Alex Lawson: Senate Republicans Have a Plan to Steal from the Poor and Give to the Rich
Image Credit: Cagle Cartoons
By Alex Lawson
Last month, I testified in front of the Senate Aging Committee at a hearing on “Making Washington Work for Seniors.” It was an illuminating experience, to say the least.
It was clear to me that the Republican witnesses and Republican senators had no interest in improving Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid — programs that seniors rely on every day. Instead, they kept talking about cutting these vital benefits.
In fact, the Republican senators kept talking about taking away the benefits of people who don’t work, even though we were supposed to be discussing seniors. One of the Republican witnesses mentioned that his teenage daughter recently got a job at Jimmy John’s and said that people on Medicaid should do the same. Bear in mind that Medicaid pays for the majority of nursing home stays and other long-term care. Medicaid cuts will throw millions of seniors and people with disabilities out onto the street.
As I said at the hearing, an 89-year-old who needs Medicaid to cover the cost of their nursing home can’t just get a job at Jimmy John’s – nor should they ever have to.
Undeterred, Senator Rick Scott (R-FL) asked me how I would get more people working. I replied that, instead, we should require the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share into Social Security.
Currently, most workers pay in all year long, but the wealthy stop paying in after their first $176,100 in income and don’t pay in at all on their unearned investment income. That needs to change. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), the Committee’s ranking Democrat, agreed. She talked about her bill to make the wealthy pay the same rate as the rest of us and use the money to improve Social Security.
Republicans want to do the exact opposite: Steal from the poor to give to the rich. They just released a budget that would cut $2 trillion from so-called mandatory spending. That’s DC speak for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Why are they doing this? So they can give giant tax cuts to billionaires like Elon Musk. That’s right — they want to take away health care from seniors and people with disabilities so that the richest people in America can buy another yacht or another mansion.
Let’s be clear: Nobody voted for this. Republican, Democratic, and Independent voters all overwhelmingly oppose any benefit cuts. Donald Trump knows this. That’s why he blanketed swing states with flyers promising to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid during his campaign. But now Republicans are trying to steal our benefits.
Here at Social Security Works, we are fighting back. We are demanding that every member of Congress pledge not to cut one penny from Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. At the Senate hearing, I cut through Republican lies. I told them to their faces exactly what their plans would do: Steal people’s health care and destroy Medicaid.
Now, we’re taking our message on the road. Over the next two years, Social Security Works will be driving billboard trucks through the districts of Republicans in swing Congressional districts who refuse to take this pledge. These trucks will visit senior centers and nursing homes, reminding people that their elected officials are putting wealthy donors’ interests ahead of the lives and health of seniors.
We are on a mission to make sure every American knows that Republicans are coming for their Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. And we will organize the people to respond with one voice: Hands off our earned benefits.
Alex Lawson is the Executive Director of Social Security Works.
