The American people will have a choice in 14 days

Made in America: Making the Most of what is going on in our country, and what we can do to help our families during and after the crisis

Over the past nearly two years, we have made enormous progress. My administration, working with Democrats in Congress, is building an economy that grows from the bottom up and middle out.

The unemployment rate is 3.5% – a 50-year low. We have created over 10 million jobs, most of them in manufacturing. On my watch, “Made in America” isn’t just a slogan, it’s a reality.

There is more work that needs to be done. Inflation – driven by the pandemic and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine – is a global challenge. Many people have a job but still struggle to pay for groceries, gas and rent. That’s why I’m so determined to lower costs for families.

Making it easier for hard-working Americans to survive is something we need to do. That’s why I took action to ease the burden of student debt for families recovering from the pandemic. Republicans criticized the move, but it was the right thing to do for working- and middle-class Americans. The same Republicans officials who voted for the tax break that benefited wealthy Americans should not be doing so again.

Gas prices are decreasing because of actions that were taken, including a release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. They have lost over a dollar since their high this summer and were down another 10 cents this week. It adds up to real savings for families.

Republicans in Congress are doubling down on mega, MAGA trickle-down economics that benefit the wealthy and big corporations. They have laid out their plan clearly. It would raise your costs and make inflation worse.

My administration finally gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices. We capped the out of pocket costs for prescriptions at $2,000 a year for seniors, and $35 a month for people with low incomes. Big Pharma and scores of lobbyists spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent health care savings for Americans. They failed.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/25/opinions/american-people-face-a-choice-joe-biden/index.html

What do we really want to see in our taxes? A Democratic Alternative to Medicare, Social Security, and the Small-Sized Internet of Things

Democrats want the largest corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. In 2020, 55 of the wealthiest corporations in America paid zero dollars in federal income tax. No longer. A 15% corporate minimum tax was signed into law by me. And, I’m keeping my campaign commitment: no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a single penny more in federal taxes.

If Democrats are going to push up the retirement age by four or five years, I wouldn’t object to raising the cap. As for Medicare reform, my guess is it will never happen. Instead, I’m betting that in 20 years we’re going to have a terrible but “free” single-payer system for part of the population and an excellent but expensive universe of private providers. As for actual budget cuts, maybe we could end stupid subsidies like the one for ethanol production. That one is popular with farm-state Republicans.

This isn’t your father’s Republican party and there are many Republicans in Congress who want to ban abortion. If we maintain the House, and if more Senate Democrats join us, I would move to codify the Supreme Court decision in January.

The Future of the United States Depends on the Democrats’ Vote: How Do You Want to Embrace Trump? And What Do We Need to Know About Democracy?

Democracy is being put to the test in America. We are learning what every generation has to learn: nothing about democracy is guaranteed. You have to stand up for it. Protect it. Choose it.

I’m absolutely confident that, just as they did in 2020, the American people will again vote in record numbers and make it clear that democracy is a value that both defines us and unites us as Americans.

We faced some of the most difficult challenges in our history over the last few years, but we did not relent. And, I have never been more confident about our future. The people of the Unites States will decide by the end of 14 days if we keep moving forward or go backwards.

Republicans want to tie the raising of the ceiling to major league cuts in spending. It is almost impossible to imagine that Social Security or Medicare will not be on the table. What’s your recommendation?

The Republicans have all the intelligence of a rooster such as Foghorn Leghorn when they play a game of chicken with the Biden administration. It would be foolish to let the federal government default on its debt. We will probably have to go through this terrifying charade until a few swing-district Republicans break ranks and vote with Democrats to raise the debt ceiling.

Bret: Other than trying to find ways to slow the rate of spending growth, I can’t imagine there would be cuts to either program. They are popular with Republican voters. And there’s no way anything is going to happen except on a bipartisan basis. Suggestions for fixes that don’t involve large tax increases?

Rep. Ron DeSantis: The Social Security Workforce that Pays for Social Security, or Why He Don’t Pay a Tax

Gail: Well, some people may regard this as a tax increase, but I want to propose some tax fairness. For some reason, Social Security payroll taxation stops at about $160,000. So a person making a million dollars a year doesn’t pay anything on about $840,000.

Gail: That’s right. I had a good time hanging out with Ed Morrone, the chief of police in New Haven, who was so smart. My husband, who was a police reporter at that time, was told the most important job a cop can do is to keep people from becoming enemies.

A CNN KFile review of comments from his 2012 congressional campaign found that he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid partial costs of private plans or traditional Medicare. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported “the same thing” for Social Security, citing the need for “market forces” to restructure the program.

During his 2012 campaign, DeSantis embraced then-Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget which became a political football in the 2012 presidential race, when Ryan was chosen as Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president. Democrats argued that Ryan’s plans turned Medicare into a voucher system, while Republicans said it was premium support. Under the proposals, the government would subsidize seniors by partially paying for private plans or a traditional Medicare plan.

“I would embrace proposals like [Rep.] Paul Ryan offered, and other people have offered, that are going to provide some market forces in there, more consumer choice, and make it so that it’s not just basically a system that’s just going to be bankrupt when you have new people coming into it,” DeSantis told the St. Augustine Record in a video that was posted on YouTube at the time.

Tea Party fiscal conservative Ron DeSantis ran for Congress with the support of conservative groups such as the Club for Growth.

DeSantis has yet to announce he if he running for president in 2024, nor has he spoken publicly about his position on the entitlement programs as the governor or Florida, preferring to focus on culture war issues.

In the State of the Union address on Tuesday, the president referred to a part of Scotts plan that said, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years.” If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” Biden correctly asserted that “all federal legislation” would include Social Security and Medicare, which do not currently require congressional re-approval.

“I think people who are low income will probably be given coverage that is similar to what they have now,” he said in the interview with the St. Augustine Record. I don’t think I’ll have to pay more, people like me who’ve been more successful are not. I will have support that will guarantee me a lot of coverage.

He said that if you want a cadillac plan or something, it should be driven by the consumer rather than imposed on the taxpayers. I just think that’s correct.

We need to restructure Social Security and Medicare, in a way that is financially sustainable for people in my generation, he said.

On January 4, when he was sworn-in as a member of Congress, he appeared on CNN and said he would like to see congress restructure Social Security and Medicare.

In speeches and tweets this week, Biden and his White House have singled out particular Republican senators – notably including Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin – over proposals from those senators that could affect the retirement and health care programs.

Biden and his White House targeted Lee on Wednesday over a video clip of Lee saying, “I’m here right now to tell you one thing that you probably have never heard from a politician. It will be my objective to phase out Social Security, to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it.” The clip has gone viral on Twitter this week; a second viral clip features Lee saying moments later, “Medicare and Medicaid are of the same sort and need to be pulled up.”

Biden overstated the support for Scott’s sunset proposal last year. Biden has been more precise in his speeches this week by saying that there are some Republicans who are in favour of the plan, or that Scott is the one responsible for it.

Biden may have created an inaccurate impression, however, by mentioning the sunset proposal during the section of the State of the Union in which he discussed the battle over the debt ceiling. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said cuts to Social Security are off the table in the debt ceiling negotiations, and there is no indication that House Republicans are pushing this proposal as part of these negotiations.

“The president ran on protecting Medicare and Social Security from cuts, and he reiterated that in the State of the Union,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre said this week. He has been very clear these past couple of years. The president does not have a bill from the 1970s on his agenda.

Biden cited Johnson’s remarks this week. Here’s what Johnson told a Green Bay radio show in August: “We’ve got to turn everything into discretionary spending, so it’s all evaluated, so that we can fix problems or fix programs that are broken, that are going to be going bankrupt. Because, again, as long as things are on automatic pilot, we just continue to pile up debt.” When Johnson faced criticism for those remarks at the time, he stood by them and said that was his consistent longtime position.

The Democrats have accused me of wanting to end Social Security since the time I ran for office, but I never said that. I’ve always been consistent: I want to save it,” he said in a radio interview this week.

It is not possible to fact-check this particular case without Johnson specifying what he wants to do. His office didn’t reply to CNN’s request.

“In 1975, he has a bill, a sunset bill,” Scott said on CNN of Biden when he was a freshman senator. “It says, it requires every program to be looked at freshly every four years, not just cost but worthiness.”

The future of Social Security and Medicare if Congress isn’t acting now, Senator Mike Rounds warns that the next 11 years could be very different

Republicans all raised their hands. So guess what? We accomplished something. Unless they break their word. There are going to be no cuts in Medicare, Social Security.

How Republicans handle themselves in the next year could determine the depth of what kind of foil Biden has in this group during his expected run for president — as the fight for which party is most in touch with the American people plays out.

Senator Mike Rounds warned about the future of Social Security and Medicare if congress doesn’t act now.

“In the next 11 years, we have to have a better plan in place than what we do today. We are going to see a reduction of as much as 24% in a benefit under existing circumstances. So, let’s start talking now because it’s easier to fix it now that it would be five years or six years from now,” Rounds told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”

Scott told Kaitlan Collins last week that his proposal was intended to eliminate wasteful spending and help the government figure out how to start living within their means.

We think that there are ways to long term success without scaring people or tearing apart the system. But it requires someone to manage it. And it requires actually looking at and making things better,” he said.

Populations, health care costs and program design are to blame for unsustainable figures. The ratio of workers supporting each retiree, which was about 5:1 back in 1960, will fall to just over 2:1 by the next decade. The group of people who live until age 90 will collect one-third of their adult life’s benefits. Today’s typical retiring couple will receive Medicare benefits three times as large as their lifetime contributions to the system, and also will come out ahead on Social Security (adjusted into present value), according to the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution.

Workers have responded, to some extent, by delaying their benefit claim. In 2021, 31 percent of retired worker claims were made by people age 62, down from 60 percent in 1998, according to an analysis of Social Security Administration data by Mr. Johnson. Eighty four percent of workers claimed benefits by 66.

A new tier of payroll tax contributions was proposed by Mr. Biden as a candidate for president. That would extend solvency by roughly five years. The Social Security 2100 Act, sponsored by Representative John Larson, Democrat of Connecticut, enjoys widespread support in the Democratic caucus. It mirrors President Biden’s payroll tax proposal.

Social Security 2100 includes a 2 percent across-the-board boost in benefits, and it would shift the annual cost-of-living increase to a more generous formula. A minimum benefit level for low income seniors is one of the targeted benefit increases. It would increase benefits for people who leave the workforce to care for family members if it was possible to get caregiver credits.

The Social Security system will pay $21 trillion more in benefits than the trust fund will get in payroll taxes and related revenues over the next three decades. The Medicare system is projected to run a $48 trillion shortfall. The national debt is expected to be $47 trillion in interest payments as a result of these deficits. That is a combined shortfall of $116 trillion, according to data from the Congressional Budget Office. (To inflation-adjust these figures, trim by roughly one-third.)

The implication of the president that full benefits can be paid with no taxes on 98 percent of families is nonsense. Imagine that Congress imposes a wealth tax on assets worth $10 billion or more and imposes estate taxes on estates over $1 million, all because Congress let the Trump tax cuts expire. Combined federal income, state and payroll marginal tax rates would approach 100 percent for wealthy taxpayers, and America would face among the highest wealth, estate and corporate tax rates in the developed world.