We have all heard the saying that if you repeat a lie long enough it will be believed. The assertion that Social Security faces big problems requiring large benefit cuts or tax increases is a case in point. Well-informed people have repeated this so often that it has risked credibility by challenging its accuracy. That is because it is NOT true. What is true is that Republicans have been lobbying and threatening to cut Social Security for years. If you haven’t heard of any cuts proposed by President Biden, that’s because he hasn’t made any.
The Republicans have claimed over and over again that they are not trying to cut Social Security and Medicare, however, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) has just released its FY 2024 Budget Protecting America’s Economic Security and once again called for significant cuts to Social Security. The RSC has served as the conservative caucus of House Republicans since its founding in 1973, and it currently consists of 175 of the 222 Republican House members. The group has been proposing cuts for decades. The provocative title refers to the cuts that would occur in the early 2030s when the reserves in the trust fund are exhausted.
By law, Social Security cannot provide benefits for which it does not have financing and once the trust fund is exhausted, incoming payroll taxes and other revenues would be sufficient to pay only 77 percent of scheduled retirement benefits. The current and future beneficiaries would see an across-the-board cut of 23 percent in 2033. The House Republicans just released its desired 2024 budget. In this budget, the Republicans are seeking to cut Social Security and Medicare. Republicans propose requiring disabled Americans to wait longer before getting benefits and turning Medicare into a “premium support” system which is a Republican idea that essentially turns the government program into a voucher scheme. Such a scheme would remove the guarantee for seniors to have affordable access to Medicare.
The Republicans also call for “pro-growth tax reform” that cuts taxes for the wealthy and corporations. They are pushing for “work requirements” that will impose more requirements on poor people trying to attain social services, and “regulatory reforms that increase economic growth” that will encourage the sort of deregulation that welcomes crashing financial institutions, corporate-poisoned rivers, and more than 1,000 train derailments a year. As far as taxes go, the party wants to make permanent the individual provisions of Trump’s tax cut bill, which gave a roughly $49,000 annual tax cut to the top 1 percent and only $500 to those in the bottom 60 percent. In doing so, they would add nearly $2.5 trillion to the deficit over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The Republicans also want to eliminate the estate tax, which only impacts those who inherit assets worth at least $13 million. On work requirements, the budget calls for “all federal benefit programs such as food stamps and Medicare to be reformed to include work promotion requirements. Speaking of families, the budget also aims to eliminate a provision that allows schools to provide free school lunches to all their students.
On regulation, the budget includes a litany of ways it aims to stymie regulation. One of many provisions involves reinstating Trump’s deregulatory executive orders. This will include a range of orders related to environmental protection. In the wake of smog enveloping one-third of the country, thousands of dead fish washing up on our shores, and even in the Warrior River in Walker County, our waterways are being poisoned. Even knowing this, Republicans are pursuing less environmental protection. Although the Social Security Act entitles workers to receive benefits, these benefits are not guaranteed by law. The federal government does not have a legal liability to pay retirees the money they paid into the system over their working careers and Congress can change the rules regarding benefit eligibility at any time. The Republicans think that privatizing Social Security would be the best idea. What it will do is nothing to solve its impending insolvency, and could actually make it worse.
Private Social Security accounts will undermine the guaranteed retirement income provided by Social Security by putting peoples’ retirement money at the whim of the stock market. It will dramatically increase the national debt. Privatizing Social Security will put billions of dollars into the pockets of Wall Street financial services corporations in the form of brokerage and management fees. Many people lack the basic financial literacy to make wise investment decisions on their own, and if workers had to adopt private accounts, unscrupulous financial advisors could take advantage of novice investors.
This is an important thing to consider when you vote. How would these changes affect your life, your well-being, and how you would survive in the future?
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Marion County Democratic Party Chair
SDEC District 17 Rep Alabama Democratic Party