Last week, House Republicans signaled their eagerness to spend the next several months in pursuit of fulfilling Speaker Paul Ryan's long-held dream of destroying Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and basically all the programs that prevent millions of people starving and dying in abject poverty. It started relatively modestly, with passage of the Trump administration's spending claw-back bill, cuts of $15 billion in already allocated funding to programs like children's health and Ebola funding. Touting the bill as "a step toward financial restraint in the face of growing deficits and debt," they ignored the fact that the CBO estimates it will only save $1.1 billion over the next ten years.
It's not the actual fact of these cuts that matters, though. It's the fact that they consider this the beginning of what they intend to be a concerted attack on social spending, including Medicare and Social Security. It's coming in their spending bills.
"We've got to begin somewhere, and I know it's a small step, but it's a step," said Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.). […]
Republicans are also eyeing other moves aimed at trimming spending or limiting the size of government. House Republicans have advanced legislation to add more work requirements for food stamp recipients and overhaul the welfare system. They passed a balanced-budget amendment and are drafting a budget that takes aim at entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
They're definitely taking aim at these programs, as they promised they would when the passed their tax giveaway last year. They are manufacturing a deficit "crisis" to do just that, and to an extent succeeding. The Medicare and Social Security trustees report points directly at that tax cut, as well as other Republican policies, for undermining the programs. A consequence House Speaker Paul Ryan has been "joking" about.
Go for it, assholes. Add gutting Social Security and Medicare to your agenda for 2018, along with destroying health care and net neutrality. There's no better way than to get the entire electorate engaged. Do it.