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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump open to Social Security changes if elected: adviser
Source: Reuters
Trump open to Social Security changes if elected: adviser
WASHINGTON | BY EMILY STEPHENSON
Republican Donald Trump would consider changes to Social Security and Medicare if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser to the New York businessman said on Wednesday, signaling a shift from Trump's earlier stance that he would not touch so-called entitlement programs.
Policy adviser Sam Clovis said at a Washington conference that Trump would be open to a bipartisan look at entitlement spending once he implemented his other policies, such as his tax plan.
"I think after the administration's been in place, then we will start to take a look at all of the programs, including entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare," Clovis said at an event hosted by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.
The foundation is known for its attacks on deficit spending, and it supports revamping Social Security and Medicare.
"We'll take a hard look at those to start seeing what we can do in a bipartisan way," Clovis said, adding Trump was not proposing any entitlement changes now.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-entitlements-idUSKCN0Y22RF
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Autumn
(44,743 posts)Impressive!
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)Last edited Wed May 11, 2016, 11:41 PM - Edit history (1)
Trump wants to cut off their money and dump them from their wheelchairs out into the streets as beggars. Hillary has a chance after all. Then, the FBI or IRS can investigate Trump for income tax evasion or his mafia contacts.
spanone
(135,627 posts)lordsummerisle
(4,649 posts)for privatize it via Wall Street. Should Trump get elected and Congress stay Republican, this will begin the death spiral for SS as we know it, which will morph into a kind of 401K program. It's one of the reasons I decided to take it early...
Jeffersons Ghost
(15,235 posts)They will reallocate the funds to defense or a foreign aid bill to Mexico for the "Wall." Didn't "W" and Pink Floyd already do those events?
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)how he is not in their best interest and is not going to make America greater
He will sell it off or / and run down parts of the government not to his liking
MisterP
(23,730 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,129 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)so as to open up the trust fund to death-by-fees.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Medicaid comes into his sites.
He is conforming to Conservative Policy. Speaker Ryan will love that.
pampango
(24,692 posts)that he is "to the left" of ...... " on anything substantial?
He says conservative stuff but, as long as he throws in a blast at the "Washington establishment" or about "self-funding" his campaign, he comes off to too many as vaguely 'populist'.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)Trump knows his audience and says what they want him to say. He changes his message almost as often as he changes his underwear, I assume.
LastLiberal in PalmSprings
(12,536 posts)The change in terminology is significant, and occurred as the government started borrowing money from the Social Security Trust Fund under GWB. Paul Krugman reported in the NY Times:
Shortly after Sept. 11, George W. Bush interrupted his inveighing against evildoers to crack a joke. Mr. Bush had repeatedly promised to run an overall budget surplus at least as large as the Social Security surplus, except in the event of recession, war or national emergency. ''Lucky me,'' he remarked to Mitch Daniels, his budget director. ''I hit the trifecta.''
He told this joke many times until someone let him know it was in bad taste.
If you don't want to pay back someone's savings (an earned benefit) you convince them that it's largesse (a government entitlement program, like welfare). It changes the terms of the argument.
Republicans made fun of Al Gore's "lock box" analogy on the Social Security Trust Fund; who's laughing now?
dawg
(10,607 posts)entitlement = earned benefit
You are "entitled" to the benefit because you paid into it.
Entitlement programs are the opposite of welfare programs.
We murder the language in this country.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)then comes the rest of the mayhem.
Vinca
(50,168 posts)Even if your candidate does not win the Democratic nomination, please, please, please put a clothes pin on your nose and vote against Trump. Hillary might ink trade agreements that send jobs away, but Trump is crazy enough to nuke ISIS or whatever else irks him on any particular day. The man is not competent and cannot be allowed to win the election.