I am glad Republicans jeered Biden.
Republican officeholders recoiled at President Biden's assertion that some of them advocated ending Social Security and Medicare.
Biden said he would take them at their word.
The issue divides Republicans. Most politicians understand that the programs are very popular and that it would be politically dangerous to reduce their payment formulas. Unfortunately for Republicans, there were a few of their members who did the equivalent of what a few careless Democrats did when they called for "defunding the police." They put something unpopular and easily understood on the table of public debate.
Click: "My objective is to get rid of Social Security--pull it out by the roots."
Utah Senator Mike Lee is on video saying the wanted to end Social Security and Medicare. Mitch McConnell's rival in the senate for GOP leadership, Florida's Rick Scott, listed as one of the GOP's central policy platforms putting Social Security and Medicare up for re-authorization every five years. Democrats are doing what Republicans did with "defund the police." Anything less than an angry denial leaves a lingering doubt.
It is straw man politics, but it is warranted. There is a concept in politics known as the Overton Window, named after political scientist Joseph Overton. He posited that political ideas change over time once they enter the public square.
Unthinkable
Radical
Acceptable
Sensible
Popular
Policy
Dr. Francis Townsend announced a plan in 1933 that was unthinkable. The Townsend Plan advocated that every American over the age of 60 be given $200 a month, with only one condition: They spend it that month.
Severe poverty among the elderly was the norm then. In the depression era of depressed demand, and in an economy that was overwhelmingly domestic, that money did not disappear. It would be immediately spent on goods and services produced by other Americans, then that money would be re-spent, and so on. Dr. Townsend put the idea out there and stood behind it, turning the idea from unthinkable into merely radical.Crowds attended Townsend Plan rallies. There were hearings on the idea at the Capitol. It got debated and condemned as too expensive and un-American. A compromised and diluted version of the plan grew to become acceptable to FDR and a Democratic congress: Social Security.
Republican officeholders who openly posit ending Social Security and Medicare turned that idea from unthinkable to radical. It was a huge step. Another huge step in reverse was the jeering at that part of Biden's speech. Republicans were saying NO! Ending Social Security and Medicare was unthinkable.
Good.
I am 73 and write from both personal experience and a 30-year career as a financial advisor. A great many retired Americans, even prosperous ones who used a financial advisor like me, have included Social Security and Medicare in their retirement planning. Social Security is a guaranteed monthly check. About 40% of elderly Americans get over half their income from Social Security. For prosperous Americans like my former clients, it is a baseline income. The income is a bond-equivalent that allows them to invest other money in less certain but potentially more productive ways.
Old people consume health care. I have paid into Medicare for my entire working life. Now I receive it. Without Medicare for my wife and myself, I would need to have on ready reserve $300,000, maybe $500,000, and maybe much more for each of us. Most people cannot put aside that kind of money into a hospitalization emergency fund. Getting ill can be financially catastrophic, but not for people with Medicare.
Social Security and Medicare are a safety net. They mean that, if everything else goes very, very wrong, I or my widow have something. Medicare means that I do not drag my family into poverty if I get cancer. Once something moves from unthinkable to radical, it becomes a question mark, and no longer a safety net. Might it happen? If it happens, will I meet the qualifications for an exemption or loophole or "grandfather clause?" So many unknowns.
Laws change. A year ago women in Texas could have abortions. Now they cannot. Tax rates change. Treatment of capital gains changes. In my youth draft laws changed. At different points in my life these changes had huge effects on me.
There is all the difference in the world between something that is "probably OK," and a guarantee. I welcomed those Republican jeers.
Agreed on Medicare!
But why do all others have to go bankrupt with this healthcare system of greed?
It's lovely when the looney is displayed.
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