At a time when so much of American politics seems radical, unprecedented, and uncomfortably weird, it was oddly refreshing to see something normal and familiar happen yesterday: A leading Republican talked about cutting Social Security and Medicare, and the leading Democrat pushed back.
It’s the sort of thing that could’ve happen a few years ago, a few decades ago, or even a few generations ago, but it instead happened roughly 24 hours ago. NBC News reported:
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opened the door Monday to “cutting” spending under Social Security and Medicare, drawing swift pushback from President Joe Biden and elevating a key policy battle in the 2024 election.
During a telephone interview with CNBC, host Joe Kernen presented the former president with a rather straightforward question: To address long-term debt concerns, how would he “handle entitlements” such as Social Security and Medicare?
Trump delivered a long, meandering, and largely incoherent answer, though it was the first sentence that stood out: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” He went to reference “tremendous bad management of entitlements,” though it wasn’t at all clear what in the world he was getting at.
Biden, White House officials, the incumbent president’s campaign team, and their allies could hardly believe their good fortune. It was just last week when Biden positioned himself as a champion of social-insurance programs during his State of the Union address, vowing to stop Republicans who “want to put Social Security on the chopping block.”
Four days later, as Trump told a national television audience that “cutting” entitlements is on the table, Democrats wasted no time in presenting the public with a stark contrast. NBC News’ report added, Biden’s campaign tweeted out the video of the Republican’s comments and the president responded quickly: “Not on my watch.”
Read the full article here
