Elimination of the Entitlement State
We have certain entitlements in this country that have been around for generations and remained intact -- Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance.
These are programs that work politically in part because they apply to all of us. They are for all Americans.
When you`re 65, you get Medicare. You get Social Security. When you lose your job, if you have paid into the unemployment insurance program, you get unemployment insurance.
You are by definition entitled to these things, and these things have been a huge success in the story of America.
They are our social safety net. They have kept people out of poverty. They have kept food on the table. They`ve allowed us to retire one day instead of working our entire lives until we die.
But the thing about them is that they are entitlements. And that is as important to what they mean to us as Americans as it is to their political survival.
You get these things if you`re rich or if you`re poor. We do not discriminate by class. As Americans we get them.
The idea of ending unemployment benefits for millionaires is that you fundamentally change a program in order to eventually break it apart.
Making the unemployment insurance program a program that is not for everybody. It`s not for everybody anymore. Instead, it`s just for poor people.
When people with not very many resources are the beneficiaries of a particular program, those people don`t have many resources and that also means they don`t have much political power to protect that program once politicians try to tear it apart.
It`s also because when a program is seen as just being for poor people, that program is susceptible to losing broad public support when it inevitably gets attacked from the right as waste.
When you try to change entitlement programs so instead of benefiting everybody, they just benefit, say, poorer Americans, you set the stage to break those programs apart because the right has come up with really great politics for making the rest of the country resent programs that only serve poor people.
So, suddenly this means drug testing for unemployment insurance. That may seem like a throw-away line in a Republican proposal. That`s not a real problem, why are they working on that?
Well, it is a way to dismantle that as an entitlement. To make us think of unemployment insurance that only applies to poor people.
And that`s why the Paul Ryan kill Medicare thing really isn`t a lie.
But make no mistake. What the Republicans have proposed is actually ending Medicare. I mean, the whole idea of Medicare is that everybody gets it. It`s not something that divides America.
It doesn`t matter if you`re rich or poor. You as an American citizen are entitled to Medicare once you turn 65.
The Paul Ryan plan would end Medicare. It would make Medicare something that not all Americans get anymore, which means it`s not Medicare.
This is about changing the social safety net to make its politics more like welfare politics, and less like Social Security and Medicare politics.
Ask Americans how they feel about Social Security and Medicare. Those programs are more popular than a cold drink on a hot day. Look at that.
Now, if you make those programs just for some people, see how popular they become. Right now, House Republicans are playing chicken again. This time it`s not the debt ceiling or looming government shutdown.
This time it`s almost every adult American getting substantially less money in their paycheck as of January 1st, courtesy of a Republican tax hike on working people. Merry Christmas.
And Republicans are willing to bear the political cost of doing that for the prize of starting to rip our social safety net around the edges.
For the prize of making the American people see the social safety net not as something that we all have...
but instead seeing it as something that other people might need some day. Something that other people might use some day, but never us.
From the : Dec 20th Rachel Maddow Show
The Nattering One muses: more to come on the right wing divisiveness in our next post.
These are programs that work politically in part because they apply to all of us. They are for all Americans.
When you`re 65, you get Medicare. You get Social Security. When you lose your job, if you have paid into the unemployment insurance program, you get unemployment insurance.
You are by definition entitled to these things, and these things have been a huge success in the story of America.
They are our social safety net. They have kept people out of poverty. They have kept food on the table. They`ve allowed us to retire one day instead of working our entire lives until we die.
But the thing about them is that they are entitlements. And that is as important to what they mean to us as Americans as it is to their political survival.
You get these things if you`re rich or if you`re poor. We do not discriminate by class. As Americans we get them.
The idea of ending unemployment benefits for millionaires is that you fundamentally change a program in order to eventually break it apart.
Making the unemployment insurance program a program that is not for everybody. It`s not for everybody anymore. Instead, it`s just for poor people.
When people with not very many resources are the beneficiaries of a particular program, those people don`t have many resources and that also means they don`t have much political power to protect that program once politicians try to tear it apart.
It`s also because when a program is seen as just being for poor people, that program is susceptible to losing broad public support when it inevitably gets attacked from the right as waste.
When you try to change entitlement programs so instead of benefiting everybody, they just benefit, say, poorer Americans, you set the stage to break those programs apart because the right has come up with really great politics for making the rest of the country resent programs that only serve poor people.
So, suddenly this means drug testing for unemployment insurance. That may seem like a throw-away line in a Republican proposal. That`s not a real problem, why are they working on that?
Well, it is a way to dismantle that as an entitlement. To make us think of unemployment insurance that only applies to poor people.
And that`s why the Paul Ryan kill Medicare thing really isn`t a lie.
But make no mistake. What the Republicans have proposed is actually ending Medicare. I mean, the whole idea of Medicare is that everybody gets it. It`s not something that divides America.
It doesn`t matter if you`re rich or poor. You as an American citizen are entitled to Medicare once you turn 65.
The Paul Ryan plan would end Medicare. It would make Medicare something that not all Americans get anymore, which means it`s not Medicare.
This is about changing the social safety net to make its politics more like welfare politics, and less like Social Security and Medicare politics.
Ask Americans how they feel about Social Security and Medicare. Those programs are more popular than a cold drink on a hot day. Look at that.
Now, if you make those programs just for some people, see how popular they become. Right now, House Republicans are playing chicken again. This time it`s not the debt ceiling or looming government shutdown.
This time it`s almost every adult American getting substantially less money in their paycheck as of January 1st, courtesy of a Republican tax hike on working people. Merry Christmas.
And Republicans are willing to bear the political cost of doing that for the prize of starting to rip our social safety net around the edges.
For the prize of making the American people see the social safety net not as something that we all have...
but instead seeing it as something that other people might need some day. Something that other people might use some day, but never us.
From the : Dec 20th Rachel Maddow Show
The Nattering One muses: more to come on the right wing divisiveness in our next post.
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