Democrats claim GOP opponents are threats to Social Security, Medicare

Nevada Democrats celebrated the 89th anniversary of the establishment of Social Security on Wednesday and attacked their Republican opponents claiming they’re a threat to the program that provides workers retirement benefits — despite GOP candidates assurances that they have no plans to push for cuts.

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign held an event in Henderson with California Rep. Katie Porter, warning that former President Donald Trump will slash benefits if he is elected. Sen. Jacky Rosen published an advertisement Wednesday that called her Republican opponent Sam Brown a “MAGA extremist” who is trying to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Rep. Susie Lee also held a rally Wednesday evening with Porter at the West Flamingo Senior Center, where she accused her opponent Drew Johnson of wanting to cut Social Security.

“As much as we talk about how important this is, I got someone I’m running against who doesn’t feel the same,” she said of Social Security, speaking to an audience of about 50.

The threat of a possible Republican push to cut Social Security — a program that almost 68 million Americans benefit from per month including at least 570,000 Nevadans — has become an increasingly common line of attack for Democrats.

Trump and the Republican National Committee have expressed clear support for Social Security and Medicare, with Trump’s campaign platform saying it will protect the programs and make no cuts, “including no changes to the retirement age.”

Where GOP candidates stand

Lee pointed to Johnson’s tweets, which are now private, from 2016 in which he said “cutting both sounds great” and had appeared to agree with raising the retirement age.

Johnson called Lee a fraud and accused her of doing nothing to protect Social Security.

Social Security recipients will lose 17 percent of their benefits starting in 2035 because of Democrats’ reckless spending, Johnson said in a statement.

“Unlike Susie, who has bankrupted Social Security as a member of Congress, I’ve spent my career as one of America’s leading government watchdogs and budget policy experts,” Johnson said in a statement. “I’ve identified ways to cut wasteful spending and prioritized the budget so we can save Social Security and give our seniors every penny they deserve.”

Brown said in a statement that he built a small business in Nevada that gets veterans access to medications when the VA falls short, so he knows “from firsthand experience how important Social Security and Medicare benefits are to our seniors.”

“Like I’ve done for America’s veterans, I will fight to protect and safeguard Social Security and Medicare benefits,” Brown said in a statement.

He said he wants to end the taxing of Social Security benefits so “seniors can keep more money in their pockets as they face astronomically high prices for food, medicine, and energy created by Jacky Rosen and Kamala Harris.”

“Sam Brown has repeatedly supported gutting Social Security for hardworking Nevadans, proving once again that he is deeply out of step,” said Katharine Kurz, spokesperson for the Nevada State Democratic Party, in a statement.

Mark Robertson, who is going toe-to-toe with longtime Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, said he supports protecting and strengthening the Social Security and Medicare programs. He said a “hands-off, do nothing” approach is leading the program to bankruptcy.

He called for funds being spent on illegal immigrants to boost Social Security and Medicare, and he supports forming a bipartisan commission that develops and presents solutions to Congress.

“We must force the cowardly members of Congress to move on this issue. We owe it to the people who have paid into these programs for decades,” Robertson said in a statement.

Republicans’ past record

Porter, who called Social Security the “greatest anti-poverty program,” said Wednesday that one doesn’t have to listen to Trump’s words, but look at his actions of trying to cut Social Security.

Some Republicans, such as former House Speaker Paul Ryan, have historically championed cutting benefits for Medicare and Social Security. Sen. Rick Scott of Florida had proposed sunsetting all federal programs every five years unless Congress votes to keep them going, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis floated privatizing Social Security.

When Trump was president, he proposed cuts to Social Security on multiple occasions, though most of the proposed cutbacks related to diminished payments to heath care providers and hospitals, not Medicare recipient benefits, according to Forbes.

He encouraged Congress to “cut waste, fraud and abuse everywhere that we can find it and there is plenty, there’s plenty of it,” he said in a video. “But do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security, don’t destroy it.”

Before his second presidential run in 2020, Trump supported abandoning a payroll tax that helps fund Social Security. If Trump had been reelected and gone through with eliminating that tax, Social Security would have been depleted by 2023, according to a 2020 letter from the Social Security Office of the Chief Actuary.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.