President Biden throws down the gauntlet
President Truman was known for his outspokenness that earned him the nickname “Give ‘em Hell Harry” – but contrary to his reputation that allowed him to buck a global trend and win election in his own right, Truman said of the GOP: “I never did give them Hell. I just tell the truth about them and they think it’s Hell.” Seven decades later, the GOP is mostly just as worthless, with the need to lie outright about all of their plans for America – because if they were honest about what they were proposing, they’d lose every election by a landslide. In all that time, few of them pursued any original ideas – and a lot of them still want to gut Social Security and Medicare just as much as they wanted to then.
The only thing that’s really changed over the last few years is that Republicans have now been forced to admit the evil parts aloud – that their party has never been about anything other than keeping power and satisfying their top donors, so now they’re doing whatever they can to create a crisis that would force cuts to the social safety net. President Biden is, of course, calling them out accordingly – taking every opportunity to shine light on the Republicans’ plans – which will involve opening the door to getting rid of both Social Security and Medicare. Even deciding to fund it year to year will make it pretty much impossible to get other legislation done.
Republican leaders know this – and that’s exactly why they’re getting angered over President Biden targeting it. Republicans first telegraphed their plans to cut the social safety net in last year’s midterms when we defied expectations and overperformed, and if they’re idiotic enough to give it to us again, so be it. This is clear messaging that we need to use when we campaign this year and next: Republicans will gut your social safety net and they don’t care how hard you worked for it. Force them to give an answer on this one way or another – but they’ll lose votes either way, as they should.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making