WTF is wrong with Democrats that want to cut Social Security and/or Medicare? [View all]

[MannyGoldstein]

Thanks to Romney's Hail Mary pick for his ticket, again we're seeing the Third Way types out in force saying that cutting Social Security and/or Medicare is OK, presumably as long as we don't cut it as *much* as the Republicans would.

Fuck that. I am astonished that people who believe themselves to be Democrats would call for this.

There is no reason to cut either program.

Social Security will pay 100% of promised benefits unless the economy stays as bad as it is now and never improves. It the economy goes back to anything near where it's been for 80 years or so, it's all set. All set. Worst case, if we continue our current bizarre bipartisan policy of Hoover economics forever and the economy does not improve ever again, Social Security benefits will be reduced in 25 years - and fixing them will cost less, per year, than the Bush tax cuts for wealthy Americans cost today. It's OK to spend on the rich but not on everyone else? Really? Bullshit.

The problem with Medicare is not a problem with Medicare. It's a problem with our catastrophe of a medical system. We pay twice as much for health care as we should, because our elected officials are too cowardly to do what every other industrialized country has done and impose government controls on medical costs. 17 cents of every dollar we pay goes to health care here in the US. In other industrialized countries, it averages 8% and never goes above 12%. If we simply get our medical costs down to world-class levels, there is no Medicare problem. Oh, and we'll all pay less for care. And we'll ALL probably *have* care.

So I reject any "Democrat" who wants to cut these programs, or who offers excuses for those who do. We do not run our country by triangulation, by bragging that we're less awful than the Republicans. We're Democrats: we fight like hell for working Americans and for the future of our children.

Some will say I'm a broken record, that I've said this before. Guilty as charged. But as long as the Third Way keeps bringing it up, I will too. There must be a line beyond which we'll not retreat, and for me, this is it. Let's hold our ground here, let's not keep letting our politicians move us further and further right. It must stop.

“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt