MSNBC mocks Kevin McCarthy and Mike Pence for stealing Bush's politically disastrous plan
"I earned capital — political capital — in the campaign. And I intend to use it," former President George W. Bush told the public after his State of the Union address following the 2004 election.
What he tried to do was reshape Social Security.
The system "is headed toward bankruptcy," he said in Feb. 2005.
Now, that same idea is being taken up by former Vice President Mike Pence who argued to the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors that it was time to give Americans the option to withdraw their Social Security and invest it in the stock market. During Pence's time in the White House, the market rose to almost 30,000, before crashing to 19,899. If someone lost their Social Security investment it would mean the Welfare system would be their backup program, adding more costs to taxpayers.
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“There are modest reforms in entitlements that can be done without disadvantaging anybody at the point of the need,” Pence said on Thursday. “I think the day could come when we could replace the New Deal with a better deal. Literally, give younger Americans the ability to take a portion of their Social Security withholdings and put that into a private savings account.”
Withdrawing younger Americas' investment in Social Security would hurt the existing people on the safety net.
Last summer, former President Barack Obama warned voters that the Republican Party was gearing up for taking away programs like Social Security and Medicare.
When Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) announced the Senate's plan, he made it clear that the GOP was standing behind cuts to such programs. It didn't go well.
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“But during the seven weeks of turmoil since Scott dropped a provocative conservative policy bomb on an unsuspecting party — a plan that called for tax increases and expiration dates for all federal laws, including those establishing Social Security and Medicare — he has not once expressed regret. Instead, the former hospital chain CEO and two-term governor, the richest man in the Senate, argues that he owes his detractors nothing," said the Washington Postat the time.
While McCarthy claimed that the debt ceiling debate wouldn't put Social Security and Medicare on the cutting room floor, other Republicans seemed to be more willing to make it happen, Insider reported Monday.
Oklahoma Republican Rep. Kevin Hern said he "wouldn't think it'd be off the table."
"Privatize it or part of it," MSNBC host Ari Melber cited from the former VP. "Pence doing this at a time where he's talking to House Republicans where, remember, of course, he used to serve the Republican Study Committee about all this and pushing Bush's plan or Bush-style plan. The same group of House Republicans back at it in 2023. So, it's all linked up because some of these ideas were only shelved because they were unpopular and yet the pivot never happened. trying to bring it back or raise the age or privatize part of it. one House Republican confirming the party is looking at, 'general cuts to food assistance.' Talk about that new deal type change, and then this all fits into the fight that we've been covering about the debt and the spending, ransoming the economy, Republicans basically saying that if they can't get drastic cuts they might try to ruin America's credit."
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Washington Post reporter Libby Casey cited McCarthy's video for the pre-buttle of the State of the Union, talking about cuts, but he never got specific about what cuts he wanted to make. It's been the ongoing debate between Biden and the House where the GOP demands cuts, Biden asks which cuts and the GOP refuses to answer with a plan. It's reminiscent of Republicans spending the past decade claiming that Obamacare must be "repealed and replaced." When it came time to repeal and replace it however, they didn't have the replacement.
Meanwhile, Trump's former Management and Budget chief is arguing that cuts should be made to disabled veterans.
As part of Melber's segment, he showed clips of former Daily Show host Jon Stewart mocking Bush for "touching" the so-called third rail of politics.
Times columnist Michelle Goldberg mocked the GOP for being supportive of Wall Street for so long and that turning the corner with Donald Trump was supposed to stop that. Instead, it's returned.
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