May 11, 2020

White House: Slash Your Own Social Security to Survive the Pandemic

For Immediate Release

The following statement was issued by Richard Fiesta, Executive Director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, regarding a Washington Post report of the White House’s serious consideration of a plan to ask Americans to cut their future Social Security benefits for some cash today:

“Asking working Americans to give up even one dime of their future Social Security benefits to survive today’s economic crisis is a harebrained idea that would hurt families for decades to come.

“The Administration literally wants working people to decide whether they prefer to put food on the table now or when they retire. Meanwhile, wealthy corporations and individuals continue to reap billions from the 2017 tax breaks and even billions more in bailouts and tax cuts from the recent pandemic stimulus legislation.  

“The federal government should be helping everyone weather this crisis, not just the rich and well connected. But this administration has repeatedly shown it is bound and determined to use the pandemic as an excuse to slash Social Security benefits and gut the Social Security system. Whether it’s eliminating Social Security’s dedicated funding stream by cutting the payroll tax or asking people to ‘voluntarily’ forgo the retirement benefits they have earned over decades, the result is less retirement security for all.

“The 4.4 million members of the Alliance for Retired Americans will not fall for this nonsense and will make sure no one else does either.”

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Contact: David Blank, dblank@retiredamericans.org