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Sen Graham Exposes Republican Debt Lie by Attacking Social Security
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was on Fox News Sunday this morning proving to America that he doesn’t really care about the debt problem at all, he just wants to appease his hatred for misnamed “entitlement” programs like Social Security.
Graham insists that we must raise the age for Social Security in order to deal with the debt problem, but the Social Security Trust Fund has nothing to do with the deficit, and even former President Reagan knew this.
Here’s Senator Graham on Fox this morning courtesy of Think Progress:
Graham said, “I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling unless we get serious about keeping the country from becoming Greece, saving Social Security and Medicare [sic]. So here’s what I would like: meaningful entitlement reform — not to turn Social Security into private accounts, not to take a voucher approach to Medicare — but, adjust the age for Social Security, CPI changes and means testing and look beyond the ten-year window. I cannot in good conscience raise the debt ceiling without addressing the long term debt problems of this country and I will not.”
Graham is saying that Republicans will bring their “entitlement” grievances to the debt ceiling fight in order to address long term debt. So, he is just pretending to care about deficit reduction and clinging to raising the age for Social Security as a way to get there, unless he’s really unaware of how the Social Security Trust Fund operates. It is funded by payroll taxes. We pay into it our entire working lives in order to have it later. It’s not here to fund reckless spending or wars.
A refresher for the Senator from way back in 1984, when Republican idol President Ronald Reagan explained to the math impaired, “Social security has nothing to do with the deficit.”
Reagan said, “Social Security, let’s lay it to rest once and for all… Social security has nothing to do with the deficit. Social Security is totally funded by the payroll tax levied on employer and employee. If you reduce the outgo of Social Security, that money would not go into the general fund or reduce the deficit. It would go into the Social Security Trust Fund. So Social Security has nothing to do with balancing a budget or raising or lowering the deficit.”
The national debt is the net accumulated borrowing by the federal government. The federal budget deficit is the amount that our federal government borrows each year, based on the difference between what we generate in revenue (e.g., taxes) and spending. Each year’s deficit is then added to the existing debt. Thus, since Social Security has nothing to do with the deficit, it also has nothing to do with the accumulation of deficits, known as debt.
If Senator Graham is so concerned about our debt, why doesn’t he start by addressing the Republican unfunded entitlement Medicare Part D first? Dan Gross explained that it is the “Republican-designed Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit that threatens to explode entitlement costs, by as much as $1 trillion in 10 years.” You see, Republicans left Medicare Part D unfunded and also left it up to the private sector insurance companies to charge what they wished for the drugs rather than force competition to do its thing.
Yet Senator Graham says he won’t move unless the Social Security age is raised because “I cannot in good conscience raise the debt ceiling without addressing the long term debt problems of this country and I will not.” How is raising the Social Security age going to address the “long term debt problem” of this country?
Where was Graham’s worried conscience when Cheney told us, “Deficits don’t matter” and former President Bush governed accordingly? If Graham really cared so much about the “long term debt” problem, he might have spoken up when under Bush taxes were lowered while starting two unfunded wars, which were also left off of the budget at the time. President Obama initiated some honest accounting by adding those bills to our debt. Those deficits (lowering revenue while increasing spending and borrowing to cover the difference) accumulated up over time, and are a significant part of the debt problem. Wars are expensive.
Now that those credit card bills are due, Graham and Republicans want to force Seniors to pay the bill, only cutting Social Security would not even go to the deficit. In other words, this argument works on the misinformed, but it’s a shell game. The argument over whether or not Social Security needs to be reformed doesn’t belong in a fight over the debt ceiling. Let Senator Graham make this argument in a situation where he’s not holding the country hostage over an unrelated matter.
Senator Graham has exposed his argument as the craven lie it is. He doesn’t give a hoot about debt. What he cares about is using every single Republican-created crisis as a justification to destroy the social safety net, even when the programs he takes aim at are unrelated to our deficit.
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17 Responses to Sen Graham Exposes Republican Debt Lie by Attacking Social Security
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Sugapea
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:17 pm
Excellent, Sarah Jones!
“Senator Graham has exposed his argument as the craven lie it is. He doesn’t give a hoot about debt. What he cares about is using every single Republican-created crisis as a justification to destroy the social safety net, even when the programs he takes aim at are unrelated to our deficit”.
Why can’t our ‘Fellow Republicans’ clearly see what the GOP is doing to all of us…including them?
majii
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:42 pm
I think the reason why rank and file republicans can’t see how destructive the republicans’ policies are to them and our country, Sugarpea, is because they’ve internalized all of the lies, conspiracy theories, and RW propaganda. It’s almost impossible to discuss any topic related to government in a substantive way with most republicans because all they have are GOP talking points. What is most amazing to me is their dedication to ensuring that the rich get their huge tax cuts while they settle for a measly $2,000 per year tax cut, or less. They claim to love the free market but don’t know that a key tenet of the free market is self-interest. If they knew this, they wouldn’t support cuts to the social safety net programs, huge tax cuts for the rich, and they wouldn’t be first on the bandwagon to destroy unions. Republican politicians consider the ignorance of millions of Americans to be a plus in their favor, and they proceed, without conscience, to exploit it for their own political and personal gain. I think that a major reason why many republicans inside and outside of Congress disagree with PBO is because he sees governing as a serious matter that impacts the lives of millions, while they view it as a game and never consider the consequences of their words and actions. I noticed this tendency of some republicans to treat governing as a game by reading some of their posts on Facebook. I remember one in particular where the person said,”Just wait till we win in November!” This individual was unconcerned about whether Romney would make an effective POTUS or about the effect of republican policies on our nation, our citizens, and the world. He looked at the election as a sort of game of winners and losers, and to hell with everything else.
Sandra
Dec. 31st, 2012 at 5:06 pm
Majii, excellent post…the bottom line is that Republicans are stupid people who can`t see beyond their respective nose. They would rather destroy their country they profess to love as long as their party is in power.
Anne
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
The Congressional Republicans have worked non-stop to gut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs no matter how many times they’ve been told that these have nothing to do with the deficit. To that end, they have held the American economy hostage in order to get what they want and don’t care about the impact on everyday Americans. All they care about is pleasing their corporate masters and continuing to get re-elected, which is why they are always scared of being outdone during GOP primaries due to not leaning “far right” enough. They are a bunch of vile, hateful excuses for human beings who have absolutely no business in the very government they claim is the problem.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
And this, for any who ask, is why you can’t compile a top 10 list of smart Republican quotes in 2012.
majii
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
Graham will do anything to get re-elected in 2014. He knows his biggest job right now is to continue misleading the voters in S.C., and that the way to do it is to lie, pretend he’s looking out for the future of their kids and grandkids, and to act as if he’s PBO’s main opponent. IMO, he’s the worst kind of self-serving politician.
Shiva (Moderator)
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:43 pm
Ronald Reagan was a model for the GOP. And given the fact that he out right lied about how deep our deficit was in order to drop taxes on the rich to stimulate the economy, I see no surprise that Sen. Lindsey Graham now lies about Social Security. The entire GOP platform is built on lies.
Gov. Reagan was such a miserable failure as a president that I’m almost ashamed to read his name. This is where the downfall of the American economy started in the today’s GOP is simply doing what it can to continue that theme.
Thom Delahunt
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 2:49 pm
senator graham…social security does not contribute to the debt problem. i and my employer paid for every penny…
Reynardine
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 3:27 pm
I do not believe this is about revenues/deficits at all. I believe it is motivated by actual malice towards the ewepeople.
wiley
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Tax evasion and corruption is such a huge problem in Greece, and such a driver its economic woes, that “tax evasion and corruption in Greece” has its own wikipedia entry. The way we become like Greece (economicaly) is to let Republicans have their way with our economy. The way we get out of debt is to let Democrats have their way with our economy, though I prefer they take their time with it until unemployment is under 4%.
Eykis
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Greece has the same dollar amount economy as Arkansas. Not comparable to the USA.
Brian Loudermilch
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 5:45 pm
One Unfunded, Unnecessary WAR in Iraq.
Another Unfunded, Unnecessary WAR in Afghanistan.
And Village IDIOT Leslie Graham CAN’T figure out
WHY the Deficit has Gone UP ?
We should take up a Collection and Buy Leslie Graham
a Really BIG CLUE.
He Desperately Needs One. ASAP.
JJM
Dec. 30th, 2012 at 5:51 pm
The GOP wants to RAISE TAXES ON THE MIDDLE CLASS.
vera donato
Dec. 31st, 2012 at 3:17 am
Mr. Graham, you need to loose your title (you certainly don’t work!) since you think you are God and have the intelligence to decide how the money of the american people should be spent! The Social Security Fund has been robbed every way but right by Congress for years! If that money was put back where it belongs by the thieves who have stolen it for other purposes, there would NEVER EVER be a problem of it running out.
You bastards want to make it part of the deficit but it isn’t and never has been! Yet you (GOP) want to live off taxpayers for the rest of your miserable lives and not pay your fair share of taxes and let the rest of us eat cat food for dinner! HOW DARE YOU!!!!!
djchefron
Dec. 31st, 2012 at 8:55 am
I know the media is nothing more than propagandist for the 1% but somewhere,somehow I wish they would ask him about what he said then:“Let me tell you what’s involved if we don’t lift the debt ceiling: financial collapse and calamity throughout the world.” (Lindsey Graham, January 6, 2011) to what he saying now.”I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling unless we get serious about keeping the country from becoming Greece, saving Social Security and Medicare [sic]. So here’s what i would like: meaningful entitlement reform — not to turn Social Security into private accounts, not to take a voucher approach to Medicare — but, adjust the age for Social Security, CPI changes and means testing and look beyond the ten-year window. I cannot in good conscience raise the debt ceiling without addressing the long term debt problems of this country and I will not.”
j
Dec. 31st, 2012 at 4:54 pm
A great article on DU explaining that whatever is done about the debt/deficit -the policies of George Bush will drive the deficit for the next ten years.
W@e never met a war we could not fund – now we cannot afford our social security!
Inez
Jan. 1st, 2013 at 6:14 pm
he and the other repulseicans all know that social security hasno bearing upon the deficit……………even the janitor knows that. just another shot in the dark…….