Gunning for Social Security: Analyst says GOP 'not satisfied with massive reductions to Medicaid'

09 June

House Speaker Mike Johnson

During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump insisted that cuts to Social Security and Medicare were not on the table. But after Trump hired Elon Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader drew a great deal of criticism for describing Social Security as a "Ponzi scheme." And Democrat Martin O'Malley, who served as commissioner of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) under former President Joe Biden, predicted that the Trump Administration/DOGE layoffs at the SSA would result in seniors not receiving their benefits on time.

In an op-ed published on June 9, MSNBC's James Downie argues that the steep cuts to Medicaid in Trump's "big, beautiful bill" could lead to GOP attacks on Social Security.

"As President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk escalated their feud," Downie explains, "Senate Republicans were escalating their search for spending reductions in the 'big, beautiful bill' that started the feud in the first place. Not satisfied with massive reductions to Medicaid, GOP lawmakers — with the president’s support — now have Medicare in their sights, according to NBC News. That would mean cuts to two of the U.S. government’s three big entitlement programs, and Republicans' talking points could just as easily be turned against the third entitlement: Social Security."

Downie fears that Republicans who are pushing draconian cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) will also target Social Security and Medicare.

"Normally, the first area where the GOP would look to reduce spending is anything that helps the poor, such as Medicaid and SNAP," Downie writes. "But since the bill already includes $1.3 trillion in cuts to those programs, as well as subsidies for the Affordable Care Act’s health care plans, even Republicans have concluded those wells are tapped out. So they've moved on to Medicare, reprising the same argument for slashing Medicaid by over $600 billion."

Downie notes that Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) recently told Politico, "How much waste, fraud, abuse is there in Medicare — why don’t we go after that? I think we should. I think anything that is waste, fraud and abuse are obviously open to discussions."

A major GOP talking point is that the Trump Administration is only targeting "waste, fraud and abuse," not Social Security or Medicare benefits that seniors have earned. But Downie distrusts that claim.

"If Republicans deem 'waste, fraud and abuse' sufficient cover not just for cuts to Medicaid, but for cuts to Medicare as well," Downie writes, "what’s to stop them from applying that to Social Security next?.... To most Americans, Social Security and Medicare may be entitlements. To Trump and GOP lawmakers, they're just 'waste, fraud and abuse.'"

James Downie's full MSNBC op-ed is available at this link.

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