The state of the U.S. economy is a top issue for Americans in the weeks before the critical Nov. 8 midterm election that will determine control of Congress. While the Supreme Court’s ruling ending women’s reproductive rights and the Republican party’s attack on democracy are major concerns for many, record levels of inflation, and predictions by economists that a recession looms on the horizon has many families worried about their economic future.
One economic issue that is emerging as a major topic of debate in House and Senate election campaigns are Republican proposals that could weaken or end Social Security and Medicare programs which more than 60 million Americans rely on. In a recent speech, President Biden warned that Republicans pose a threat to Social Security and Medicare, citing a plan drafted by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, who chairs the GOP Senate Campaign Committee. His plan would allow Social Security and Medicare to “sunset” if Congress did not pass new legislation to extend them every five years. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, proposes renegotiating and reauthorizing these programs every year. Democrats, on the other hand, have broadly called for protecting and expanding Social Security and Medicare’s current benefits.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Linda Benesch, communications director with the group Social Security Works, who discusses policies proposed by GOP Senators that would weaken or end Social Security and Medicare in the midst of the midterm election campaign.
LINDA BENESCH: So Mitch McConnell, he’s pretty upset with Sens. Scott and Johnson right now. And that’s not because he disagrees with them on policy. Mitch McConnell is absolutely on board for going after cutting and dismantling Social Security and Medicare.
But he doesn’t understand why they feel the need to say it out loud now. You know, Mitch McConnell is like “We have an election coming up. What are you doing?” But the answer is that Rick Scott and Ron Johnson, they’re just so hostile to the idea of people getting the earned benefits that they paid their working lives for, that they can’t stop themselves.
So Rick Scott, he released a policy agenda for the Republicans earlier this year. And I should also mention Scott’s not just some random senator. He’s the head of the Republican Senate campaign arm and has been campaigning and giving a lot of money to the Republican Senate candidates.
So Scott’s plan, it would mean that every five years, every federal government program, including Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, would have to be voted on and Congress would have to agree to reauthorize it or else it would be terminated.
And so that means that every five years, Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries would be left in limbo, wondering, is Congress going to reauthorize our benefits or are they going to cut it? Are they going to privatize it or are they going to end it entirely? It’s going to be just another part of congressional wheeling and dealing, just no longer the secure earned benefits that people have paid for. So that’s Rick Scott.
Sen. Ron Johnson from Wisconsin heard Scott’s plan and he decided, “You know what, I don’t think that’s cruel enough. I think that we should require Social Security and Medicare to be authorized every year.”
So (Social Security and Medicare) are currently what’s called mandatory spending, which means that no matter what, those programs are going to continue. It’s automatic. Congress doesn’t have to do anything. (The programs will be turned) into what’s called discretionary spending, which means that Congress does have to vote to reauthorize it every year. So that would turn Social Security and Medicare from guaranteed earned benefits into just one more program that’s on the congressional chopping block every single year.
SCOTT HARRIS: Wow. Now, it used to be that talking about monkeying around with Social Security or Medicare was the so-called third rail of politics that you’d get burned, you might die a political death if you started talking about changes to Social Security and Medicare. Why is it that these two prominent GOP politicians think they can propose these major changes that would impact tens of millions of Americans in a negative way? How can they think they can get away with this?
One thing I’ll just put out there, I don’t think we’ve seen nearly enough media coverage of these proposals and their impact on average people, because I think if there was, that kind of important coverage that it deserves, the public reaction would be extremely negative. And these guys would be crawling under a rock somewhere.
LINDA BENESCH: Yeah, you read my mind. That really was going to be my first answer that if the media was giving this the attention that it deserves, then we would be having it. But they would be getting punished for saying these things. And so with some other exceptions like yourself, we’re not seeing as much media attention as this should be getting.
So I would really encourage folks to be writing letters to the editors, to your local papers, calling TV stations. If you’re on Twitter, tweet at the reporters, at your local papers and TV stations, say that this is something that they should be covering because this really does matter to a lot of people.
If you poll people and they say, whether they’re Democratic or Republican or independent voters, they don’t want Social Security and Medicare benefits cut. They actually want them to be increased. And Social Security is a very top priority voting issue for them.
And so people want to be hearing about this. They’re interested, but the media is just, they kind of see it as, “Oh, this is a boring, wonky topic.” And they just don’t understand why it’s important. Or in some cases they think that “Oh, this is just Democrats, you know, crying wolf. And of course, this could never actually happen.”
But the truth is that we came extremely close multiple times during the Obama years to Social Security and Medicare getting cut. And it’s just the actions of a few brave politicians like former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that stopped it. But as well as activists around the country and ordinary people rising up and saying, No.
But we did come far too close. And so I think anyone who says this would never happen just needs to look at some of the history there.
SCOTT HARRIS: And just quickly, we’re almost out of time. But what would be at the top of Social Security Works? Your group’s agenda in the next Congress in terms of policy changes, reforms needed for both Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
LINDA BENESCH: So near the top of our list, it would be passing a bill called the Social Security 2100 Act. That’s sponsored by Rep. John Larson, he’s one of our greatest Social Security champions. He’s got 90 percent of House Democrats on that bill, and we’re getting closer to a floor vote with every Congress. So I really think if Democrats keep control of the House and Senate, we can get that passed.
For more information, visit Social Security Works at socialsecurityworks.org.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Linda Benesch (17:32) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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