To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. To a Republican, every crisis is an opportunity to cut benefits.
Not that they would put it that way, of course.
This past weekend, The Post reported on a proposal from a conservative think tank, floated to the White House as a way to limit the impact of novel coronavirus stimulus spending on the national debt. Americans made financially desperate by the pandemic could receive a $5,000 federal payment. The catch? The recipients would need to delay their future Social Security filing to pay it back.
The plan received a hearing from the Trump administration, where it has been dismissed because it doesn’t seem, in the words of The Post, “likely to advance given the political stakes,” and faced “skepticism” from the president himself. But it should have never gotten that far.
