When he was running for president in 2016, Trump said he would not touch Social Security. He was lying! The last two budget proposals he sent to Congress have included millions of dollars of cuts to Social Security.
Trump and Majority Leader McConnell are trying to convince Americans that Social Security must be cut because of the ballooning deficit and national debt. That is disingenuous. Social Security has never added a penny to the deficit or the national debt (being totally funded through payroll taxes that go into the Social Security Trust Fund).
They were happy to add trillions to the deficit and debt by giving huge tax breaks to the rich and the corporations, and now want to pay for that giveaway by punishing seniors who depend on Social Security. The only thing that has kept them from cutting Social Security (and Medicare) is the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives.
Now Trump is trying a different tactic to hurt Social Security. He says he won't sign any help for states/cities/workers unless the bill also contains big cuts to payroll taxes. Those are the taxes that fund Social Security, and cutting them would significantly damage Social Security funding -- and give Trump and the GOP an excuse to drastically cut benefits of Social Security recipients.
Cutting payroll taxes would not help workers, because it would be a tiny cut to each worker. It would only help Trump and his rich corporate friends (who must match the small contributions of each worker). Corporations would get a huge tax cut, workers would get next to nothing, and Social Security would be devastated.
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman (president of Social Security Works):
“More than 30 million Americans are newly unemployed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Their paychecks are gone, but their rent, utility, grocery bills and other expenses still must be paid. Seniors in nursing homes are dying at alarming rates. Hospitals are desperate, as are state and local governments. Americans everywhere need immediate assistance, but Donald Trump has now vowed that they won’t get any — unless Congress bows to his demand to cut Social Security’s payroll tax. Payroll tax cuts waste money, delivering the wealthy and powerful the largest cuts while providing nothing to those who need it most, as this linked chart reveals. They are slow and inefficient. But they do reduce Social Security’s dedicated funding, a longstanding right-wing ideological goal. That presumably is why Trump is insisting on them. Trump made it clear weeks ago that his obsession with cutting payroll contributions has nothing to do with the coronavirus or the resulting economic fallout. He said he’d like a “permanent” reduction in payroll contributions, and that he’d support it “regardless” of the current situation. He has also said he wants to cut Social Security once he is re-elected. There are dozens of far superior proposals for relief from the economic turmoil caused by coronavirus. These include making the one-time CARES Act emergency payments ongoing and increasing their amount, expanding Social Security benefits, and having Medicare cover everyone’s health care during the pandemic. Yet Trump now says he’d hold everything hostage — these proposals, as well as immediate assistance targeted to front-line workers, hospitals, and local governments. He insists he won’t sign anything unless he gets his payroll tax cut. That’s how desperately Trump and the right-wing ideologues surrounding him want to defund Social Security, so they have an excuse down the road to demand cuts to our earned benefits. Trump’s actions are a war on seniors. He wants to open up the economy, even though COVID-19 is disproportionately costing seniors their lives. Now he is insisting on threatening Social Security on which most seniors rely for their food, medicine, and other basic necessities. Members of Congress, particularly House Democrats, need to stand strong and call Trump’s bluff. Send the wildly popular measures mentioned above to Trump’s desk, without including a toxic payroll tax cut. Political realities will force him to back down.”
