Let McConnell go into the 2016 elections demanding Social Security and Medicare cuts, lets see how that affects the Republican outcome after the elections.
Is it my imagination or do Republicans just have a death wish? This latest egregious ploy by the Republicans should be hung around every one of their necks, just in time for election day, November 8, 2016...
The GOP...back to hostage taking....What's McConnell going to look like when he gets slapped down by President Obama and gets nothing in return for shutting down the government/country?
Mitch McConnell privately wants the White House to pay this price to enact a major budget deal: Significant changes to Social Security and Medicare in exchange for raising the debt ceiling and funding the government.
Several people familiar with the high-stakes fiscal negotiations said the Senate majority leader's staff is trying to drive a hard bargain in the private talks with the White House and Democratic leaders.
McConnell is seeking a reduction in cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security recipients and new restrictions on Medicare, including limiting benefits to the rich and raising the eligibility age, several sources said. In addition, the Kentucky Republican is eager to see new policy riders enacted, including reining in the Environmental Protection Agency's clean water regulations.
White House officials are already rejecting such entitlement changes. But the demand by McConnell showcases the major gulf that exists between the two sides as they try to avoid a potential fiscal calamity if the United States fails to raise the national debt ceiling by Nov. 5 or stumbles into a government shutdown by mid-December.
http://www.cnn.com/...
In case anyone thought things couldn’t get more chaotic on Capitol Hill, Senate Majority Mitch McConnell appears ready to set them straight. McConnell, according to a report first published by CNN, plans to make several major demands of the White House, including changes to Medicare, Social Security, and EPA regulations as his price for raising the nation’s debt limit.
The changes McConnell is reportedly demanding are not minor tweaks to government programs. According to CNN, he wants to reduce the annual cost of living adjustment to the Social Security payments that millions of Americans rely on each month. He also wants to raise the eligibility age for Medicare and limit the benefits available to wealthy recipients. In addition, McConnell is looking to add policy riders to any debt limit legislation that would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from enforcing some of its new Clean Water requirements.
Any one of these things would typically be subject to extensive debate in Congressional Committees and on the floor of both Houses of Congress. McConnell’s demands come just 23 days before November 5, the day the Treasury estimates that it will exhaust the extraordinary measures it has been using to keep the government running.
Even in the best of times, the U.S. Congress does not pass such complex legislation in the space of a few weeks, and these are not the best of times. The House of Representatives in in disarray, with Speaker John Boehner’s announcement of his intention to retire at the end of the month, largely due to pressure from the GOP’s far right wing.
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/...
I hope this will be a topic for discussion at tonight's Democratic debate....and I hope that the responses from HRC and Bernie Sanders will be what everybody is talking about tomorrow, because this is a complete loser topic for Republicans.
But even though the White House has backed some entitlement changes in the past, notably overhauling how Social Security cost-of-living payments are calculated, a spokeswoman said that the President would not accept them in the current round of negotiations if they were offered.
"Proposals such as raising the eligibility age for Medicare and changing the way Social Security retirement benefits are indexed to inflation are non-starters for the administration and Democrats in Congress," said Jennifer Friedman, a White House spokeswoman.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders are betting that the blame of any shutdown or default will fall largely on Republicans, giving their party leverage to force GOP leaders into making concessions to raise the debt ceiling and cut a budget deal that increases domestic spending.
http://www.cnn.com/...