Social Security was on the ballot in Georgia’s December 6 run-off election. Continue reading
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Good news for the 65 million Americans who rely on Social Security
With their run-off victory in Georgia, Democrats now have a mandate to protect Social Security. Here’s what they need to do next.
Social Security was on the ballot in Georgia’s December 6 run-off election. Continue reading
Election 2022: Republican takeover blueprint endangers Social Security, Medicare
WASHINGTON—Remember Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America,” the Republican blueprint for what they’d do if they took over the U.S. House in 1995—which they did? Well, with Gingrich standing by his side in late September, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., unveiled his modernized 122-page version. Continue reading
What Social Security should really be paying to survive in this economy
Social Security is one of the most popular and progressive government programs in the United States. But Republicans, who try to obscure their real agenda, are bent on cutting it.
Inflation continues to rise in the United States. Although gas prices have recently fallen since their record high over the summer, the cost of groceries rose by 11.4 percent over the last year, and there is no expectation that they will fall back to reasonable levels. Prices overall have risen by 8.2 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index report covering September 2022 as compared to the same month last year. While most working Americans are not getting hefty wage raises to compensate for inflation, seniors will see their Social Security benefits—which are pegged to inflation—rise next year. Starting in January 2023, beneficiaries will see an 8.7 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) bump in their Social Security checks. Continue reading
GOP attacks on Social Security makes popular program key midterm issue
Social Security advocates on Wednesday applauded Democrats including U.S. President Joe Biden for their defense of the popular program as Republicans recycle false claims that the nation will soon be unable to pay for the program’s benefits, making the monthly payments that help support more than 65 million Americans a key issue ahead of the midterm elections. Continue reading
Jayapal demands vote on bill to expand Social Security by making the rich pay
One group argued passing legislation to boost the program's benefits would "make it clear to voters that Democrats are working to expand Social Security" while "Republicans want to destroy it."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, urged the House Democratic leadership on Tuesday to hold a vote on legislation that would expand Social Security benefits by making wealthy Americans contribute more to the beloved New Deal-era program. Continue reading
On its 85th anniversary, ‘no damn politician’ should be allowed to scrap Social Security
On this anniversary, we must renew our commitment to preserving and expanding Social Security in the face of these relentless efforts to undermine it.
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law 85 years ago today [August 14, 1935], he expressed hope that the program would offer Americans a “measure of protection” from the “hazards and vicissitudes of life.” True to FDR’s vision, Social Security has protected workers from some of the costliest hazards and vicissitudes of life—including loss of income from retirement, disability, and the death of a family breadwinner. This year, though, Americans have faced “hazards and vicissitudes” unseen for one hundred years—a deadly global pandemic and the resulting economic fallout. Now, as Social Security continues to provide basic financial security to 68 million Americans during this tumultuous time, the program itself needs protection. Not only are Social Security’s resources strained by the pandemic; the program’s opponents seek to undermine and eventually dismantle it amid a national crisis. Continue reading
Can Trump legally suspend payroll taxes by executive order?
Trump pushed the dubious scheme earlier. Continue reading
Retirees vow to ‘fight this attempt to gut Social Security’ as Trump announces executive order to suspend payroll tax
‘President Trump just betrayed seniors, ordering cuts in Social Security funding because Congress wouldn't go along with his payroll tax cut scheme.’
An advocacy group representing more than four million American retirees warned Thursday that President Donald Trump took a dangerous step toward “single-handedly” dismantling Social Security by announcing he plans to sign an executive order suspending collection of the payroll tax as early as Friday afternoon. Continue reading
GOP coronavirus relief package to include Romney bill that would ‘fast-track Social Security and Medicare Cuts’
‘They will use every opportunity and every crisis—including the mass death and economic carnage from COVID—as cover for their sick desire to destroy our Social Security system.’
Shortly after publicly ditching one attack on Social Security—the payroll tax cut—Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed Thursday that the Republican coronavirus relief package will include legislation sponsored by Sen. Mitt Romney that one advocacy group described as an “equally menacing” threat to the New Deal program. Continue reading
GOP ‘plot to gut Social Security behind closed doors’ gains steam in Senate Covid-19 talks
‘With seniors most at risk from Covid-19, we need to be increasing Social Security's modest benefits, not creating secret commissions to cut them.’
A proposal by Sen. Mitt Romney to establish congressional committees with the specific goal of crafting legislative “solutions” for America’s federal trust fund programs has reportedly resurfaced in GOP talks over the next Covid-19 stimulus package, sparking alarm among progressive advocates who warn the Utah Republican’s bill is nothing but a stealth attack on Social Security and Medicare. Continue reading
Trump regime hardliners want Social Security and Medicare eliminated
Social Security and Medicare are insurance programs, not welfare—funded by equal worker-employer payroll tax deductions. Continue reading
The Trump administration’s “monstrous idea”: Direct payments in exchange for cuts to Social Security benefits
‘Donald Trump and his administration will stop at nothing to cut Social Security.’
Suddenly concerned about the growing national debt now that corporations have secured access to trillions of dollars in COVID-19 bailout funds with little oversight, Trump administration officials are reportedly considering several proposals purportedly aimed at reducing government spending—including a pair of plans that would provide Americans with cash payments in exchange for delays or cuts to their Social Security benefits. Continue reading
‘This is a trap’: Progressives sound alarm as GOP attempts sneak attack on Social Security in coronavirus stimulus plan
‘Senate Republicans are using the coronavirus crisis as a cynical cover to attack our Social Security system.’
Tucked inside Senate Republicans’ gargantuan coronavirus stimulus package is a provision that progressives are warning could significantly damage Social Security’s funding in the short-term and empower right-wing lawmakers to make even deeper cuts to the vital program in the future. Continue reading
‘A national disgrace’: Trump proposes Social Security change that could end disability benefits for hundreds of thousands
‘Donald Trump and his advisers know that this will kill people, and they do not care. Every current and future Social Security beneficiary must band together to defeat this horrific proposal, or else all of our earned benefits will be next.’
Activists are working to raise public awareness and outrage over a little-noticed Trump administration proposal that could strip life-saving disability benefits from hundreds of thousands of people by further complicating the way the Social Security Administration determines who is eligible for payments. Continue reading
Report details how Social Security has become rigged for the wealthy while leaving behind those it was designed to help
‘The program's become less progressive,’ said Jim Roosevelt, a former Social Security Administration official and grandson of FDR.
The benefits of Social Security, a program designed to help vulnerable and low-income people, have since the 1980s become increasingly skewed toward the wealthy due to demographic shifts and soaring inequality, according to a new report. Continue reading
‘Hell no,’ say progressives, after GOP Sen. Joni Ernst suggests cutting Social Security ‘behind closed doors’
‘No matter how hard you try to hide, the American people will be watching—and we won't let you cut our earned Social Security benefits.'
Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa is under fire after telling a recent town hall audience that members of Congress should negotiate changes to Social Security “behind closed doors” in order to dodge scrutiny from the media and advocacy groups. Continue reading
To ensure dignity for ‘most vulnerable’ among us, Bernie Sanders introduces bill to expand Social Security
‘Expanding Social Security as this legislation does is a solution to our looming retirement income crisis and to growing inequality between the wealthy and everyone else.’
In an effort to strengthen one of the nation’s most popular programs as the GOP pushes for cuts, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and several congressional Democrats on Wednesday introduced the Social Security Expansion Act to ensure that seniors can retire in dignity and “everyone with a disability can live with the security they need.” Continue reading
One more time: ‘Payroll taxes’ are not taxes!
Anybody should have known the Trumpies significantly lowering federal income taxes for elite rich civilians would increase the budget deficit, as would significantly increasing military expenditures for poor soldiers, sailors, and airmen, and their staff, and their fat cat civilian corporate suppliers. Continue reading
Trump administration considering ‘back-door way’ to cut Social Security
‘If Trump proposes this Trojan horse, it would be the newest shot in the ongoing Republican war against Social Security'
President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise not to cut Social Security, is reportedly considering a plan to eliminate much of the payroll tax that funds the critical safety net program. Continue reading
Miracles of the marketplace: Social insecurity
During the twentieth century near collapse of capitalism—the Great Depression—relatively enlightened forces of wealth initiated programs to prevent total breakdown and possible revolution. Among these was the origin in America of what already existed in Europe: a proposal to help elders from entering the poorhouse when they were no longer able to work. Known as “Social Security” it became one of the most popular of the New Deal programs of the FDR administration. Continue reading
Goldman, other welfare queens tell us forget Social Security and Medicare until 70
WASHINGTON, DC—A long standing Money Party front, the Business Roundtable, wants you to wait until you’re 70 years old before you get Social Security and Medicare benefits. This is just a reprise of the November 2012 dictate from the king of corporate cronyism, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. Continue reading
Writing off the elderly
When neoconservatives, politicians, and high ranking military officers speak of a 30-year war against terrorism, there is no discussion about its affordability or whether the one significant attack (September 11, 2001) that is attributed, perhaps incorrectly, to Muslim terrorists justifies an open-ended war against a dozen countries. There is no discussion of the burden on future generations of the massive increase in the public debt in order to finance today’s wars. Continue reading
It wasn’t the GOP who demanded the Social Security cuts
I wouldn’t/couldn’t believe my eyes when I read the OpEdNews headline, Rep. Conyers: Obama Demanded Social Security Cuts—Not GOP. Continue reading
Ubasuteyama, USA
Modern industrial civilization weakens the family, which is not necessarily bad, since it allows children to escape tyrannical parents. In such a society, the home is not so much a socializing haven as a motel, where wage earners drive back each evening only to ignore each other. FaceBook has become a hearth and shrine, and independence is having your own flat screen TV. Behind locked doors, the kids chill in solitary confinement, while you and the spouse can have separate finances, night outs and flings, and all is good until everyone grows old, likely alone, which brings us to the question of Social Security. Continue reading
Stealing from Social Security to pay for wars and bailouts
The American Empire is failing. A number of its puppet rulers are being overthrown by popular protests, and the almighty dollar will not even buy one Swiss franc, one Canadian dollar, or one Australian dollar. Despite the sovereign debt problem that threatens EU members Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, it requires $1.38 dollars to buy one euro, a new currency that was issued at parity with the US dollar. Continue reading
