Don't kid yourself - he IS coming for your Social Security
Amid new reporting that former U.S. President Donald
Trump's economic advisers are urging him to cut the federal payroll
tax, a key revenue source for Social Security and Medicare, advocates urged voters to remember that the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee has long threatened to do just that.
"Don't be fooled," said Nancy
Altman, president of Social Security Works, which lobbies to
strengthen the social safety net for retired Americans. "At the end of his
term in office, Trump delayed Social Security's dedicated revenue paid from
workers and their employers. He was quite explicit that, if reelected, he would
convert that delay into a permanent cut."
Altman was referring to an executive order Trump signed
in August 2020, allowing companies to delay payroll tax payments—an option most
companies declined to take as
the Treasury Department made clear they
would have to pay all of the deferred taxes the following year and that
employees would see smaller paychecks as a result of the program.
Trump promised to make the payroll tax cut permanent, and as Reuters reported, the former
president is discussing the proposal with economic advisers including Fox
News host and former National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow
and right-wing commentator Stephen Moore.
The former president is weighing cuts to Social
Security's revenue stream even as Republicans complain that the popular program
is unaffordable and push to raise the retirement age to
delay Americans' use of the funds.
The GOP has long claimed Social Security is headed toward
insolvency and pushed to privatize the program or cut benefits, but last year's
Social Security trustees report found that the
program's trust fund currently has a $2.85 trillion surplus and could pay 80%
of benefits for the next 75 years even if Congress takes no action to expand
it—as long as it continues to be funded through taxes.
"Social Security can only pay benefits if it has sufficient dedicated revenue to pay its costs. That is why it doesn't contribute even a penny to the deficit," said Altman.
"If Trump
succeeds in slashing that dedicated revenue so that it is no longer sufficient
to fully cover the cost, it will result in an automatic benefit reduction. This
would happen without any Republicans having to vote for the cuts, or Trump
having to sign them into law."
"He is dusting off the old Republican playbook and
bringing back the strategy known informally as 'Starve the Beast,'" said
Altman of Trump. "In this case, Social Security is the beast."
Along with cutting payroll taxes, which are paid by
workers and employees and amount to 7.65% of each employee's gross pay in order
to fund senior citizens' post-retirement income, Trump has proposed extending
the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the vast majority of which benefited the
wealthiest Americans, according to the Economic Policy Institute and the
Center for Popular Democracy.
Altman noted the contrast between Trump's tax proposals
and those of President Joe Biden, who has proposed strengthening Social Security
and extending its solvency by requiring people with wealth over $100 million to
pay at least 25% in income taxes, raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, and
quadrupling the stock buyback tax to disincentive companies lavishing their
shareholders with their profits instead of investing in their workforce.
"The choice this election is clear: Trump and the
Republicans will cut Social Security and give tax breaks to millionaires and
billionaires," said Altman. "The Democrats will expand Social
Security, paid for by requiring millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair
share."
