Social Security And Medicare Are On The Ballot, Democrats Warn

By Michael Lyle, Nevada Current

October 21, 2022

Nevada Congressional Democrats warn that if Republicans regain control of the House, they will use the debt ceiling to force spending cuts, including for Social Security and Medicare.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, along with other Republicans, have recently pledged to leverage a future fight over negotiations to increase the debt limit, which prevents the government from defaulting on its debts, to slash spending.

Speaking at a virtual event Thursday with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, Democratic U.S. Reps. Susie Lee, Steven Horsford and Dina Titus, who are facing competitive elections to retain their seats, said cuts would be costly to Nevadans.

“They are not shy about announcing what their plans are,” Lee said. “It’s basically defunding Social Security.”

According to a 2020 analysis from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, 565,671 Nevadans rely on social security with 444,107 of them older than 65. Total monthly benefits for Nevadans are about $804 million.

U.S. Rep. John Larson (D-Connecticut), who chairs the Ways and Means Social Security subcommittee, briefly joined the call to condemn efforts by Republicans to hold “the American economy and the American people hostage so they can carry out an extreme agenda.”

“That extreme agenda is to gut Social Security and Medicare,” Larson said. “They say it boldly and loudly. And then the cruelest thing of all is they do it to the people who need it the most who have been hurt the most in this pandemic and hurt the most by this inflation.”

With numerous competitive House seats at play during the upcoming election, including razor thin margins in three Nevada districts, Democrats are fighting to keep control of the House.

Horsford said that “seniors and families who depend on Social Security and Medicare, they’re going to have a say” in this election.

“We have seniors in Nevada and Southern Nevada who will determine control of the House,” Horsford said. “The control of the House comes through Nevada. The control of the Senate comes through Nevada.”

Though McCarthy’s comments on the debt ceiling are recent, it’s not the first time Republicans have sought to cut both earned benefits, which they refer to as entitlements.

“Let’s make it clear,” Lee said. “Social security and Medicare are earned benefits. They are not entitlements. That drives me nuts when I hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refer to this as a giveaway.”

The 2023 budget “blueprint” from the House Republican Study Committee calls for “reforms” to Medicare and proposes “aligning Medicare’s eligibility age with the normal retirement age for Social Security and then indexing this age to life expectancy.”

“They won’t call it cuts,” said Max Richtman, the President of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “They’ll call it reform, improvements, and streamlining these programs, but they’re cuts. When you talk about raising the age for Social Security, raising the age for receiving Medicare, those are cuts.”

Some Republicans have proposed sunsetting provisions every five years, meaning Congress would have to renegotiate Social Security and Medicare.

In an email, Republican Mark Robertson, a retired army colonel running against Titus, didn’t answer specifically if he would support tying the debt limit to Social Security cuts but said “Something must be done to strengthen and protect Social Security and Medicare.”

“Both programs are approaching insolvency,” he said. “U.S. Presidents, and members of Congress, from both parties, have been ignoring the problem for way too long. I support a nonpartisan/bipartisan committee to develop solutions which protect benefits for seniors and for future recipients. We can no longer kick this can down the road.”

Sam Peters, who is running against Horsford, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In an email, Jeremy Hughes, a consultant working for April Becker, who is running against Lee, said “April will not support cuts to either program.”

Under a section on Becker’s website entitled “Keeping Our Promises to Seniors,” she writes “our government continues to spend trillions of dollars on programs we can’t afford.”

“Much of this money was paid into our government by individuals who are now counting on it as seniors in the form of social security,” the website says. “The government tends to think that the solution is always to print more money, but that does nothing but drive-up inflation. We are putting a strain on our future entitlement programs, and at some point, we will fail to meet those obligations.”

All three Democrats Thursday also touted passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which passed over the summer and includes long-awaited reforms to lower prescription drug prices.

The legislation caps insulin for those with Medicare at $35 a month, limits out-of-pocket expenses for Medicare prescription drugs at $2,000 annually beginning in 2025 and allows the federal government to negotiate some of the more expensive prescription drugs starting in 2026.

“The one thing we hear over and over again is stories of seniors who go without life saving medications and seniors who are cutting their pills in house because they can’t afford it,” Lee said. “This legislation will not only save money but it will save lives.”

Titus said if Democrats retain the House they will look at passing Social Security 2100, a proposal by Larson that would increase benefits, protect against inflation and end months-long wait periods for people receiving disability benefits.

“The big thing it will do is to change the calculation from the consumer price index to the senior consumer price index, which better reflects the cost that seniors have,” Titus said. “That price index goes across the board and doesn’t reflect the special things seniors need.”

This story was updated to include a quote from April Becker’s campaign consultant.

Nevada Current, a nonprofit, online source of political news and commentary, documents the policies, institutions and systems that affect Nevadans’ daily lives. The Current is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.