Republican Budget Cuts Earned Benefits; Keeps Trump Tax Cuts
Angry Bears’ Social Security expert Dale Coberly emailed this to me about the same time it showed up in my inbox. Republicans again are trying to sell the public on the need to cut Social Security and Medicare Budgets for those over 65. Cutting them while keeping the Trump tax breaks which will result in a $2 trillion deficit by the time Reconciliation measures end in 2025.
The cuts makes no sense as both programs are far more efficient and effect than the commercial versions of them. The only issue for both is strengthening them going into the future. Read on . . .
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Members of the Republican Study Committee in Michigan and Arizona. States in which I have lived and am now living.
There are two states which I am interested in today. One is where I now live or Arizona and the other where I did live, Michigan. These are the critters on the Republican Study Committee which are proposing a proposition which will do great harm to those using Medicare and Social Security. Both of these programs have been paid for by workers over the years of their employment. Other members of the Republican Study Committee can be found here: Membership, Republican Study Committee, house.gov.
The RSC membership calls for raising the full Social Security retirement age from the current 67 (for anyone born in 1960 or later) to an unspecified older age. NCPSSM President and CEO, Max Richtman explains the “raising the retirement age would be a huge benefit cut. You would be receiving less money as a beneficiary during your lifetime.”
The RSC blueprint would also undermine the Medicare program. It calls for converting Medicare to a “premium support model” — otherwise known as vouchers or “coupon care.” Rep. Boyle points out. “Seniors would be left to fend for themselves in the insurance marketplace with nothing more than a coupon.” Medicare is far more effective in delivering less costly healthcare to seniors. Commercial supplemental is far more costly and should be a part of Traditional Medicare.
The trump tax cut has not broken even yet, will be rescinded as it was passed using Reconciliation rules, and resulted in a $2 trillion deficit. The report:
The Republican Study Committee Budget Cuts Earned Benefits; Keeps Trump Tax Cuts
National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
Presented are solid clues as to Republicans plans for Americans’ earned benefits. That is if they maintain power in the House, recapture the Senate, and/or the White House. Look no further than the House Republican Study Committee (RSC) 2025 budget blueprint. For the second year in a row, the RSC proposes cutting Social Security and Medicare. Rep. Brendan Boyle, Ranking member of the House Budget committee, estimated at a hearing today that these cuts amount to $1.5 trillion for Social Security and $1 trillion for Medicare.
On the Social Security side, the RSC calls for raising the full Social Security retirement age from its current level of 67 (for anyone born in 1960 or later) to an unspecified older age. “Raising the retirement age is a huge benefit cut,” explains NCPSSM President and CEO, Max Richtman, “because you’d be receiving less money as a beneficiary during your lifetime.”
Republicans say that because (on average) people are living longer, they should be forced to work longer before collecting full Social Security benefits. They neglect to mention that workers in physically demanding jobs cannot always work into their late 60s — or that living longer means having to stretch what may be scant retirement savings over a longer period of time.
The RSC also proposes reducing benefits for “upper income earners.” This would put Social Security on a slippery slope toward means testing. “Means testing means Social Security would no longer be an earned benefit, but a welfare program,” says Richtman.
An analysis by the Center for American Progress estimates if the RSC proposal were in effect today, anyone whose lifetime wages averaged over $85,000 would be considered ‘wealthy’ and have their benefits cut — including the elimination of crucial spousal benefits. “We don’t usually consider people earning $85,000 per year wealthy,” says Maria Freese, NCPSSM’s senior legislative representative. “Making matters worse, in order to save the program any significant amount of money, benefits would have to be reduced for people earning even less than $85,000, cutting deep into the heart of the middle class.”
The RSC stresses that their spending plan “does not cut or delay retirement benefits for any senior in or near retirement.” But it would cut benefits for younger Gen Xers, Millennials, and Gen Z. “These younger workers will need every dollar of their Social Security benefits when they retire. Like the older generations, they earned these benefits and shouldn’t have them cut,” says Richtman.
Republicans may deny it, but cutting Social Security IS their fiscal plan, claiming that the government can’t afford to strengthen the program without cuts. At the same time, the RSC budget would make the Trump/GOP tax cuts for the wealthy and big corporations permanent. They will not entertain, however, raising taxes on high income earners in order to bring more revenue into Social Security, which is the preferred solution of many congressional Democrats, President Biden, and advocates including NCPSSM.
The RSC blueprint not only threatens retirees’ and families’ financial security, but their health security, too, by undermining the Medicare program. It calls for converting Medicare to a “premium support model” — otherwise known as vouchers or “coupon care.” As Rep. Boyle pointed out, “Seniors would be left to fend for themselves in the insurance marketplace with nothing more than a coupon.”
With the 2024 elections looming, House Republicans couldn’t have put a finer point on their true priorities: shower the rich and corporations with huge tax breaks and cut the programs that working Americans rely on for financial and health security. This comes a week after Donald Trump told CNBC that there is “a lot to be done” in cutting “entitlements” (Social Security and Medicare), only to try to walk back that statement a few days later.
President Biden’s campaign tweeted in response to Trump’s CNBC comments,
“Not on my watch.”
On March 11, the President released his budget for the next fiscal year, which called for strengthening Social Security by adjusting the payroll tax cap so that anyone earning over $400,000 in wages would continue contributing to the system. In the past, the president advocated bolstering Medicare’s finances by leveraging some of the net investment tax paid by wealthier individuals.
I don’t like to be calld an “expert”, even though I do know sometings that people who hve not seriously studied SS don’t. Too many “experts” are not, and people should not rely on “experts.” They need to judge the arguments on their own merits, snd do their own research if they can.
a case in point: the so-called “non partisan experts” cited by the, i suppose, expert journalists. The first are “non partisan expert liars” and the latter are expert stenographers with a knowledge of “presentation” of what other people say, without any critical examination whatsoever,
that said: raisng the retirement age is not just a tax cut over a life time, it is a death sentence for those who will not live long enough to retire at all..in spite of the “longer life expectancy” for the “average worker.” SS is not “for” average workers. it is for poor workers who have bad luck, and rich workers who have not had bad luck yet. it is insurance. typically young people don’t think they need insurance, and that’s why mandatory car insurance had to be invented…because the worst drivers think they are the best drivers. and while the best financial planners might actually be the best, they often have bad luck too, and in any case, just like the “best drivers” whose accidents are caused by “the other guy,” the richest people would be less rich living in a country where the old and those with bad luck are allowed to live is desperate poverty. Since this poverty can be prevented by requring all workers to pay a small part of their own money into a savings plan with very, very good insurance, it is beyond stupid for “the young” and the “rich or gonna be” to demand the program be ended.
please note that the Liars say “we are not gonna touch Social Security” for those already retired or near retirement, but we are going to have to …cut it for “the young.” this is because they think that od people are like themselves and don’t give a damn about anyone else if they themselves are not going to be harmed, and they, the liars, think that the young are too stupid to understand they will become “the old” one day.
and not also they never mention that ONE Social Security is not a cause of the federal deficit/national debt, and they never mention that the cost of “fixing Social Security so people can continue to pay for their own future benefits even though they are going to live longer…amounts to a dollar per week extra per year while real wages are going up ten dollars per week per year.
some people here at AB, who have no excuse, cannot understand this and keep running around looking for a magic fix…just like our President, who thinks that “tax the rich” is the answer.
I just need to note that increasing the Normal Retirement Age without changing the Early Retirement Age is just a benefit cut for those who have not yet retired, resulting in a new version of this table. When the inevitable (since people will not listen to sense) negotiations happen, it is the most likely proposal on the cuts side.
Arne
since it is likely that mostpeople retire “early” because they are already sick, they will not live long enough to enjoy that “increased life expectancy” that is the primary cause of the great big horrible unfunded deficit in Social Security projections of it’s own ability to pay enough benefits at the present tax rate.
brw another reason people “retire early” is because smart corporation lay off their older workers to save on their pension costs ( a well as to hire new “faster” workers at lower wages.)
now…pause for commercial announcement…if people are paying for thier own retirement there is no reason why 1) they can’t raise their own “tax” so they can retire whenever they have actuarily paid for it, for any reason whatsoever ..maybe to write the great american novel… or just sit on the beach and enjoy what is left of their lives.
no me it is insane that we have people right here on Angry Bear desperate to get the rich or the government to pay for their social security, so the rich or the government gets to decide when you can retire. so eager they are to become slaves.
the earth is not flat, and you will not fall of the edge if you sail too far out to sea.
but as far as your life is concerned, it might as well be flat. one day you are going to fall off the edge.
and for a longish time before that, for most people life will be getting more difficult than it was when they were young. you will lose muscle strength and agility, and mental abilities, you will no longer be desireable as an employee. you will hurt, mentally as well as phsically. and if you have the usual meaningless job and bad boss, every day will be a torment.
and people age a different rates. however long you are going to live, you may not be able to work, or want to work, at an earlier age than other people.
the people who lie to you about Social Security don’t think about this, and they don’t give a damn about you. But Social Security was intended, and carefully designed, to protect the less fortunate while still being fair to the more fortunate. If you love your work and you are healthy enough to keep working, there is nothing to stop you…except you can’t stand to leave money on the table…you WANT that Social Security check even if you don’t need it. But if you are going to live a long time, you have plenty of time to wait to start collecting it. and when you do SS will pay you more per month so that actuarially you will get back that money you did not take right away, with interest.
So, please, let the tired and worn out and poor retire when they need to..or just want to if they have paid for it themselves…and then you can enjoy your good luck while you live long and prosper. Don’t let the bastards fool you into giving up your chance of retirement while destroying the lives of those with worse luck.