Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unleashed a storm of Democratic criticism earlier this week by telling Bloomberg News that rising deficits and debt are driven by Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Liberals and Democrats pointed to the comments as evidence of a GOP agenda to drive up the deficit via tax cuts for the rich and corporations and then leverage deficit fears to cut government spending on the poor, sick and elderly.
Those critics may be heartened just a bit — and fiscal hawks may be disappointed — to hear that McConnell also said this week that any reforms or cuts to those programs will likely have to wait until President Trump is out of office and there’s bipartisan backing for such action.
Asked Wednesday if it’s possible to move Trump toward entitlement reform, McConnell reportedly said, “I don’t think so.”
