Crazy to Cut Medicare

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"Don't mess with our Social Security and Medicare benefits. Pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling and get on with the task of governing."

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In this week's column, Paul Krugman laid it out pretty simply — he said the Republicans have gone insane. ¹

Republicans won't even discuss raising taxes, they want to cut Social Security and Medicare and they're being totally obstructionist in debt ceiling negotiations. Some of the Republicans are even willing to drive our economy into another recession by forcing our government to default on our debt for the first time in history.

It's gone too far. And it's insane that the people controlling the House of Representatives are acting like this.

Republicans like Rep. Simpson need to hear from their constituents.

Tell Rep. Simpson: Don't mess with our Social Security and Medicare benefits. Pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling and get on with the task of governing. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

In his column, titled "Getting to Crazy" Krugman wrote:

President Obama has made it clear that he's willing to sign on to a deficit-reduction deal that consists overwhelmingly of spending cuts, and includes draconian cuts in key social programs, up to and including a rise in the age of Medicare eligibility. These are extraordinary concessions. As The Times's Nate Silver points out, the president has offered deals that are far to the right of what the average American voter prefers — in fact, if anything, they're a bit to the right of what the average Republican voter prefers!

Yet Republicans are saying no. Indeed, they're threatening to force a U.S. default, and create an economic crisis, unless they get a completely one-sided deal. And this was entirely predictable.

What's become predictable is that years of normalizing extreme behavior by Republicans has culminated in a Crazy Caucus in Congress. The vast majority of Americans oppose cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Period. That the debate in Congress could drift so far to the right that the Republicans would wreck the economy to prove an ideological point is a new low.

Republicans need a reality check.

Tell Rep. Simpson: Don't mess with our Social Security and Medicare benefits. It's time to pass a clean bill to raise the debt ceiling and get on with the task of governing. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Krugman closes his column by noting that "there has been no pressure on the G.O.P. to show any kind of responsibility, or even rationality — and sure enough, it has gone off the deep end."

We agree. We need you to be part of that pressure. Even though we know it is unlikely that Republicans will break ranks and do the right thing, we must hold individual Republicans like Rep. Simpson accountable to reality and let them know how insane we think their plan to cut our Social Security and Medicare benefits is.

Thank you for speaking out.

Matt Lockshin, Campaign Manager 

CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "Getting to Crazy," Paul Krugman, New York Times, 07-14-2011.