Democrat Lisa McCormick charges Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. of Social Security betrayal

The great American promise, that bedrock covenant of a dignified retirement earned by a lifetime of labor, is under siege in a spectacle of breathtaking political duplicity.

The evidence lies not in shadowy backrooms but in the brazen, open daylight of the United States Congress, where a band of elected officials now dares to offer a laurel wreath with one hand while sharpening the executioner’s axe with the other.

At the center of this charade stands Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. of New Jersey, who last week saw fit to introduce a resolution dripping with hollow praise for Social Security on its 90th anniversary.

The language was florid, a masterclass in sepia-toned nostalgia, speaking of “dignity,” “security,” and an “enduring legacy.” But these are the words of a graverobber offering a eulogy over a body he himself helped to drain of life.

For this very same politician, this Kean, has cast votes that threaten to shatter that legacy into dust. He voted for a budget reconciliation bill that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent openly admitted was a “backdoor for privatizing Social Security.”

He has submitted to a cruel and calculated dismantling of the agency’s infrastructure, a scheme that has slashed phone lines and fired staff, leaving beneficiaries—the elderly, the disabled—adrift in a bureaucratic void.

The authoritarian administration Kean supports has rolled out proposals to cut disability benefits and, according to its own Chief Actuary, accelerated the insolvency of the trust fund through a budget that lavishes tax giveaways on the wealthiest Americans.

This is not a reaffirmation; it is a death warrant signed in flowery prose. It is the height of cynical theater to promise a secure future for Social Security while your party’s own budget plan, endorsed by nearly 80 percent of House Republicans, explicitly calls for forcing Americans to work longer for less, a move that would slash benefits for 257 million people.

The response from progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick was not a rebuttal but a verdict.

McCormick called Kean’s resolution a “dishonest pledge,” an attempt to “sabotage the foundation of Social Security with one hand while pretending to shore it up with the other.”

Her words are not mere criticism; they are an indictment of a political class that believes it can lie with a straight face, that it can break the most sacred covenant of American life and still expect to be seen as honorable men.

"The Trump administration is preparing to propose a rule to cut Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and strip eligibility for hundreds of thousands of low-income older people and severely disabled adults and children," said McCormick, who also estimates that retirees face a 24 percent benefit cut in late 2032.

"Experts predict that this would be equal to an $18,100 annual benefit cut for a dual-earning couple retiring at the start of 2033 – shortly after trust fund insolvency," said McCormick. "At the same time, those retirees might experience reduced access to health care due to an 11 percent cut in Medicare Hospital Insurance payments."

Those cuts would grow over time as scheduled benefits continue to outpace dedicated revenues.

The numbers tell the true story, a stark narrative of betrayal.

In Kean’s own district, raising the retirement age would cut benefits for 75 percent of its citizens, some 580,000 people forced to work longer for less.

"Across New Jersey, 1.7 million citizens who rely on these earned benefits now face a future of uncertainty, all to pay for $5 trillion in tax giveaways predominantly to the wealthy and well-connected," said McCormick.

"This is more than a policy dispute; it is a fundamental breach of trust," said McCormick. "It is the sound of a door being kicked in on the financial security of millions."

"As the shadows lengthen and the trust fund hurtles toward insolvency by 2032, the choice becomes terrifyingly clear: we can listen to the hollow commemorations of those who are actively digging the grave, or we can demand a real solution—one that asks the ultra-wealthy to pay the same rate as the rest of us, that expands benefits, and that honors, in deed and not just word, the promise made ninety years ago," said McCormick.

The future of the American century depends on which side wins.