Former Vice President Mike Pence, and someone who is likely gearing up for a bid to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, is calling for privatizing Social Security.

According to Vice President Pence, “We have to have a conversation about reforming ‘entitlements’ in the days ahead. I think we can replace the New Deal programs with a better deal. I think in Social Security you can keep all the promises that you make to seniors. People that will retire in the next 20 years, no changes. But to give options to younger Americans, to invest a portion of their Social Security in a private savings account and get a better deal I think is an idea whose time has come.”

VP Pence is like many other Republicans who insist that somehow the only way to keep Social Security financially strong is to cut benefits and privatize the program. Yet, many of them oppose the fundamental nature of Social Security and see investment of some of Social Security’s reserves on Wall Street as an opportunity to open the door to fully privatizing the program and ending Social Security as we know it.

Right now the National Committee is fighting on a number of fronts to fend off attacks against Social Security. Please help us protect Social Security from privatization and other dangerous schemes aimed at dismantling the program today!

It’s clear “reforming” Social Security is top of mind among many GOP leaders. Despite Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy saying cuts to Social Security and Medicare are “off the table” in upcoming debt ceiling negotiations, we know that Republicans remain eager to slash this highly effective and popular program.

As a reminder, in 2005, the National Committee helped lead intense grassroots activism against former President George W. Bush’s serious attempt to privatize Social Security (and then U.S. Representative Mike Pence was involved in that effort). If he had succeeded, his plan would have handed over control of Social Security benefits to Wall Street brokers and subjected the earned benefits of millions of older Americans to the volatility of the Stock Market.

Privatization was a bad idea then and it’s a bad idea now. And so we must be prepared, once again, to stop this dangerous plan from gaining momentum.

With so many threats now facing your earned benefits, please consider making a donation today to support the National Committee’s full-scale battle to defeat proposals aimed at destroying Social Security. No other organization works harder to defend seniors’ earned benefits and ensure your voice is heard in Washington, DC.