Elon Musk and Sen. Mike Lee Declare War on Social Security

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) attacked the Social Security benefits Americans have earned over a lifetime of work on Monday by releasing a blueprint for the destruction of the program. Billionaire Elon Musk quickly amplified Lee’s plan on X (formerly Twitter).

amplified Lee’s wrongheaded views about Social Security on X.”

“Musk and Lee teaming up to go after Social Security should enrage and concern every single American who has contributed to Social Security,” Fiesta continued.

Fiesta added that Social Security is a solemn promise between the American people and the government, noting that Americans pay for Social Security’s guaranteed benefits with every paycheck and expect them to be there when they retire, lose a spouse or parent, or become disabled.

“No one voted to phase-out Social Security or let Wall Street gamble with their earned benefits. Older Americans will rightly punish any politician who tries to cut their benefits or gut the system that has worked for generations,” Fiesta concluded.

Get the facts about Social Security by watching and sharing the Alliance’s award-winning video: Our Earned Benefits.

Fiserv CEO Frank Bisignano is Nominated to Lead SSA

President-elect Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he's nominating financial services CEO Frank Bisignano to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA). Bisignano currently leads the financial services and payments company Fiserv.

Frank Bisignano

The next SSA commissioner is expected to face critical decisions about how Americans get information about their earned benefits, including whether to use Artificial Intelligence chatbots in place of trained human workers. Also likely up for consideration: whether to allow investment firms and crypto corporations to gamble with the trust funds and benefits that Americans have paid for and earned through a lifetime of work.

“There are a lot of unknowns with this nomination,” said Robert Roach, Jr., President of the Alliance.

“We will be paying close attention and urge the Senate to demand answers from Mr. Bisinano about how he will protect our benefits and support the SSA workforce.”

Social Security Fairness Act Faces Uncertain Future in Senate

With the Social Security Fairness Act — which passed the House as H.R. 82 on November 12 — stalled in the U.S. Senate, a rally is planned in Washington, DC for Wednesday, December 11th at 11:30 am. The event will take place in collaboration with the Alliance, the FOP, IAFF, AFSCME, AFT, NEA, AFL-CIO, and NARFE. This united front represents a significant opportunity to send a powerful and undeniable message to members of the Senate: the time to act is now! Executive Director Fiesta will speak at the event.

The legislation, S. 597 in the Senate, addresses the Government Pension Offset (GPO) and Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), provisions which unfairly reduce Social Security benefits for public sector retirees who receive a public pension — or the spouse or survivor of a Social Security beneficiary — who worked in a job not covered by the Social Security program

For decades, the two Social Security law provisions have unjustly deprived more than 2 million public service retirees of the benefits they have earned.

Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), who co-authored the bill in the House with Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), expressed confidence that S. 597 has the support in the Senate to pass as a stand-alone bill, but questions have bubbled up over its path forward. 

The Senate legislation, introduced by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Susan Collins (R-ME), has bipartisan support and more than 60 Senate co-sponsors. 

“There’s been some talk about trying to make it part of the end-of-the-year negotiation. I think that’s … really an effort to kill it,” Graves said before Congress left town for Thanksgiving recess.

Asked about expectations of passage for the bill, Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-OR), one of the senate co-sponsors, said, “We’ll see.”

Action Needed: Please click here or call 202-224-3121 and tell your senators to support this critical legislation and push for a vote before the end of the year.

Republicans in Congress Eye 100-Day Agenda That Starts with Immigration and Tax Cuts

Republicans are planning an ambitious 100-day agenda in January. Atop the list is a plan to renew approximately $4 trillion in expiring GOP tax cuts. President-elect Trump’s tax and economic proposals would, in 2026, cut taxes for the richest 5% of Americans and increase them for everyone else, according to an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.

Republicans are also almost certainly planning to cut the COVID-19-era subsidy that helps defray the cost of health insurance for people who buy their own policies via the Affordable Care Act exchange. The extra health care subsidies were extended through 2025 in President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which also includes various green energy tax breaks that Republicans want to roll back.

In addition, the GOP 100-day list includes limits to food stamps and other safety net programs, mass deportations and eliminating government jobs.

“A silver lining for Democrats is that they ended up with 215 House seats,” said Joseph Peters, Jr., Secretary-Treasurer of the Alliance. “The House Republicans will have a very thin majority.”

The GOP would have 220 seats, but Matt Gaetz (FL) resigned and two other Republicans have been selected to become part of the second Trump administration: Elise Stefanik (NY) is the nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mike Waltz (FL) is the nominee to be National Security Adviser. Without those three members, Republicans will likely have 217 seats for a period of time. During that time, one Republican House member could kill a bill by joining all the Democrats in opposing it.

KFF Health News: Nursing Home Industry Wants Trump To Rescind Staffing Mandate

By Jordan Rau

Covid’s rampage through the country’s nursing homes killed more than 172,000 residents and spurred the biggest industry reform in decades: a mandate that homes employ a minimum number of nurses.

But with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, the industry is ramping up pressure to kill that requirement before it takes effect, leaving thousands of residents in homes too short-staffed to provide proper care.

Read more here.

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