| Social Security's financing at risk |
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SIGN Our Urgent Petition to
Protect Social Security!
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Dear John,
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President Trump has just floated, once again, a proposal that would devastate Social Security's long-term financing, at a time when this program faces future fiscal challenges.
Based on fears that the coronavirus could hurt the economy during an election year, the President wants to enact a payroll tax cut which would slash workers' contributions to Social Security in order to give them a small boost in their paychecks. This move would essentially trade workers' future security for a small short-term benefit. The National Committee rejects any effort to implement a payroll tax cut and starve Social Security as a means to stimulate the economy.
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That's why I urge you to sign our Urgent Petition to Congress today, addressed to your U.S. Representative, to reject growing calls by the Trump Administration for a payroll tax cut that would deny Social Security of much-need revenue and harm workers in the long term.
Bottom line, a payroll tax cut is a threat to Social Security! It would harm Social Security's long-term fiscal health and is not the way to improve the financial security of American workers, especially at a time when tomorrow's retirees will rely on their Social Security benefits even more than today's seniors do. And it must be stopped!
So-called fiscal hawks in Washington have supported payroll tax holidays in the past because they fulfill two ideological goals: 1) they lower payroll taxes and 2) they weaken Social Security's finances. Worker contributions have successfully funded the program for 85 years and that critical linkage between contributions and benefits is what keeps Social Security a self-funded program.
The National Committee appreciates the importance of a strong and healthy economy in protecting the financial well-being of all Americans, young and old alike. And while it's possible that providing tax relief to lower- and middle-class Americans could help offset the impact of the coronavirus on our economy, we do not believe that reducing the revenue flowing into Social Security would be "great" for the "middle class" as President Trump tweeted.
If the President and his party truly wanted to provide tax relief to the working and middle classes, they could have targeted the 2017 Trump/GOP tax cuts toward them. Instead, more than 80% of the benefits from the tax cuts went to the very wealthy and large, profitable corporations — who, with minor exceptions, did not raise worker pay but feathered their own nests with stock buybacks and CEO bonuses. Building an economy for the American people means strengthening Social Security — which rightly has been called the foundation of the middle class. The President should not propose measures that will weaken that foundation for his own political gain.
So please help us push back against this backdoor cut to Social Security by signing our Urgent Petition today!
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| Sincerely, |
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Max Richtman
President & CEO
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