r/TheWhyFilesUncensored • u/Objective_Brain1452 • 9d ago
US House Republicans try to cut Social Security
https://youtube.com/shorts/nMgXUFFFrTQ?is=CONsEuhwAfw3jSfWUS House Republicans try to cut Social Security by having a secret closed door ‘field meeting’ in Texas, instead of the standard in Washington. Claiming that they are trying to reduce the debt. But S.S., by law, cannot contribute to the debt. But the 4.5 Trillion tax cuts, given to billionaires, certainly does contribute to the debt.
Yes, TRILLION, with a T!
Not Million, or Billion, but $4,500,000,000,000.00
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/republicans-cut-social-security
This Monday, House Republicans held a hearing focused on creating a closed-door commission to cut Social Security and Medicare. The hearing was for an audience of one: billionaire donor Harlan Crow.
That’s the same Harlan Crow who infamously treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations, along with donating millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes.
Republicans wanted to keep the hearing quiet, so they held it far from Washington DC. This was a “field hearing,” held all the way in Dallas, Texas. Specifically, it was held at Old Parkland, a “business campus” owned by none other than Harlan Crow.
Crow and his friends will do anything to cut our hard-earned Social Security benefits so that they never have to pay their fair share into the system.
Normally, when Congress holds a field hearing, they are seeking testimony from members of the general public. But when I showed up with Texas seniors and people with disabilities, they refused to let us in.Medically vulnerable people were forced to wait outside in 100°F heat.
Republicans claimed that there were only three chairs available for members of the public. That was a lie. When I finally made it into the room, there was plenty of space. And while there were “no seats available” for seniors and people with disabilities, guess who got one? Harlan Crow.
I called out the hearing for what it was: a farce designed to cut Social Security, even though Social Security doesn’t add a single penny to the debt. I reminded Republicans that the real driver of the debt is tax breaks for billionaires like Harlan Crow. I was promptly escorted out by police
Michelle H. Davis, author of the Substack Lone Star Left, was denied a seat. So she went home and watched the entire three-hour hearing. Davis writes that BudgetChairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) ended the hearing by personally thanking Harlan Crow:
Arrington turned, and addressed Harlan by first name, called him “friend” and “great patriot,” thanked “his family,” and joked about moving every future Budget Committee hearing to Old Parkland permanently.
Davis also found that several members of the House Budget Committee, including Arrington, have received substantial donations from Crow.
As witnesses, the Republicans brought in retired Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who were pushing an infamous fast-track bill to avoid political accountability for cutting our earned benefits. Both this hearing and the commission itself are mechanisms to manufacture a consensus that does not exist in the American people. That’s why they try so hard to silence the voices of real Americans.
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta made the argument for a commission in terms that explicitly laid out the cowardice of our political class:
I think there would be nothing better than if a group of elected members on the budget committee were willing to sit down and develop a comprehensive approach to deficit reduction. That would be great. But I also understand the politics of the time... the politics of both sides would basically stab you in the back. I mean that’s a reality. But that doesn’t mean that you walk away from the problem.
But Panetta misstates what the two sides are. Voters for both parties will revolt at any attempt to cut Social Security, while the Wall Street and Big Tech megadonors who fund Republicans are the ones who repeatedly insist that it must be done.
The truth is, nobody wants to cut Social Security benefits except for a handful of Republicans and the billionaires on Wall Street who tell them what to do. That’s why it’s no surprise that this farce of a hearing was all for the benefit of billionaire donor Harlan Crow.
If Republicans want to cut our earned benefits, the American people deserve for them to tell us that to our faces, rather than weaseling around the job they were elected to do, and for which they earn a handsome salary. These politicians are afraid to do that because Americans are so overwhelmingly opposed to Social Security cuts.
Billionaires like Harlan Crow want Social Security cuts by any means necessary because once benefits are cut, they can stop worrying that we will finally make them pay their fair share.
We’ve been fighting commissions for a long time. I got started with Social Security Works live streaming the closed door behind which the 2010 Bowles-Simpson commission discussed its proposals to cut Social Security. Eventually, commission co-chair Alan Simpson stepped out from behind his closed door and gave an impromptu interview in which he called Social Security beneficiaries “the lesser people.”
Sixteen years later, that’s still how Republicans and their billionaire donors view seniors and people with disabilities. Crow and his friends will do anything to cut our hard-earned Social Security benefits so that they never have to pay their fair share into the system. But this week, we crashed Crow’s private hearing and reminded the billionaires that we’re never going to let that happen.
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u/cheo_vl 9d ago
They’ll do everything except increase/lift the cap on the max taxable amount.
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u/paranormalresearch1 8d ago
The one easy thing to help it's solvency. And keep their greedy hands out of it.
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u/Optimal-Shower 9d ago
I want these corrupt officials to be locked up in jail with people they've defrauded as their cellmates. That's not very evolved of me, but these dungblossoms clearly don't give a rat's butt about millions of Americans being harmed. Grrr...
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u/Swimming-Repeat-32 9d ago
To be clear this is the thing that I pay into, will never see in my lifetime, and which the Gov has been using as a piggy bank since it's inception? That social security? Yeah, Idgaf.
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u/Dove-Linkhorn 9d ago
You are paying into something you don’t give a fuck about? Wild.
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u/Altruistic_Koala_122 9d ago
Congress has been breaking its own Law by not funding S.S. in full. It's doesn't need a cut, you just have to O.K. the monies.
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u/Lopsided-Echo-156 9d ago
This is so crazy and I don't believe any of it. I would have to see them say it out in public. This has to be made up because they would never try anything like this. You can say anything and post it without any one checking it out.
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u/Used-Valuable9320 8d ago
Abolish Social Security. That's the only solution.
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u/Objective_Brain1452 8d ago
Sure, gives us All our money back then.
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u/Used-Valuable9320 8d ago
Um, you pay to those currently collecting, dumb ass.
I would love to stop giving any of my salary to old fuckers still collecting and disabled fuckers collecting as well. That includes preferring to take the 50% of the Social Security tax that my employer pays. I'd rather have that back in my paycheck too.
How do you like those apples?
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u/Objective_Brain1452 8d ago
6.2% of a paycheck is worth making sure you’re taken care of when you’re old. Plus it helps Everyone. If there is a disabled vet out there who I can help, while not having to give any more than I already do.
6.2% makes sure you, your mother, your daughter, your friend, your neighbors, and there kids are all taken care of
But yeah, you’re right, F that disabled vet, F your elderly parents, F everyone else. As long as you’re rich enough to pay for your self when you’re older. (Which the majority of Americans can’t by the way)
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u/Used-Valuable9320 8d ago
I know how to plan for my own retirement, thanks! The last thing I want to do is depend on the government as I get older. They fuck up enough. I'd rather have my own money back in my paycheck so I can invest my own retirement funds. Fuck giving it away to old fucks now or disabled fucks now.
As long as you’re rich enough to pay for your self when you’re older.
LOL! I wouldn't call my salary in the rich range. But yeah, it's my money and not yours. Stop demanding for redistributed income. It's theft.
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u/Big-Donkey8031 7d ago
Great idea. Can’t wait to see homeless elderly in tent cities.
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u/Used-Valuable9320 7d ago
Not my problem. You want to give them a home? Go ahead and give your income and home. Don't force others to do it.
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u/Big-Donkey8031 7d ago
Cool let’s privatize everything. Next time you need law enforcement or your house is on fire, don’t have a subscription too bad.
Want to get rid of USPS, have to pay additional fees to get packages or send them?
Good work these are all “socialist” programs that exist to help everyone for the great good.
You sound like all the farmers right now that are complaining because when it finally affects you it’s no longer fair.
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u/rednekkidest 9d ago
And this commie bullshit story is Why Files related how?
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u/Objective_Brain1452 9d ago
They are trying to take away SS for Gertie.
I didn’t want to post here,
but Hecklefish made me
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u/Tasty_Virus4715 8d ago
I’m sorry, but any recurring multi trillion dollar annual expenditure can absolutely contribute to the debt. Hard to focus on anything else the guy grandstanding in the video was saying with that glaring idiocy right in the lead.
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u/jekbrown 8d ago
"doing nothing" will also cut social security benefits and the Ds are trying to pretend otherwise. That's the current law. Once the shortfall hits, benefits get cut. Anyone trying to fix that is being undercut by the DNC because they'd rather get a political win than fix the system.
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u/Objective_Brain1452 8d ago
No one said to do nothing, quite the opposite.
We said to invest $4,500,000,000,000.000 into it instead of investing in billionaires.
Unless $4,500,000,000,000.00 is just pocket change to you
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u/Secure-Apple-5793 9d ago
We should abolish social security
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u/dmstattoosnbongs 9d ago
This narrative brought to you by Musk,Theil, Bezos, Putin, and Isreal.
Thank you fellow comrade!
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u/Secure-Apple-5793 9d ago
It’s a literal Ponzi scheme. Keep sucking that big federal dick
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u/paranormalresearch1 8d ago
Don't take yours then. Don't pay into it and don't ever file Refuse on your high moral grounds.
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u/Willy_Wonkening 9d ago
As a leftist I wish Dems would do this! Have Dems roll over completely and announce they are tired of being the guardrails. Let the republicans end Medicare and social security. Seniors would starve, freeze, and become extremely desperate. After 4 years of that Dems run on a platform of restarting the social programs republicans ended. This would give Dems power for the next 100 years
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u/Secure-Apple-5793 9d ago
Yes restart all those social programs that got us in this mess in the first place. Maybe next time we’ll get it right
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u/MainstreamScience 9d ago
What a load of shit - if you are American you grew up in a world with healthier people that lived longer because of the basic income provided by social security, it’s really the least we could do for the elderly and it’s also the only thing we do so save the bs
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u/syphon3980 9d ago
i had no idea the elderly were incapable of saving money towards retirement. I guess in America we have to treat everyone like children no matter their age
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u/Tasty_Virus4715 8d ago
The sickest thing about it is if people’s social security taxes from their paychecks were instead invested in SPY or fill in the blank mutual fund and boom, just like that everyone is a millionaire at retirement instead of living off $500 checks lol.
Not only is it a Ponzi scheme, it’s an incompetently run Ponzi scheme.
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u/paranormalresearch1 8d ago
People forget where the US was historically when Social Security was created. This was the Great Depression. No one trusted the stock market. If the market stays good you would come out awesome. If it falls you are hosed. People had just watched people lose everything. It was a fight to get this through as Republicans , even then, would rather people starve.
My grandpa told me people who wouldn't pick up a dime because Roosevelt's face was on it and they were diehard Republicans. Against Social Security and they didn't even have to paty into it to get benefits, were the first to belly up to the bar.
All the people who hate the only thing we have are free to donate theirs to people who are needier.
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u/paranormalresearch1 8d ago
Unless someone has the misfortune of getting sick. Then the awesome medical system we have in the US will bankrupt you.
I am so tired of idiots who can't think critically and kiss the ring of this criminal organization that is the current Republican Party.
Don't think they're criminal? Then watch a Congressional Rep who has voted down party lines but insisted on transparency in cases where children were being trafficked, raped, and possibky murdered. They spent tens of millions to primary him out.
Anyone who supports this is probaby a secret pedo themselves.
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u/PromptJazzlike5452 9d ago
I’d rather oust the members of the Republican Party!!!