At least that is the observation one could make when listening to right wing republican spokespeople. EVERY policy they preach, and every "reform" they propose seems somehow to be tied to that irrefutable premise.
Pensions, once upon a time, were bargains between workers and an employer who sought a way to control day-to-day expenses for pay raises, by setting aside a certain amount of "loyalty money" for employees who stayed a lifetime, and retired at 65, and then died relatively soon after, from an acute & deadly illness.
Many people in dead-end jobs did not even have this option, and even unions routinely bargained away pay raises and current benefits in favor of deferred gratification via pension benefits later in life.
Employers held these funds (or were supposed to at least) aside from their working capital, and these were not "liquid assets". Modern business considers this money as a slush fund to be used up at will and when the company is sold off, they turn the whole mess over to the PBGC, where pensions get ripped apart and "settled" without much (if any) participation of the retirees.
Back when people used to have the decency to die before 70, and when medical care was rather rudimentary, pensions seemed like a great "deal", but people these days are trying their damnedest to stay alive longer and longer.
Right wing Republicans are almost always against anything that "bestows" cash or benefits on "unworthy" people. The unworthiness is also something that only they have the power to determine.
Their approach to governance is always to curtail expenses to lower classes, so there is more for the upper classes, and they alone get to decide when and if any largesse is warranted.
They see young people as expendable slackers, middle-aged people as overpaid people with dwindling skills, and old people as pretty much useless. Every one of these people who dares to ask for (an to expect) help, is somehow greedy , wasteful and undeserving, but the fact is that these people are with us, and will be for a very long time (for the healthy ones). Punishing them for existing, seems to be the goal of republican legislators.
What has amazed me for a very long time, is the fact that so few people ever really publicly berate them for the shortsighted stinginess they seem to embrace gleefully.
They have been telling us explicitly what they want to do, and have been telling us for years, and yet a lot of people seem to be unable to take them at their word.
When you are in favor of unlimited war machine/Pentagon expenses, yet cut education, you are sending a very clear message
When you favor cutting food stamps for poor people, yet hold fast for upper income tax cuts, you are sending a clear message
When you even discuss cutting Social Security /Medicare, while balking at any tax increases (especially after you have spent the excess money in both for decades), you are sending a clear message.
When you can find all the money you need to fund no-bid contracts to cronies, yet can't find enough to make lives easier for poor people (many who are military families & returning injured vets) you send a particularly odious message.
Democrats sometimes participate in the smoke & mirrors, but not in the way the right wingers do, and with the absolute delight they show when they do it. Almost to a person, these people grin like Cheshire cats when they announce another scheme they have up their sleeves. They enjoy the con, and can "work" it no matter whether they are majority-party or minority-party, or hold the White House.
They do not have much regard for anyone not in their little world, and would be perfectly happy to
"push the button" if they could get away with it
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