While the House GOP's loudest lowest common denominators like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene steal the spotlight, extremists like Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana are flying under the radar as they plot their course to slashing the country's social safety net.
As Banks eyes a position as majority whip if Republicans retake the lower chamber, a new super PAC has sprung up to bolster his bid, according to Axios. The "American Leadership PAC," formed last month, has already raised $2 million to lavish on the final weeks of the midterms.
Money from the PAC gives Banks, chair of the Republican Study Committee, the opportunity showcase the fundraising of his allies while greasing his own path to a leadership role.
Andy Surabian, the super PAC's chief strategist, told Axios that Banks "truly gets how President Trump remade the Republican Party for the better." Surabian said the super PAC will help elect Republicans who share Banks' vision of the GOP as "working-class" conservatives defending values against an "authoritarian left."
The party of "working-class conservatives," eh? Under Banks' leadership last year, the Republican Study Committee outlined its plans for slashing the social safety net in a budget plan titled Reclaiming Our Fiscal Future. No one will feel those cuts more than older working-class Americans, many of whom consider themselves conservatives.
The study committee, which boasts the bulk of the conference at more than 150 members, proposed slashing the federal budget by $14 trillion over the next decade—an ode to former Speaker Paul Ryan, the supposed "ideas" guy who had some math challenges.
Essentially, all of those proposed savings came in the form of raising the age of eligibility for both Medicare and Social Security to 69, replacing Medicare's guaranteed coverage with a subsidy, and turning Medicaid into a block grant program run by the states.
The name of the study committee plan, Reclaiming Our Fiscal Future, is vaguely reminiscent of the 11-point plan from Sen. Rick Scott Florida, which also included big plans to overhaul Medicare and Social Security ... by sunsetting them.
At the outset of the year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell worked hard to keep the GOP agenda under wraps. Shortly after Scott released his plan, McConnell rebuffed it, saying his caucus had no plans to raise taxes on half of Americans or sunset Social Security and Medicare in five years.
But over and over, congressional Republicans have fixated on either entirely overhauling Social Security and Medicare or ending them altogether. In fact, several House Republicans have been secretly plotting the steps they would take to destroy the two wildly popular, lifesaving programs.
But over and over, mainstream press keeps ignoring the story. The general sentiment among mainstream reporters seems to be that’s insane, Republicans will never blow up two of the most popular programs in the country.
That’s exactly what everybody said about abortion: They’ll never overturn Roe v. Wade and then pass a national abortion ban. Well, guess what, Republicans accomplished the first part of that equation and are strategizing about the second.
Banks as majority whip would put one more Republican in a leadership position who has been scheming for years about slashing the social safety net that tens of millions of Americans depend on. In fact, Republicans are so giddy about that prospect that they simply cannot stop talking about it. Believe them.
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