Earlier this week, the Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House of Representatives, released its proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. It includes longtime conservative wish list items like raising the Social Security retirement age for younger Americans, reducing benefits for younger high-income earners, and converting Medicare into a voucher-style “premium support” program.
When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can’t help themselves. Even after years of attempted cuts have backfired, they continue to attempt to sabotage the popular entitlement programs — and in doing so sabotage themselves. The RSC, which counts Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., among its members alongside nearly 80% of House Republicans, insists these changes are necessary to save the programs. Not only is that false, but the RSC proposal is a massive political error, handing President Joe Biden a jewel of an issue to run on ahead of Election Day.
Better still for the president, the RSC’s proposal comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump saying in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” last week that “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting.” After Biden and his campaign pounced, the Trump team tried to backtrack. But Republicans heard the former president loud and clear: RSC Chair Kevin Hern told reporters Wednesday, “What you’re hearing President Trump say is exactly what we’re saying.”
That’s about par for the course when it comes to Trump. When he first ran for president, the then-long-shot candidate distinguished himself from the GOP field by promising to leave both programs alone. But during Trump’s time in office, every single one of his budgets proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Now that he’s out of office, he wants to pretend that never happened. Instead, he is falsely blaming Democrats and immigrants of “killing” both programs.
Like Trump’s budget proposals, the RSC couches its changes in the language of fiscal responsibility. But the RSC simultaneously calls for permanently extending the Trump tax cuts, which are heavily weighted toward the wealthy and corporations, and proposes additional tax cuts — all totaling more than $5 trillion over 10 years. As MSNBC columnist Paul Waldman points out, if Social Security’s solvency is the concern, it’s much easier to lift the payroll tax cap, which currently lets high earners pay a smaller share of their income. As for Medicare, Biden’s proposal to raise Medicare taxes on people making more than $400,000 would extend that program’s solvency into the 2050s.
