for him to draw upon in the General Fund unless something else is cut. More likely, the budget for SS will be cut. Don the con strikes again....