How do we know? He's already told us—over and over and over again.
NANCY J. ALTMAN in Common Dreams
When Trump ran for president in 2016, he claimed he would be the one
Republican not to cut our earned benefits but, when he actually became
president, every single one of
his budgets proposed deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare, as well as
Medicaid.
When Trump couldn’t get the cuts enacted, he employed the
old tactic of “starve the beast.” Figuring tax cuts are easier to enact than
benefit cuts, he cut income taxes which help to fund Medicare and Medicaid, and
sought to defund Social Security, which has its own dedicated revenue source.
To advance his goal of undermining Social Security,
Donald Trump grabbed the questionable power to go after its dedicated revenue
unilaterally—something without precedent. Because Trump was limited to
executive action, he was able to only defer the revenue, but he made clear that
he would not just defer the revenue, but eliminate it, if he were
re-elected. Insufficient dedicated revenue leads to automatic cuts.
Conveniently, automatic cuts means there is no one to clearly be held
accountable.
Trump’s goals to undermine these programs, so vital to seniors, have not changed. Trump continues to claim he won’t cut benefits despite his record to the contrary, but tells the truth from time to time. Moreover, he is reportedly considering, once again, defunding Social Security, if he has the chance. Trump also plans to continue to give his billionaire friends massive tax giveaways.
And we know what those cuts will look like. The Republican Study Committee, which includes 80 percent of all House Republicans and 100 percent of House Republican leadership, releases a budget every year.
Every year, it contains deep, draconian cuts and radical transformative
proposals for Social Security. Indeed, its recently-released FY 2025 budget
slashes Social Security’s already inadequate benefits by $1.5 trillion in just
the first ten years. In fact, it cuts Social Security by $73 billion in the first
year alone.
These are much deeper cuts than are necessary to eliminate Social
Security’s modest projected shortfall. And they would occur much sooner than if
Congress did nothing whatsoever! Even worse, the Republican proposal would
radically transform Social Security, ending it as we know it.
Social Security provides wage-related benefits designed
to maintain one’s standard of living when wages are lost in the event of old
age, disability, or death. Today’s extreme Republicans want to instead provide
only subsistence-level benefits, designed to barely keep beneficiaries above
abject poverty. And these radicals propose to privatize Social Security and
Medicare, on top of that.
For years, politicians have talked about giving Medicare
the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices. Biden got it done.
Thanks to Biden, out-of-pocket insulin costs have been capped at $35 per month,
hearing aids are cheaper, and inhaler prices are lower. If Trump wins a second
term, he has made clear he will seek to repeal those reforms, just as he sought
to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Nor will Medicaid be spared.
None of this should be a surprise. Before running for
president, Trump slandered Social Security by calling it a Ponzi scheme – an
illegal enterprise used to dupe and defraud the unsuspecting. He supported
privatizing Social Security and raising the retirement age, with the condescending remark,
“how many times will you really want to take that trailer to the Grand Canyon?”
Before running, Trump praised proposals by
former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan that would have destroyed
Medicare by turning it into a voucher program, forcing seniors to fend for
themselves in a hostile market.
And there’s more evidence of Donald Trump’s true plans.
Look who Trump surrounded – and continues to surround – himself with. Everyone
around Trump is hostile to these programs.
In 2016, Donald Trump picked Mike Pence to be his running
mate, despite the fact that Pence had a clear record of favoring cuts to these
programs, including raising the retirement age and
privatizing our earned benefits. Pence wouldn’t help Trump steal the 2020
election so he is being replaced – but not because of his policy views on
Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Those who are reportedly being
considered have as hostile or even worse views than Pence.
And Trump’s other appointments were no better. Just to
name two, Trump appointed extreme Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid
opponent Mick Mulvaney as his Director of the Office of Management and Budget,
and later chief of staff. Mark Meadows, another Trump chief of staff (currently
under indictment) also has a long record of supporting massive cuts to Social
Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Perhaps even more concerning than Trump’s hostility to
programs that are vital to seniors is his utter disregard for their health and
well-being. It was seniors who overwhelmingly bore
the brunt of Trump’s completely incompetent handling of the COVID pandemic.
Too many Americans, disproportionately seniors, died because of Trump.
Rather than deal effectively with the pandemic, Trump’s
administration shockingly used it to further Trump’s goal of undermining Social
Security. At the height of the pandemic, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
proposed pressuring desperate Americans, thrown out of work because of the
impact and dangers of COVID, to trade their earned Social Security benefits for
upfront, immediate cash. Fortunately, it went nowhere, but did show a
single-minded effort to rip away the protections of Social Security despite where
the focus should have been – on saving lives.
It is essential that the American people not be fooled by the rhetoric. Trump has shown he understands how unpopular cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting Medicaid, and raising drug prices are with everyone but his billionaire donors. But he showed early on that he understood the politics.
In 2011, for example, Trump told Sean Hannity that
Republicans “are going to lose elections” if they “fall into the Democratic
trap” of advocating cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid without
bipartisan cover.
So don’t be fooled. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,
and drug prices are on November’s ballot. Donald Trump will be more effective
this time around. The choice is clear: Trump and his Republican allies in
Congress want to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut Medicaid, and increase
the already-huge profits of drug companies while giving tax breaks to Big
Pharma and their other billionaire friends. Democrats want to expand Social
Security, expand Medicare, lower drug prices, and force billionaires and multinational
corporations to pay their fair share.
For the sake of all of our economic security, it is
essential that the American people, and seniors in particular, understand this
fundamental difference between the two parties and vote accordingly.
NANCY J. ALTMAN is president of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security coalition. She has a 40-year background in the areas of Social Security and private pensions. Her latest book is "The Truth About Social Security: The Founders' Words Refute Revisionist History, Zombie Lies, and Common Misunderstandings" (2018). She is also the author of "The Battle for Social Security" (2005).
