Naming The Names: The Democrats Working With Republicans To Gut Social Security And Medicare

Eva: "Back in 2015, my opponent switched parties from Republican to Democrat. But if you look at his track record, you couldn't tell the difference. He's voted to roll back important banking regulations adopted under Dodd-Frank, weaken the federal minimum wage bill, he accepts corporate PAC money from private health insurance companies and Big Pharma, and now wants to gut two of our most important and most popular safety nets. Clearly, my opponent still bleeds GOP red. Programs like these are essential-- we are seeing it now more than ever.  When I'm in Congress, I will defend and fight to expand Social Security. I will fight for Medicare for All. Our system needs a complete overhaul, and that starts with replacing representatives in Congress who aren't willing to put people first."

Conservative politicians-- entirely clueless and unable to learn from past mistakes, but dramatically-inclined-- many representatives of their own wealthy class-- are already talking the Austerity talk about how to deal with the economic blowback from the dual pandemics-- the coronavirus and Trumpism. Cutting what conservatives love to label "entitlements," as well as services depended on by the non-rich, come immediately to mind. Virtually all Republicans and the entire Republican wing of the Democratic Party, want to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and so on. Well, the Republicans want to eliminate them; the Democraps just want to cut them (liberals).

The nearest parallel is the financial crisis of 2008-- a story of unregulated market failure that in the UK the Conservative government somehow succeeded in turning into a story of state failure in the form of the allegedly spendthrift Labour government preceding them. This enabled it to follow low-spending, deficit-cutting austerity policies that, it’s widely acknowledged, only prolonged the economic pain-- though it did have the desired effect from the government’s perspective of most hurting the people it cared least about, and generally weakening public institutions to which it was ideologically opposed. Justifications for austerity are often informed by the so-called 'household analogy' that a country’s finances are just like those of an individual, debt-averse household-- the idea that ex-Prime Minister Theresa May had in mind when she said 'there is no magic money tree' to increase frozen public sector wages. This time around, plenty of commentators are warning against the siren song of austerity and the 'economically illiterate' household analogy as a response to the forthcoming economic crisis. But there are plenty on the right still trying to sing it. If they succeed once again in pinning the economic storms to come on lazy employees and install another round of austerity, I think I’ll give up whatever vestigial faith I still have in electoral politics.

Ever since Caitlin Emma's tweet promoting her password-protected PoliticoPro article Monday, people have been asking which Democrats are working with the Republicans to compromise Social Security and Medicare under the cover of Trump's ballooning deficit. Here's the letter conservative New Dem Scott Peters (San Diego) and right-wing freak Jodey Arrington (R-TX) sent to Pelosi and McCarthy.

No one wants to say it out loud, but what these people think is a "cure" is to raise the retirement age and reduce benefits, rather than eliminating the cap on contributions so that wealthy people (the people who finance their cushy lifestyles and careers) pay their fair share. These are the Democrats who signed on. Every single one of them-- notice, not any just normal Democrats, all Wall Street-owned New Dems and Blue Dogs, most with histories of wanting to work with the GOP to gut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid-- is a shit-eating conservative (shit-eaters in red have primaries pending):

• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Dean Phillips (New Dem-MN)
• Ed Case (Blue Dog- HI)
• Stephanie Murphy (Blue Dog-FL)
• Kathleen Rice (New Dem-NY)
• Kurt Schrader (Blue Dog-OR)
• Derek Kilmer (New Dem-WA)
• Jimmy Panetta (New Dem-CA)
• Cindy Axne (New Dem-CA)
• Tom O'Halleran (Blue Dog-AZ)
• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Ron Kind (New Dem-WI)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Abigail Spanberger (Blue Dog-VA)
• Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN)
• Jim Costa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)
• Dan Lipinski (Blue Dog-IL)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Harley Rouda ("ex"-Republican/New Dem-CA)
• Ann Kuster (New Dem-NH)
• Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
• Lou Correa (Blue Dog-CA)
• Chrissy Houlahan (New Dem-PA)
• Terri Sewell (New Dem-AL)
• Sharice Davids (New Dem-KS)
• Gil Cisneros ("ex"-Republican/New Dem-CA)

Lipinski's constituents already defeated him in the March primary but he still wants to do all the harm he can before he gies back to Tennessee to live. I might add that the Republicans on the list are all garden variety Trumpists like Jason Smith (R-MO), Roger Williams (R-TX) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). I reached out to McMorris Rodgers Democratic opponent, Chris Armitage, a firm defender of Social Security and someone who wants to expand Medicare, not shred it. Yesterday, he told me that "Cathy thinks she can do anything to hurt people and never face consequences. Well, we are shining a light on the cockroaches with this bill. Make people show what they are really about, greed and corruption or compassion and integrity."

I bet Horn will be sad when she she passes by No. Western and Britton Rd in OK City

Another staunch progressive, Tom Guild, is running for the Oklahoma seat Blue Dog Kendra Horn is disgracing with her conservative approach. Tom told us he's "extremely disappointed that Ms. Horn is undermining the security of America’s and the Fifth District’s seniors. It was just a few days ago that I received a slick and very expensive mailer paid for by one of Horn’s Super PACs praising her for her alleged work on behalf of senior citizens. Raising the retirement age and reducing benefits rather than eliminating the cap is simply a power play that feathers the nests of her well-heeled New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC mega donors. Horn opposes Medicare for All. Instead she wants to give more public money to Big Insurance Corporations to prop up the failing profit-driven health care insurance industry. Social Security should be expanded, not weakened. Benefits should be increased, not undermined. With alleged friends like Kendra Horn, who needs enemies?"

Just down the road from Tom's OK City district, Texas progressive Julie Oliver is taking on Trump enabler Roger Williams in a gerrymandered district that stretches from the suburbs south of Ft. Worth right into Austin. "Every American," she said after hearing Williams was one of the signatories, "should be able to retire with dignity. Not only should we eliminate the Social Security wage benefit so that the ultra-rich do their patriotic duty and pay into it like the rest of us, we should expand Medicare to every person in this country so that we all get the care we need.

Cathy Ellis is running for the seat occupied by Trumpist Jason Smith in the rural southeast Missouri district. "Cutting Social Security," she told us this morning, "would dramatically hurt districts like mine, where the population leans older and folks rely on Social Security to live, eat, and survive. Jason Smith continues to make it clear that he doesn't have the interests of his constituents at heart-- he only works on behalf of the big corporations that fund him, including many that have a vested interest in cutting Social Security."

Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, told us today that "This is both incredibly stupid and extremely dangerous. Austerity prolonged the Great Recession and weakened the recovery. If Wall Street billionaires and the politicians they own are successful in bringing back austerity, it will prolong the pandemic and lead to economic catastrophe. We need much more government spending right now-- to save lives in nursing homes, and to prevent state governments from having to make catastrophic cutbacks. The last thing we need to do is cut Social Security and Medicare, which are more essential than ever in the midst of a pandemic. Shame on every Member of Congress who signed this letter."