Busted: GOP plots controversial cuts as McCarthy tested

This is the eve of the State of the Union, there is historic job growth that the White House is selling and then the rapidly developing conflict in Washington is that we are getting new details about what the real Republican agenda may be in Congress or in Congress. Among the people running for president are prominent conservatives who are reviving an idea long thought dead and, interestingly, one that Barack Obama himself warned about in the midterm campaign. He brings back the idea of ​​bringing back what was once a Bush-era plan to change or gut the president's Social Security. tonight we're told he'll say a lot more about how he plans to reshape Social Security the system is heading toward bankruptcy I raised capital in the campaign political capital and now I intend to spend it strengthen it improve it not privatize it even though some consider it It's the third lane of American politics, so I'm afraid to touch it.

Some don't want to touch it. Some make excuses not to touch it. Thank you. Do you want to touch it even in friendly territory? It's fair to say he's finding that. his plan is going to be a hard sell the problem is that the stock market could do poorly in the future a dumb idea I'm not convinced of any plan I'm not convinced of the president's plan the last voice there a Republican senator from the south If you live This, you might remember the backlash from the street protests, the voters who were told the markets are doing very well, put it in the markets and maybe it'll be even easier or more profitable than how Social Security works as a government program, but the thing about markets is that they go up and down and people, ultimately, most people, even in the red states, were very concerned about the idea that they would have to ride that wave towards insecurity when the main objective of Social Security is the security part, as you heard from Bush. there, talking about the capital that you thought you had earned well, you tried to spend it but you backed out, it didn't work at all in 2005, so we've lived through all of that and we provide that context because many members of Congress remember that this is their policy area, They know it and yet here we are in 2023 and Mike Pence, thinking about running for president, is now basically trapped, if you want to call it that, in a leaked video where he is talking to a business group in the last few days about bringing back to this thing about the Republican Party doing what Obama warned in the midterms they could do and what some Republicans denied, which is trying to privatize or gut your Social Security;

There are modest rights reforms that can be made without harming anyone at the point of need and, in fact, I think the day could come when we could replace the new deal with a better deal, literally giving younger Americans the ability to take a portion of your social security withholdings and put it in a private savings account, privatize it or part of it. Pence does this at a time when he's talking to House Republicans, where remember, of course, that he used to serve on the Republican study committee on all of this and push the Bush plan or a Bush-style plan, the same House group.

Republicans will try again in 2023. So it's all related because some of these ideas were only shelved because they were unpopular, and yet the turnaround never happened. They're trying to get it back or increase the seniority or privatize some of it in a Republican chamber. confirming that the party is considering citing across-the-board

cuts

to food assistance, talking about that New Deal-type shift, and then all of this fits into the fight we've been covering over debt and spending that bails out the economy. Republicans basically say yes they can. If they don't get drastic

cuts

, they could try to ruin the spokesman for America's Credit Now, McCarthy, for his part, who has to pay attention to the next elections, says that they will not target Social Security, they are not being very specific about the other cuts what they want and well, we've seen that sometimes he's not always in charge of what the caucus is doing, we saw that in the speaker race, so that's the context tonight as everyone prepares for a great state of union tomorrow and I want to bring in the Washington Post Libby Casey and the New York Times Michelle Goldberg, Libby, what do you see in some of these ideas that are apparently being revived?

Well, Kevin McCarthy gave this pre-buttal to Union headquarters tonight, but he didn't do it. actually says whatever cuts he'd like to make, he just doubled down on this idea that spending has been crazy without acknowledging, of course, how the deficit ballooned under the Trump administration and even though he said he wouldn't touch Social Security or Medicare there. There are many ideas simmering in the caucus that would suggest otherwise. I mean, Mike Pence was fondly reminiscing in that video that you just showed Ari of the Bush years and the conversation and how they were actually discussing this and what they could do, um and so on. is remembering that, as a starting point, we have other figures like Matt Gates who are trying to implement programs for the most vulnerable Americans like Medicaid and then, in a fascinating twist, we have Donald Trump warning Republicans not to touch him, but I have to point out to Ari that his former director of OMB, the office of budget and management, has presented his own plan and is saying that there are cuts and cuts that can be made in areas like benefits for disabled veterans and other areas in which There are the Americans.

I probably don't find it intentional when you tell people you're going after the veterans age, it usually doesn't sound good Michelle. I think you know there was this fantasy among some people after Donald Trump's election that the Republican Party had turned austerity economics around a coroner in its essential feel Teeter wall Small Street you hear a lot of demagogue of the Republican Party against Wall Street but they know that when it comes to legislation they are generally very willing to do their thing and I think you know it's not surprising that Donald Trump warned against this because that's partly how he formed what was kind of a new coalition within the Republican Party that included many former low-level Democratic voters, but I think what I see with so many people in the Republican Party is that they just can't quit, thank you.