Today, The American Prospect published a piece, “The Twilight of the Deficit Hawks,” about the waning influence of deficit hawks and their increasing ties to extreme MAGA politics. This follows the President’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday, where he warned the crowd of the Republican Party’s well-publicized plan to sunset Medicare and Social Security.
A few key excerpts are below. To speak to Lindsay Owens about the deficit hawks growing alignment with MAGA extremists, email press@groundworkcollaborative.org.
“President Biden’s jujitsu this week at the State of the Union address, effectively taking cuts to Social Security and Medicare off the table in future negotiations around the debt limit, reveals how this dynamic has ended. The deficit hawks have lost nearly all their friends in the Democratic Party, a significant sea change that makes a grand bargain to damage retirement security far less likely.”
“The austerians in Washington have always trafficked in cruelty and racism, but they used to launder it through organizations with the veneer of fiscal responsibility,” said Lindsay Owens, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. “This Congress, the facade has evaporated and folks like Maya MacGuineas are fully aligned with the policy demands of toxic elements like Matt Gaetz.”
“Democratic rejection of deficit politics leaves Republicans politically exposed. And so their leadership is compelled to take it off the table and publicly announce that Social Security and Medicare won’t be touched. Donald Trump wanting to use Social Security and Medicare as a wedge issue against Ron DeSantis, who was a Paul Ryan dittohead in Congress, is another factor. But even if that didn’t exist, Republicans don’t have the cover they need to slash social insurance.”
“The problem for them is that the world has shrunk. They are outside the legislative boundaries set up by Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, lingering on the same side as conservative bomb-throwing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Enterprise Institute. A group with prior bipartisan credentials is now on the edge of MAGA-world.”