Trump would kill Social Security

Darlene & Dennis Bucheger

Greenwood

Editor:

It was Aug. 14, 1935, when President Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, so there is some irony that President Trump would announce a plan to destroy the program on the anniversary of its signing. About 64 million Americans receive Social Security (SS) benefits and it is the only source of income for many of them.

Trump assured people he would save Social Security during a speech in 2015, but Trump’s actions are often quite different from what he says. He chose Governor Pence as his vice president knowing Pence had advocated for privatizing or cutting SS. He named Tom Leppert to lead the Social Security Administration’s transition to the Trump Administration knowing Leppert advocated privatizing SS.

TrumpnamedCongressmanMickMulvaney as Director of the Office of Management and Budget knowing Mulvaney had a record of attempting to cut Medicare and Social Security. Trump hired Stephen Moore as an advisor on economics and tried to appoint him to the Federal Reserve Board, again knowing that Moore believes in eliminating SS.

This past January, Trump issued an Executive Order aimed at removing people from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program over protests from organizations like the American Foundation for the Blind. Last week Trump issued another Executive Order allowing employers to postpone withholding the payroll tax with the promise to forgive and permanently terminate the payroll tax if he is re-elected. The payroll tax funds Social Security and Medicare. Terminating the tax would kill the program. After signing the Executive Order, Trump looked Americans in the eye and told one of his biggest lies yet, saying, “This will have zero impact on Social Security.”

The singular most trustworthy rule we have about Trump is that we cannot trust anything he says.