Newsweek reports: “Is Trump Defunding Social Security and Medicare? Concerns Mount After President’s Executive Order.” Forbes opines: “Will Trump’s Payroll Tax Cut End Social Security As We Know It? Let’s Hope So.”
Ralph Nader tweeted: “The Executive Order deferring indefinitely a portion of payroll taxes funding Social Security and Medicare usurped the congressional taxing power. Both constitutional violations are indisputable.”
NANCY ALTMAN, via Linda Benesch, lbenesch at socialsecurityworks.
President of Social Security Works, Altman is author of The Battle for Social Security and The Truth About Social Security: Exploding Five Destructive Myths. She noted that Trump in the past has repeatedly said he was the only Republican candidate who didn’t want to cut Social Security.
She said: “Donald Trump’s executive order, which seeks to defer Social Security contributions, is bad enough. But his promise to ‘terminate’ FICA contributions if he is reelected is a full-on declaration of war against current and future Social Security beneficiaries.
“Social Security is the foundation of everyone’s retirement security. At a time when pensions are vanishing and 401ks have proven inadequate, Trump’s plan to eliminate Social Security’s revenue stream would destroy the one source of retirement income that people can count on. Moreover, Social Security is often the only disability insurance and life insurance that working families have. If reelected, Trump plans to destroy those benefits as well.”
