Will Republicans take the Senate in the election?

No argument here. But the redistribution of wealth, which is socialism, was also the plan. More government control and manipulation of those who are dependent on government because the ACA has killed jobs.

What makes you think it will do anything different than it has up until now? More than likely first out of the box a repeal vote might actually pass this time, only to be vetoed when it gets to the desk of the president thereby accomplishing nothing yet again. The key stone might be passed, I know little about it, so I guess, that might be something. The point being is that you guys still need the guy you hate if you want your congress to "do something" of any consequence. Or they can start another Ken Star investigation and spend the remaining years impeaching the president for some trumped up charge.

The question is whether the pro-liberty guys have enuf votes
to defeat a veto.

Why Republicans Will Vote to Repeal Obamacare, but Not on How to Replace It

Please, republicans, privatize Medicare like Ryan is proposing, Nothing is surer for democrats to win in 2016.

Two more years of Obama is all the Republicans need to win in 2016.

You do realize that any changes that are made to either Medicare or Social Security would not effect current users of those programs? There is an age limit for who it will and won't effect. I think I have usually seen that those unaffected by the changes, keeping things as they are, would be limited to those over 50 by the date of a law starting. Meaning that my parents would have the programs as they are now and I would have a different system when I was able to use the programs.

The problem is how you are going to pay for both systems, Baldimo? Currently your and my FICA payments go to pay for those currently receiving benefits and what doesn't go to them helps finance the short fall in income tax receipts.

If the government stops collecting FICA from you and me, then it has to the money from somewhere. I guess we could just raise income taxes to pay for the reduced government revenue. Of course we would have to increase income taxes quite a bit to not have run away deficits.

I'm sure better minds then my own are working on this. I just wanted it to be known that any changes made would not have an effect on people currently using those programs. That is the big lie told by you guys on the left. Seniors will be screwed, when that isn't the case. They would be "grandfathered" into the current system with little or no change on how they collect those benefits. How it gets implemented and paid for is a different discussion.

They can't be grandfathered into anything unless there is money coming in to pay their benefits. You are proposing that we will stop bringing in money and they will still be paid in some magical way that great minds are figuring out.

Government isn't filled with great minds capable of doing such a thing. It is filled with short sighted fools.

You are correct in your observations. However changes such as those being discussed have almost always included provisions to grandfather current recipients. I can't offhand think of any exceptions to this.

Most people aren't stupid enough to fall for the argument that they will magically find the money somewhere. But if Ted Cruz wants to tell you otherwise feel free to believe him.

How long has 'everybody' known that the social security trust fund will not last forever, and both parties have ignored this important warning for decades.

We have a bunch of idiots running our government; how we manage to survive is the surprise of our times.

It's gotta be lady luck.

It doesn't matter, just merely talking about those changes will be enough to get senior citizens in a frenzy to keep it from happening.

You gotta be kidding! This issue has been on the burner for decades, and nothing gets done. You have more faith than Mr Oxy. LOL

The GOP has been talking about doing away with Social Security for decades, and guess who won the last election. One guess.

You mean the MSM and Dems talking points about it... using fear mongering as a talking point.

I know they have, but it hasn't been what they talked about in their states, with the local voters. They just simply talked about Obama and Obamacare with no real ideas other than voting against the democrats. The slogan ad in my state was "Grimes is not Kentucky's senator, she is Obama's senator."

No, using republican senators and congressmen and women own words and ideas against them. Ya'll have forgotten what it is like being on defense.

By the way it's not a ya'll with me either.

Forgot? You have got to be kidding me. The GOP has been the target since Obama came into office. When Congress was always mentioned and how horrible they were, the MSM always seems to forget that until last week the GOP only controlled 1 portion of Congress. They always seemed to forget the Dems controlled the Senate and they never mentioned the obstructionism of Harry Reid. As long as the Dems have the MSM on their side, the GOP will always be targets and always be on the defense.

What exactly are you talking about here? We do indeed have a complex combination of problems involving high public debt, with entitlement programs likely to make it far worse, and a still sluggish economy (less sluggish than those of our ageing and sclerotic European allies, but still slow compared to our historical norms). Neither political party has shown great courage in addressing these issues, thosugh the Democrats have clearly been far more vigorous in making promises we can't keep and opposing even modest attenmpts at reform (remember the Bush effort to modify social security?). In general the Republkicans have been a good deal more truthful with the public in this area than the Democrats.

Obama had tried to create a highly regulated economy to advance his political power and fund raising capability through the leverage implied in the regulatory scheme. In addition he has sought to fund an expansion of entitlements through a combination of wealth transfers (as in the ACA) and large reductions in defense spending. So far that combination isn't working very well for us, either with respect to economic growth, containment of the growth of public debt, or our security in a still very dynamic world.

You wrote,

Of coarse it's sluggish! What do you expect in a world economy where the US is the only one that continues to grow. The second largest economy, China, is also showing a slowdown in their economy. Even the EU is showing a slowdown, including Germany, their strongest economy. What kind of miracle are you expecting from the US? I'd like to know.