Colorado MAGA representative Lauren Boebert  picks a fight with Oren “Hank” McKnelly, the Executive Counselor of the Social Security Administration. As usual Boebert is ill-prepared and looks like a fool – 2 minutes:

The reason for this confrontation is that under new House Speaker Mike (religious nut) Johnson the MAGA Party is once more looking to either drastically cut or take away Social Security for elderly Americans. It is very much of an Iowa issue since 18% of Iowans are over 65, putting Iowa in the top 1/3 of elderly states. If you are under 65 and think this doesn’t pertain to you, just think how much you would like to be living with Mom and Dad again. 

Also remember that MAGAs want to end traditional Medicare which would force elderly into privatized health insurance which will end up being much more costly with much less services. Welcome Home, Mom and Dad! Besides that when your time comes to retire you better hope that Social Security is still there and functional because I can almost guarantee that most of you will not have near enough to retire on.

The excerpt above is from a hearing held Wednesday during a House Oversight Committee to set up a sub committee to investigate the Social Security Commission. 

Now as much as I would love to dwell on Lauren Boebert’s pathetic stint as a congress member there are other issues included here that affect Iowans. The very first of which is that Iowa’s current congressional delegation is foursquare behind cutting Social Security payments and access to Social Security. Remember that this fall Iowa senior – a vote for a MAGA candidate is a vote against a system that works fairly well (could be improved) and that provides many Iowa seniors with their only source of income.

As I mentioned, the current Social Security system could be improved. Social Security could be solvent forever if the 6% tax were levied on all income, not just the first $160,000. Of course MAGA congress members will refuse to talk of that even though it is merely an extension of a tax they are already paying. Those in the over $160,000 income bracket should be able to afford an extension of the Social Security tax without much problem.

As you can see in the video, MAGA congress members want to cut Social Security administrative funding so it won’t work. This is an old Republican ploy – make it so government can’t work then whine that it isn’t working. It takes people to administer programs and do it correctly. Voting for a MAGA candidate is voting against your own interests.

As Thom Hartmann noted in his daily sub stack for Tuesday November 28:  

Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed Social Security through Congress, signing it into law on August 14th 1935, and Republicans opposed it then and have hated it ever since.

This week, they’re planning to do something about it with a House hearing designed to set up a closed-door commission to “reform” the program. They figure when government funding runs out in January they’ll be able use the fiscal crisis they intend to create to force Democrats to go along with what the Biden administration calls a “Death Panel for Medicare and Social Security.”

[snip]

(Ed. Note: republicans in the beginning predicted dire consequences if SS was adopted)

It hasn’t quite worked out that way: Social Security has never missed a payment, never bounced a check, and pretty much ended the widespread deaths by poverty-associated hunger and freezing to death in the winter that were widespread among the elderly before its adoption.

[snip]

Over the past two decades, Republicans in Congress have done everything they can to sour Americans on Social Security, mostly by repeatedly gutting funding for its administration every time they have control of the budget process.

The GOP’s plan has been to so overburden workers at the Social Security Administration that it takes absurd amounts of time and effort for people turning 65 to sign up, or for seniors on Social Security to find anybody to talk with about problems with or confusion about their claims.

In this, they’ve been spectacularly successful, forcing cut after cut into must-pass budget bills under the threat of government shutdowns.

All this to remind people that there are real life and death issues in next year’s elections. Choking Social Security is a major one. Voting for any MAGA candidate is voting to kill perhaps America’s most popular and successful program. 

But MAGA candidates will note tell that they plan to cut or do away with Social Security. Here are assessments of two Iowa congress members from a year ago after MAGA regained (barely) control of congress. Now Speaker Johnson intends to use the cover of the budget to drastically cut Social Security:

• Ashley Hinson (IA-02) – Hinson has said she is open to raising the Social Security retirement age and pledged that a Republican House majority would be “making some tough decisions” about Social Security.
• Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01) – Miller-Meeks has wanted to cut Medicare and Social Security going back to her first campaign in 2008. Miller-Meeks blamed rising health care costs on seniors overusing Medicare. She repeatedly supported raising the retirement age and supported privatizing Social Security.

This just hit our mailbox talking about Zach Nun’s determination to cut Social Security and Medicare:

Zach Nunn’s Fiscal Commission Could Cost Iowans’ Their Social Security and Medicare

Des Moines, IA —On Wednesday, the House Budget Committee held a hearing on legislation co-sponsored by Congressman Zach Nunn to establish a fiscal commission—which advocates argue is “designed to give Congress political cover for cutting Americans’ earned benefits” like Social Security and Medicare.

“As I’ve begun my early retirement years, Social Security and Medicare are very important to me and others,” said Mike Kern of Des Moines. “While I’m fortunate enough to have some additional assets to support me, it is not near enough to cover potential reductions in SSI and Medicare. Americans cannot support themselves without these programs.”

Nunn previously pledged to “defend these programs,” but he’s spent much of his time in Congress undercutting Social Security and Medicare. In fact, his very first bill in Congress would have resulted in deep, harmful cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Congressman Nunn voted for the Default on America Act—which would make it harder for seniors to access their Medicare and Social Security benefits—and he’s a member of the Republican Study Committee, an extreme group of House Republicans focused on cutting Social Security and Medicare.

“Zach Nunn has spent his first year in office saying one thing and doing another. Instead of protecting Social Security and Medicare like he said he would, Nunn is cosponsoring legislation that could dismantle these critical programs that Iowans count on,” said Matt Sinovic, executive director of Progress Iowa and Fairness for Iowa coalition member. “Congressman Nunn should raise taxes on the rich and corporations instead of voting for harmful cuts that make life more expensive for Iowans in his district and threaten the benefits they’ve earned.”