And his line actually got cheers from both sides of the aisle, because both parties know that these programs have to be preserved to continue efforts to privatize them. This process is currently under way with Medicare, UNDER BIDEN, who is carrying forward the Medicare privatization plan of Donald “The Orange Merkin” Trump. What a cynical bunch of claptrap from Biden, who has always wanted to screw with Social Security, Medicare, and veterans' benefits. That helping hand of government you feel down your pants ain't looking for a good time, it is looking, in a very real way, for your wallet.
“When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well,” he [Biden] told the Senate in 1995. “I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.” (A freeze would have reduced the amount that would be paid out, cutting the program’s benefit.)" [Source: The Intercept]
Last year, Biden nominated Andrew Biggs for the Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB). Biggs is a long-time, right-wing advocate of cuts to, and privatization of, Social Security. What does that tell you? Biggs was down and out and needed a job?
“For years, Biggs has been a vocal critic of expanded Social Security and workers’ right to a secure, stable retirement free from the vagaries of the stock market. He has dismissed the retirement crisis as a nonissue and as recently as 2020 blamed problems with the Social Security system on “older Americans’ game of chicken.” And two decades ago, Biggs worked on a George W. Bush administration commission that pushed to privatize Social Security.” [Source: “Joe Biden Has Picked a Longtime Social Security Privatizer to Oversee Social Security” Jacobin magazine June 2022]
For the moment, Joe “May God protect our troops” Biden has not gone after veterans' benefits. But in rescinding the mandatory requirement for the troops to be vaccinated against COVID, he is ensuring that the veteran's health system will have more than enough long-haul COVID military victims, both the vets and their families, to take care of in the coming decades. When the care of these veterans begins to run up the inevitable huge costs, the budget slashers will come out of the woodwork crying fiscal discipline. Better yet, privatize! What business does the government have taking care of veterans anyhow?
If it has not dawned on you before, it should now be evident that any government program with a large pot of money or a large revenue source is a target for privatization. Then, billions of dollars can be siphoned off by private entities, destined for company executives and shareholders. Both parties know this but pretend not to, for the sake of their billionaire corporate campaign donors. As Greta Thunberg would say, “Blah, blah, blah...”
Comments by Readers
Lisa E. Papp
Feb 09, 2023Thanks for writing this, Dick. Many people have forgotten that Biden has gone after Social Security and Medicare in the past.
M. Lynda Hanscome
Feb 09, 2023I agree with this article. What is happening is disgusting.
D. Crook
Feb 09, 2023So this is what voting for the least-worst-choice gets me… *sigh*
Ruth Fruland
Feb 10, 2023Just when I was beginning to feel there was hope with Biden after all. I’m gaining more of an appreciation for people who choose to believe their own reality. They may be mad, but they are happier. Unfortunately, they fail to contribute to the changes that must be made.
Dick Conoboy
Feb 11, 2023Ruth,
Hope is three coins in a fountain. If you want to crush a people, give them hope. This from Jacobin’s
Joe Biden Still Has No Plan to Turn His Rhetoric Into Reality
” [Biden is] a former senator and vice president who has sought multiple times to cut Medicare and Social Security emphatically pledged to protect them. Biden, no stranger to donations from the pharmaceutical industry, also uttered the words “Big Pharma” and chastised companies for raising the price of prescription drugs. Despite having recently spearheaded the effort to impose a contract on railworkers poised to strike for paid sick days, he endorsed the potentially transformative labor law reform package the PRO Act, heralded blue-collar workers, and declared, “I’m so sick and tired of companies breaking the law by preventing workers from organizing.”
Randy Petty
Feb 15, 2023Who is most likely to push for cuts in Social Security and Medicare today?
Dianne Foster
Feb 16, 2023This is why I voted for Gloria La Riva (Socialist) candidate for president. She’s honest, and her platform is awesome.