After Massive Tax Cuts For The Rich, GOP Senate Blames Rising Deficits On Medicare/Social Security

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell

Remember when the Trump tax cuts were not only going to pay for themselves but lower the deficit?

Yeah, not so much.

From Bloomberg News:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed rising federal deficits and debt on a bipartisan unwillingness to contain spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and said he sees little chance of a major deficit reduction deal while Republicans control Congress and the White House.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s not a Republican problem,” McConnell said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg News when asked about the rising deficits and debt. “It’s a bipartisan problem: unwillingness to address the real drivers of the debt by doing anything to adjust those programs to the demographics of America in the future.”

McConnell’s remarks came a day after the Treasury Department said the U.S. budget deficit grew to $779 billion in Donald Trump’s first full fiscal year as president, the result of the GOP’s tax cuts, bipartisan spending increases and rising interest payments on the national debt. That’s a 77 percent increase from the $439 billion deficit in fiscal 2015, when McConnell became majority leader.

People aren’t idiots, Mitch.

You blew up the deficit with huge tax cuts for the ultra-rich, now you want to go dismantle the social safety net, just like everyone predicted.

"McConnell eyes cuts to Medicare, Social Security to address deficit" https://t.co/55d1IFx2BH

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 17, 2018

This is a direct attack on our seniors. Medicaid and Social Security aren't "entitlements," they are earned benefits for working class people. https://t.co/yxQCdCYuMs

— Andrew Janz (@JanzforCongress) October 17, 2018

Sure enough, Mitch McConnell is already saying that we need to cut entitlements -- which is a euphemism for cuts in Medicare and Social Security, something every news article should point out -- in response to the deficit the tax cut exploded 2/ https://t.co/4casxKA8CA

— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 17, 2018