John,

It’s March 2nd, and the government has not shut down… yet.

That’s because Congress passed a last-minute continuing resolution, pushing the dates for a partial shutdown to March 8th, and a full shutdown to March 22nd.

Republicans in the Senate remain intransigent about the very idea of a functioning government. They want as many chances as possible to pass funding extensions with poison pills like a closed-door commission to cut Social Security and Medicare.

As Republicans keep moving the deadline without taking Social Security cuts off the table, we have to stretch our budget in order to keep the pressure on.

Can you chip in to save Social Security from Republican extremists like Speaker Mike Johnson?

As a reminder:

• Speaker Mike Johnson used his very first speech upon winning the Speakership to call for the “immediate” creation of a closed-door fiscal commission.¹

• Donald Trump, the all-but-certain Republican nominee for President, has called cutting Social Security and Medicare a “fun second term project.”²

• House Budget Committee chairman Rep. Jodey Arrington is trying to attach his bill to create a closed-door commission to any government funding bill.³

• It’s extremely plausible that if the fiscal commission passes, it will be voted on immediately after the 2024 election, with members of Congress who were just rejected by voters providing the decisive margin in favor of cuts.⁴

The vast majority of American voters (including a supermajority of Republicans!) don’t want to see Social Security or Medicare cut to reduce the deficit.⁵

We’ve been fighting this fight for months―and with your help, we will keep fighting. Rush a donation today!

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Thank you,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works

¹ https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4292973-johnson-embraces-deficit-fight-setting-up-battle-over-medicare-social-security/
² https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/08/donald-trump-republicans-federal-deficit
³ https://thehill.com/business/budget/4333694-gop-budget-chair-floats-attaching-debt-commission-to-government-funding-bills/
⁴ https://www.ncpssm.org/documents/social-security-policy-papers/the-fiscal-commission-act-greasing-the-wheels-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare-without-political-accountability/
⁵ https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2023/6/28/voters-overwhelmingly-oppose-the-creation-of-a-commission-to-cut-social-security-and-medicare