It’s not easy to make yourself the center of media attention in the age of Trump, but indicted GOP Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-CA) somehow managed to do it, making headlines this week, then making headlines again...and now again.
In a conversation with constituents earlier this month, an indicted California congressman suggested reducing the national debt by raising Social Security’s retirement age to 72.
This is the guy who, with his wife, allegedly made off with a cool quarter million in campaign funds so they could live the high life in places like Italy and Hawaii, funding mammoth bar tabs, their kids’ fancy school tuition, even dental work and video games for themselves. Then it was revealed Hunter faked “Wounded Warrior” donations, in order to buy golf equipment and apparel. Finally, he told the Navy to “fuck themselves" because they wouldn't go along with his scam to justify a trip to Italy by visiting a Navy base.
Now, here’s what he wants to do to people not yet eligible for Social Security—and if this isn’t the perfect example of Republican hypocrisy, I don't know what is.
Hunter, whom the federal government charged Tuesday with using over $250,000 in campaign funds for lavish personal spending, argued that “entitlement spending” on social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare was driving the country’s “debt problem.”
One way to resolve that problem, he said, would be to raise the Social Security retirement age for future beneficiaries to 72.
“I’m 41 years old. What if we said, hey, for everyone who’s under 45 years old, you don’t get to collect Social Security until you’re 72,” Hunter said.
Its hard to get past the gobsmacking surreality of a Congressman—just nabbed for crass thievery—insisting that hardworking, honest Americans should give up the retirement security that they’ve paid into all their lives, all to pay for tax cuts geared towards the obscenely wealthy. Especially when those tax cuts were passed by that same Congressman and his political pals.
But Hunter here is just a microcosm of the entire Republican mindset: they're only in it for themselves:
"You could do something like that and it would be really easy. It wouldn’t impact me," he said."I don’t plan on getting Social Security anyway. I think it will be busted."
That was probably easier to say before you forfeited your Congressional pension, buddy.
The only reason Social Security will ever be “busted” is if lowlifes like Hunter keep getting elected into office. The Democrat running to unseat Hunter is Ammar Campa-Najjar, and his campaign page is here.