MagicMike
Platinum Member
Everyone who is out there gloating because they think they are now on some kind of "winning" team after Trump was elected is sadly mistaken. Unless you are a billionaire or at least a multi-millionaire YOU are not on this "winning" team.
You lost too, you just don't know it yet, haven't had to feel it yet.
But you will.
This rip-off is coming to EVERYBODY soon who is not in the "wealthy oligarch" category. Republicans have been looking for a way to do away with Social Security for decades and now they've fooled enough voters into letting them do it.
They're not doing it behind anyone's back though, in secret, in dark rooms. They're pulling this heist off in broad daylight, out in the open.
Unfortunately any advanced warnings of this impending catastrophe are only met with hysterical wailing by the TDS (Trump Devotion Syndrome) sheeple with an irrational and fierce devotion to apologizing for and defending Trump at all costs no matter what.
They are not going to realize what is being taken away from them until it is too late to turn back. Only then will they realize how they've been played.
How they lost too.....but were just the last to get the joke.
Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They’ve called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme, which Musk just called it this week (“the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” no less).
In fact, it has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of America, one now emulated by virtually every democracy in the world.
But the right-wing billionaires hate it for several reasons.
The first and most important reason is that it demonstrates that government can actually work for people and society. That then provides credibility for other government programs that billionaires hate even more, like regulating their pollution, breaking up their monopolies, making their social media platforms less toxic, and preventing them from ripping off average American consumers.
Thus, to get political support for gutting regulatory agencies that keep billionaires and their companies from robbing, deceiving, and poisoning us, they must first convince Americans that government is stupid, clumsy, and essentially evil.
Ronald Reagan began that process when he claimed that government was not the solution to our problems but was, in fact, the cause of our problems. It was a lie then and is a lie now, but the billionaire-owned media loved it and it’s been repeated hundreds of millions of times.
Billionaires also know that for Social Security to survive and prosper, morbidly rich people will eventually have to pay the same percentage of their income into it as bus drivers, carpenters, and people who work at McDonald’s.
Right now, people earning over $176,100 pay absolutely nothing into Social Security once that amount has been covered. To make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years, and even give a small raise to everybody on it, the simple fix is for the rich to just start paying Social Security income on all of their income, rather than only the first $176,100.
The entire solvency and health of Social Security could be cured permanently, in other words, if we simply did away with the “billionaire loophole” in the Social Security tax.
But the idea of having to pay a tax on all their income so that middle-class and low-income people can retire comfortably fills America’s billionaires with dread and disgust. So much so that not one single Republican publicly supports the idea.
How dare Americans have the temerity, they argue, to demand morbidly rich people help support the existence of an American middle class or help keep orphans and severely disabled people from being thrown out on the streets!
Which is why Musk and his teenage hackers are attacking the Social Security administration and its employees with such gusto.
By firing thousands of employees, their evil plan is to make interacting with Social Security such a difficult and painful process—involving months to make an appointment and hours or even days just to get someone on the telephone—that retired Americans will get angry with the government and begin to listen to Republicans and Wall Street bankers who tell us they should run the system.
(This won’t be limited to Social Security, by the way; as you’re reading these words, Trump and Musk are planning to slash 80,000 employees from the Veterans Administration, with a scheme to dump those who served in our military into our private, for-profit hospital and health insurance systems.)
The next step will be to roll out the Social Security version of Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare that George W. Bush created in 2003. That scam makes hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for giant insurance companies, who then kick some of that profit back to Republican politicians as campaign donations and luxury trips to international resorts.
Advantage programs are notorious for screwing people when they get sick and for ripping off our government to the tune of billions every year. But every effort at reforming Medicare or stopping the Medicare Advantage providers from denying us care and stealing from our government has been successfully blocked by bought-off Republicans in Congress.
Once Republicans have damaged the staffing of the Social Security Administration so badly that people are screaming about the difficult time they’re having signing up, solving problems or errors, or even getting their checks, right-wing media will begin to promote—with help from GOP politicians and the billionaire Murdoch family’s Fox “News”—people opting out of Social Security and going with a private option that resembles private 401(k)s.
Rumor has it they’ll call it “Social Security Advantage” and, like Medicare Advantage, which is administered for massive profits by the insurance giants, it will be run by giant, trillion-dollar banks out of New York.
While big insurance companies have probably made something close to a trillion dollars in profits out of our tax dollars from Medicare Advantage since George W. Bush rolled out the program, Social Security Advantage could make that profit level look like chump change for the big banks.
And, as an added bonus, billionaires and right-wing media will get to point out how hard it is to deal with the now-crippled Social Security Administration and argue that it’s time to relieve them too of the regulatory burdens of “big government”: gut or even kill off the regulatory agencies and make their yachts and private jets even more tax deductible than they already are.
This is why Trump repeated Musk’s lies about 200-year-old people getting Social Security checks and the system being riddled with fraud and waste. In fact, Social Security is one of the most secure and fraud-free programs in American history.
newrepublic.com
And this heist by these elite billionaires doesn't end with wiping out your Social Security. They're coming for your veteran's benefits as well. But again, they aren't trying to sneak this giant rip off by you. They are asking your permission to bend you over and violate you.
And too many people are so brainwashedon this cult of personality and blind devotion they are willing to give it without question.
Veterans advocates have previously warned the Trump administration not to reverse the progress on PACT Act implementation as it pursues budget cuts.
"This is not just a budget decision -- it's a life-or-death issue for veterans suffering from toxic exposure-related illnesses," Rosie Torres, co-founder of Burn Pits 360 and a leading proponent of the PACT Act, said in a statement last month. "The government made a promise. We honored our oath, now honor yours."
www.military.com
You lost too, you just don't know it yet, haven't had to feel it yet.
But you will.
This rip-off is coming to EVERYBODY soon who is not in the "wealthy oligarch" category. Republicans have been looking for a way to do away with Social Security for decades and now they've fooled enough voters into letting them do it.
They're not doing it behind anyone's back though, in secret, in dark rooms. They're pulling this heist off in broad daylight, out in the open.
Unfortunately any advanced warnings of this impending catastrophe are only met with hysterical wailing by the TDS (Trump Devotion Syndrome) sheeple with an irrational and fierce devotion to apologizing for and defending Trump at all costs no matter what.
They are not going to realize what is being taken away from them until it is too late to turn back. Only then will they realize how they've been played.
How they lost too.....but were just the last to get the joke.
Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They’ve called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme, which Musk just called it this week (“the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” no less).
In fact, it has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of America, one now emulated by virtually every democracy in the world.
But the right-wing billionaires hate it for several reasons.
The first and most important reason is that it demonstrates that government can actually work for people and society. That then provides credibility for other government programs that billionaires hate even more, like regulating their pollution, breaking up their monopolies, making their social media platforms less toxic, and preventing them from ripping off average American consumers.
Thus, to get political support for gutting regulatory agencies that keep billionaires and their companies from robbing, deceiving, and poisoning us, they must first convince Americans that government is stupid, clumsy, and essentially evil.
Ronald Reagan began that process when he claimed that government was not the solution to our problems but was, in fact, the cause of our problems. It was a lie then and is a lie now, but the billionaire-owned media loved it and it’s been repeated hundreds of millions of times.
Billionaires also know that for Social Security to survive and prosper, morbidly rich people will eventually have to pay the same percentage of their income into it as bus drivers, carpenters, and people who work at McDonald’s.
Right now, people earning over $176,100 pay absolutely nothing into Social Security once that amount has been covered. To make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years, and even give a small raise to everybody on it, the simple fix is for the rich to just start paying Social Security income on all of their income, rather than only the first $176,100.
The entire solvency and health of Social Security could be cured permanently, in other words, if we simply did away with the “billionaire loophole” in the Social Security tax.
But the idea of having to pay a tax on all their income so that middle-class and low-income people can retire comfortably fills America’s billionaires with dread and disgust. So much so that not one single Republican publicly supports the idea.
How dare Americans have the temerity, they argue, to demand morbidly rich people help support the existence of an American middle class or help keep orphans and severely disabled people from being thrown out on the streets!
Which is why Musk and his teenage hackers are attacking the Social Security administration and its employees with such gusto.
By firing thousands of employees, their evil plan is to make interacting with Social Security such a difficult and painful process—involving months to make an appointment and hours or even days just to get someone on the telephone—that retired Americans will get angry with the government and begin to listen to Republicans and Wall Street bankers who tell us they should run the system.
(This won’t be limited to Social Security, by the way; as you’re reading these words, Trump and Musk are planning to slash 80,000 employees from the Veterans Administration, with a scheme to dump those who served in our military into our private, for-profit hospital and health insurance systems.)
The next step will be to roll out the Social Security version of Medicare Advantage, the privatized version of Medicare that George W. Bush created in 2003. That scam makes hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for giant insurance companies, who then kick some of that profit back to Republican politicians as campaign donations and luxury trips to international resorts.
Advantage programs are notorious for screwing people when they get sick and for ripping off our government to the tune of billions every year. But every effort at reforming Medicare or stopping the Medicare Advantage providers from denying us care and stealing from our government has been successfully blocked by bought-off Republicans in Congress.
Once Republicans have damaged the staffing of the Social Security Administration so badly that people are screaming about the difficult time they’re having signing up, solving problems or errors, or even getting their checks, right-wing media will begin to promote—with help from GOP politicians and the billionaire Murdoch family’s Fox “News”—people opting out of Social Security and going with a private option that resembles private 401(k)s.
Rumor has it they’ll call it “Social Security Advantage” and, like Medicare Advantage, which is administered for massive profits by the insurance giants, it will be run by giant, trillion-dollar banks out of New York.
While big insurance companies have probably made something close to a trillion dollars in profits out of our tax dollars from Medicare Advantage since George W. Bush rolled out the program, Social Security Advantage could make that profit level look like chump change for the big banks.
And, as an added bonus, billionaires and right-wing media will get to point out how hard it is to deal with the now-crippled Social Security Administration and argue that it’s time to relieve them too of the regulatory burdens of “big government”: gut or even kill off the regulatory agencies and make their yachts and private jets even more tax deductible than they already are.
This is why Trump repeated Musk’s lies about 200-year-old people getting Social Security checks and the system being riddled with fraud and waste. In fact, Social Security is one of the most secure and fraud-free programs in American history.
Trump and Musk’s Plan to Destroy Social Security Started Tuesday Night
It starts with cutting staff at the Social Security Administration. That will sow confusion. Then it builds from there.
newrepublic.com
And this heist by these elite billionaires doesn't end with wiping out your Social Security. They're coming for your veteran's benefits as well. But again, they aren't trying to sneak this giant rip off by you. They are asking your permission to bend you over and violate you.
And too many people are so brainwashedon this cult of personality and blind devotion they are willing to give it without question.
Veterans advocates have previously warned the Trump administration not to reverse the progress on PACT Act implementation as it pursues budget cuts.
"This is not just a budget decision -- it's a life-or-death issue for veterans suffering from toxic exposure-related illnesses," Rosie Torres, co-founder of Burn Pits 360 and a leading proponent of the PACT Act, said in a statement last month. "The government made a promise. We honored our oath, now honor yours."
83,000 VA Employees Slated to Be Fired This Year by Musk's DOGE, Memo Says
If implemented, the layoffs would bring the department down to the level of employees it had before the PACT Act, the wide-ranging 2022 law that expanded VA health care and benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic substances.
