U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Demands Trump Commit to Protecting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her Senate colleagues, led by Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), are demanding President Trump retract the statements he made last week, where the President said he’d be open to cutting earned benefits like Medicare or Social Security to pay for his tax scam, which has been a handout to corporations at the expense of workers.

Despite Republican claims that the bill was a tax cut for working people, it has proven to be nothing more than a giveaway to corporations and the wealthy. It has also exploded the deficit – which Republicans have planned all along to use as their justification for cutting the benefits hard-working Americans have earned. Baldwin and her colleagues are demanding Trump publicly commit to protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for the remainder of his Presidency.

“As a presidential candidate, you promised the American people that you would not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. In fact, you criticized your political opponents for failing to make the same promise. Not only have you broken that promise, you have waged an all-out assault on Medicaid,” the Senators wrote. “Attempting to make up the trillion-dollar deficit created by your tax law on the backs of hard-working Americans would be a betrayal to all who consider these programs a lifeline. American workers who for decades have paid into Social Security and Medicare should not be forced to relinquish their health and retirement security to pay for your tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations.”

Senators Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bob Casey (D-PA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Markey (D-MA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) joined Senators Baldwin and Brown in penning this letter to the President.

The full letter is available below and here. 

Dear President Trump,

We are alarmed by comments you made this week while in Davos, Switzerland, that suggest you plan to cut vital entitlement programs. Asked if such cuts would be on your agenda, you responded: “At some point they will be […] toward the end of the year,” and that cutting such critical programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would be “the easiest of all things.”  We urge you to retract these statements and publicly commit to protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for the remainder of your Presidency.

Social Security and Medicare are vital programs that millions of Americans earned and rely on. Medicare provides quality health insurance for 44 million older Americans and people with disabilities. Social Security provides critical income for 64 million Americans.  Cutting these programs would be a direct attack on working Americans, and would violate the repeated promises you made not to cut Social Security or Medicare as a presidential candidate.

In 2017, you signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), legislation passed by a Republican-controlled Congress that lavished the wealthy and corporations with significant tax cuts. Not only did these tax cuts go overwhelmingly to the wealthy – further fueling economic inequality– they also exploded our nation’s deficit. The tax cuts appear to be adding even more to the deficit than the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected soon after TCJA’s enactment – due largely to dramatic reductions in corporate tax revenue.

Your tax law is fueling the budget deficit used by you and members of your administration to justify deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Following its passage, CBO estimated your tax law would add $1.9 trillion to the deficit over the 2018-27 period.  Indeed, the Department of Treasury recently reported that the federal deficit surpassed $1 trillion in 2019.  We will not allow the higher deficits brought about by your tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations to be used as a cynical justification to fulfill the long-held Republican endeavor to destroy Social Security and Medicare.

As a presidential candidate, you promised the American people that you would not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. In fact, you criticized your political opponents for failing to make the same promise.  Not only have you broken that promise, you have waged an all-out assault on Medicaid. Attempting to make up the trillion dollar deficit created by your tax law on the backs of hard-working Americans would be a betrayal to all who consider these programs a lifeline.  American workers who for decades have paid into Social Security and Medicare should not be forced to relinquish their health and retirement security to pay for your tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and largest corporations.

We urge you to immediately clarify your plans for these programs, direct your administration officials to refrain from cutting or otherwise attacking Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and publicly commit to the American people that you will not cut these earned benefits for the remainder of your Presidency. The American people who have paid for and rely on these programs deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,