In 1935, President Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security, an insurance contract between Americans and the federal government that pays out on certain life events. As a financial safety net, social security protects Americans from what Roosevelt called the “hazards and vicissitudes of life.”
Roosevelt’s plan has been vital to the American people, and has delivered payments on time, for generations. Today, 180 million employees are paying in, and 87 million people are receiving retirement and disability benefits under the program.
Due to fluctuating demographics and other factors, payouts under Social Security now exceed pay-ins, and most analysts agree adjustments are needed to keep the program afloat. With the help of Elon Musk, Republican lawmakers, who will soon hold majorities in the House and Senate, will try to cut guaranteed benefits instead of increasing the program’s revenue.
When billionaires slash programs to fund their own tax cuts
GOP legislators are toying with reducing payouts under the system, including raising the retirement age and other benefit cuts. As one GOP representative recently
If they cut my benefits of Social Security, I will DIE! I barely make enough to live on since my dear wife died in 2020, two days after Christmas.
Do any of you remember towards the end of the Clinton Administration when there were about three plus years of budget surpluses, the first since Eisenhower. Al Gore had been charged with a reorg of the bureaucracy and they got a substantial tax increase on higher incomes plus the economy was booming. George “W” came into office and cut taxes because that is what republicans do, then back into deficits from that day to now.
I have often wondered what would have happened if Gore had put up much more of a fight regarding the recount in Florida that was cut short by the Supremes. There was so much manipulation by Jeb Bush and republican operatives that was allowed to stand. The Bush/Chany cabal created so many problems that are forgotten about because 9/11 gave them their much desired “Pearl Harbor” moment. All has slipped away down the collective memory hole…