FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, July 16th, 2024
Contact: Sabrina Davis, sdavis@socialsecurityworks.org

Trump’s Pick of Vance Underscores His Threat to Social Security

(Washington, DC) — Donald Trump has selected J.D. Vance as his vice president for the 2024 election, which intensifies the Republican threat to slash our earned benefits. The following is a statement on the Republican agenda for Social Security from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works:

“Donald Trump’s selection of J.D. Vance to be his vice president is more evidence that our earned Social Security benefits are not safe if they are elected. Though Trump said in 2016 that he would not cut Social Security, every one of his budgets included cuts. Moreover, he unilaterally undermined its dedicated revenue (fortunately only temporarily), but promised that he would make those cuts permanent, if re-elected. Cutting Social Security’s dedicated revenue produces automatic benefit cuts. As president, Trump surrounded himself with Mike Pence, Mick Mulvaney and a long list of others with long anti-Social Security histories. Vance is no different: he praised former Rep. Paul Ryan’s plan to make massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare, and called Social Security and Medicare “roadblocks to any kind of real fiscal sanity.”

“In stark contrast, President Biden and his Democratic colleagues in Congress advocate expanding Social Security while requiring the uber-wealthy to pay their fair share. Make no mistake: Social Security is on the ballot. If you want to cut Social Security and give tax breaks to the uber-wealthy, Trump and Vance are your men. If you want to expand Social Security and ensure benefits can be paid for the foreseeable future by requiring billionaires to pay their fair share, you must vote Democratic.”

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