This article was written well ahead of scheduled publishing in order to accommodate my travel plans.

For perhaps the first time in his life Florida Republican Senator Rick “The Fifth” Scott spoke the truth when he let the cat out of the bag about the Republicans’ plans for the economy should they take control of Congress in January. Immediately almost every Washington Republicans denied it. As they head to the polls this fall most Americans have the economy if not as their top concern certainly high on their list. That’s my setup. If you want to learn what the real GOP economic (and beyond) plan is read on.

The number one objective of the Republicans is to win the 2024 presidential election. In order to do that they feel they must make Joe Biden and the Democrats look bad. Making a mess of the economy and possibly shutting down the federal government in the process would be one route to that objective since the average voter will blame Biden. It appears that they will start by trying to extract concessions from the Democrats in order to raise the debt ceiling. Those concessions will include cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

I’ll digress for a minute to do a quick explanation of just what the debt ceiling is. It is not new spending! It is simply raising the amount the Treasury is allowed to borrow in order to pay for spending previously authorized by Congress. If that sounds stupid to you, I agree. We should simply do away with the debt ceiling it serves no real purpose.

If the debt ceiling is not raised it will cause the United States to default on its current debt. The last time the Republicans had us on the brink of not raising the debt ceiling was the first and only time in history that America’s credit rating was downgraded making borrowing more expensive. In the long-run you, the American taxpayer, picks up the tab on that.

Now if you are a political thinker – and if you aren’t why are you here? – you might say that since old, white voters are the Republican base and they are the biggest beneficiaries of Social Security and Medicare why would the Republicans do that. The reality is that they are simultaneous working on voter nullification and if successful they will not need those voters much longer.

Despite the fact that the Republicans have a lot of operatives and elected officials who are evil, they are not all stupid. While the change will be swift it will not be immediate. The Republicans are not going to immediately slash your Social Security check in half or anything like that. The changes will be more along the lines of changing eligibility and the criteria for cost of living raises. Subtle somewhat hidden changes that will escape the average Republican base voter who already votes against their self-interest. In Medicare certain drugs may move from one tier to another costing seniors more and benefiting Big Pharma, a major Republican investor, in the process. (Note: I used the term “investor”. When you donate politically in anticipation of favorable legislation it is an investment that you expect a return on.) Many co-pays will increase. Most seniors won’t notice that until and unless it impacts them. (In other words, when it is too late.) Don’t expect Fox News to include them in their coverage.

There are a plethora of election deniers running in 2022. Some of them will win. That coupled with what I fear will be a disastrous Supreme Court decision in Moore v Harper and if needed a few more similar election victories in 2024 will render the individual vote moot. State legislatures and officials will control the outcome of elections regardless of the actual vote. At that point the GOP plans to have sufficient control over the electoral system so as to attain permanent rule. Then their base – who resemble the voters in Thomas Frank’s 2004 book, What’s the Matter with Kansas? – becomes what the GOP elite today envision them to be: temporarily useful idiots.

If this all sounds like fascism to you; that is what I have been trying to communicate for years now. The GOP looks at senior citizens, even those in its base, as surplus people who just drain the system of resources. Remember that when you vote; while your vote still counts that is.

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