Senate Republican admits they’re coming for Social Safety

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) admitted Republicans only want to fund Social Security year after year, which would open the door to scrapping the program.

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Mike Rounds on CNN suggests he supports annual Social Security funding pic.twitter.com/a8TluKtZn2

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 12, 2023

Rounds said on CNN State Of The Union:

I look at security as I would the Department of Defense and our defense spending. We will never fail to fund defense.

But at the same time, every year we look at how we can do better. And I think it’s time we start talking about Social Security and make it better. We have 11 years before we actually see cuts being made to people on Social Security contributions. And I think it would be very responsible for us to do whatever we can to do these funding programs now and the plans now so that we don’t run out of money on Social Security and that it continues to have all the benefits that it does today .

Simply looking the other way and pretending there are no problems with Social Security is neither appropriate nor responsible. So, I guess my preference would be let’s start managing it.

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Republicans protested that they don’t want to cut Social Security during and after the State of the Union, but they keep admitting they’re looking for a way to debase or kill Social Security.

Technically, what Rounds was proposing was not cuts themselves, but the first step towards cuts. If Republicans ever regain the Senate majority, they want to make Social Security funding a regular program to be voted on.

Guess what happens after Senate Republicans decide not to fund Social Security?

The program will either be truncated or die.

Republicans want to kill Social Security through privatization and cuts, and they tell anyone who’ll listen that the goal is to damage the program they love.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association