Friend,

The Trump administration is planning an attack on the Social Security benefits of hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities.

Submit a public comment to the Social Security Administration now: Don’t let Donald Trump maliciously strip away people’s life-saving Social Security disability benefits.

We pay into Social Security with every paycheck and we deserve the basic protections that Social Security provides, whether it’s in retirement, upon the death of a loved one, or in the event of an injury or medical diagnosis that makes us unable to work.

Trump wants to make it harder for people with disabilities and medical ailments to qualify for and continue to receive Social Security payments.

But our current system already has some of the strictest eligibility criteria for disability benefits in the world. More than 60% of applications are denied.

I agree with Amo (Uncle) Bernie Sanders, who lambasted Trump’s proposed rule change earlier this month: “10,000 Americans died waiting for Social Security Disability Insurance in 2017. Instead of addressing this crisis, Trump wants to make it harder for people with disabilities to get the help they need to get by.”¹

In the 1980s, the Reagan administration implemented a similar policy, which led to 200,000 people losing their benefits. After a massive public outcry, the Reagan administration was forced to reverse this attack on Social Security, but more than 20,000 people died before their benefits were restored.

Now, the Trump administration has proposed a similar rule that’s designed to rip benefits away from hundreds of thousands of Americans with disabilities—and it hasn’t been getting the attention it deserves.

Let’s make our voices heard! Click here to submit a public comment before the comment period closes this Friday. Tell the Trump administration: We’re paying attention, and we won’t let you cut Social Security.

The proposed rule change would force people to re-prove their eligibility for benefits far more often than is currently the case—in some cases as often as every six months. We can’t allow the Trump administration to put up barriers between us and our earned benefits.

In 2017, 2.2 million Michiganders received Social Security benefits with approximately 16% of those receiving disability benefits.

Last year, through our neighborhood service centers in Michigan’s #13thDistrictStrong, we helped residents navigate governmental programs, including one resident with disabilities who couldn’t get her Social Security benefits due to an administrative error. We helped her get back the nearly $40,000 she was owed.

However, the average monthly payments for SSI and SSDI beneficiaries in Michigan are modest—just $13,488 per year. And because most SSI and SSDI recipients are unable to work at all due to debilitating health conditions, hundreds of thousands of Michiganders and millions of Americans rely on SSI and SSDI as their main source of income.

Making it harder for people to receive these essential benefits means they won’t be able to afford food, rent, prescription drugs, medical co-pays, and other basic needs.

Click here to submit a public comment to the Social Security Administration opposing the Trump administration’s proposed rule that will kick hundreds of thousands of Americans off of their earned Social Security benefits.

Why does the Trump administration want to make it even harder for already-marginalized people to receive disability benefits?

To start a sweeping process of gutting critical governmental protections. To divide Americans against one another so we don’t focus our attention on the greed of the people at the very top. To further the dangerous right-wing concept that people receiving government assistance are defrauding the government and other Americans, based on a faulty idea of who is “deserving” and who has rights.

We must all join together to affirm that we all have the right to live, and we all deserve to live with dignity. Our ability to survive shouldn’t be tied to our ability to work.

That’s why I introduced the BOOST Act last year, to provide guaranteed income to low- or no-income Americans. Right now, low-income people can receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, but that excludes the poorest Americans who can’t work due to disabilities or because they’re taking care of loved ones with disabilities.

Join activists with disabilities and allies around the country, and help us gather as many public comments as possible before the comment period closes this Friday.

Please submit a public comment now to prevent this inhumane policy.

Always serving you,

Rashida