At a senior center, Presidential Candidate Rand Paul made it a point to attack the disabled.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
Paul has called for the partial privatization of Social Security, a program he previously referred to as “a Ponzi scheme.”
He proposes the gradual increase of the retirement age for Social Security recipients and promotes means testing benefits to reduce payouts to high-income retirees.
Paul is also an advocate of reforming the Social Security disability trust fund, which is set to run out of money in 2016.
In January, Paul complained that “over half of the people on disability are either anxious or their back hurts,” according to a recording by American Bridge, a liberal tracking group.
Paul later clarified that, “there are people who are truly disabled, so the program should first of all prioritize those who are truly disabled.”
via Business Insider.
Related Reading:
- Decades of Bad Social Security & Medicare Proposals Rolled into One – Courtesy of Governor Chris Christie.
- Senator Rand Paul has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme and supports allowing people to opt out of the program. He also supports raising the retirement age and Medicare eligibility age, Social Security privatization, and raising seniors’ Medicare premiums and copayments.
- NCPSSM Testifies at Hearing on Social Security Disability Program.
- Disability insurance provided through Social Security is the
government’s largest income support program for the disabled, providing
monthly cash benefits to workers who sustain severe, long-term
disabilities.
Republicans like Rand Paul continue their Social Security scare campaign, full of fiction and no fact. The Budget Deal did NOT steal money from Social Security but it did prevent a 20% cut to people with disabilities. Maybe the Senator doesn’t realize that the disability program IS Social Security?!
A Big Week for Social Security News
This week was a big week for Social Security news. So, I thought I’d make a list of the articles that we have been reading or posting.
- Social Security Is Having a Moment. - SLATE
- Until recently, Democrats were willing to bargain on entitlements. Here’s how Social Security expansion became a liberal cause again.
- The quiet Social Security revolution: How Democrats learned to stop loving benefit cuts. - SALON
- For the first time in decades, dangerous myths about “insolvency” are fading away.
- In Vogue: Boosting Social Security. - Huffington Post
- For too long, Washington’s fiscal hawks and conservative ideologues have monopolized the conversation about our nation’s safety net programs.
- Social Security Continues Discriminating Against Same Sex Married Couples By Making Them Pay Thousands of Dollars for Agency Mistake. - Huffington Post
- To stop this discrimination against aged SSI recipients and those with disabilities simply because of who they are married to – we filed a class action against the SSA.
- Analysis: Christie to take on Social Security costs; risky move could help him stand out. - North Jersey
- “It does not have to come down to seniors versus the kids,” said Max Richtman, president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “You don’t have to cut Social Security in order to invest in education, you have to have a different set of priorities.”
- Rand Paul wants the government to do much, much less for the poor. - VOX
- He gets rid of the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. He substantially privatizes both Social Security and Medicare.
- Congress Targets Social Security with Fast-Track Commission Plan. - Entitled to Know
- Under “fast track” procedural rules in your bill, the legislation embodying the Commission’s recommendations would be considered by Congress on an expedited, “take-it-or-leave-it” basis.
- Social Security Reform a Potential Minefield for 2016 GOP Contenders. - National Journal
- The disability fund is set to start running out of money right around the presidential election. So what will Republican candidates do about it?
- GOP budget targets Social Security, helps corporations. - Canton Daily Ledger
- Most people know someone who’s benefited from Social Security and related programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. That’s one reason Social Security is so popular. Another is that the programs work.
- Warren pressures Clinton to expand Social Security. - Washington Examiner
- Elizabeth Warren is pushing Democrats to expand Social Security rather than cut it, a move that could pressure presumed party frontrunner Hillary Clinton to move left.
- Social Security: The Empire Strikes Back. - Huffington Post
- The latest wave of attacks was triggered by an amendment from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Manchin which would have expanded Social Security benefits, and which won the support of most Democrats in the Senate.
- How Megan McArdle gets Social Security profoundly wrong. - Los Angeles Times
- With even mainstream Democrats coming to embrace the idea of expanding Social Security to help address our looming retirement crisis, it couldn’t be long before the pushback emerged from conservatives and Republicans.
- Paul Krugman battles right-wing propaganda and finds a rare unicorn. - SALON.
- And in the real world of retirement, Social Security is a shining example of a system that works. It’s simple and clean, with low operating costs and minimal bureaucracy.
- Support for Expanding Social Security Grows & Right-Wingers Panic. - Entitled to Know
- This week has seen a wave of attacks by conservative columnists and think-tankers outraged that the call to Boost Social Security
benefits is gaining traction on Capitol Hill (it’s already widely
supported by Americans of all political persuasions nationwide).
It always makes for a good laugh when Reagan-worshipping Republicans decide to lecture Democrats and the nation about fiscal responsibility and the inevitable insolvency of Social Security, as Sen. Rand Paul did on Friday when he said that Sen. Bernie Sanders’ plan to expand the program (by extending the payroll tax to higher income levels) would be a “disservice” to the American people.
via Salon.
Related Graphic:
Let’s be extremely clear about something: SSDI stands for Social Security Disability Insurance. It is part of the Social Security program. While in the public mind, “Social Security” usually connotes payments you receive in retirement based on your prior earnings, Social Security also encompasses a program compensating past workers who develop disabilities that prevent them from participating in the workforce. That’s disability insurance, the program that Trump’s budget is set to cut.
via VOX.
Among other things, the President’s FY 2018 budget:
- Cuts billions from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).
- Slashes more than $600 billion from the Medicaid program, which undermines seniors’ access to long-term care.
- Eliminates the Community Services Block Grant which helps to pay for the Meals-on-Wheels program, delivering hot meals to needy seniors.
Social Security’s retirement, survivors, and disability benefits are closely integrated, sharing the same benefit formula and similar work-history requirements. Like the rest of Social Security, SSDI largely serves older Americans. About three-fourths of beneficiaries are over 50, and more than one-third are over 60. SSDI beneficiaries seamlessly switch to retirement benefits at age 66. Thus, cutting disability benefits would cut the retirement benefits of the affected workers as well.
via CBPP.
Related Reading:
- Trump Budget Shatters President’s Promise on Social Security, Medicaid.
- The President’s promise not to touch Social Security was officially revealed to be a sham today. Trump’s proposed 2018 budget slashes $64 billion from Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Some media outlets have let the President off the hook by saying the budget does not cut Social Security benefits.
Presidential hopeful Senator Rand Paul has a clear message for working Americans and their families.
In Rand Paul’s America, the government really is smaller: Paul cuts the budget of the National Institutes of Health by 20 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by 20 percent, NASA by 25 percent, the Justice Department by 28 percent, the Environmental Protection Agency by 29 percent, the Department of Transportation by 49 percent, the National Science Foundation by 62 percent, and the State Department by 71 percent. He gets rid of the Department of Energy, the Department of Education, and the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs. He substantially privatizes both Social Security and Medicare.
via VOX.
Further Reading:
Support for Expanding Social Security Grows & Right-Wingers Panic.
Senator Romney’s legislation has no provisions to ensure that future #seniors’ earned benefits are adequate for the expenses they will face. #TRUSTact @RepJohnLarson https://www.ncpssm.org/entitledtoknow/romneys-trust-act-is-back-again/