Crossposted from Hillbilly Report.
During the "fiscal cliff" negotiations we have heard all kinds of ridiculous statements from Republicans as they try to absolve themselves from sacrifice and balance the budget on the backs of the working poor, seniors, children and the disabled by stealing away Social Security and Medicare. They believe that if they are to raise the debt ceiling and ask themselves and those they truly represent to sacrifice to the problems they created that they should get something in return. It appears as if redistributing all the America's wealth to themselves in the last thirty years is not quite enough. Now they insist on stealing away social programs that have long kept millions of Americans an inch above poverty.
Just listen to Linsey Graham trying to prod Barack Obama into helping him steal Social Security and Medicare away from Americans under the guise of "saving them":
Here is a quote:
“You just got reelected. How about doing something big that is not liberal?” Graham said in an interview with Fox News. “How about doing something big that really is bipartisan? Every big idea he has is a liberal idea that drowns us in debt. How about manning up here, Mr. President, and use your mandate to bring this country together to stop us from becoming Greece?”
“I would like [Obama] to be remembered as a president who saved Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy by working with Republicans,” Graham said. “But he seems to have no inclination to be remembered for anything other than a guy who has a small view of our fiscal situation.”
Graham also suggested that the president's call to raise income tax rates on the wealthiest earners was "sort of a partisan political trophy" that Obama was trying to win. And he warned that there was "a hardening on the Republican side" not to agree to raise the debt ceiling without the promise of major entitlement reform.
http://thehill.com/...
First Linsey Graham needs to remember one thing. Mitt Romney ran on the vision of greed and idiocy offered by Graham and Republicans. Remember what happened? He got trounced. Whether Lindsey Graham likes it or not Americans overwhelmingly approved of the "liberal" vision put forth by Obama. Besides that the "Conservative" ideas offered by Republicans have failed miserably. Trickle-Down economics has almost destroyed this country and the American people who are not profiting from it realize that.
What Graham really wants is to be able to point to President Obama, not Congressional Republicans down the road as the culprit that destroyed Social Security and Medicare. They hope to lure the President into destroying these programs for them. In the case of Social Security a major overhaul is not needed. The only reason to do this is to insure that it is phased out slowly but surely for all Americans that are paying into it now.
Raising the tax rates on high earners is no "trophy". It is what a vast majority of Americans have realized for a long time needs to be done. It is what they have called for en masse. What Lindsey Graham is telling you is that if those who have horded all the money to them crashing our economy are expected to pay more they want to steal our nation's social safety net from those who really need it.
Folks like Lindsey Graham are the ones who need to "man up". They need to man up and realize that their failed vision may have enriched a very few themselves included but has been a disaster for America as a whole. It has been proven time and time again that we cannot build our economy from the top down. Furthermore, we cannot balance the budget on the backs of the most helpless in society.
Folks like Lindsey Graham are always wrapping themselves in the flag and lecturing us on our "patriotism". Now it is time for them to realize their policies enriched them unfairly and left the rest of us in the cold. If they really love their country like they say they do it is time to "man up" and sacrifice instead of whining like a spoiled rotten coward who is not going to get his way. Some people think it makes you more of a man to take on the powerful instead of preying upon the weak. Graham and the Republicans should try it some time.