Donald Trump told Rep. Mark Meadows, leader of the nuts in the Freedom Caucus, that, "The president is prepared to back entitlement reform so long as current beneficiaries don’t see their benefits cut."
This is a huge broken promise by Trump, since he repeatedly campaigned as being the only person who can save our Social safety nets programs without cutting them.
I wrote about Rep. Meadows bringing up our entitlement programs when he told Greta that they could find money through them to build Trump's facacta wall in the post, Freedom Caucus Targets Medicare To Fund Trump's Wall
Back in May of 2015, Trump clearly stated this position.
He’s even challenged other Republicans on the issue, telling WROK radio in Wisconsin, “Paul [Ryan] wants to knock out Social Security, knock it down, way down. He wants to knock Medicare way down. … I want to keep Social Security intact. … I’m not going to cut it, and I’m not going to raise ages, and I’m not going to do all of the things that they want to do. But they want to really cut it, and they want to cut it very substantially, the Republicans, and I’m not going to do that.”
But as Vox and others have reported, when Trump nominated Rep. Tom Price to HHS and Rep. Mike Mulvaney, from the Freedom Caucus to lead the White House Budget office, red flags went up everywhere.
The Hill reports Rep. Meadows said, “Some people are taking his comments to say he doesn’t want to look at anything on entitlement reform,” said Meadows. “In my conversations with him, that was not the case. It was more about the benefits that seniors have earned currently.”
Keeping benefits safe for current beneficiaries is the standard line from all conservatives when they want to gut our Social Safety nets. They figure if they don't hurt current seniors, the young pups won't care and won't vote against them.
But they are wrong.
When George W. Bush tried to privatize Social Security in 2005 after his reelection, he was dealt a serious blow.
And the same will happen in 2017.
But we must rally LIKE HELL to prevent it, just like we did in 2005.
