Paul "Munster" Ryan Admits He Wants To Gut "Entitlements" After Tax Bill Passes

Sniff, sniff..."If I don't get me way to gut entitlements after trillions are lost from this tax cut bill, I'm gonna cry me self to sleep every night!" Sniff, Sniff

Well, it didn't take very long for Paul "Eddie Munster" Ryan to fess up about the real agenda behind the execrable "tax reform" bill being rushed to Dotard's desk. In an interview this morning, the churlish whelp with the uncanny resemblance to Eddie Munster (of "Munsters" fame) plain admited what he wants to do next year with "entitlements".  Hell, this turd has been literally salivating about cutting Social Security and Medicare for the past ten years.

CBS' Norah O'Donnell straight out asked Ryan: "Will Congress take up entitlement spending next year?"  To which Munster replied:

"Yes, we will. We have to address entitlements otherwise we can't really get a handle on our future debt."

Munster Ryan actually blurted the sentence out with a straight face, despite the fact he and his compadres had just effectively added up to $1.5 TRILLION in debt by this outrageous tax cut bill .. (Made much worse by adding tweaks in the past 2 weeks that deliver 83% of all the benefits to the top 1 percent, including a real estate provision that translates into $414 b in new debt).. So get the picture here: He and his ilk are monstrously ADDING to the debt while stating they have to cut social insurance benefits next year to prevent adding to the debt. Try to wrap your brain around that bunkum.

He went on:

"We need to get this debt under control so our kids and our grand kids can get a debt free nation."

Yeppers, Eddie Munster. So you and your fellow assholes just handed corporations and the wealthiest a big chunk of permanent tax cut, corporate welfare at the cost of adding $1.5 trillion in debt - which will saddle those same "kids and grand kids" with interest on the debt (individual) payments averaging $12,000 per year each, How dumb do you think Americans really are?

And the biggest howler was yet to come:

"Number one we got to grow the economy. This tax cut bill will do that. Number two, reform entitlement programs."

Of course, the tax cuts bill will do no such thing, and we've already got prima facie evidence on that score. Most illuminating was White House economic advisor Gary Cohn's recent meeting (now gone viral)  with dozens of CEOs, and most of them giving thumbs down when he asked about potential jobs, e.g.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-tax-plan-gary-cohn-bill-2017-11

The moderator (WSJ's John Bussey)  asked those in attendance whether they were planning to increase their business investment if the tax bill became law. The CEOs in attendance didn't seem to be on the same wavelength as Cohn.  While there was a smattering of raised hands in the auditorium, it was clear there were not as many as Cohn would have liked.  You see Cohn asking, almost embarrassed to be caught in the same room with these misfits:

"Why aren't the other hands up?"

Then, realizing he'd get no rational or decent answer, moving on to another question. So WHO is Munster trying to fool? Well, I guess the clueless dummies comprising Dotard's forlorn base of deplorables.

Ryan went on with further  bullshit:

"Back to the welfare issue, we right now are trapping people in poverty ...on welfare programs-- which prevents them from hitting their potential and getting in the work force. The problem we're going to have is with a faster growing economy is we're gonna need more people working. So we need to ease the barriers to get more people from welfare t4o work."

Of course, this is arrant horse manure - and it's again incredible Munster could blabber this out with a straight face. You have to give the guy credit for his  acting talent on live TV.  The bitter truth is there will be NO "economic growth" - certainly spawned from this tax cut bill. The CEOs have admitted (see link above) they want to create no new jobs, and automation is killing most repetitive jobs which would be the most likely for those on welfare to take.

According to one recent report (Denver Post Business, p. 1K, Dec. 3).  "over the next 13 years , 70 million workers in the U.S. will have to find another way to make money"   Again, we're informed all the jobs at risk involve repetitive tasks -  and the robots at work can already "scan Tylenol bottles and lip balm at the drugstore"   as well as "build pickups and take your grilled cheese orders at Panera Bread." McKinsey Global Institute estimates that "half the duties workers handle globally could be automated."

The bad jobs news - i.e. elimination of  more jobs for more humans - doesn't stop there. According to a WSJ  report ('Firms Leave The Bean Counting To The Robots') in the Business and Investing section (p, B5, Oct. 23) AI -based robots will soon be taking over CFO and other accounting work across the land, as well as the jobs of "accountants, bank loan officers, and insurance claims adjustors".  Even FORBES now uses an AI system called  'Quill" to pen its articles, so less need for flesh and blood  journalists.

So "Eddie Munster"  Ryan is in la-la land when he talks of all these extra jobs that those on welfare will be able to get. The brutal, unvarnished truth is that MORE welfare - or at least financial support programs (like universal basic income)-   will be needed to support the millions whose jobs are taken by automation, or were never created because of simple corporate greed.  (Preferring share buybacks to job creation).

Never mind. Eddie 'Munster' Ryan still salivates over the prospect of cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

Ryan's biggest "wet dream" ideation is to replace Medicare with a "voucher plan" though he had since altered the language to "premium support" to make it more impenetrable to the average person.  But it's the same old trash in slightly different wrapping. In the end, it's  a bare-faced, unadulterated effort to eviscerate the elderly in this country of any medical or other security. To leave them unprotected, like dogs without bones, in a vicious commercial -coercive market landscape that will laugh and howl in stitches before it remotely considers offering any insurance. Worse, the Ryan plan seeks to divide and conquer by telling current oldsters over 55  they "have nothing to fear" while leaving the horrific voucher system to "those 55 and under".

Most citations of Ryan's "premium support"  have suggested $10,000 as the top amount of money issued per year for Medicare beneficiaries. But as I already pointed out, (Dec. 15 post) if I had to operate using even a $20,000 per annum GOP voucher plan- say implemented under a pay-go cut to Medicare- I'd have ended up shelling out nearly $40,000 out of pocket for the uncovered procedures. And none of that even includes the cost for wife's hip replacement surgery, including 7 days in rehab..   Other seniors with much less in savings would be in dire straits or having to declare bankruptcy.

Ryan also seems not to learn form history, like too many others in the GOP. He now wants to also privatize Social Security - like Gee Dumbya Bush attempted back in 2005. We saw how that one came out, with the Dems taking over both Houses of Congress in 2006. Before privatizing Ryan would be quite content just to stop the COLA used now. 

This would be by implementing a chained CPI, such as buried in the Senate version of the Repuke tax bill.  The brainchild of billionaire Peter G. Peterson,  the chained CPI reckons inflation (and hence adjustments) at barely one third of the regular COLA - based on the standard CPI or Consumer Price Index. Thus, most seniors in the country will find themselves either malnourished, bankrupt  or in the poorhouse after five years.  

The use of the "chained CPI" assumes that as prices increase, consumers will buy lower cost alternatives, reducing the amount of inflation they experience via less costly choices. For example, if the price of stew beef or hamburger rises by 50 cents a pound, they'll opt for pork.  If pork prices increase by 50 cents a pound (say owing to the Chinese buying tons of corn meal for their own hogs) then consumers will move to chicken. If chicken prices rise too much they will move to cheap fish or canned tuna. If those prices rise too much....well, I guess there's always dumpster diving (Repubs have already cut the food stamp budget to the bone.)

Basically then, the chained CPI introduces a race to the bottom.  And a bottomless pit is what we are headed for unless these clowns can be derailed in their social spending cut aspirations next year. Sen. Chris Murphy (CT)  was correct when he told Maddow last night that this is all "a ransom paid to the big money, high roller GOP donors."

Make no mistake this is what Ryan and his cabal have yearned for the past dozen years. Getting a Reeptard president in,  on whose back they could ride the "entitlements cut" horsey. They, however, know not what they  do in digging their own political graves- which will be abundantly clear by this time next year. 

See also:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/12/12/why-big-medicare-and-medicaid-cuts-are-likely/#104d009e23d8

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/phil-rockstroh/76622/capitalism-s-failure-of-the-flesh-the-rise-of-the-robots

Why Dems May Need To Go "Nuclear" To Stop The Repuke Tax Bill

"Hey, , the longer we can bamboozle the base, the better!"

"We got to get this thing passed. Otherwise, our base will fracture, people will stop writin' checks, and the party will crumble under its own weight." Lindsey Graham yesterday.

Let's not mince words: the GOP tax "reform" bill on offer is an unmitigated atrocity. For starters:

- The corporate tax cut is intended to be made permanent, and going from 35% to 20%

- The tax cut for average citizens has been designed to "sunset" in 10 years, so taxes will then increase.

- The tax cut benefit overall for those earning less than $75,000 a year, is $100. That benefit may well come at the cost of cutting Medicaid, Medicare benefits later.

- The overall tax benefit is allotted so that 62 percent of the takings go to the top 1 percent.

- Allows drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.(ANWR)

- As reported by the NY Times there is also a plan to change from the Consumer Price Index to the Chained CPI, which move would essentially negate any future Social Security cost of living increases - certainly in a low inflation environment such as we have.

Last night this perfidy was at least temporarily stopped in its tracks,  even after the GOOPs grew giddy after John McCain reverted to sock puppet to back it.  However, a nonpartisan analysis released hours ahead of a planned vote projected the Republican tax plan would add $1 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade.  Process that! ONE Trillion bucks! That's more than $200 b beyond the cost of the entire Obama stimulus package in 2009, which at least spared this nation from another Great Depression.

The other hit to the Reeps last night came by way of the nonpartisan Senate Parliamentarian who ruled they could not use the "trigger" sunset mechanism to try to contain the deficit explosion. This sent them right back to 'square one' scrambling for other ways to raise revenue,  including reinstating the AMT or Alternative Minimum Tax, and (GASP!) reducing the corporate tax cuts.

Recall the Republicans had contended the vast tax cuts enclosed in their plan would in effect pay for themselves through economic growth. But the analysis, released by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, forecasted the tax bill would balloon the deficit even after factoring in the economic growth the bill is expected to generate.  Of course, through U.S. economic history no tax cuts have come close to paying for themselves.

The other aspect of why this wouldn't happen is that corporate CEOs are not even on board with any job creation, despite the yammering of the GOP con men.  Most illuminating was White House economic advisor Gary Cohn's meeting with dozens of CEOs, and most of them giving thumbs down when he asked about potential jobs, e.g.

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-gop-tax-plan-gary-cohn-bill-2017-11


The moderator (WSJ's John Bussey)  asked those in attendance whether they were planning to increase their business investment if the tax bill became law. The CEOs in attendance didn't seem to be on the same wavelength as Cohn.  While there was a smattering of raised hands in the auditorium, it was clear there were not as many as Cohn would have liked.  You see Cohn asking, almost embarrassed to be caught in the same room with these misfits:

"Why aren't the other hands up?"

Then, realizing he'd get no rational or decent answer, moving on to another question. So there you have it. These CEOs would rather put their tax cut benefit money into stock buybacks and paying out dividends than creating new jobs.

An even more cogent reason not to allow this sham to add to the deficit and destroy lives is that there isn't a scintilla of rational justification for it. At least when other tax cuts were implemented unemployment was high. That isn't the case now as Bruce Bartlett (former economic advisor to G.W. Bush) pointed out last night. We have virtually full employment so the only reason to hang this schlock on citizens is to attempt to spur growth using a ruse that will only be of benefit to corporations and explode the deficit. (The non-partisan CBO forecasts a maximal increase in growth rate of only 0.6%). But as I've noted before, in an environment in which the quality of energy is degraded (lower energy return on energy invested), low economic growth will be the byproduct. Short of creating more efficient energy - say like nuclear fusion - there is no solution for this.


To their credit,  Democrats seized on the report by the Joint Committee on Taxation as proof that the Republican tax is all hot air and flim flam, since it would not do what the Reeps claimed. Hocus Pocus. Voodoo economics, to use George Bush Sr.'s term.  Holding a copy of the report, Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said the analysis proved the bill was nothing more than a “holiday bonanza to multinational corporations and special interests."

Fair enough, but if this piece of toxic crap somehow rises from potential ashes today, the Dems need to do more. They need to use their leverage in possibly stopping a government shutdown to extract concessions.  If no concessions are forthcoming, then the Dems refuse to cooperate to avoid a gov't shutdown.   The $64 question: What do the 'pukes want more, their sham tax cuts, OR preventing a government shutdown next week?

Let's first note that the Republicans hold all the power needed to stop a government shutdown on December 8th. They have the numbers, they have control of all branches of government. They do not need the Dems to help them - IF  all their members (mainly in the House) were on board. But, they're not on board. There are just enough rebellious Repukes - mainly Tea Party hard cores / holdouts,  that a shutdown can't be prevented without Democratic votes to stop it.

But should the Dems cooperate? I say NO, unless the 'pukes deliver the following:

-  No spending cuts to try to make up for any unrealized economic growth. That means NO cuts to Medicare, and no cuts to Medicaid.

- NO drilling in the ANWR.

- Revocation of any tax provision to withdraw the ACA mandate  - which would affect 13 million now covered.

- . No use of "Chained CPI" or other means to cut Social Security to lower the deficits because of the tax cuts.

- $100 b allocated for reconstruction in Puerto Rico.

- DACA remains intact and no deportations of the 60,000 Haitians who've arrived since the Haitian earthquake in 2010. Repatriating them would send Haiti into total chaos since there are neither the resources or job opportunities to provide for them.

- Change  all the "permanent" Corporate tax cuts to temporary ones only. And make them fully contingent on the corporations creating jobs.  No jobs, no tax cuts.

Make no mistake that this is a draconian move but the toxic tax plan on offer from the Reptiles  has the potential to hurl this nation into permanent  third world status  - while dramatically increasing economic inequality.

It is also true that people will suffer in a shutdown, but as Lawrence O Donnell put it on his show two nights ago, "Sometimes principles and governance must take precedence."  That is the case now, when we have to look beyond immediate problems incurred with a shutdown  to the need to prevent more radical, widespread destruction and worse suffering in the future.

A Message From Sen. Bernie Sanders concerning this refuse:

The current Republican “tax cut” bill, paid for by the Koch brothers and other billionaire campaign contributors, continues the push to make the rich richer at the expense of everyone else. It would raise taxes on middle class families making $75,000 a year or less and would throw 13 million Americans off of health insurance. And it would do all of these things to provide permanent tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans and profitable corporations that ship American jobs to China while moving their American profits to the Cayman Islands.

But let's be clear. This legislation goes well beyond taxes. Its ultimate goal is to radically transform American society and the role that government plays in the lives of the working families of our country. This legislation will increase the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over ten years. Mark my words. If passed, the Republicans will then rediscover the "deficit crisis," and push aggressively for massive cuts in Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education – higher education in particular – nutrition, affordable housing and more. They will seek to undo every major piece of legislation passed in the last 80 years designed to help working families, the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.

This is the Republican plan. Huge tax breaks for the rich and powerful. Massive cuts to life and death programs for the middle class and working families of our country.

This is not moral. This is not what the American people want. This is not what our country and our pledge for "liberty and justice for all" is supposed to be about.

That is why I am going on the road this week to talk directly to working people in Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania about this disastrous piece of legislation. If we stand together – black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American, male and female, young and old, gay and straight – we can defeat this horrific bill.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/greg-coleridge/76490/corporations-and-the-super-rich-tax-democracy


And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/p-m-carpenter/76492/the-gops-utterly-uninformed-hasty-tax-bills