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John,
The Social Security Trustees just released their annual report about Social Security’s health―and contrary to the lies peddled by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, it reveals that our Social Security system remains strong!
This report shows that Social Security is fully affordable, costing only about 6 percent of GDP at the end of the 21st century. There is a modest funding shortfall, which is still years away. There is no question Congress will act to avert the shortfall, as it always has in the past. The question is what exactly Congress will do.
Social Security Works was founded at a time when politicians and the mainstream media believed that cuts were inevitable. For more than a decade, we have protected our earned benefits and changed the conversation away from cuts and toward expanding our earned benefits. Thanks to donors like you, we can keep fighting. And we must in order to defeat the Wall Street and right-wing disinformation. Can you pitch in $7 today?
There are two options for action: Bringing more money into Social Security, or reducing benefits.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have spent the first half of this year demagoguing with lies, claiming that we can make massive cuts to Social Security without affecting “legitimate” beneficiaries.
They have been softening the ground for a plan to slash benefits, and leave Americans holding the bag.
Let’s be clear: Any politician who doesn’t support increasing Social Security’s revenue is, by default, supporting benefit cuts for Americans who have paid into the program their entire working lives.
It’s time for our politicians to be crystal clear about which side they are on.
In poll after poll, the American people strongly support making the wealthy pay their fair share into Social Security, and overwhelmingly oppose benefit cuts.1,2 As divided as Americans are over many issues, we are united about Social Security.
Not only is requiring the wealthy to pay into Social Security on all their income popular, it is also excellent policy. Income inequality has cost Social Security more than $1.4 trillion since 1983.3
If the wealthy pay in on all of their income, including unearned investment income, we can easily afford to protect and expand Social Security’s modest benefits.
Democrats have introduced several bills that would do just that.4 In sharp contrast, Donald Trump and his Republican colleagues are racing to give even more tax breaks to billionaires.
We know how to fight anti-Social Security propaganda and win. Billionaires like Trump and Musk don’t like it―that’s why we depend on donations from real people, giving $5 and $10 at a time. Together, our voices are powerful enough to beat the billionaires.
There is an urgent crisis facing Social Security, but it’s not a shortfall years in the future. It is sabotage that’s happening right now. Despite Donald Trump’s promise to protect Social Security, Elon Musk’s DOGE is undermining it every day. DOGE has pushed out thousands of Social Security staffers, including nearly half of senior executives.5 This is an incalculable loss of institutional knowledge and expertise that threatens the continued functioning of our Social Security system.
These cuts are completely misguided and unnecessary. Social Security is run very efficiently, with well under a penny of every dollar spent on administrative costs.6 Given that, substantially increasing or decreasing Social Security's administrative budget has a negligible impact on the system’s finances.7
Today’s report is a reminder that even as DOGE's cuts to the Social Security Administration are wrecking Social Security’s customer service, they are doing nothing to improve its solvency.
Rush a donation to fight back against DOGE’s cuts and protect our Social Security system from Donald Trump!
We cannot lose track of the bottom line: the question about whether to expand or cut Social Security is a question of values, not affordability. America is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, at the wealthiest moment in our history. That money can remain concentrated in the hands of billionaires, or it can go towards Social Security, enriching all of our lives.
In solidarity,
Nancy Altman
Social Security Works
1 https://socialsecurityworks.org/social-security-polling/
2 https://www.nasi.org/pressrelease/new-public-survey-lays-out-a-bipartisan-roadmap-for-social-securitys-future/
3 https://www.epi.org/blog/a-record-share-of-earnings-was-not-subject-to-social-security-taxes-in-2021-inequalitys-undermining-of-social-security-has-accelerated/
4 https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Social-Security-Expansion-Act-one-pager-2025.pdf
5 https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/16/us/politics/doge-social-security.html
6 https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2025/II_B_cyoper.html#96807
7 https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/solvency/BSanders_20180627.pdf
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