February 21, 2023

Nobel Laureate Economist Paul Krugman Details Decades of GOP Plans to Cut Social Security and Medicare

Despite some Republicans’ claims to the contrary, columnist and economist Paul Krugman reminded readers this week that many in the GOP do want to eviscerate Social Security and Medicare, writing that “to believe otherwise requires both willful naïveté and amnesia about 40 years of political history.”

After President Biden’s State of the Union address last week, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (KY), had tried to distance his party from Sen. Rick Scott’s (FL) proposal to sunset all federal government programs, including Social Security and Medicare after five years; that would force Congress to reauthorize them. However, Krugman wasn’t buying McConnell’s argument when McConnell said, “that was the Scott plan, that’s not a Republican plan.”

On MSNBC’s The Beat with Ari Melber Monday, Krugman said, “Republicans learned that being too explicit about what it is many of them want to do hurts them badly……Mitch McConnell hates the fact that Rick Scott said [it]. That’s not saying that Mitch McConnell is actually opposed to doing it, he just wants somebody else’s fingerprints to be on it.”

“Senate Republican Leader McConnell is trying to confuse us,” agreed Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance. “He has been at the forefront of an effort to cut Social Security and Medicare for years. He would like us to forget, but retirees will make sure the American people have the facts.”

Earlier today Sen. Scott responded to widespread criticism of his “Rescue America” plan to sunset all federal legislation and edited the document to exempt “Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services.” However, this document was not the only time he has said that Social Security and Medicare must be altered.