Republicans Doggedly Pursue ending Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare during a Recession.

What would be a fundamental question we should be asking Republicans about our safety nets? Here’s a suggestion;

Why the focus on entitlement programs, especially during a time of an economic recession, when people are more dependent of these safety nets? 

Remember that all the Obama “spending” had to do with digging the country out of a possible depression, a fact the media glosses over. Spending; not by choice, but out of necessity.

That’s why stories like this drive me crazy:

WashPo: We want to take action now,” Cantor said. “The immediate action should involve cuts to mandatory programs, which make up the largest portion of the budget and are not funded through annual appropriations. For such programs, the government is obliged to provide benefits to all who qualify regardless of the cost.” The biggest mandatory programs — often called “entitlements” — are Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. 

Instead of balancing the budget on the backs of the wealthy, a no brainer, Republicans have successfully shifted the debate to balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. That’s an amazing accomplishment when you think about it.

Asked about removing the tax break for Big Oil, Cantor believe wrongly that such a move would be a “tax increase.” That’s off the table.  It’s those damn entitlements.

Cantor dismissed tax hikes as a “non-starter,” saying raising taxes without changes to the big entitlement programs would simply delay the day of reckoning. 

“We want to be there with a safety net for people who need it. But what we’ve seen over the years is a country that has turned much more into an entitlement country for people who don’t need it,” Cantor said. “That is the fundamental question at stake here.”

People don’t need entitlements! I know a few, don’t you, like our parents who don’t need Medicare and Social Security, or the unemployed who lost their health care and are now on Medicaid. We've turned into an entitlement country because conservative policies have pushed them there.