Editors' Note: Republicans are now so confident about the midterms that they have started to talk about their plans to aid hard-working Americans struggling with soaring inflation by...cutting their Social Security and Medicare. Their unpopular message doesn't seem to be harming their standing with those who will suffer, perhaps because they don't believe that Republicans are serious about cutting either of these two programs enjoyed by millions of white people. We decided to dip into our archives to see if Republicans had ever made similar threats before. You'll never guess what we found:
June 9, 1981:
From The New York Times News Service: Other [Medicare] measures sought by the [Reagan] Administration include blocking certain benefit expansions authorized by Congress last year. These include proposals not to expand coverage to the elderly for pneumonia vaccine, dental care, unlimited home health service visits and alcohol detoxification facilities.
August 22, 1983:
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| These Florida voters aren't worried about Medicare. |
In an essay published in the August 21 New York Times, prominent Republican Senator Bob Dole has urged Congress to consider cutting Medicare benefits to ward off what he said was a looming financial crisis in the government-run single-payer health care system:
I would argue that first we ought to allow the Congress an opportunity to do what it is here to do. In my view, we should revive the bipartisan spirit that marked the success of the Social Security rescue plan. There will be those who will urge us not to consider certain options they believe to be undesirable, such as increased beneficiaries' cost sharing, and will ask that we depend solely on regulatory solutions. On the other side, there will be those interested in removing the Federal Government from the business of health care. Finally, there will be those of us in the middle, ready to consider all options for reform ...
December 11, 1991:
From the New York Times News Service: President Bush's budget director is proposing to increase Medicare premiums for affluent people, to impose new limits on the cost of biomedical research and to expand programs encouraging teen-agers to abstain from sex.
...
The Medicare proposal would affect people with annual incomes of more than $125,000, raising their monthly premium to about $95.
Congress took no action when Mr. Bush put forward a similar plan 10 months ago,...
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| He was talking about Medicare. |
November 17, 1995:
From Spy news services: Republican negotiators from the Senate and House sent the balanced budget bill that would limit spending on Medicare and Medicaid, saving more than $430 billion over seven years. During that same period, the Republicans propose to reduce taxes by $245 billion. And they would overhaul welfare, turning responsibility over to the states.
The Federal Government went into partial shutdown at midnight on Monday, hours after President Clinton vetoed a temporary spending bill that would have kept all operations going until Dec. 5. But Clinton said that the Republican-drafted temporary spending bill would have required "a level of cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, in education, in the environment and a tax increase on working people, all of which I find highly objectionable."
November 15, 1997:
The New York Times reported that Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corporation said yesterday that it
had agreed to pay its former chairman and chief executive nearly $10
million when he was forced out in July in the wake of an unfolding
criminal investigation of the company.
The agreement with the executive, Richard L. Scott, [Whatever happened to that guy? He must have done hard time. – Ed.]
provided for a one-time payment of $5.13 million, as well as a
five-year annual consulting fee of $950,000, for a total of $9.88
million, ...
The company also disclosed yesterday that its lawyers had met
with Federal prosecutors investigating Columbia's business practices as
part of its efforts to cooperate with the inquiry. ...The investigation
has focused on contentions that Columbia illegally increased
compensation from Federal programs like Medicare by misrepresenting
certain expenses in reports to the Government. The Government is
also investigating allegations of improper billing practices, from
misreporting the diagnosis on medical billing records to improperly
charging Federal health programs for inappropriate blood tests.
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| Sen. Rick "Fifth Amendment" Scott has big plans for Social Security |
June 24, 2005:
The New York Times has come out against George W. Bush's Social Security privatization plan, calling it a “winless quagmire....” Although Congressional Republicans have begged him to drop the plan, the Times reported “Mr. Bush has responded to this new political reality by, first, insisting that the American people do not yet understand the virtues of privatization, and second, blaming the failure of his deservedly unpopular plan on Congressional Democrats....That's absurd.
After listening to Mr. Bush talk of little else during his second term, the American people understand quite well what he is proposing for Social Security, and by wide margins reject it. In fact, the polls show that the more they learn about privatization, the less they like it. And with good reason. The very real risks of privatization -- in terms of retirement security and the enormous budgetary cost to the country -- far outweigh the potential rewards.”
October 22, 2022:
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who could become speaker if the GOP wins the House, suggested this week that his party would be willing to use an increase in the debt limit as leverage to force policy changes. McCarthy did not rule out including Medicare and Social Security in the calculation as Republicans look to reduce government spending. Washington Post News Service.
Did we mention that the last day to vote by person or by mail is Tuesday, November 8?
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