John,

The Republican war on seniors is here.

For decades, the right-wing movement has been animated by an attitude best summed up by anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, whose stated goal was to cut the United States government “down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

These extremists view Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Meals on Wheels, and veterans’ benefits as burdens to be hacked away, not as programs that make our nation stronger. We’ve stopped them before―and we’re mobilizing to do it again! Can you donate $5 today?

At first, that campaign manifested itself in an attempt to pass a so-called Balanced Budget Amendment, an innocent-sounding scheme that would make it nearly impossible to raise taxes and make programs that accumulate trust funds like Social Security and Medicare unconstitutional. The goal was to create a one-way ratchet so that cutting taxes and spending was the only option. Fortunately, passing a constitutional amendment is hard, and they failed.

In 2011, Republicans held the debt limit hostage to sabotage President Obama. Obama made the grievous error of taking them seriously and negotiating terms of surrender, which ultimately prolonged the Great Recession. Obama learned his lesson, and steadfastly refused to negotiate the budget under threat of default for the rest of his terms in office.

Then, Donald Trump added nearly $8 trillion to the national debt during his four years in office―with a large portion of that coming from a tax giveaway to the wealthy, passed on a partisan basis with only Republican support. But as soon as a Democrat was back in the Oval Office, Republican crocodile tears about the deficit came roaring back.

That’s why as soon as it was clear that Republicans would take control of the House, Social Security Works called on Democrats to eliminate the debt ceiling before Republicans could take it hostage. We’ve been fighting to stop this crisis from the moment it was apparent. We’re not resting now. Can you donate $5 today?

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Now, Republicans have determined that they don’t need a constitutional amendment to enact the draconian cuts that a Balanced Budget Amendment would have forced. All they need to do is hold the Treasury Department’s borrowing limit hostage while controlling one half of one branch of our government, and they can demand whatever they want―never even considering tax increases that might impact their millionaire and billionaire campaign donors.

They’ve found a new one-way ratchet: When Republicans are in power, they pass trillion-dollar tax cuts. When Democrats are in power, Republicans hijack the economy and demand devastating trillion-dollar spending cuts in exchange. Eventually, enough working people will be sufficiently immiserated that they can drown our country in a bathtub.

We will never let MAGA extremist Republicans win the war on seniors! We’re on Capitol Hill every day, fighting to protect our earned benefits! Donate $5 to save our country from MAGA Republicans!

Thank you,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works