DPVA is hosting a press call with Congressmen Bobby Scott and Gerry Connolly on the importance of protecting Social Security today at 11am. RSVP here.
RICHMOND, VA — Today marks the 85th anniversary of the creation of Social Security, and while countless Virginians depend on the earned benefit for the chance at a dignified retirement, Donald Trump’s broken promises have left it in more danger than ever before.
After running for president in 2016 on the promise that he would “save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security without cuts,” President Trump began to reverse himself almost immediately, proposing budgets that would cut Social Security by over $100 billion. This time around, Trump is running for reelection on the promise of cutting earned benefit programs like Social Security. When asked how he would bring down the national debt without cutting these programs, Trump’s response was “oh, we’ll be cutting.”
This past weekend, Trump broke his promises on Social Security and signed an executive order implementing a payroll tax holiday that would deprive the program’s trust funds of their main source of money, with no plan to replace those dollars.
It’s part of a repeated effort to permanently eliminate the primary source of funding for Social Security, a claim which he made again multiple times just within the last week. Experts say his plan to permanently eliminate the funds would "blow a $16.1 trillion hole" in a U.S. budget over 10 years. This is on top of the $1.9 trillion tax cut his administration passed that Republicans proposed paying for with cuts to earned benefit programs like Social Security.
"85 years after its founding, Social Security has become a crucial piece of the Commonwealth foundation, serving 1.6 million people in Virginia. Yet despite insisting he’d protect it, Trump’s broken promises on Social Security have put at risk millions of Virginians who count on it to put food on the table or retire with dignity. After 85 years, Social Security is at a crossroads — and in just under 85 days, we’ll go to the polls to ensure its continued existence,” said DPVA Press Secretary Carson Brown.
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