Linda McMahon thinks it's time to 'sunset' Social Security

Linda McMahon

Linda McMahon

Republicans' true agendas seem come out when they're talking to tea partiers. First, we had Tommy Thompson telling a Wisconsin crowd he'd "do away with Medicare and Medicaid." Now it's Linda McMahon, who told Connecticut tea partiers that she wants to do away with Social Security.

Speaking before a group of Tea Party supporters in Waterford, Conn. on April 20, however, McMahon said she would consider making major changes to Social Security, from raising the retirement age to means-testing benefits. She also proposed introducing a "sunset provision"—the legislative term for putting an expiration date on a law unless it is renewed.

Asked to clarify whether McMahon really meant what she said—sunset as in making the program go away—McMahon's staff gave a typical nonresponse: "Linda McMahon will never vote for a budget that cuts Social Security for seniors, and unlike Chris Murphy she would never have voted to cut Medicare by $716 billion." Because it's in Republicans' DNA to repeat the big lie about about Medicare.

But as to whether she really wants to end Social Security, radio silence.

Like Thompson, McMahon was telling her people, the tea partiers, what she really intends to do. And, like all Republicans, that's ending the entitlement programs.

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