Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, candidate for U.S. Senate, slammed Sen. Ron Johnson, responding to Johnson’s calls to turn Social Security programs and Medicare into discretionary spending programs, threatening to strip working people of the essential benefits they’ve earned.
Mandela told Mehdi Hasan, “[Ron Johnson]’s a self-serving, out of touch, ultra-millionaire politician who cares about himself more than the rest of the people in Wisconsin […] It’s exactly why I decided to run for the U.S. Senate, to kick him out of office because people are going to continue to be left behind as long as he’s in office.”
“Federal spending is in two baskets — discretionary spending which comes in annual appropriations in areas like defense and public works and mandatory spending that is generally governed by statute and includes entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare that provide guaranteed benefits.” The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, explaining that if changed to discretionary spending, the funding for Social Security and Medicare wouldn’t be guaranteed annually.
