Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) not only became the latest Republican to jump into the 2016 presidential race, he also became the latest Republican to signal strong support for deep Social Security cuts.
“Washington’s failure to do the hard but right thing has put Social Security and Medicare in jeopardy,” Graham said during his speech on Monday. “As my generation retires both programs are on track to go bust. We’re living longer and fewer workers are supporting more retirees. That’s unsustainable, everybody knows it, but not everybody will admit it. We have to fix entitlement programs to make sure people who need the benefits the most receive them. That’s going to require determined presidential leadership.”
Graham’s comments are similar to those of other declared and likely 2016 candidates. Months earlier, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) started a chain reaction of statements vowing to cut Social Security spending to save the program from insolvency.
Those statements fall roughly in line with House Republicans move to block routine fund transfers between the Social Security Disability Fund and the Social Security retirement fund as a way to leverage cuts to the program.
In April, Christie rolled out a set of entitlement reform changes including raising the retirement age and cutting benefits based on income. Most of the GOP field who have weighed in, except for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, said something to that effect was a good idea.
Graham specifically described how he and his sister Darlene benefited on Social Security while growing up.
“I know from personal experience how important these programs are to the lives of millions of Americans. As Darlene mentioned, we lost our parents when I was a young man and she was in middle school. We depended on Social Security benefits to survive. I’ve been fortunate,” Graham continued. “I’ve done better than I’ve ever dreamed. If I and others like me have to take a little bit less and pay a little more to help those who need it most, so be it. And younger people, you may just have to work a little bit longer. As president I’ll gladly do what it takes to save a program that once saved my family.”
Yeah, that’s right. Keep talking about how you’re going to cut Social Security benefits. The voters just eat that up.
Yeah! That’s the way to get those blue-hairs to vote for you Lindsey!
Threaten to CUT THEIR MEAGER INCOME to give more money to the Wealthy.
While you are at it, push to “PRIVATISE S.S.” too! That worked out so well last time around.
How do you find time to speak with your lips wrapped around Sheldon Adelson’s dick so tightly?
The easy and right thing to do back in the 80s would have been to slightly increase revenues because we knew we would have a growing aging population 30 - 40 years later. Reagan did what was easy for him, he started cutting revenues to build up the debt
“Washington’s failure to do the hard but right thing has put Social Security and Medicare in jeopardy”
Indeed…raising the FICA limit is certainly the hard but right thing to do, Captain Chickenshit. I could barely understand him for all the bok bok bok bok bok bakock going on.
Let’s start by cutting Welfare to the Corporations- no more free rides for Corporations! Let’s tax all income as income and simplify the tax code. Let’s get rid of silly things like being allowed to count non-business expenses as business tax write-offs just because you might have discussed business at a lunch you had with someone. Let’s slash military spending and get rid of the things that the military has said they don’t want. Let’s put an end to having more than ten National Intelligence Agencies. Let’s get rid of having a dozen national Federal Law Enforcement agencies.
The long list of waste is out there, but rather than do the right thing it’s “lets cut the tiniest bits from the social network instead of cutting trillions that we waste in stupid spending”