Junior GOP presidential hopefuls make noise about slashing Social Security and Medicare

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As I have grown older and further away from the absurd right-wing populism and conspiracism of my younger years, I see more clearly that one need not be a Communist or a Marxist - or even think of oneself as any variant of a ‘socialist,’ which I never have and still do not - to understand that rich and civilized nations should have basic safety nets in place to prevent its citizens from going into poverty. European nations typically take far better care of their seniors and vulnerable, and their living standards (by and large) only continue to rise or stay at a high level, while America’s living standards have been plummeting in recent decades. In this country, we have only the most basic of social safety nets for citizens, and even that is far too much for many Republicans and their enablers. Earlier this year, during the contentious debt ceiling negotiations, more than a few House Republicans and especially those in the ‘freedom caucus’ were growing quite bold in their proposals to suffocate and drain Social Security and Medicare. Three of Donald Trump’s 2024 GOP rivals - namely, Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley - are again testing the waters in hopes of bringing public opinion around to incrementally ending these vital programs. 

Younger Americans are already having an extremely harder time, all across the board, in getting ahead in life than previous generations, and they are going to have nothing to fall back upon when they reach their senior years. And I hate to say it, but I sense that many in the ‘Boomer’ generation (so long as they are still getting theirs), along with some of the more callous among my generation (Gen X) and even among the ‘millennial’ generation (who will suffer themselves) are quite okay with all that. That callousness is what the likes of Pence and DeSantis are counting on. And Donald Trump as well, even if he at least has enough sense to know it is still bad for business to hint at anything that would threaten senior citizens and the vulnerable. {WP 7/22: Trump's GOP rivals open door to cutting Social Security for younger people}

Copyright 2023, Arthur Newhook. @Sunking278 and @FloydEtcetera on TWITTER, and at the same handles on FACEBOOK. MASTODON - @ArthurNewhook@mastodon.world, and @arthurnewhook on POST and THREADS.