On Social Security’s Birthday: Strengthen and Preserve It (Medicare, Too!)

by Nanine Meiklejohn  |  August 20, 2012

It’s Social Security’s 77th birthday, and working families are celebrating our most successful insurance program for individuals, retirees, the disabled and family survivors of those who die. The country’s most successful health insurance program, Medicare, also recently celebrated a birthday. 

Even as we do so, however, Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan are waging top-down class warfare by targeting these programs. They want to hike taxes on the middle class, end guaranteed Medicare and cut Social Security – all just to lower taxes for the wealthy.

Their campaign is based on falsehoods and scare tactics. They say we can’t afford Medicare, and ending it as we know it is the only way to save it. They claim President Obama’s health reform hurts seniors by cutting $700 billion out of Medicare even though it actually expands Medicare benefits.

When it comes to Social Security, its critics say the program is about to go broke even though it can pay full benefits well into the 2030s. Romney and Ryan like to claim that current retirees and those soon to retire won’t be hurt by their program-cutting plans. They also hype fears for younger adults that they won’t have any Social Security in retirement. What’s really the greatest risk to Social Security and retirement security? That would be the Romney/Ryan budget plan. Their solution is to leave them with less, not more, security.

Watch this video from the National Academy of Social Insurance for the facts on Social Security:

The future of Medicare and Social Security will be determined by this election. They can be strengthened and preserved for the future. Or, devastated to give the rich more tax cuts, as Romney and Ryan seek to do.