The underlying truth

Remember how Speaker Paul Ryan and the rest of the Republican Party told us this wonderful tax cut that was going to add trillions to our national debt would pay for itself? Guess what? Not true and now it seems Speaker Ryan is using the fact that their tax cuts and omnibus budget will add to the debt and deficit. I’m sure Ryan knew it wouldn’t pay for itself, and unless they’re all complete idiots (and they may be), the rest of the Republican Party knew it was a lie as well.

The underlying truth to this debacle was that they needed an underhanded way of convincing the public that it was necessary to gut and cut all the social programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, all of whose operating budgets they’ve been cutting for years to make them appear dysfunctional and to tick off the people. Then of course they lie some more (they’re good at it) and say if only we’d privatize them, they’d be soooooooo much better.

As FDR once famously said, and I’m paraphrasing here: We like Social Security, we like all these things, but we just don’t like the way the present administration is doing them. We can do more of them, we can do them better, and best of all, it won’t cost anybody anything.

Of course all those listening to this speech roared with laughter. It was true in the 1940s and it’s true today. Republicans haven’t changed their spots; they have just gotten better at disguising them.

JUDITH K. ZITKO Hot Springs Village