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Insider’s Report: Project 2025 would be devastating for seniors
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As this election season gets underway, you may have heard about something called Project 2025. The right-wing Heritage Foundation produced Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump presidency.
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Though Project 2025 doesn’t specifically advocate for cuts to Social Security, the right-wing think tank has taken positions that would seriously undermine the nation’s most popular social insurance program. On the issue of Medicare and prescription drug prices, Project 2025 is crystal clear. It explicitly calls for changes that could be devastating for seniors.
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The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare’s senior legislative representative, Maria Freese, discusses the implications of Project 2025 for older Americans in a recent interview:
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Q: While it’s true that the Project 2025 plan itself does not call for Social Security cuts, it doesn’t give us much reassurance on the Social Security front. Why is that?
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A: The organization behind Project 2025, the right-wing Heritage Foundation, has been calling for cuts for Social Security and Medicare for decades — ever since they were founded. So, this is not a new thing for them.
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Q: Exactly. As recently as June 17th, the Heritage Foundation called for raising the retirement age to 69 or 70. What does that tell us about their true intentions?
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A: That’s only one element of the plan that they have for Social Security. It’s the one that is the most dramatic, and the one that they tend to put front and center. In fact, the senior policy researcher at Heritage, Rachel Grezsler, has been behind a lot of the organization’s published writing on raising the retirement age.
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Q: So if the Heritage Foundation has advocated cutting Social Security, why don’t they come out and say so in the Project 2025 document?
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A: Well, I think it’s because the Republicans have finally learned that where Social Security is concerned, saying the quiet part out loud scares people to death. And it’s politically poisonous. I think they’ve learned that lesson from Donald Trump when he says, ‘Don’t talk about cutting Social Security because it’s bad politically.’ That doesn’t mean it’s changed their agenda at all. It just means that they have discovered the hard way that when they tell people what they plan to do about Social Security, it costs them politically because voters hate the actual GOP agenda on this issue.
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Read the full interview here.
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Democratic Platform to Include Nursing Home Staffing Standards
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The movement toward establishing minimum staffing levels at nursing homes got a boost from the Democratic Platform Committee this week, thanks to an amendment offered by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. The amendment was introduced by NCPSSM President and CEO Max Richtman, who was selected to represent seniors’ interests on the platform committee.
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The amendment, which the committee approved this week and will now become part of the 2024 Democratic party platform, reads:
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“Democrats will overhaul the quality of care and the quality of life for our nation’s 1.3 million nursing home residents by defending the administration’s regulations that require minimum staffing standards at nursing homes.”
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Ask Us!
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Whether you’re retired or approaching retirement, our team of experts in the field of Social Security policy is available to answer your questions about benefits.
You can either search our archives for valuable advice on a broad range of concerns or submit your question here.
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This week’s question is:
Is there a way to figure Social Security benefits if one doesn’t work until “normal” retirement age? My wife and I have records of all our contributions, but given our desire to quit our main jobs at 55 — and earn a fraction of our current earnings after age 55 — I have found no good way to calculate our potential benefit at different retirement ages.
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Click here to read the answer.
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Ask Us
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Whether you’re currently retired or approaching retirement, we can help answer your questions and provide valuable advice on Social Security.
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Join Now/Donate
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Your support sustains our campaigns in Washington to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare.
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Social Security Benefits
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Learn more about the Social Security program and the policies the National Committee supports that would strengthen your earned benefits.
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“Former President Trump, one day he’ll talk about, ‘We need to cut these programs,’” said Max Richtman, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “And then the next day, he’ll say, ‘Well, that’s not what I what I was talking about,’ and Vance is kind of cut from the same mold,” Richtman said. (July 17, 2024, CNBC, Lorie Konish)
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Read Here →
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Donald Trump’s pick for Vice President, J.D. Vance, cannot be trusted any more than Trump himself to protect Social Security and Medicare. Like Trump, Vance has talked out of both sides of his mouth on this issue in order to hoodwink American seniors. (July 14, 2024, www.ncpssm.org, Entitled to Know blog)
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Read Here →
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In withdrawing from the presidential race, President Biden endorsed Vice President Harris as his successor. From a Social Security and Medicare standpoint, the Vice President has boosted the administration's efforts to strengthen both programs during the past four years. (July 22, 2024, Newsweek, Suzanne Blake)
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Read Here →
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If you recently got an email from the Social Security Administration, don't ignore it. Millions of people who created an online my Social Security account before September 18, 2021, will soon have to switch to a Login.gov account to be able to continue to access their information, according to the agency. (July 18, 2024, CNBC News, Kate Gibson)
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Read More →
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provided guidance this week on how President Joe Biden's new lower-cost prescription drug law will affect Medicare recipients' ability to pay bills in 2025. (July 17, 2024, Newsweek, Suzanne Blake)
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Read More →
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Nearly half of all Americans struggle to afford access to quality health care and prescription medications. This is the warning of the latest report from the Healthcare Affordability Index, which tracks how many in the U.S. have been forced to avoid medical care or haven't been able to fill their prescriptions in the last three months — and how many would struggle to pay for care if it was needed. (July 17, 2024, Newsweek, Ian Randall)
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Read More →
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The email notifies users of important changes to their accounts. It was sent to customers who created online accounts before Sept. 18, 2021. Those users had logins with “my Social Security” and need to transition to updated credentials with Login.gov. This is not a scam. (July 21, 2024, KTLA, Ryan Dean and Alix Martichoux)
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