Donald Trump Just Proposed a New $1.6 Trillion Cut to Social Security
Here’s what Democrats can do to counter it.
by PJ Evans, More Perfect Union
In between mentions of the “late great Hannibal Lecter,” former President Donald Trump just proposed a $1.6 trillion cut to Social Security, while selling it as a tax cut for seniors.
“Seniors should not pay taxes on Social Security, and they won’t,” Trump announced at a rally on Wednesday. He’s since repeated the new pledge in several online posts
But this plan would actually cut Social Security benefits by 25 percent for the poorest seniors while giving the wealthiest retirees a 46 percent tax cut. Doing this would not only do great damage to the Social Security benefit fund so many people rely on, but it would also rapidly drain the medicare fund—all while overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthy.
Let’s break it down.
While eliminating taxes on seniors might sound great, doing so would hurt seniors who earn less than $25,000 individually or $32,000 for couples the most, because they’re already exempt from paying taxes on Social Security benefits. It reflects the conceit behind most tax cuts, including the signature Trump tax cut during his first term — presented as relief for everyone, it more often gives working-class people a pittance while sending the overwhelming majority of benefits straight to the top.
Not only would eliminating the Social Security tax do nothing for the poorest seniors, but it would also deplete the Social Security and Medicare benefit funds they rely on to get by, all while giving the wealthiest seniors who do pay taxes on Social Security a huge break.
Taxes on Social Security benefits this year alone, for instance, are projected to raise about $94 billion – mostly from wealthy recipients. And over the next 10 years, this would result in a $950 billion cut to Social Security and a $650 billion cut to Medicare.
Additionally, and in spite of Trump’s insistence that he will “never do anything to Social Security,” and won’t push for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, it’s worth pointing out that every budget he submitted to Congress during his first term included cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
In order to combat this narrative that Trump has a better Social Security plan, Democrats shouldn’t just defend existing benefits they should expand it—which is something President Joe Biden has already proposed.
“We’re not only going to stop Trump and the MAGA Republicans from cutting Social Security and Medicare, we’ll expand and strengthen Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said during a campaign stop in Michigan last month, shortly before he dropped his re-election bid and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his successor. ”And here’s how we’re going to do it—the press always asks ‘how?’ Listen, press. By making the rich pay their fair share of Social Security.”
Harris has yet to make a similar commitment. But doing so would be extremely popular — 69 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Republicans want to expand Social Security benefits. There are few proposals with more bipartisan support.
Cutting Social Security, on the other hand, is a threat far more alarming than the fictional terror inflicted by the late great Hannibal Lecter.