The Republican War Against The Elderly

Every time Trump was questioned about Republican plans to gut Medicare and Social Security, he said he would not allow it, that he would “improve it.” That’s what Paul Ryan, Mike Pence and Tom Price say too— they want to make it “better.” Sounds better than saying they want to destroy it, huh? On Sunday Fox Business ran a report by Sean Williams that points to the Republican “reform” efforts financially crippling most seniors. He started by pointing out 6 in 10 seniors are reliant on Social Security and that over 80% of “pre-retirees will rely, to some degree, on Social Security income during retirement. In short, without Social Security we'd probably have tens of millions of seniors struggling to pay their bills during their golden years.”

Instead of agreeing to eliminate the cap so that rich people pay their fair share of Social Security, Republicans have gotten behind Sam Johnson’s proposal to “save” Social Security but shredding it. The GOP plan starts with two terrible ideas: 1- raising the retirement age to 69 in the hope that more people will die before they can ever make use of the money they’ve paid into Social Security their whole lives; and 2- using chained CPI to hold down cost of living adjustments, something that many conservative Democrats from the Republican wing of the Democratic Party (primarily Blue Dogs and New Dems) also support. 

Ro Khanna is a freshman from the San Jose/Silicon Valley area. He seems horrified by what Sam Johnson and the Republicans are proposing. “At a time when many workers face age discrimination and layoffs in their late 50s and early 60s,” he told us last night, “it's appalling to consider raising the retirement age or using chained CPI to lower benefits. The message of this election is that the working class is feeling the pain of globalization and automation. We need to strengthen the safety net, not dismantle it.” Here’s how Fox Business says the “Republicans' latest effort to save Social Security could wind up financially crippling, not helping, most seniors.”

1. Raising the retirement age punishes everyone

To begin with, raising the retirement age, while accounting for lengthened life expectancies over the previous five decades, would punish every single retiree under Social Security -- especially the 60% who are already filing for benefits before reaching their full retirement age. Your FRA is the point at which the SSA deems you eligible for 100% of your benefit payout. If Republicans move the bar higher, it means that today's workers would have to wait an extra two years to receive 100% of their retirement benefit.

Worse yet, your FRA also helps determine what your payout would be if you sign up for benefits anytime between age 62 and age 70. With an FRA of 66 years, claiming at age 62 results in a payout that can be reduced by as much as 25%, while waiting until age 70 could increase your payout by as much as 32% over your FRA benefit. If the new bar becomes 69 years of age, claiming at age 62 would reduce your benefit even more, and the incentive to sign up after age 69 would provide only a marginal increase over your FRA benefit.

2. The chained CPI puts seniors in an even bigger hole relative to medical-care inflation

The Social Security Reform Act of 2016 could also devastate each and every recipient by switching to the chained CPI from the CPI-W.

By no means is the CPI-W perfect. A December 2011 comparison of the CPI-W and the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly -- a measure that looks solely at the spending habits of households headed by people aged 62 and up -- by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the CPI-W drastically underemphasizes medical costs and housing costs for seniors, while overemphasizing transportation, food, apparel, and education expenses. In simple terms, the CPI-W isn't accurately keeping pace with the real inflation Social Security beneficiaries are facing, especially when it comes to medical-care inflation.

However, the chained CPI is even worse. It grows at an even slower pace than the CPI-W because the chained CPI factors in the potential for consumer substitutions. In other words, when prices rise, the chained CPI takes into account the likelihood that consumers will switch out a more expensive good or service for a cheaper one. With this factor accounted for, the chained CPI would be expected to result in smaller "raises" for Social Security recipients, putting them in an even greater hole due to the effect of medical-care inflation.

3. Eliminating the taxation of benefits hurts more than it helps

On one hand, the tax thresholds that determine whether or not your Social Security benefits are subject to taxation by the federal government haven't been adjusted for inflation in 33 years, so there's clearly some optimism behind phasing out and eliminating the taxation of benefits. Middle-income retired workers would probably receive a welcome boost in their monthly payout.

But removing the taxation of Social Security benefits also seems like a foolish move considering that the program needs more revenue to sustain its current payout trajectory, not less revenue. Furthermore, it only makes sense for higher-income individuals and couples who aren't reliant on their Social Security income to pay some level of tax on those benefits. Ultimately, removing revenue from the program by eliminating the taxation benefits could hurt more than it helps.

While there are certainly two sides to this issue, and the Republican plan to save Social Security has redeeming qualities, there are genuine reasons for future generations of retirees to be deeply concerned about the Social Security proposal Republican lawmakers have put on the table. If the plan is implemented, the real purchasing power of Social Security benefits could be greatly reduced in the years to come, which is terrible news for a majority of current and future retirees.

John Goodman is an author and academic and one ion the country’s leading thinkers on health care policy. His policies seem to bend a little to the right but in the new issue of Forbes he asks why Paul Ryan and the GOP have screwed up healthcare so badly.

Do you think it is a bit strange that after 7 years, Republicans in Congress still don’t have a replacement plan for Obamacare? Or that they now tell us that developing one will take 3 or 4 more years. And of course, once they have a plan it will take state governments and insurance companies two or three more years to phase it in. So, we are looking at a decade’s delay. That’s if we are lucky.

Suppose the tables were turned. If Obamacare were a Republican reform and Democrats controlled Congress, how long would it take the Democrats to come up with a better plan? They’d do it in a heartbeat. They would do it by doing what Democrats are traditionally good at: putting ideology aside and finding solutions that make all the major stakeholders better off.

Why can’t Republicans do that? Because they don’t know how to put ideology aside and they are unable to honestly communicate with their base on what Obamacare reform really means. The result is a series of Republican plans with elements that almost all Republicans have already said they won’t vote for.

Last night, Bernie sent a message to his supporters about standing up to the Republican efforts against working families. If you didn’t see it, this is the heart of it:

In less than one week, the new Republican Congress will begin their efforts to dismantle America’s health care system. Their goal is to take away health insurance from tens of millions of Americans, privatize Medicare, make massive cuts to Medicaid, increase prescription drug prices and defund Planned Parenthood. At the same time, in the midst of a grotesque and growing level of income and wealth inequality, they want obscene tax breaks for the top one-tenth of 1 percent.

As we enter the new year, our message to the Republicans is simple and straight forward. You are not going to get away with it. You are not going to punish the elderly, disabled veterans, the children, the sick and the poor while you reward your billionaire friends.

Stopping this Republican assault on the working class of this country will require the active participation of millions of Americans in every community in our country. In fact, it will require nothing less than a political revolution that engages millions of people from all walks of life, regardless of whether they voted for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump or anyone else.

On Sunday Jan. 15, Democratic members of Congress, trade unions, senior citizen groups, health care activists and all those who believe in economic and social justice are organizing a day of action called “Our First Stand: Save Health Care.” Rallies will be held around the country. Now I need to know that you’re in:

Add your name to demand that Congress protect and expand the health care needs of working families, not cut them. Tell Trump and Congress that they must pass legislation that makes the wealthy start paying their fair share of taxes instead of trying to slash life-or-death programs that tens of millions of Americans rely on.

Change will never happen from inside of Washington, D.C. — it will always come from our communities and the grassroots. That is what the history of America is all about. Whether it’s the creation of the trade union movement, the women’s movement, the civil right’s movement, the environmental movement, the gay rights movement and more, justice prevails when we stand together. We lose when we are divided or apathetic.

So Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and I have asked my colleagues in Congress to organize events in their states and their districts where people can come together and make their voices heard. We will win when we are all in this fight together.

With Donald Trump set to take office and Republicans in control of Congress, it’s more important than ever that we recommit ourselves to building a movement that transforms this country and brings people together around an agenda that works for the working families of this country, and not just the 1 percent.

Congressional Republicans Intend To Use Trump To Destroy Social Security-- Sam Johnson Has Already Introduced A Bill

Will Trump let Sam Johnson and Paul Ryan gut Social Security?

Collin County, north of Dallas, is the 6th most populous county in Texas and all of the 3rd congressional district, represented by crackpot Republican Sam Johnson, lies within its boundaries. The congressional district is just over 60% white, about 15% Latino, 13% Asian and 8% Black. It's the 29th richest district in the country, with a median income of around $81,000. In Texas, the only richer county in the state is Ft Bend, one of Houston's sprawling suburban counties. Ft. Bend County, like Collin County, has been part of the red heartland that keeps Texas Republican. This cycle, Clinton suburban strategy worked in Ft. Bend and she won the county. Collin was a harder nut to crack-- the last Democrat the county voted for was LBJ in 1964-- but Hillary made strides. In 2012 Obama scored 33% there (100,754 votes). This year Hillary won 139,837 votes-- almost 40%.

Sam Johnson, a hideous reprobate and far right extremist, the oldest Republican in Congress at 86 years old, who's been in the House since 1992, doesn't get serious opponents. In 2014 a Green ran against him and this year the Democrat, Adam Bell, raised zero dollars and spent exactly nothing on his campaign. The DCCC doesn't look at the district. Johnson spent $1,148,332 on his reelection bid and beat Bell 193,063 (61.3%) to 108,780 (34.5%). We'll never know how many more votes Bell would have gotten had the DCCC made some kind of effort in the district. Johnson, who has a 1.76 ProgressivePunch lifetime crucial vote score, normally has been reelected with over 70%. The old vampire offers a constitutional amendment every two years to repeal the income tax (the 16th amendment) from his perch as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's subcommittee on Social Security.

With Trump elected president and Ryan as Speaker, Johnson is making his move-- H.R. 6489-- to destroy Social Security altogether, a dream many Republicans have long cherished. He and Ryan seem to have worked out a plan to create a crisis with Social Security in order to set the table for privatizing it. Instead of eliminating the cap on rich people's Social Security taxes, Johnson's proposal cuts taxes for wealthy people by ending taxation of benefits and then cuts benefits massively to pay for that tax giveaway, cutting deeply-- as much as 50%-- into benefits. Even the poorest retirees will see their benefits cut back 20%.

Pelosi's response to the introduction of Johnson's bill was strong and to the point. I don't see the mass media talking about it though. "Apparently nothing upsets House Republicans like the idea of hard-working people getting to enjoy a secure and dignified retirement. While Speaker Ryan sharpens his knives for Medicare, Chairman Johnson’s bill is an alarming sign that Republicans are greedily eying devastating cuts to Americans’ Social Security benefits as well. Cutting Social Security would have devastating consequences for Americans’ retirement security. At a time when Americans are more anxious about their retirement than ever, the top Republican on the Social Security Subcommittee is rolling out legislation that cuts benefits by more than a third, raises the retirement age from 67 to 69, cuts seniors’ cost of living adjustments, and targets benefits for the families of disabled and retired workers. Slashing Social Security and ending Medicare are absolutely not what the American people voted for in November. Democrats will not stand by while Republicans dismantle the promise of a healthy and dignified retirement for working people in America."

Nancy Altman, founding co-director of Social Security Works makes the case that Trump's voters may have wanted "change," but this isn't the kind of change they had in mind.

No one voted for massive cuts to Social Security, nor to end the program as we know it. Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to not touch Social Security. But the powerful Chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee has just unveiled a proposal that would slash Social Security benefits and radically transform the program. The Johnson plan would gradually but inexorably turn Social Security from a program that replaces wages to one that produces essentially one flat benefit, independent of how much a worker contributed.

Moreover, the proposal would reduce Social Security’s cost of living increases (COLAs) for everyone and eliminate them entirely for some, even though COLAs are already inadequate. And this radical plan would reduce benefits for spouses and children of workers so seriously disabled that they can no longer support their families.

With Republicans in full control of the federal government, these cuts have a real chance of being passed into law. Trump needs to immediately reassure the American people that he will keep his campaign promise and veto this awful bill.  He should tweet that immediately.

I don't know if Johnson can be defeated in 2018-- or if the DCCC will even try to recruit a plausible candidate to run against him; if history is a guide, they won't-- but there are dozens of Republican seats that will be put into jeopardy if Ryan and Trump go along with his bill and begin the process of gutting Social Security. Johnson's bill, introduced in the last week of the 114th Congress could well be the #1 issue for the 2018 election cycle. I asked several progressive Democrats who have pledged to use all they've got to fight against benefits cuts if it's possible to stop Johnson and Ryan. Ted Lieu (D-CA) is watching the Republican overreach and reminded us that "Last decade when the GOP tried to privatize Social Security, the Democrats took back the House of Representatives. Apparently the GOP still has not learned that the overwhelming majority of Americans support Social Security. This new GOP effort to destroy Social Security will fail and I look forward to the voters judgement in 2018." Here at Blue America, we would look forward to the DCCC responding if they got some live wires onto the committee-- like Ted.

Ro Khanna is a freshman from the Silicon Valley areas just north of San Jose, through Santa Clara, Cupertino and Sunnyvale and northeast to Milpitas, Newark and Fremont (CA-17). His perspective is at the core of how House progressives are reacting to Johnson and Ryan: "Standing up for Social Security is the bedrock principle of the Democratic Party. Most Americans want to expand benefits and scrap the cap to pay for it. The Republican proposed cuts are deeply unpopular. This is a time for Democrats to be united in the message that we need to expand Social Security benefits not reduce them. If we unite and resist, we will defeat the Ryan plan through grassroots mobilization just like we defeated Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security in 2004 when the Republicans also had the majority."

Madison's congressman, Mark Pocan, is in no mood to watch the Republicans roll back social policies that started when Franklin Roosevelt was president. "Once again, House Republicans have shown their determination to gut Social Security for future generations and weaken the retirement security for millions of seniors. In 2005, Americans roundly rejected Republican attempts to privatization of Social Security. Now we must stop House Republicans from slashing benefits and destroying the fundamental promise of paying into a system that will be there for you when you retire. President-elect Trump has shown a propensity for flip-flopping his position on any issue at the drop of a hat. While he made general statements about not cutting Social Security on the campaign trail, we cannot and should not trust these promises. Trump must immediately come out against this bill and strongly commit to protecting the retirement security for seniors and future generations throughout his presidency."