Tim Walz Brings Unwavering Support for Seniors to the Harris Campaign
Seventy percent of voters did not know who Tim Walz was before Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate on Tuesday. As Americans learn more about the Minnesota Governor and newly-minted VP candidate, they will discover that he is a true champion for seniors — and a welcome addition to the Democratic ticket. As our president and CEO, Max Richtman, put it, Tim Walz has built an impressive record on issues affecting older Americans as a congressman and later as governor:
“Through his words and actions, Tim Walz has proven himself to be a champion for Minnesota seniors. His advocacy dovetails perfectly with Kamala Harris’ commitment to enhancing older American’s financial and health security — especially protecting Social Security and Medicare.” – Max Richtman, 8/6/24
In his debut as Harris’ running mate at a fiery rally in Philadelphia last night, Walz wasted no time calling out Donald Trump on three of the most important issues for older voters:
“Trump will repeal the Affordable Care Act, no doubt about it. He’ll GUT Social Security and Medicare.” – Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic VP candidate, 8/6/24
Earlier this year, Walz already had established his bona fides as a fighter for seniors. “This election is a binary choice,” Walz tweeted in March. “Donald Trump plans to cut Social Security and give tax cuts to the wealthy.” Walz added that the Biden-Harris administration “has worked to strengthen Social Security and protect your hard-earned money.”
Governor Walz is a living example of how Social Security helps workers and families. His father, James F. Walz, died in 1984 of lung cancer, after which Walz, his brother, and mother began receiving survivors’ benefits from Social Security. Governor Walz says those benefits kept the family afloat during difficult times.
“Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate solidifies the 2024 Democratic ticket as incontestably pro-Social Security, pro-Medicare/Medicaid, and pro-senior,” said our president, Max Richtman, in a press statement on Tuesday. In July, we enthusiastically endorsed Kamala Harris for President because of the administration’s impressive record on seniors’ issues (including protecting Social Security & Medicare and pushing the Inflation Reduction Act through Congress to lower drug prices).
As Newsweek reported yesterday, both Harris and Walz support adjusting the Social Security payroll wage cap to keep the program’s trust fund solvent beyond its projected depletion date of 2035. “Harris and Walz have discussed millionaires and billionaires not ‘paying their fair share,'” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. Michael Ryan, a finance expert quoted in the same article, says Walz is likely to “double down on protecting Social Security as vice president.”
“Donald Trump will gut Social Security and Medicare,” said Walz at Tuesday’s rally
“Walz’s record speaks for itself,” says our president, Max Richtman. As a member of the U.S. House, Walz consistently voted to protect Social Security and Medicare, earning a 100% rating on our legislative scorecard for the 113th and 114th congress. During his five years as governor, Walz has worked to protect Minnesota seniors. His One Minnesota budget included provisions to support older adults and family caregivers at a time when the state’s demographic is ‘aging rapidly.’ During the pandemic, Governor Walz made it a priority to get seniors vaccinated, declaring, “We set out to protect the most vulnerable Minnesotans, and we are honoring that commitment.”
The new Democratic ticket provides a stark contrast with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who cannot be trusted to defend Americans’ earned benefits — and who throughout the years have called for cuts to “entitlements” and later tried to back off of those statements. As President, Trump submitted successive White House budgets that included billions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare cuts. He once called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme” and recklessly suspended the payroll tax that funds Social Security during the pandemic, expressing the hope that the program’s main revenue source would be “terminated.”
The stakes could not be higher this election year. According to Newsweek, a recent poll found that Social Security and Medicare is “very important” in helping 63 percent of voters decide who to cast their ballot for. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have been steadfast in their support of seniors,” said Richtman. “We are confident that Harris and her excellent new running mate will earn the votes of workers and retirees across America.”
As Medicare Turns 59, We Still Need to Defend It
In Medicare’s first year of coverage, poverty decreased by 66% among the senior population. From 1965, when Medicare was enacted, to 1994, life expectancy at age 65 increased nearly 3 full years. This was no coincidence. Access to Medicare coverage for those who were previously uninsured helped lift seniors out of poverty and extend their lives.
As with Social Security, workers would contribute with each paycheck toward their future Medicare benefits. Upon putting his signature on this new program, a keystone of the Great Society, President Johnson declared, “Every citizen will be able, in their productive years when they are earning, to insure themselves against the ravages of illness in old age.”
Medicare has been improved several times over the decades. In 1972, Americans with disabilities (under 65 years of age) became eligible for Medicare coverage — along with people suffering from chronic kidney disease needing dialysis or transplants. In 2003, prescription drug coverage was added to Medicare (though the program was prohibited from negotiating prices with drugmakers). The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 finally empowered Medicare to negotiate prices with Big Pharma — and lowered seniors’ costs by capping their out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs (including a $35 monthly cap on insulin).
Nearly sixty years after it was enacted, Medicare is one of the most popular and efficient federal programs. Ninety-four percent of beneficiaries say they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their quality of care. Unlike many other federal programs, Medicare only spends 2% of its budget on administrative costs. Medicare isn’t perfect. It should be expanded to cover dental, hearing, and vision care.
The privatized version of the program, Medicare Advantage (MA), is gobbling up a larger share of the market despite myriad problems, including MA insurers overbilling the government and denying legitimate care. The Biden-Harris administration has been working to hold those private plans more accountable, but much remains to be done to protect traditional Medicare from efforts toward privatization.
Even after 59 years of Medicare’s overall success, we must continually defend Medicare against conservatives’ attempts to cut and privatize the program. Our founder, Congressman James Roosevelt, Sr. (son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt), knew that Medicare (along with Social Security) would need continuous advocacy to withstand assaults from antagonistic political forces. That’s why the word “preserve” is in our organization’s name.
Many conservatives opposed Medicare from the start, labeling it “socialism” and “socialized medicine.” In 1962, Ronald Reagan warned that if Medicare were to be enacted, “One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Today, the onslaught continues. The House Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) 2025 budget proposes to cut Medicare by an estimated $1 trillion over the next decade. The RSC would replace Medicare’s current reimbursement system with vouchers, and push seniors into private plans that can and do deny payment for services. Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for a 2nd Trump presidency, would “gut” traditional Medicare as we know it, leaving only a privatized version that puts profits over patient care.
Democrats by and large support protecting and even expanding Medicare. President Biden tried to add dental, vision, and hearing coverage in his Build Back Better Act, but encountered resistance from Republicans and centrist Democrats. It’s still a laudable goal. Republicans, for the most part, advocate cutting Medicare benefits and privatization.
We endorsed Kamala Harris for President, because she knows the importance of Medicare to America’s seniors and people with disabilities — and has vowed to protect them. She has been in lock-step with President Biden, including his budget proposals to strengthen Medicare’s finances by demanding that the wealthy contribute their fair share. President Trump, on the other hand, has been rhetorically all over the map on this topic, telling CNBC he is “open” to “cutting entitlements” but claiming to support Medicare. (His budgets as president called for billions of dollars in Medicare cuts.)
The 59th anniversary of Medicare is both an occasion for celebrating the program’s enormous successes over the past six decades — and a time to defend Medicare in the marbled halls of Washington, DC, and at the ballot box this November.
Why We Endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States
On Tuesday, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare proudly endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States. As Vice President, she has championed the administration’s policies on behalf of older Americans — including strengthening Social Security and Medicare and lowering prescription drug prices for seniors. She has been in lockstep with the President in his pledge to protect Americans’ earned benefits against Republican proposals to cut and privatize them — including Donald Trump.
“(We) will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not,” Harris recently posted on social media. ‘How can you claim to fight for seniors when you intend to cut Social Security and Medicare, which is a lifeline for so many older Americans?”’
Donald Trump, who once called Social Security a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and said this year he was ‘open’ to ‘cutting entitlements,’ cannot be trusted to protect Social Security and Medicare. As President, he submitted successive White House budgets that would have slashed both programs by hundreds of billions of dollars. He recklessly suspended Social Security payroll contributions during the pandemic and hoped that the FICA tax would be ‘terminated.’ He actively spreads disinformation that undermines seniors’ earned benefits — including the outright lie that undocumented workers are collecting Social Security.
Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, once called for trillions of dollars to be cut from ‘entitlement’ programs and for the conversion of Medicare into a voucher program. Vance has close ties to Heritage Foundation, which authored the infamous Project 2025 — a blueprint for a second Trump term that would shred vital social programs and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act (which is lowering drug prices for American seniors). Though he has reversed his position on benefit cuts, he, like Trump, does not merit the trust of seniors and their families.
Unlike the GOP ticket, Vice President Harris has always been on the side of older Americans as a consistent supporter of Social Security, Medicare, and lower drug prices. The Biden-Harris administration held the line against GOP-proposed benefit cuts — and was able to enact the historic Inflation Reduction Act, giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma, capping insulin costs, and limiting seniors’ out-of-pocket costs. But there is more to be done.
The battle to lower prescription drug prices must continue. Both Medicare and Social Security must be put on a sound financial footing and expanded to meet 21st century seniors’ true needs. Further action is needed to crack down on the abuses of privatized Medicare Advantage plans and to preserve traditional Medicare. The Biden-Harris administration has made admirable efforts in that direction.
“We proudly support the Vice President as she takes the lead on these crucial issues after so ably supporting the administration’s commitment to seniors’ financial and health security,” said NCPSSM president and CEO Max Richtman. “We look forward to working with President Harris to build on the tremendous successes of the past four years.”
Harris Likely to Sustain Biden’s Social Security, Medicare, Rx Drug Policies
Vice President Harris paid tribute to President Biden today at her first public event since he withdrew from the 2024 race and endorsed her. Congratulating winning NCAA athletes at the White House this morning, she said that, in one term, President Biden has already surpassed the legacy of many presidents who served two, a record “unmatched” in American history. “I am a first-hand witness that he fights for the American people every day,” she said.
As we have noted many times, the President has fought especially hard for American seniors — by lowering prescription drug prices, strengthening Medicare, and advocating improvements to Social Security — which is why he earned our endorsement in June. His heir apparent, Vice President Harris, has been in lockstep with President Biden on these crucial issues.
As Newsweek reports, “Harris, who announced her intent to run on Sunday, has not yet released her official policy proposals, but she previously supported” Biden’s policies regarding Americans’ earned benefits. Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee, told Newsweek, “While there are (various) policy options being discussed in Washington, Harris’ position on Social Security will likely remain the same as Biden’s.”
President Biden and many Democrats want to increase revenue coming into Social Security’s trust fund to avoid a projected shortfall by 2035, absent corrective action.
“Harris supported Biden’s plans to raise Social Security payroll taxes on Americans earning $400,000 or more annually. Currently, only $168,600 of yearly earnings are subject to Social Security taxes.” – Newsweek, 7/22/24
During her time as a Senator from California, Harris backed the Social Security Expansion Act (introduced by Bernie Sanders), which would adjust the Social Security payroll wage cap (so that earnings above $250,000 would be subject to additional taxes). Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act adheres more closely to the President’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. NCPSSM has endorsed both bills, which not only would strengthen the program’s finances, but boost seniors’ benefits as well.
As the presumptive Democratic nominee, Vice President Harris likely will continue President Biden’s efforts to push back on Republican proposals to cut benefits — from raising the retirement age to means-testing or even privatizing Social Security.
“President Joe Biden and I will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not. The contrast is clear,” Harris posted on X in June.
We have argued that Donald Trump cannot be trusted to protect Social Security. He told CNBC that he was “open” to “cutting entitlements”; he has lied about undocumented workers collecting Social Security (they don’t); and several of his White House budgets proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare by billions of dollars. At the Republican convention, Trump dubiously claimed that he is fighting for older Americans.
“How can you claim to fight for seniors when you intend to cut Social Security and Medicare, which is a lifeline for so many of our seniors?” – Kamala Harris
The University of Tennessee’s Alex Beene argues that in order to protect and strengthen seniors’ earned benefits, a President Harris would need a Democratic House and Senate. Democrats are hoping to flip the House and to hold onto their narrow margin in the Senate.
Harris will no doubt try to build on the administration’s successes in lowering prescription drug prices for seniors, as well. The administration’s landmark legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. The prices of the first 10 life-saving drugs to be price-negotiated will be announced in September. The IRA also limited Medicare beneficiaries’ insulin costs to $35/month and capped overall out-of-pocket drug spending by patients to $2,000 per year – a provision that takes affect in 2025.
Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, calls for repealing the IRA and the Affordable Care Act. The House Republican Study Committee budget for 2025 would slash Social Security and Medicare.
“You paid into Medicare and Social Security your entire lives. Now, House Republicans want to cut it,” Vice President Harris posted on Facebook.
Based in part on her championing of workers’ social insurance benefits, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), lost no time in endorsing Harris less than 24 hours after Biden quit the race. “We know that she will defend the Affordable Care Act and protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security against Republican threats.”
What Does Project 2025 Bode for Older Americans? Hint: Nothing Good
The right-wing Heritage Foundation produced Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump term. Though Project 2025 doesn’t specifically advocate for cuts to Social Security, the right-wing think tank has taken positions that would seriously undermine the nation’s most popular social insurance program. On the issue of Medicare and prescription drug prices, Project 2025 is crystal clear. It explicitly calls for changes that could be devastating for seniors. We chatted with our senior legislative representative, Maria Freese, about the implications of Project 2025 for older Americans.
Q: While it’s true that the Project 2025 plan itself does not call for Social Security cuts, it doesn’t give us much reassurance on the Social Security front. Why is that?
A: The organization behind Project 2025, the right-wing Heritage Foundation, has been calling for cuts for Social Security and Medicare for decades — ever since they were founded. So, this is not a new thing for them.
Q: Exactly. As recently as June 17th, the Heritage Foundation called for raising the retirement age to 69 or 70. What does that tell us about their true intentions?
That’s only one element of the plan that they have for Social Security. It’s the one that is the most dramatic, and the one that they tend to put front and center. In fact, the senior policy researcher at Heritage, Rachel Grezsler, has been behind a lot of the organization’s published writing on raising the retirement age.
Q: So if the Heritage Foundation has advocated cutting Social Security, why don’t they come out and say so in the Project 2025 document?
Well, I think it’s because the Republicans have finally learned that where Social Security is concerned, saying the quiet part out loud scares people to death. And it’s politically poisonous. I think they’ve learned that lesson from Donald Trump when he says, ‘Don’t talk about cutting Social Security because it’s bad politically.’ That doesn’t mean it’s changed their agenda at all. It just means that they have discovered the hard way that when they tell people what they plan to do about Social Security, it costs them politically because voters hate the actual GOP agenda on this issue.
Q: And, of course, we know what House Republicans would like to do if the party consolidates sufficient power in the 2024 elections, because of the budget put out by the House Republican Study Committee earlier this year.
A: That’s right. The House Republican Study Committee represents 80% of the House GOP membership. This year they submitted a budget that would have cut Social Security by $1.5 trillion. That’s a huge amount of cuts. Now the budget is a little quiet about exactly how they would do that — because they know that if they actually lay out a plan, people will object to it.
Q: The website Verify.com did an article about this: We know what the Heritage Foundation and the Republican party really want to do, despite their vague rhetoric about supporting Social Security in general. So is that a fair predictor of what might happen during a second Trump administration?
A: Clearly there is a relationship between what Heritage Foundation promotes and what and members of the Republican caucus in the House, and presumably some of them in the Senate, would be pushing in a second Trump administration. Whether it’s written in Project 2025 or not is irrelevant.
They have learned that it’s better not to tell people what they plan to do because what they plan is so terrible and so badly received by the American people and raising the retirement age is only one piece of it.
They also want to change the way the cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated, whereas we would like to see them improved so they better reflect what seniors spend their money on, which tends to be housing and health care. The Republicans have promoted this thing called the Chained CPI, which actually would reduce COLAs for seniors.
Q: According to Verify.com, the Heritage Foundation has called for something called a flat Social Security benefit, though it is not part of Project 2025. What is that all about?
A: They propose to “flatten out” benefits across the income spectrum. This wouldn’t hurt lower income people as much as the middle class. The Warren Buffets of the world are not going to be significantly impacted because they don’t rely on Social Security. The people who are going to be impacted are those whose lifetime earnings average, say, $50,000 a year. They’ll simply get less in benefits. The flat benefit would cut deeper and deeper until Social Security becomes just another welfare program. It wouldn’t be so much of an “earned benefit” anymore.
Q: Trump claims that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, that it has nothing to do with him. And yet, apparently, the team working on it is 80% former Trump officials. So how do we how do we call him out on that discrepancy or hypocrisy, saying Project 2025 has nothing to do with him?
A: Well, number one, you can’t trust what Trump says. Any connection between things that Donald Trump says and the truth is purely accidental. But the fact is that Project 2025 was designed by people who were parts of his administration in the past, people who are his supporters. Trump’s VP pick, J.D. Vance, is closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. In 2023, he wrote, “We owe so much to the Heritage Foundation and all that they’ve contributed to our cause over the past fifty years.” And Heritage was one of the sponsors of the Republican convention!
Q: We’ve talked a lot about Social Security. What would Project 2025 would do to hurt Medicare and the effort to lower prescription drug prices?
A: First of all, Project 2025 calls for repealing Medicare’s new ability to negotiate prescription drug prices with Big Pharma. That’s just the number one thing on their list. They also want to repeal the new $2,000 out of pocket cap on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Project 2025 also advocates eliminating the $35 per month out of pocket cap on patients’ insulin costs. Basically, they want to reverse all the good things that the Inflation Reduction Act is doing for seniors. And that’s just for starters.
They have other provisions that would make it easier to privatize the Medicare program through Medicare Advantage. So we’d end up with more and more people at the mercy of privatized, profit-making insurers.
Basically, they would gut the traditional Medicare program. There wouldn’t be much left of the traditional program if, if it still existed at all, because it would be so expensive that no one would be able to afford to sign up. To paraphrase Newt Gingrich, who giddily promoted privatization, Project 2025 would induce the ‘dying on the vine’ of Medicare as we know it.
Tim Walz Brings Unwavering Support for Seniors to the Harris Campaign
Seventy percent of voters did not know who Tim Walz was before Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate on Tuesday. As Americans learn more about the Minnesota Governor and newly-minted VP candidate, they will discover that he is a true champion for seniors — and a welcome addition to the Democratic ticket. As our president and CEO, Max Richtman, put it, Tim Walz has built an impressive record on issues affecting older Americans as a congressman and later as governor:
“Through his words and actions, Tim Walz has proven himself to be a champion for Minnesota seniors. His advocacy dovetails perfectly with Kamala Harris’ commitment to enhancing older American’s financial and health security — especially protecting Social Security and Medicare.” – Max Richtman, 8/6/24
In his debut as Harris’ running mate at a fiery rally in Philadelphia last night, Walz wasted no time calling out Donald Trump on three of the most important issues for older voters:
“Trump will repeal the Affordable Care Act, no doubt about it. He’ll GUT Social Security and Medicare.” – Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic VP candidate, 8/6/24
Earlier this year, Walz already had established his bona fides as a fighter for seniors. “This election is a binary choice,” Walz tweeted in March. “Donald Trump plans to cut Social Security and give tax cuts to the wealthy.” Walz added that the Biden-Harris administration “has worked to strengthen Social Security and protect your hard-earned money.”
Governor Walz is a living example of how Social Security helps workers and families. His father, James F. Walz, died in 1984 of lung cancer, after which Walz, his brother, and mother began receiving survivors’ benefits from Social Security. Governor Walz says those benefits kept the family afloat during difficult times.
“Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate solidifies the 2024 Democratic ticket as incontestably pro-Social Security, pro-Medicare/Medicaid, and pro-senior,” said our president, Max Richtman, in a press statement on Tuesday. In July, we enthusiastically endorsed Kamala Harris for President because of the administration’s impressive record on seniors’ issues (including protecting Social Security & Medicare and pushing the Inflation Reduction Act through Congress to lower drug prices).
As Newsweek reported yesterday, both Harris and Walz support adjusting the Social Security payroll wage cap to keep the program’s trust fund solvent beyond its projected depletion date of 2035. “Harris and Walz have discussed millionaires and billionaires not ‘paying their fair share,'” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek. Michael Ryan, a finance expert quoted in the same article, says Walz is likely to “double down on protecting Social Security as vice president.”
“Donald Trump will gut Social Security and Medicare,” said Walz at Tuesday’s rally
“Walz’s record speaks for itself,” says our president, Max Richtman. As a member of the U.S. House, Walz consistently voted to protect Social Security and Medicare, earning a 100% rating on our legislative scorecard for the 113th and 114th congress. During his five years as governor, Walz has worked to protect Minnesota seniors. His One Minnesota budget included provisions to support older adults and family caregivers at a time when the state’s demographic is ‘aging rapidly.’ During the pandemic, Governor Walz made it a priority to get seniors vaccinated, declaring, “We set out to protect the most vulnerable Minnesotans, and we are honoring that commitment.”
The new Democratic ticket provides a stark contrast with Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who cannot be trusted to defend Americans’ earned benefits — and who throughout the years have called for cuts to “entitlements” and later tried to back off of those statements. As President, Trump submitted successive White House budgets that included billions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare cuts. He once called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme” and recklessly suspended the payroll tax that funds Social Security during the pandemic, expressing the hope that the program’s main revenue source would be “terminated.”
The stakes could not be higher this election year. According to Newsweek, a recent poll found that Social Security and Medicare is “very important” in helping 63 percent of voters decide who to cast their ballot for. “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have been steadfast in their support of seniors,” said Richtman. “We are confident that Harris and her excellent new running mate will earn the votes of workers and retirees across America.”
As Medicare Turns 59, We Still Need to Defend It
In Medicare’s first year of coverage, poverty decreased by 66% among the senior population. From 1965, when Medicare was enacted, to 1994, life expectancy at age 65 increased nearly 3 full years. This was no coincidence. Access to Medicare coverage for those who were previously uninsured helped lift seniors out of poverty and extend their lives.
As with Social Security, workers would contribute with each paycheck toward their future Medicare benefits. Upon putting his signature on this new program, a keystone of the Great Society, President Johnson declared, “Every citizen will be able, in their productive years when they are earning, to insure themselves against the ravages of illness in old age.”
Medicare has been improved several times over the decades. In 1972, Americans with disabilities (under 65 years of age) became eligible for Medicare coverage — along with people suffering from chronic kidney disease needing dialysis or transplants. In 2003, prescription drug coverage was added to Medicare (though the program was prohibited from negotiating prices with drugmakers). The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 finally empowered Medicare to negotiate prices with Big Pharma — and lowered seniors’ costs by capping their out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs (including a $35 monthly cap on insulin).
Nearly sixty years after it was enacted, Medicare is one of the most popular and efficient federal programs. Ninety-four percent of beneficiaries say they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their quality of care. Unlike many other federal programs, Medicare only spends 2% of its budget on administrative costs. Medicare isn’t perfect. It should be expanded to cover dental, hearing, and vision care.
The privatized version of the program, Medicare Advantage (MA), is gobbling up a larger share of the market despite myriad problems, including MA insurers overbilling the government and denying legitimate care. The Biden-Harris administration has been working to hold those private plans more accountable, but much remains to be done to protect traditional Medicare from efforts toward privatization.
Even after 59 years of Medicare’s overall success, we must continually defend Medicare against conservatives’ attempts to cut and privatize the program. Our founder, Congressman James Roosevelt, Sr. (son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt), knew that Medicare (along with Social Security) would need continuous advocacy to withstand assaults from antagonistic political forces. That’s why the word “preserve” is in our organization’s name.
Many conservatives opposed Medicare from the start, labeling it “socialism” and “socialized medicine.” In 1962, Ronald Reagan warned that if Medicare were to be enacted, “One of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Today, the onslaught continues. The House Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) 2025 budget proposes to cut Medicare by an estimated $1 trillion over the next decade. The RSC would replace Medicare’s current reimbursement system with vouchers, and push seniors into private plans that can and do deny payment for services. Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for a 2nd Trump presidency, would “gut” traditional Medicare as we know it, leaving only a privatized version that puts profits over patient care.
Democrats by and large support protecting and even expanding Medicare. President Biden tried to add dental, vision, and hearing coverage in his Build Back Better Act, but encountered resistance from Republicans and centrist Democrats. It’s still a laudable goal. Republicans, for the most part, advocate cutting Medicare benefits and privatization.
We endorsed Kamala Harris for President, because she knows the importance of Medicare to America’s seniors and people with disabilities — and has vowed to protect them. She has been in lock-step with President Biden, including his budget proposals to strengthen Medicare’s finances by demanding that the wealthy contribute their fair share. President Trump, on the other hand, has been rhetorically all over the map on this topic, telling CNBC he is “open” to “cutting entitlements” but claiming to support Medicare. (His budgets as president called for billions of dollars in Medicare cuts.)
The 59th anniversary of Medicare is both an occasion for celebrating the program’s enormous successes over the past six decades — and a time to defend Medicare in the marbled halls of Washington, DC, and at the ballot box this November.
Why We Endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States
On Tuesday, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare proudly endorsed Kamala Harris for President of the United States. As Vice President, she has championed the administration’s policies on behalf of older Americans — including strengthening Social Security and Medicare and lowering prescription drug prices for seniors. She has been in lockstep with the President in his pledge to protect Americans’ earned benefits against Republican proposals to cut and privatize them — including Donald Trump.
“(We) will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not,” Harris recently posted on social media. ‘How can you claim to fight for seniors when you intend to cut Social Security and Medicare, which is a lifeline for so many older Americans?”’
Donald Trump, who once called Social Security a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and said this year he was ‘open’ to ‘cutting entitlements,’ cannot be trusted to protect Social Security and Medicare. As President, he submitted successive White House budgets that would have slashed both programs by hundreds of billions of dollars. He recklessly suspended Social Security payroll contributions during the pandemic and hoped that the FICA tax would be ‘terminated.’ He actively spreads disinformation that undermines seniors’ earned benefits — including the outright lie that undocumented workers are collecting Social Security.
Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, once called for trillions of dollars to be cut from ‘entitlement’ programs and for the conversion of Medicare into a voucher program. Vance has close ties to Heritage Foundation, which authored the infamous Project 2025 — a blueprint for a second Trump term that would shred vital social programs and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act (which is lowering drug prices for American seniors). Though he has reversed his position on benefit cuts, he, like Trump, does not merit the trust of seniors and their families.
Unlike the GOP ticket, Vice President Harris has always been on the side of older Americans as a consistent supporter of Social Security, Medicare, and lower drug prices. The Biden-Harris administration held the line against GOP-proposed benefit cuts — and was able to enact the historic Inflation Reduction Act, giving Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma, capping insulin costs, and limiting seniors’ out-of-pocket costs. But there is more to be done.
The battle to lower prescription drug prices must continue. Both Medicare and Social Security must be put on a sound financial footing and expanded to meet 21st century seniors’ true needs. Further action is needed to crack down on the abuses of privatized Medicare Advantage plans and to preserve traditional Medicare. The Biden-Harris administration has made admirable efforts in that direction.
“We proudly support the Vice President as she takes the lead on these crucial issues after so ably supporting the administration’s commitment to seniors’ financial and health security,” said NCPSSM president and CEO Max Richtman. “We look forward to working with President Harris to build on the tremendous successes of the past four years.”
Harris Likely to Sustain Biden’s Social Security, Medicare, Rx Drug Policies
Vice President Harris paid tribute to President Biden today at her first public event since he withdrew from the 2024 race and endorsed her. Congratulating winning NCAA athletes at the White House this morning, she said that, in one term, President Biden has already surpassed the legacy of many presidents who served two, a record “unmatched” in American history. “I am a first-hand witness that he fights for the American people every day,” she said.
As we have noted many times, the President has fought especially hard for American seniors — by lowering prescription drug prices, strengthening Medicare, and advocating improvements to Social Security — which is why he earned our endorsement in June. His heir apparent, Vice President Harris, has been in lockstep with President Biden on these crucial issues.
As Newsweek reports, “Harris, who announced her intent to run on Sunday, has not yet released her official policy proposals, but she previously supported” Biden’s policies regarding Americans’ earned benefits. Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor at the University of Tennessee, told Newsweek, “While there are (various) policy options being discussed in Washington, Harris’ position on Social Security will likely remain the same as Biden’s.”
President Biden and many Democrats want to increase revenue coming into Social Security’s trust fund to avoid a projected shortfall by 2035, absent corrective action.
“Harris supported Biden’s plans to raise Social Security payroll taxes on Americans earning $400,000 or more annually. Currently, only $168,600 of yearly earnings are subject to Social Security taxes.” – Newsweek, 7/22/24
During her time as a Senator from California, Harris backed the Social Security Expansion Act (introduced by Bernie Sanders), which would adjust the Social Security payroll wage cap (so that earnings above $250,000 would be subject to additional taxes). Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act adheres more closely to the President’s pledge not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 a year. NCPSSM has endorsed both bills, which not only would strengthen the program’s finances, but boost seniors’ benefits as well.
As the presumptive Democratic nominee, Vice President Harris likely will continue President Biden’s efforts to push back on Republican proposals to cut benefits — from raising the retirement age to means-testing or even privatizing Social Security.
“President Joe Biden and I will protect Social Security. Donald Trump will not. The contrast is clear,” Harris posted on X in June.
We have argued that Donald Trump cannot be trusted to protect Social Security. He told CNBC that he was “open” to “cutting entitlements”; he has lied about undocumented workers collecting Social Security (they don’t); and several of his White House budgets proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare by billions of dollars. At the Republican convention, Trump dubiously claimed that he is fighting for older Americans.
“How can you claim to fight for seniors when you intend to cut Social Security and Medicare, which is a lifeline for so many of our seniors?” – Kamala Harris
The University of Tennessee’s Alex Beene argues that in order to protect and strengthen seniors’ earned benefits, a President Harris would need a Democratic House and Senate. Democrats are hoping to flip the House and to hold onto their narrow margin in the Senate.
Harris will no doubt try to build on the administration’s successes in lowering prescription drug prices for seniors, as well. The administration’s landmark legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices with Big Pharma. The prices of the first 10 life-saving drugs to be price-negotiated will be announced in September. The IRA also limited Medicare beneficiaries’ insulin costs to $35/month and capped overall out-of-pocket drug spending by patients to $2,000 per year – a provision that takes affect in 2025.
Project 2025, a right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, calls for repealing the IRA and the Affordable Care Act. The House Republican Study Committee budget for 2025 would slash Social Security and Medicare.
“You paid into Medicare and Social Security your entire lives. Now, House Republicans want to cut it,” Vice President Harris posted on Facebook.
Based in part on her championing of workers’ social insurance benefits, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, the SEIU (Service Employees International Union), lost no time in endorsing Harris less than 24 hours after Biden quit the race. “We know that she will defend the Affordable Care Act and protect Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security against Republican threats.”
What Does Project 2025 Bode for Older Americans? Hint: Nothing Good
The right-wing Heritage Foundation produced Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump term. Though Project 2025 doesn’t specifically advocate for cuts to Social Security, the right-wing think tank has taken positions that would seriously undermine the nation’s most popular social insurance program. On the issue of Medicare and prescription drug prices, Project 2025 is crystal clear. It explicitly calls for changes that could be devastating for seniors. We chatted with our senior legislative representative, Maria Freese, about the implications of Project 2025 for older Americans.
Q: While it’s true that the Project 2025 plan itself does not call for Social Security cuts, it doesn’t give us much reassurance on the Social Security front. Why is that?
A: The organization behind Project 2025, the right-wing Heritage Foundation, has been calling for cuts for Social Security and Medicare for decades — ever since they were founded. So, this is not a new thing for them.
Q: Exactly. As recently as June 17th, the Heritage Foundation called for raising the retirement age to 69 or 70. What does that tell us about their true intentions?
That’s only one element of the plan that they have for Social Security. It’s the one that is the most dramatic, and the one that they tend to put front and center. In fact, the senior policy researcher at Heritage, Rachel Grezsler, has been behind a lot of the organization’s published writing on raising the retirement age.
Q: So if the Heritage Foundation has advocated cutting Social Security, why don’t they come out and say so in the Project 2025 document?
Well, I think it’s because the Republicans have finally learned that where Social Security is concerned, saying the quiet part out loud scares people to death. And it’s politically poisonous. I think they’ve learned that lesson from Donald Trump when he says, ‘Don’t talk about cutting Social Security because it’s bad politically.’ That doesn’t mean it’s changed their agenda at all. It just means that they have discovered the hard way that when they tell people what they plan to do about Social Security, it costs them politically because voters hate the actual GOP agenda on this issue.
Q: And, of course, we know what House Republicans would like to do if the party consolidates sufficient power in the 2024 elections, because of the budget put out by the House Republican Study Committee earlier this year.
A: That’s right. The House Republican Study Committee represents 80% of the House GOP membership. This year they submitted a budget that would have cut Social Security by $1.5 trillion. That’s a huge amount of cuts. Now the budget is a little quiet about exactly how they would do that — because they know that if they actually lay out a plan, people will object to it.
Q: The website Verify.com did an article about this: We know what the Heritage Foundation and the Republican party really want to do, despite their vague rhetoric about supporting Social Security in general. So is that a fair predictor of what might happen during a second Trump administration?
A: Clearly there is a relationship between what Heritage Foundation promotes and what and members of the Republican caucus in the House, and presumably some of them in the Senate, would be pushing in a second Trump administration. Whether it’s written in Project 2025 or not is irrelevant.
They have learned that it’s better not to tell people what they plan to do because what they plan is so terrible and so badly received by the American people and raising the retirement age is only one piece of it.
They also want to change the way the cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) are calculated, whereas we would like to see them improved so they better reflect what seniors spend their money on, which tends to be housing and health care. The Republicans have promoted this thing called the Chained CPI, which actually would reduce COLAs for seniors.
Q: According to Verify.com, the Heritage Foundation has called for something called a flat Social Security benefit, though it is not part of Project 2025. What is that all about?
A: They propose to “flatten out” benefits across the income spectrum. This wouldn’t hurt lower income people as much as the middle class. The Warren Buffets of the world are not going to be significantly impacted because they don’t rely on Social Security. The people who are going to be impacted are those whose lifetime earnings average, say, $50,000 a year. They’ll simply get less in benefits. The flat benefit would cut deeper and deeper until Social Security becomes just another welfare program. It wouldn’t be so much of an “earned benefit” anymore.
Q: Trump claims that he doesn’t know anything about Project 2025, that it has nothing to do with him. And yet, apparently, the team working on it is 80% former Trump officials. So how do we how do we call him out on that discrepancy or hypocrisy, saying Project 2025 has nothing to do with him?
A: Well, number one, you can’t trust what Trump says. Any connection between things that Donald Trump says and the truth is purely accidental. But the fact is that Project 2025 was designed by people who were parts of his administration in the past, people who are his supporters. Trump’s VP pick, J.D. Vance, is closely affiliated with the Heritage Foundation. In 2023, he wrote, “We owe so much to the Heritage Foundation and all that they’ve contributed to our cause over the past fifty years.” And Heritage was one of the sponsors of the Republican convention!
Q: We’ve talked a lot about Social Security. What would Project 2025 would do to hurt Medicare and the effort to lower prescription drug prices?
A: First of all, Project 2025 calls for repealing Medicare’s new ability to negotiate prescription drug prices with Big Pharma. That’s just the number one thing on their list. They also want to repeal the new $2,000 out of pocket cap on prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries. Project 2025 also advocates eliminating the $35 per month out of pocket cap on patients’ insulin costs. Basically, they want to reverse all the good things that the Inflation Reduction Act is doing for seniors. And that’s just for starters.
They have other provisions that would make it easier to privatize the Medicare program through Medicare Advantage. So we’d end up with more and more people at the mercy of privatized, profit-making insurers.
Basically, they would gut the traditional Medicare program. There wouldn’t be much left of the traditional program if, if it still existed at all, because it would be so expensive that no one would be able to afford to sign up. To paraphrase Newt Gingrich, who giddily promoted privatization, Project 2025 would induce the ‘dying on the vine’ of Medicare as we know it.