Every election cycle since at least the 1980s, Republicans vow to not cut Social Security and Medicaid benefits. Then once elected, they try to cut Social Security and Medicaid.
For some reason, supporters of the GOP are shocked every time it happens.
Endeavoring to once again educate the electorate, New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) pointed out Republicans' penchant for breaking promises during a meeting to discuss the budget by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
You can see her remarks here:
Highlighting Republican promises already broken, Representative Ocasio-Cortez said:
"We heard that we should take your word that Medicaid will be protected—that we should trust you that no one is going to be affected by this."
"But as a woman, the word was given to me that my rights would not be taken away by the Supreme Court—and that wasn’t true."
"As an American, the word was given that our First Amendment protections would be in place for everyone, including green-card holders and people who are lawfully here in this country. That didn’t end up to be true."
AOC—as she's come to be called since being elected to Congress in 2019—addressed her committee colleagues and members of the gallery over the GOP's refusal to add an amendment to their budget proposal which includes $880 billion in cuts to the Medicaid budget.
They claim their funding cuts are all going to involve the undefined, undisclosed "waste" identified by Elon Musk's Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), so benefits won't be touched. But AOC declared she's heard that song before.
She said:
"We have not heard a single concrete number of the amount of waste and abuse that has been identified. There’s kind of this vague magic wand around waste."
She then referred to comments made by Musk and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about government waste.
She added:
"What’s being suggested is that … people seeing the doctor is a waste."
Republicans pointed to prior oversight plans, but AOC countered:
"DOGE did not exist two years ago. 19-year-olds were not raiding the Treasury two years ago. Elon Musk is not a scientist. He is not an engineer."
"He is a billionaire conman with a lot of money. … These are peoples’ lives that are on the line and we cannot laugh them away."
People agreed with her distrust of Republican promises.
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Democrats asked Republicans to put their promise in writing and add an amendment establishing none of those cuts will be to benefits.
The GOP, of course, refused.
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