Reply #14: No, I appreciate your voice in this discussion. I hope with all my heart I am

[LiberalLoner]

wrong in being so worried.

I just think this is being sold much the same way as the bank bailout was sold. "Do this or the nation dies RIGHT NOW." So we did it, even knowing that it would have to be paid for on our backs, out of our pockets. (Just for the record, I wrote my congresscritters begging them not to do it.)

The way this is being framed in conservative circles and in the media is, "If we do not eliminate SS and Medicare, we will fall into the brink of immediate economic collapse." I was listening to Morning Joe and they were selling this as, "Painful cuts must be made right now or we will be like Greece, and we will fall into the abyss. And when that happens, EVERYTHING stops. EVERYONE will suffer enormous harm." They didn't spell out what the harm would be, they just left that to our imaginations.

It is being accepted that anyone who has a brain, sees that not to cut spending drastically right now would lead to all of us dying immediately. More or less.

The military budget is never discussed. The assumption is there, that wars pay for themselves. That meme was put out before the Iraq war and has become standard belief for the majority of Americans. So there can be no discussion of cutting the military budget, because, duh, everyone knows military forces and the wars, pay for themselves.

Same with tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and oil companies. Everyone knows that cutting taxes increases revenues and stimulates the economy and adds jobs. So we have to keep cutting taxes more and more on the richest among us. But those poor people, they aren't paying their fair share, so it's high time we make them carry their fair tax burden!

So what spending needs to be drastically cut? Any money going into social programs. Programs conservatives have hated since the first day they were put into place.

The Republicans will not punish their leaders for eliminating SS and Medicare. They will instead praise them.

Show me one Republican (outside of Newt, who got spanked hard for it) who doesn't like the Ryan plan to end Medicare.

Show me one Republican supporter who is not in favor of the Ryan plan to end Medicare.