Of course, by ‘structural changes,’ Rubio really means cutting earned benefits and turning Medicare into a voucher program. He and other GOP leaders have been pushing this agenda for years; the difference is that now they have the power to enact it, common sense, decency, or the well-being of seniors be damned.
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With the scribbled ink on last month’s GOP tax legislation barely dry, Sen. Marco Rubio and House Speaker Paul Ryan are promising to target Americans’ earned benefits this year. “We need to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future,” Rubio told an interviewer. Of course, by “structural changes,” he really means cutting benefits to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy and profitable corporations.
These remarks are consistent with what Rubio has advocated since well before his failed 2016 presidential bid. In a 2014 speech to the National Press Club, he proposed raising the Social Security retirement age (which is itself a massive benefit cut) and endorsed Speaker Ryan’s plan to convert Medicare to a voucher program.
via twitter.
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As if to confirm the warnings of seniors’ advocates, Republicans have signaled that their next targets after the tax bill are Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Of course, by “structural changes,” Rubio really means cutting earned benefits and turning Medicare into a voucher program.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) just spilled one of the worst-kept “dirty little secrets” in Washington: The GOP plans to cut Social Security and Medicare to help close the federal budget deficit, which is about to be engorged by at least $1 trillion thanks to tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations
In an interview with Politico, Rubio said, “We need to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future.” Of course, by “structural changes,” he really means cutting benefits.
In opposing these attempts to undermine Social Security and Medicare, it’s important for us to continue to correct a few of Rubio and Ryan’s mendacious fairy tales about these programs:
via twitter.
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IT IS BACK.
Sen. Marco Rubio and Ivanka Trump’s plan to raid individuals Social Security benefits has come back.
Senator Marco Rubio’s proposal to fund paid family leave by cutting participants’ future Social Security benefits is nothing less than a Trojan Horse to undermine Social Security
“Social Security will go bankrupt and it will bankrupt the country with it.”
This is conservatives’ favorite lie. Social Security isn’t going bankrupt. According to SSA actuaries, the nearly $3 Trillion Trust Fund will be depleted in 2034 (as planned) to cover the baby boomer generation. After that, there will still be enough income coming into the program to pay 79 percent of all benefits owed. If Congress does nothing seniors will face a 21% benefit cut. A 21% benefit cut is not bankruptcy and certainly could not cause America’s bankruptcy.
Read more about each candidate via Entitled to Know.
Social Security already helps millions of younger working-age families (approximately 16 million beneficiaries) through disability, dependents’ and survivors’ benefits. The truth is that this family leave proposal from Senator Rubio, an outspoken advocate of “entitlement reform” (code for cutting earned benefits), is – at its core – a benefit cut for future retirees and their families.
Deficit hawks likely will pressure the White House to accept cuts in Social Security and Medicare for future retirees, protecting those already retired or close to it. Their political goal will be to defang public opposition, since younger workers tend not to focus much on retirement when it is several decades away.
But that approach is not going to work. Retirees and their advocacy groups will fiercely resist cutting benefits down the road, because they understand the critical importance of Social Security and Medicare benefits. They also care about the future retirement of their own children. And numerous polls show that the public opposes benefit cuts - a view that is common across all demographic groups and political affiliations.
via Reuters.
“I analyze this very differently than most,” Rubio told the crowd. “Many argue that you can’t cut taxes because it will drive up the deficit. But we have to do two things. We have to generate economic growth which generates revenue, while reducing spending. That will mean instituting structural changes to Social Security and Medicare for the future,” the senator said.
via Financial Advisor.
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This year’s 1.3% #SocialSecurity cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is not enough to meet seniors’ rising living costs. Older Americans need a fairer inflation formula now! https://www.ncpssm.org/campaigns/boost-social-security-now/
