After New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) unveiled a set of proposed changes to Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare on Tuesday, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signaled that he would also like to see “significant reforms” to the nation’s entitlement programs.
“For far too long, Washington has kicked the can down the road on entitlement programs. Absent significant reforms, these programs will go bankrupt and the people who have paid into them will be left out in the cold,” Walker said in a statement to TPM. “We need a leader who will implement true reforms to save and protect these programs for future generations.”
Christie’s proposals included cutting Social Security benefits to seniors making more than $80,000 a year. Benefits would be completely eliminated for incomes above $200,000 a year. That proposal was in ways more far-reaching than changes proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). Christie, like Walker, appears to be gearing up to run for president in 2016.
Both Christie’s speech and Walker’s response suggest that entitlement programs will be a major topic in the 2016 cycle. Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, have called on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support expanding entitlement programs in her campaign for president.
Walker has weighed in on national entitlement programs only a few times previously. In February, he told Bloomberg News that entitlement programs should be cut to slash the national deficit.
In a policy memo published in 2000 when he was state representative, Walker urged then-Texas Gov. George Bush (R) to run his presidential campaign on making changes to Social Security that would preserve it for future generations.
“On Social Security, run an ad with a 50 year old man and his parents talking about how the Bush plan preserves Social Security for his parents and then include the man’s college age son and have him talk about how the Bush plan ensures that there will be something left for him, too,” Walker wrote at the time. “They should all talk about being upset with the politics of the past eight years and that they want a President with the courage to lead.”
I think to grab national attention, the GOP Presidential candidates should go all-in on entitlement elimination to show how much they hate taxes, hate government, and hate seniors. The strategy to alienate minorities and women can only go so far, they need a new strategy to go after all the seniors. Go GOP Go!
Please Proceed Governor Walker.
The Kochs give Scott Walker their blessing to slash Social Security to the bone.
What entitlement…SS is a retirement plan that everyone supposedly has paid into from their 1st job to the day they retire. Remove the cap and all is well for the foreseeable future.
In the thread on Triple X Christie earlier today, I called him “a stalking hippo”. Here we go,then: Walker’s done saddled up ol’ Triple X and is now ridin’ that waddling stalker towards Magic Gipperland.
Which means 3 things:
1, XXX & the Wisconsin succubus have made a deal;
2. XXX remains not self-delusional about this chances;
3. the Wisconsin succubus has guaranteed XXX some big stuff, like XXX getting nominated for US AG AND - the Big Kahuna - XXX getting first say, or internal veto, or both, or some variation on those, on all federal judicial appointments, plus I’d think some ‘meaningful input’ on Fed appointments.
So, we can expect the stalking horse/waddling hippo to emerge from his water hole again and again from now on, almost always to be followed shortly thereafter by the Wisconsin succubus approving, with a few fake-out minor dust-ups along the way to keep up appearances.
[‘R U stoopid? Y would I make a deal with ANYONE? I’m in this to win this, all the way. I know you media types get free coffee and some munchies with this, what I wanna know is WTF are they feeding you, hash brownies?’]
Also, if Walker were to win and XXX to get approved as AG, we already know from his time as a US attorney in NJ under GW Bush how XXX uses such offices as cash printing presses. But that level of control over the fates of crooked business executives, cheating rapacious corporations, bent pols, and equality-hating southern communities, PLUS major input into federal court even SCOTUS appointments, PLUS input into NYFed appointments, I flat out guarantee XXX will take that and use it to pull in and then collect on so many chits following his leaving as AG, he won’t have to think about running for POTUS, he’ll be able to afford to buy his own frickin’ country.