This is really rather infuriating:
President Trump’s proposal to slash domestic spending in order to preserve the two biggest drains on the federal government — Social Security and Medicare — has set up a battle to determine who now controls the Republican Party’s ideology.
…
Mr. Trump’s budget blueprint — which is expected to be central to his address to Congress on Tuesday night — sets up a striking clash with the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, who has made a career out of pressing difficult truths on federal spending. For years, Mr. Ryan has maintained that to tame the budget deficit without tax increases and prevent draconian cuts to federal programs, Congress must be willing to change, and cut, the programs that spend the most money — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
The Times needs to learn a “difficult truth” about federal spending. Social Security is a self funded program. It does not contribute to the deficit. Indeed, it has helped finance the deficit, as the trust fund has been invested in government bonds. If you repealed Social Security tomorrow, you would not reduce the deficit by a nickel. Nowhere in this article is this point made. The Republicans make a point of lumping Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid together when they talk about deficits, when they know full well that Social Security does not belong in that conversation. It is the function of a news organization to expose that deception, not endorse it.
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