Today is the 89th anniversary of one of the most important and impactful statutes in American history. It was Aug. 14, 1935, that President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law, thereby establishing a federal system that would dramatically improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people — retirees, people with disabilities, dependents, and families that lose a wage earner — who would have otherwise faced poverty, hunger and homelessness. It’s a program that currently benefits more than 2.2 million North Carolinians, or more than one in five state residents.
And while it is always a worthwhile exercise to celebrate Social Security and the accomplishments of the hundreds of thousands of public employees who have made the system work with remarkable effectiveness over the course of nearly nine decades, it feels especially apt today given the context of the current national political debate.
At issue, of course, is Project 2025 — the 922-page playbook for a new conservative White House developed by the extreme right-wing Heritage Foundation. As noted in an audio commentary last month, on issue after issue — the economy, human equality, the environment — Project 2025 details a plan to repeal decades of progress via a policy agenda rooted in a narrow and extreme version of religious conservativism.
And one of the top targets of the people behind the plan is Social Security.
Project 2025 authors have endorsed and supported plans to cut Social Security by raising the retirement age, and their ideas can be found in the two most recent budget proposals put forth by conservative U.S. House Republicans — both of which sought to increase the Social Security retirement age from 67 to 69.
Analysts at the Center for American Progress have calculated that if the Heritage Foundation’s proposed changes are enacted, they will dramatically impact North Carolinians for the worse by:
- Raising the retirement age for roughly 73 percent of the state’s residents — 7,847,880 people.
- Cutting benefits by $4,100 to $8,900 after just one year, depending on when one claims Social Security.
- Causing the median-wage retiree to lose $46,000 to $100,000 over 10 years.
Today’s anniversary and the threat posed to Social Security’s future by the nation’s conservative movement is also especially timely for discussion in North Carolina today given that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump will be in Asheville — somewhat ironically at an arena named after a casino — to discuss, his campaign says, the cost of living.
Let’s hope some in attendance get a chance to ask him about Social Security cuts and how they would impact the living standards of millions of average households. While Trump has denied he had anything to do with Project 2025, he is tight with Heritage Foundation leaders and the team that wrote the plan includes scores of his former staffers and prominent Republican leaders. What’s more Trump tried to cut Social Security during his previous first administration and has referred to the program as “a Ponzi scheme.”
The bottom line: Let’s hope against hope, that Trump, whose stances on numerous issues regularly swerve back and forth, uses today’s anniversary to loudly, plainly and once and for all, disavow the possibility of cutting this core safety net program if he wins reelection this fall.
NC Newsline Editor Rob Schofield oversees day-to-day newsroom operations, authors regular commentaries, and hosts a weekly radio show/podcast. Republished from ncnewsline.com.
