We knew it was coming and here it is. Republicans want to cut your retirement

Just like they did under Bush Republicans have blown up the deficit with their massive tax cuts for the wealthiest people....and now they blame it on your retirement programs.

McConnell is actively blaming his tax cut ramifications on Medicare and Social Security and wants to cut your benefits to reconcile his tax cuts for the Donald Trump class. 

The cat's out of the bag

McConnell said the true culprit behind the rising deficits was mandatory spending.

“The three big entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid, that’s 70 percent of what we spend every year,” he said in a separate interview with Bloomberg TV. “There’s been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs.”

Mandatory spending, which does not require new approval by Congress each year, accounts for the lion’s share of federal spending each year and has been projected to drive increases in the deficit well into the future.

But the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the 2018 deficit came in well above projections because of recent legislation, specifically the GOP tax bill, which cut revenues, and a bipartisan spending deal, which increased discretionary spending, the portion of federal expenditures approved each year by Congress.

In fact, legislation that Congress passed during the 2018 fiscal year increased the deficit nearly 50 percent in 2018, according to an analysisby the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a watchdog.

Before the new legislation, the group projected a deficit of $531 billion, lower than the 2017 deficit. Of the $793 billion the group projected for the final deficit in 2018, $164 billion came from the tax law, $68 billion came from the spending deal, and $30 billion came from other legislation.

[Conservative]PJ, everyone knows tax cuts pay for themselves.[/Conservative]

Within 20 years 100% of the tax revenue will be used to fund interest expense, social security & medicare.  Only the liberals seem shocked about the 70 trillion unfunded deficit of these 2 programs.

Golly, I seem to recall some guy named Al Gore saying way back when something about a lockbox.  Was he not a  liberal? Instead of putting money away for Social Security conservatives of that era decided we were better off with a tax cut filled with magical pixie dust and unicorn farts that would increase government revenue so much that we wouldn't need to set money aside to fund future Social Security obligations. Yeah, it didn't work out as they said it would but the only people who are shocked by that are those that don't understand a tax cut not working out as promised by conservatives is a feature, not a bug. 

So the solution is to cut taxes for billionaires ?

Tom is in the right party.  Maybe he can set a good example and forfeit his retirement benefits to get 5he ball rolling

I love the illogic of PJ and Mark- take more away from those who EARN their money and give that money to the lazy, freeloading, and illegal cretins who contribute nothing to America except sucking off the government (tax payers money) tit. Socialism at it's ugly best. 

You mean your Social Security and Medicare?   I suggest David Miller also release himself from the freeoading class he speaks of by forfeiting his benefits too.   Those oppressed billionaires need a break.

There never was a "lockbox"  Social Security surpluses were placed in the general fund & used to offset the deficits.  Both parties did this & is fraud.  

By the way the tax cuts of 2000 increased the revenue.

President Trump called for a 5% cut in dept expenditures.  Is pj & mark in favor of this?

Easiest work in America is to be born rich. What is illogical is that Doc wants to reward people that never worked a day in their lives. For example, Trump got over 60 million from dear old dad but still managed to file bankruptcy 6 times.  

There is no lock-box.

There has never been a lock-box.

There was never a plan to have a lock-box.

The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance [OASDI] Trust Fund [i.e. Social Security] comprises all the contributions represented by the Social Security Taxes.

("OASDI" represents Social security and Disability Insurance)

The OASI Trust Fund by law is permitted only to purchase US Treasury Bonds.  In other words the US Government borrows (i.e. issues a bond for cash) all the OASI tax money and uses it just as it uses any other Federal revenue.  

Oh, and by the way, Medicare taxes are similarly represented by a Hospital Insurance Trust Fund [HI] and a Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund [SMI].

So tax monies are collected, these funds are then transferred to the general fund in exchange for US bonds to be held by the Trust Funds.

Congress then spends the money, . . . just like it spends all the other money the Government collects.

(One might consider these bonds as being "in a lock box" already; in fact, they are just ledger entries.)

And then Congress borrows additional money and issues Treasury Bonds to anyone else who'll give them more money, because it needs more money to pay for what it spends above and beyond the general-taxes it collected combined with the borrowed OASD, HI, and SMI funds it already borrowed.  But that's off-point here.

Just considering the Trust Funds, they are all approaching the point at which necessary expenditures will exceed taxes collected.  The Trust Funds will soon start to redeem their US Treasury Bonds just to cover growing annual expenses.

And eventuallly,

__ The HI Trust Fund will be depleted in 2026.

[ The SMI Trust Fund includes other general-tax sources for its operations and is not subject to similar analysis.]

__ The OASDI Trust Fund will be depleted in 2034.

Ref: Status of Social Security and Medicare

What to do?  What to do?

Raise taxes?  Lower benefits?  Find someone else to borrow from?

Holy-Moly ! ! !  Poor old DonDiego just realized he might still be alive then ! ! !  And likely in need of Medicare !

He will likely find himself reliant upon the kindness of strangers.