Cross posted from Hillbilly Report.
Now that the "fiscal cliff" dive has been diverted without Republicans being allowed to pick Medicare and Social Security clean the Senator for Communist China Mitch McConnell is fuming. He was forced to raise taxes on a few folks like himself and lost a huge opportunity to steal from more working and retired Americans. He did not get to raise the Medicare age, the Social Security age and did not even get to gut benefits for current retirees. Yes, all in all it was a very bad deal for Mitch McConnell and the party of greed and idiocy he "leads".
Now that opportunity to strip away the social safety net that has helped millions of Americans keep their head above water is fading McConnell is swearing to use the debt ceiling fight as his new vehicle to stick it to those who are less fortunate than he is.
That is why he is insisting now that he will refuse to budge on new, needed revenues and will instead insist on spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling:
“The tax issue is, finished, over, completed. That’s behind us now. The question is: what are we going to do about the biggest problem confronting us and our future,” McConnell said.
http://thehill.com/...
True to form, McConnell promised that nothing else will be allowed to be addressed until he can strip at least some of our nation's social safety net away from it's citizens:
McConnell, though, said he expected lawmakers’ focus to be on spending and that other issues including gun control, will likely see no action for the first few months of the year.
“None of these issues are going to have the priority that spending and debt are going to have,” McConnell said. “That’s going to dominate the discussion in Congress for the next two or three months at least.”
The Senator for Communist China on ABC This Week:
And while we agree that spending and waste should be addressed around here we question what spending and debt McConnell will address. He will not tax companies that send American jobs overseas or strip their subsidies. He will not call for the end to subsidies to big oil, who keep fleecing Americans at the pump. He will not call for an end to aid to corporations that pay Americans minimum wage or to curb any useless defense spending.
What he will insist on is to start phasing out Social Security for younger Americans by raising the retirement age yet again. Or he will insist on cutting benefits for current and future retirees by the "chained CPI". After all, President Obama himself lobbed that softball at McConnell. He will gut food stamps, mortgage credits, unemployment and anything else that has helped those Americans who have been left behind by the constant redistribution of wealth to the top over the last several decades McConnell has spearheaded.
However, the leader of the Democrats in the House Nancy Pelosi shot back at McConnell about both taxes and entitlement reform as well as using the debt ceiling for leverage:
"In this legislation we had $620 billion, very significant … changing the high-end tax rate to 39.6 percent. But that is not enough on the revenue side," Pelosi told CBS's Bob Schieffer in an interview taped Friday.
Without offering many specifics, the California Democrat said she wants to scour the tax code for unnecessary loopholes and "unfair" benefits that help those – either companies or individuals – who don't need it.
On entitlements, Pelosi drew a line against raising Medicare's eligibility age or cutting Social Security benefits. But she left the door open to additional means testing under Medicare.
"I think you and I could probably afford to pay a little more for a deductible or a co-pay or something like that," she told Schieffer.
http://thehill.com/...
She went on to point out the obvious:
Pelosi also took a few shots at Republicans, blaming the rightward shift of their party for the partisanship in Washington's current political environment. She said the GOP is now "dominated by an element that are anti-government ideologues" who are "committed to not cooperating with this president."
The video:
The bottom line is Mitch McConnell is the leader of a zealous bunch of radicals. They have used "Trickle-Down" economics and outsourcing to pick our country clean. They hate government because it makes rules and laws to at least attempt to keep them from doing whatever the hell they see fit in dealing with their fellow Americans.
We can find plenty of ways to cut spending. The one thing I hope Americans of all generations realize is that none of us can afford to let Mitch McConnell, his Republican Party or anyone else get their hands on the Social Security and Medicare that is paid for by and promised to all Americans.