Republicans insist they want to 'save' Social Security but like most GOP stories, that's a lie

Daily Kos Staff

Friday March 17, 2023 · 12:46 PM PDT

2023/03/17 · 12:46

CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 07: Demonstrators, including many senior citizens, protest against cuts to federal safety net programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on November 7, 2011 in Chicago, Illinois. About 40 of the demonstrators were arrested, cited, and released after they blocked a downtown intersection and refused police orders to move. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Republicans think they’ve found the way to hit President Joe Biden back on Social Security and Medicare after their utter humiliation at his hands during the State of the Union address. They’re building up a new mythology that they are the ones who want to protect the programs, and Biden’s refusal to meet with them to discuss the future of the programs is the real danger. Of course it’s bullshit, and luckily there’s a simple rebuttal Democrats can use.

Here are some of the things Republicans have been saying, compiled by TPM, about how they are benignly just looking out for the future of the programs they’ve spent the bulk of the past century trying to end, and not intending to cut benefits to anyone or end the programs:

“I know of no Republican or Democrat in the House or the Senate who is proposing cutting Social Security benefits. […] And it’s dishonest to keep saying it. It’s offensive and dishonest, and not realistic.” —Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)
“We’re going to have to adjust the age one more time like Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neil did.” —Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
“I think [raising the retirement age is] something that has to be on the table.” —Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC)
“Does it really make sense to allow someone who’s in their 20s today to retire at 62? Those are the kinds of things that we should talk about.” —Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA)
“Of the 4.5 trillion in taxes [Biden] has proposed, not a dime is going to shore up Social Security. Now, this is incredibly worrisome from a president who should be sympathetic with someone, who under current law, is going to get a 24% cut.” —Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA)

That last quote is from the Senate Finance Committee’s hearing in which Cassidy inflamed temperatures by attacking Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who said Biden is willing to work with Congress on the issue. “That’s a lie,” Cassidy snapped back. “Why doesn’t the president care?”

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Friday March 17, 2023 · 9:53 AM PDT

2023/03/17 · 09:53

WINDSOR, ON - JULY 28: A girl holds a sign that reads "Insulin Saves My Life" while Democratic presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) talks about the cost of insulin in the USA versus Canada as he joins a group of people with diabetes on a trip to Canada for affordable Insulin on July 28, 2019 in Windsor, Canada. The Democratic Presidential candidate is traveling to Canada to raise awareness around rising insulin prices in the United States. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

The big three insulin makers in the U.S. have now all succumbed to intense public pressure and shaming—and a demonstration of political power from President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats—and are doing the right thing. On Thursday, Sanofi joined Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk in promising to lower the monthly price of insulin to $35 per month for people with private insurance. These three pharmaceutical companies provide about 90% of the insulin used in the U.S.

“As of this afternoon, all three of the leading insulin producers in America have agreed to substantially reduce their prices, following my calls to expand my $35 cap for seniors to all Americans,” Biden said. That is precisely how it happened—through political pressure. Let’s also not forget that Republicans actively fought this.

Sanofi is now the latest manufacturer to cap the cost of insulin for everyone.

That means three of America's largest insulin producers agreed to reduce their prices following my call to expand my $35 monthly cap for seniors to all Americans.

Congress, let's make it law. https://t.co/AVtEQUtwr0
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 17, 2023

Making it law is the next step, because you cannot count on the beneficence of PhRMA lasting. Without the constraint of federal law, there’s absolutely no guarantee that those prices don’t go up again. Or that the companies don’t just phase out this generation of drugs, with the lower prices, and replace them with new ones that they say they have to price higher. Because that’s what they do.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday March 16, 2023 · 11:34 AM PDT

2023/03/16 · 11:34

An abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign outside of the Harris County Courthouse during the Women's Wave march in Houston, Texas, on October 8, 2022. (Photo by Mark Felix / AFP) (Photo by MARK FELIX/AFP via Getty Images)

The constitution of the state of North Dakota “provides a fundamental right to receive an abortion to preserve a pregnant woman’s life of health,” the state Supreme Court says, ruling that a law banning abortion will remain blocked while a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the ban proceeds. It upheld a district court’s injunction preventing the state from enacting the ban. The Supreme Court signaled that the new law will likely not pass state constitutional muster as written, with insufficient protections for the health and life of the mother.

Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, overturning abortion rights at the national level and putting it back in the states, North Dakota law allowed abortion up to 20 weeks. The GOP legislature had passed a trigger ban in 2007 intended to go into effect if Roe’s protections were ever overturned. That ban disallowed abortion except to save the life of the mother or in the cases of rape or incest. The Red River Women’s Clinic (RRWC), at the time the only abortion clinic in the state, sued to block the law and it has been enjoined since.

“While the regulation of abortion is within the authority of the legislature under the North Dakota Constitution, RRWC has demonstrated likely success on the merits that there is a fundamental right to an abortion in the limited instances of life-saving and health-preserving circumstances, and the statute is not narrowly tailored to satisfy strict scrutiny,” Chief Justice Jon J. Jensen wrote in Thursday’s ruling, keeping the injunction in place.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Thursday March 16, 2023 · 8:02 AM PDT

2023/03/16 · 08:02

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 10: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen participates in a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland at the Department of the Treasury on January 10, 2023 in Washington, DC. Secretary Yellen agreed to stay on as Treasury Secretary following a request from President Biden. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has the whole spotlight on Capitol Hill Thursday at a hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee. While the already scheduled hearing was intended to be about President Joe Biden’s budget for 2024, a few failing banks upended those plans. So while the budget definitely features in the hearing, Yellen will take this opportunity to talk about the administration’s work in stopping bank failures.

Politico got a preview of the remarks in which she will continue to seek to calm fears about the nation’s banking system. Her message will be that the system “remains sound,” and that Americans should continue to have confidence in their deposits. “This week’s actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure that depositors’ savings remain safe,” she’s expected to say.

One thing she’ll definitely stress: “Importantly, no taxpayer money is being used or put at risk with this action.” That’s pushing back against the constant GOP refrain that the taxpayers are “bailing out” banks that have failed because they’ve been too focused on being “woke.”

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday March 15, 2023 · 1:58 PM PDT

2023/03/15 · 13:58

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 15: U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at UNLV on March 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Biden spoke about his plan to lower prescription drug costs. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

President Joe Biden is focused “intensely” on lowering health care costs, he said Wednesday before an audience of doctors and nurses a the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, drawing a sharp contrast with Republicans ahead of the 2024 election. He talked about his and Democrats’ efforts to bring down drug costs.

“MAGA Republicans in Congress don’t think any of this is a good idea,” Biden said. “They think Big Pharma should be able to make the exorbitant profits at the expense of the American people.”

MAGA House Republicans think pharmaceutical companies should be able to make huge profits at the expense of American families.

They want to roll back our savings for seniors and add to the deficit to line the pockets of Big Pharma.

My budget will lower costs – and our debt.
— President Biden (@POTUS) March 15, 2023

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday March 15, 2023 · 1:09 PM PDT

2023/03/15 · 13:09

Abortion rights adovcates gather in front of the J Marvin Jones Federal Building and Courthouse in Amarillo, Texas, on March 15, 2023. - US abortion opponents are hoping for a national ban on a widely used abortion pill when their lawsuit against government drug regulators is argued Wednesday in the Texas court of a deeply conservative judge believed to be sympathetic to their cause. Galvanized after the US Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion last June, anti-abortion forces are now targeting the prescription drug mifepristone in their campaign to win a total ban on the practice. (Photo by MoisÃ©s ÃVILA / AFP) (Photo by MOISES AVILA/AFP via Getty Images) — Protesters still turned out in Amarillo Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s failed in his attempt to hide the hearing on his inevitable abortion pill ban, and the hearing proceeded on Wednesday in a partly public manner. Kacsmaryk allowed just 19 members of the press and 19 members of the public in the room. No devices were allowed in the courtroom, and audio of the hearing was not livestreamed.

The result of this hearing could be a preliminary injunction attempting to force the FDA to suspend or withdraw approval from an abortion drug that’s been on the U.S. market for two decades, effectively ending the use of the drug nationally.

There’s so much that is blatantly political and absolutely dangerous in this—including the safety of people getting medication abortions—and that is so ripe with the far-right’s corruption of the federal judiciary that of course the case has drawn national attention. Which is why Kacsmaryk was trying to proceed secretly. He wanted the case to be presented out of the public eye, particularly since, as was entirely predictable giving his extremist history, he seems very likely to take the unprecedented step of telling the FDA to remove a drug that has been approved for decades from the market.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday March 15, 2023 · 12:15 PM PDT

2023/03/15 · 12:15

Judge Janet Protasiewicz, the safe choice for Wisconsin.

It is impossible to overstate the importance of next month’s election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and how crucial it is for Judge Janet Protasiewicz to secure that seat. The scope of issues the next court is going to be considering couldn’t have higher stakes: abortion rights; voting rights; redistricting; and the 2024 presidential electoral count.

Wisconsin Republicans aren’t letting up on any of it. On Wednesday, GOP legislators introduced an abortion ban intended to replace the 1849 law which is currently pending before the state Supreme Court. Rather than the blanket ban imposed by the old law, this legislation would allow abortion in cases of rape and incest or when the mother is experiencing serious pregnancy complications. GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he wants to keep the legislature in charge of the abortion issue, instead of allowing the state’s highest court to be a “super Legislature.”

“The first hope is that (conservative Supreme Court candidate) Dan Kelly wins the election so that we have a Legislature that actually is a place where political decisions are made, not the state Supreme Court,” Vos said. “I’m an optimist. I think that eventually people will realize that the right way to do it is through the traditional process, not through a super Legislature, the state Supreme Court, but hopefully the voters agree.” The legislation would be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, who brought the lawsuit to overturn the original 1849 law. It’s blocked from enforcement at the moment due to Evers’ lawsuit.

Please donate $10, $20, or even $50 now to help Janet Protaseiwicz flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court!

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday March 15, 2023 · 11:44 AM PDT

2023/03/15 · 11:44

Kari Verdugo visits her husband Russell Verdugo at Arlington Cemetery November 11, 2011. Verdugo lost her husband in Iraq May 23 2005. He was in Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit with the 767th Ordnance Company. Photo Ken Cedeno (Photo by Ken Cedeno/Corbis via Getty Images)

In some long-overdue housekeeping, the Senate is going to vote to rescind decades-old Gulf and Iraq War resolutions. That should happen by the end of next week, if the usual GOP suspects (like Rand Paul and Tom Cotton) don’t delay it with amendment demands.

Congress has finally come to a bipartisan and bicameral agreement to say that the authorizations for President George H.W. Bush and his kid, George W. Bush, to go to war in 1991 and again in 2002 should be revoked. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a bipartisan bill last week, 13–8. Yes, there are eight senators who want to keep those war authorizations handy, because you never know when you’re going to need to exploit the hostilities on a résumé somewhere down the line.

Which is precisely why the 13 senators in favor want it shut down. “Congress has a constitutional and moral responsibility to repeal them so that future presidents can’t use these authorizations as a blank check to send servicemembers into harm’s way,” bill sponsor Sen. Tim Kaine said in a statement. The House passed a repeal last year in a bipartisan vote, but it ended up getting back-burnered into not happening on the Senate side. This is one thing that could actually happen, even with the House now being what the House is.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Monday March 13, 2023 · 2:32 PM PDT

2023/03/13 · 14:32

FILE - A man takes photos as a black plume rises over East Palestine, Ohio, as a result of a controlled detonation of a portion of the derailed Norfolk Southern train, Feb. 6, 2023. After toxic chemicals were released into the air from a wrecked train in Ohio, evacuated residents remain in the dark about what toxic substances are lingering in their vacated neighborhoods while they await approval to return home. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File) — Yet another disaster brought to you by the GOP.

Ask any Republican why Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed and they will spit out “woke,” along with some acronyms that are meaningless to probably 99% of the American public: DEI and ESG. That would be “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and “environmental, social, and governance” guidelines, the things they’re trying to replace “CRT” with as made-up acronymic scary things.

That’s a lot easier than dealing with reality. Trump and the GOP deregulated rails, and we got East Palestine. Trump and Republicans, primarily, rolled back some Dodd-Frank banking rules, and we got SVB.

Don’t tell that to the Wall Street Journal and their opinion guy Andy Kessler, who pointed out that SVB noted in its proxy statement that “besides 91% of their board being independent and 45% women,” they “also have ‘1 Black,’ ‘1 LGBTQ+’ and ‘2 Veterans.’”

“I’m not saying 12 white men would have avoided this mess,” Kessler sniffs, before going on to say precisely that: “but the company may have been distracted by diversity demands.” I would very much enjoy him discussing with veterans how they are simply “diversity demand” hires, by the way.

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Monday March 13, 2023 · 11:38 AM PDT

2023/03/13 · 11:38

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 29: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) answers questions during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. During the press conference, McCarthy said he had no recollection of speaking with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson on January 6, 2020. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) — D'oh.

Barely Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s House is in recess again this week, no doubt in need of recovering from the grueling seven days of business they put in in the past four weeks. They’re pacing themselves, definitely, with only seven legislative work days scheduled for the next month. This might be part of a plot from McCarthy to stave off a congressional maneuver called a discharge petition Democrats and a few Republicans could use to pass a clean debt ceiling hike—it requires a lot of legislative days to pass.

Or maybe he just thinks it’s safer to his speakership to avoid the place, give the maniacs less ammunition and opportunity to pull the inevitable “motion to vacate,” no-confidence vote on him.

It certainly means that the House GOP won’t be responding to President Joe Biden’s newly released budget with one of their own any time soon.

It also blows up McCarthy’s primary talking point, that Biden’s budget and debt ceiling bargaining position is not “serious.” If you’re going to be serious about governing you kind of have to be around to do it.

RELATED: Biden sets out optimistic vision for 2024, challenge to squabbling, ‘outlandish’ House GOP

Joan McCarter

Daily Kos Staff

Monday March 13, 2023 · 8:39 AM PDT

2023/03/13 · 08:39

ScreenShot2019-06-20at10.58.27AM.png — U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk

UPDATE: Monday, Mar 13, 2023 · 6:17:53 PM +00:00 · Joan McCarter

A coalition of media organizations—including the “Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, The WashingtonPost, NBCUniversal News Group, ProPublica, Inc., Texas Press Association, The Freedom ofInformation Foundation of Texas, The Markup, and Gannett Co., Inc. (the publisher of theAmarillo Globe-News and seven other Texas-based newspapers) (collectively, the ‘News MediaCoalition’)—object to Judge Kacsmaryk's secrecy in this case, and filed this request that Wednesday's hearing and future actions in the case be publicly docketed promptly.

An ultra-conservative district judge in Texas seems to be trying to take a page from the Trump majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and do his dirty work in the shadows. That’s how the highest court has delivered some of the most momentous and destructive rulings in the last few years, from the shadow docket of “emergency” requests, with no public hearings and no transparency.

The lower courts don’t have the equivalent of a shadow docket because they’re not the highest court—they’re not getting the requests for emergency orders. But that hasn’t stopped U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk from trying to craft a version of it. He’s the Trump appointee who could ban medication abortion across the nation from his seat in Amarillo, Texas, and it’s that case that he’s trying to keep out of the public eye.

The Washington Post reported over the weekend that he had taken the highly unusual step of scheduling the first hearing in the case for Wednesday without putting that hearing on the public court docket. In a conference call with attorneys on Friday, Kacsmaryk scheduled the hearing but told them he wasn’t going to put it on the docket until late the night before to try to keep the public—and abortion advocates—away. This was supposedly a move to minimize the threat to him and court personnel from protests.

Joan McCarter for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Saturday March 11, 2023 · 11:00 AM PST

2023/03/11 · 11:00

WASHINGTON, DC - OCTOBER 07: United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito poses for an official portrait at the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court building on October 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Supreme Court has begun a new term after Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially added to the bench in September. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images) — Alito might not get a chance to destroy democracy this time around.

The nation might have just been spared a potentially democracy-killing U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The state of North Carolina, however, isn’t so lucky. The U.S. Supreme Court more or less punted on deciding the congressional redistricting case Moore v. Harper last week, asking for an additional briefing in the case now that the North Carolina Supreme Court has determined to rehear it.

That’s the case in which North Carolina Republicans were trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to elevate the kooky “independent state legislature” theory, which posits that state legislatures are the ultimate authority in all elections issues. At the time the Supreme Court had decided it would hear this nonsense, four Republican-appointed justices—Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh—had indicated that they thought it was a fine idea.

That was despite it having no basis in constitutional history, having been debunked by none other than James Madison when it first reared its head in a falsified document created in 1818 by a South Carolinian named Charles Pinckney. Pinckney might have been the George Santos of his time, trying to pass himself off as the actual writer of the Constitution with a few elaborations here and there, like this one.

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Republicans insist they want to 'save' Social Security but like most GOP stories, that's a lie

Affordable insulin? You bet, thanks to Biden and congressional Democrats

Abortion remains legal for now in North Dakota with state Supreme Court decision

Senate work kicks in on banks, budget, and war authorizations

Biden 'intensely' focused on continuing to lower drug costs

Extremist Texas judge poised to take unprecedented action to ban medication abortion

Wisconsin GOP is making an excellent case for electing progressive judge to state Supreme Court

The one big thing Congress might accomplish soon: Officially ending the Iraq war

Toxic train wrecks. Bank failures. Pandemics. Thanks, GOP!

McCarthy's House AWOL again, while he goes on Fox to declare Biden's budget 'not serious'

In 'very irregular' order, Trump judge tries to keep medication abortion ban hearing secret

National democracy gets a reprieve from Supreme Court but North Carolina is not so lucky