WTF 3/27/2024

Don’t get fooled again, no, no… 

There is a highly regarded rock classic that encapsulates precisely how the Republican side of the fubared two-party political  system we exist within the United States of America is once more presenting its intent to screw over we the people with its conservative policies if they pull off winning the White House and the control of both Houses of Congress to go along with their already controlled ultra conservative Supreme Court.

“We Won’t Get Fooled Again.”  

Last Wednesday (3/20) the Republican Study Committee…. a bloc that includes 80% of

Republicans in the House, including every member of House GOP leadership… released its Fiscal Year 2025 Budget proposal that is titled “Fiscal Sanity to Save America” that is anything but. Rather it is a 180-page document full of at least 285 individual bills that will squeeze the lifeblood from the most vulnerable of we the people in this country and take the rest of us further down the road to perdition than any of us have ever gone previously since the founding of the our capitalist democratic republic back in the 18^th century.

The Washington Post notes that “… the proposal is unlikely to become law, it (however) offers insight into how Republicans could seek to govern if they win control of Congress and the White House in the 2024 elections.”  

President Biden took the bull by the horns and called the proposal “extreme” and said it “shows what Republicans value.”

Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer went on the floor of the senate and decried the RSC proposal as being “a wish list for Donald Trump and the MAGA hard right.”

In short it cuts and slashes Medicare and Social Security and threatens to put millions of we the people’s welfare into extreme risk and jeopardy and hardship as it once more rigs the economy for the wealthy and large corporations against whatever is left of what used to be considered the middle class.

Republicans say the RSC proposal endorses “modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy” and says benefits should be lowered for the highest-earning beneficiaries.

In plain English the Republicans want to severely cut the benefits for the future recipients of Social Security and put off the age of eligibility to begin collecting those benefits that those folks have been paying into the system through the years that they have toiled at their jobs.

In addition the proposal also supports implementing a “premium support model” for Medicare, in which private plans would compete with a federal Medicare plan.

It’s no secret that Medicare and Social Security face an uneasy financial future. But cutting and slashing the benefits is not the way to fix the problems these programs eventually will be encountering.

In fact the path to Social Security’s future solvency is the easiest and simplest to establish.

Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes are the primary source of revenues for Social Security and are the largest component of taxes that are commonly referred to as payroll taxes. We workers and out bosses… or I should say  the companies we work for… each pay 7.65% of whatever we each earn in FICA taxes… the majority of those taxes… i.e., 6.2% of our earnings… is dedicated to Social Security. However that 6.2% is only levied up to a maximum amount, or income limit, that is determined annually. (The other 1.45% is dedicated to Medicare’s Hospital Insurance program and is not subject to an earnings cap.)

The limit on annual earnings subject to Social Security taxes is referred to as the taxable maximum or the Social Security tax cap. For 2024, that maximum is set at $168,600.

Congress simply needs to pass a bill that would eliminate that cap.

Whatever income a person was granted would be taxed at that 6.2% and go into the Social Security accounts to pay future recipients. However to make sure there would be enough money to ensure the most needy of we the people of the work force… the lowest earning workers… are to get paid those benefits the highest earners benefits would be capped. Simply put, its time for the multi-millionaires to begin paying their fair share of keeping the country economically healthy and functioning.  

Without the working class people that keep this country running day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year America would be economically in tatters and in complete financial ruin. So it’s only fair and equitable that those folks who make millions, and sometimes billions, should pay what would be a pittance of the vast amount of dollars they take in every year that they mostly get through the labors of millions of we the workers of this country.  

Let’s face facts…

Without the working class people of America… and I’m including the so-called middle class folks into this grouping… the corporations and the corporate elite would quickly flounder and the country would fall into an economic Armageddon.

And as far as Medicare  is concerned… raise that remaining 1.45% of the payroll tax to maybe 2.45% and use those funds to pay for a Medicare For All health care plan for every damn one of us living in the U.S.A.

Screw passing any bill that would enable private corporations to profit immensely by competing with the existing federal Medicare plan now in place.

Pass Medicare For All and lets be done with this annual discussion once and for all and permanently.

And as if those threats to our Social Security and Medicate benefits weren’t horrific enough to ponder the RSC proposal also endorses several bills “designed to advance the cause of life,” such as the Life at Conception Act, which has 126 co-sponsors in the House.

That bill would provide legal protections “at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization.”

It’s crystal clear that this Republican proposal is that they are the same old anti-choice, anti-women party. And that the bills included in their proposal are an ambush upon those of us who are the most vulnerable and the most in need of our future security being guaranteed. 

The proposed Republican changes are nothing more than an attack on seniors, veterans, workers and the middle class that would enact draconian laws that would make devastating cuts to the welfare of the overwhelming majority of we the people by raising the cost of living for each and every one of us working class heroes and our families.  

As the Who once sang…

Then I’ll get on my knees and pray… We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again, no, no…

Yeah, Meet the new boss; Same as the old boss…

Won’t Get Fooled Again

We’ll be fighting in the streets
With our children at our feet
And the morals that they worship will be gone
And the men who spurred us on
Sit in judgement of all wrong
They decide and the shotgun sings the song

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again

A change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that’s all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
‘Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again, no, no

I’ll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half-alive
I’ll get all my papers and smile at the sky
For I know that the hypnotized never lie

Do you?

Yeah

There’s nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are effaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I’ll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I’ll get on my knees and pray
We don’t get fooled again
Don’t get fooled again, no, no

Yeah
Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss

Songwriter: Peter Townshend/Won’t Get Fooled Again lyrics © Abkco Music Inc., Spirit Music Group

Another thousand words…