FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, June 14th, 2023
Contact: Linda Benesch, lbenesc
The Republican Study Committee Budget Would Destroy Social Security and Medicare
(Washington, DC) — Today, the Republican Study Committee (RSC), which counts 70 percent of House Republicans as members, released its 2024 budget proposal. The following is a statement on the RSC budget from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works:
“This budget would destroy Social Security as we know it. It would raise the retirement age and slash middle class benefits. These changes would transform Social Security from an earned insurance benefit, which replaces wages lost in the event of old age, disability, or death, into a subsistence-level welfare benefit.
The budget fearmongers about Social Security’s modest shortfall (still a decade away) but then rules out any options for raising revenue, such as requiring billionaires to contribute even a penny more. That leaves benefit cuts as the only “solution.” In other words, they want to cut benefits now to avoid cutting them later, which isn’t a solution at all. Indeed, the budget will increase the number of workers who will have no ability to retire while maintaining their standard of living.
The RSC plan would make it especially hard for Americans so disabled that they can no longer work to claim their earned Social Security, and far easier for the government to take those benefits away. A particularly cruel provision would force disability beneficiaries to wait five long years (instead of the current two, which is already too long) before becoming eligible for Medicare benefits. Outrageously, this change would deprive some of the most medically vulnerable people in America of health care. This provision alone would inevitably lead to more medical bankruptcies and increased homelessness.
In addition, the RSC budget lays out a path to destroying Medicare as we know it. The budget creates a Paul Ryan-esque “premium support” model. Premium support ends the Medicare guarantee. Instead, seniors must fend for themselves on the open market with nothing but a coupon to offset as much of the cost of the insurance that they can find.
Having proposed these extreme measures, which are unpopular with voters of all political stripes, the budget then stresses the need for “bipartisanship.” Republicans know how politically toxic their plans to gut Social Security and Medicare are, so they are begging Democrats to share the blame. Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently proposed a commission for just this purpose.
Not a single Democrat should take the bait. Instead, they should fight to protect and expand Social Security and Medicare, and pay for it by requiring the wealthy to pay their fair share. Then, let the American people decide which plan they prefer.”
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Social Security Works is a non-profit organization working to improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations by fighting to expand Social Security, improve Medicare, and lower the outrageous prices of prescription drugs.