NYT: Trump open to cutting "safety net programs" like Medicare if he wins a second term

[Miles Archer]

Sorry...I'm on the wrong side of the paywall, so you get the opening paragraph.

Trump Opens Door to Cuts to Medicare and Other Entitlement Programs

The president signaled a willingness to scale back Medicare, a shift from his 2016 platform of protecting entitlement programs.

WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested on Wednesday that he would be willing to consider cuts to social safety-net programs like Medicare to reduce the federal deficit if he wins a second term, an apparent shift from his 2016 campaign promise to protect funding for such entitlements.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/us/politics/medicare-trump.html

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. More:

Asked in an interview with CNBC if cuts to entitlements would ever be on his plate, Mr. Trump answered yes.

“At some point they will be,” Mr. Trump said, before pointing to United States economic growth. “At the right time, we will take a look at that.”

Mr. Trump suggested that curbing spending on Medicare, the government health care program for the elderly, was a possibility.

“We’re going to look,” he said.

The Dem ads are going to write themselves.

[BigmanPigman]

2. The Dems should be screaming this from the rooftops until Nov.

They did that with healthcare in 2016 but Americans listened to "Obamacare" for so long that many moronic voters didn't realize that the ACA (which they actually liked over nothing at all) and Obamacare were the same thing until it was being taken away.

[scarletwoman]

3. "...cuts to social safety-net programs like Medicare to reduce the federal deficit..."

Aaannnd, that would be the deficit caused by the massive tax cuts for the rich?

Same old, same old. I can't believe republican voters keep falling for this shit.

[wnylib]

12. Not to mention the exorbitant travel

and security costs that Trump continualky racks up.

This should do him in. When Bush II pushed for privatization of SS it went over like a lead balloon.

[Newest Reality]

4. Of course...

If allowed to continue, he will rip through everything that benefits the people like the Tasmanian Devil in the Warner Brothers cartoons.

This is not just about the deficit, that's a wedge. It is an excuse to destroy what he can, (and he wants and needs to) in order that the resulting squalor and misery does as much damage to our body politic as possible. He would put America in a head lock and choke it while continuing to say that everything is better because he is in charge.

It is interesting that he would even make that known before hand, but that's part of the conditioning. People will start to fret and worry and wonder. Those who might be impacted will start to feel the anticipation of more poverty and loss.

We have here an actor who is much like the scorpion in the old fable, The Frog and the Scorpion. I suggest looking it up.

[Ohiogal]

5. Is he insane? (a rhetorical question)

Isn’t much of his base Medicare age?

[PSPS]

6. Not news."if he wins a second term," it will obliterate whatever is left after the first

[Talitha]

7. The money came out of my paychecks - if it's pulled I want a FULL REFUND!!

Want more money?

Cut your damned wall.

Cut your damned golf outings.

Make Corporate pay fair taxes.

Come to think of it, pay YOUR taxes!



(we really need a middle finger emoji)

[Liberal In Texas]

8. Democrats need to get this message out often and loudly to seniors.

Older folk who have been voting repub slavishly need to get it through their heads the repubs are very bad for their well-being.

[bdamomma]

9. That bastard

He will too. He wants people to hurt. We got to get him out.

[nolabear]

10. But walls and cages are expensive!

The cruelty is the point.

[bdamomma]

14. the walls and cages

should be for this regime we have.

[dalton99a]

11. Kick

The president has already proposed cuts for some safety-net programs. His last budget proposal called for a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety-net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare. It also called for spending $26 billion less on Social Security programs, the federal retirement program, including a $10 billion cut to the Social Security Disability Insurance program, which provides benefits to disabled workers.

[budkin]

13. He should run on this strategy!

I’m sure it’ll work out great!