THIS IS AMERICA!!!!

"Sometimes I only eat one meal a day."

Older Americans living on fixed incomes are feeling the squeeze of inflation. https://t.co/mBDv4JmYcg pic.twitter.com/Ac40vcxbAT

— CNN (@CNN) October 25, 2022

We don't give a fuck for our poor and elderly unless we can use them as campaign props right before an election.

Well, we don't care about the poor at all.  We kind of care about the elderly (especially the WHITE elderly), but you know by November 9 nobody is going to be talking about inflation nor about how it's affecting the elderly AT ALL!

Except for the GOP, who will want to cut Social Security and Medicare and want to take down the global economy and the credit rating of the United States to do it.  Because it's the only way to cure the elderly:  they have to be sacrificed so we can whip inflation now.*

Hayes then proceeded to play a clip of Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) laying out clearly that he wants the debt ceiling to be a bargaining chip to force a change to fiscal policy.

"I think it has to be," said Banks. "It's a major leverage point — to control spending. We've seen the national debt now surpass $31 trillion. It's a key driver of inflation. We have to use a moment like that to do things that the administration wouldn't otherwise do."

"So, you heard, this is the explicit plan to fight inflation," said Hayes. "Strap on the explosive vest, hold the government's full faith and credit to the United States for ransom, unless Democrats agree to painful cuts to government spending, which is a fine thing to say, like, in the abstract. but where with those come from? Kevin McCarthy, who's likely become the next speaker if Republicans take the House, has said as much as well. Again, republicans are smart enough, some of them, I mean, cagey about what exactly 'wasteful spending' means. But not all of them. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported some wanted to tie the debt ceiling explicitly to — and I'm quoting directly here — cuts to Medicare and Social Security. Medicare and Social Security."

It's the same tired Chicago school of economics argument from 50 years ago, which was beaten to death and buried by Paul Volcker when he throttled the economy until inflation gave up the ghost (the same game plan the Fed is using now, though inflatin isn't at double digits and hasn't been around for over a decade yet), and yet while we've never balanced the budget (except under Bill Clinton) since, and the GOP has run up higher deficits than any Democratic President ever dreamed of, they still return to this pitiful spectre because it was drummed into people's heads lo those 50 years gone, and a lot of those people who learned that lesson are still alive today (with the exception of Grassley and Feinstein, none of them politicians still holding office).  It's an idee fixe with no grounding in reality whatsoever but who cares, we know it's true!**

Except, as I say, it isn't.  At all.

And does everybody remember when W won re-election and had a "mandate" and "political capital" that he was gonna spend by...cutting Social Security?  Yeah, how far did that go?  The GOP wasn't quite as stupid then as it is now.  Now the entire GOP is as stupid as Shrub.  Which is what is truly frightening, because compared to Trump, Shrub now looks like an elder statesman.

What hath got wrot?

*You have to be this old (points finger at self) to remember that felicitious anti-inflation phrase.  Bonus points if you know the politician it was associated with.  A clue:  that didn't work, either.

**I think every state in the union has "no-fault" auto insurance by now, but people born after that change still think you can't move your car after a wreck until the police arrive and...ask you why you're car is still blocking traffic.  The only exception is fatalities, which must be investigated.  Fender benders?  Get it outta the way!  But the myth persists because the change itself isn't yet as old as automobiles and old peoples' (raises hand) memories.