John,

Our Social Security system receives dedicated funding from every paycheck issued. That’s why it can’t go bankrupt―as long as people are earning paychecks, money is going into Social Security to pay benefits. As FDR said: “We put those payroll contributions there so as to give the contributors a legal, moral, and political right to collect their pensions and the unemployment benefits. With those taxes in there, no damn politician can ever scrap my social security program.”

That’s why Wall Street and their allies in Congress have spent decades dreaming of ways to undermine Social Security’s dedicated funding. And amid the COVID-19 pandemic, they’re seizing their chance.

This weekend, the Washington Post revealed¹ that the Trump administration is still trying to jam cuts to Social Security’s dedicated funding into the next round of relief legislation.

So let’s be clear: Cutting these contributions through a so-called ‘payroll tax holiday’ would do nothing for the 10+ million newly unemployed Americans, and very little for those who are still employed. The only reason to include this policy is to undermine Social Security’s dedicated funding.

Since Trump started taking the economic impact of the pandemic seriously, his administration has repeatedly brought up the ‘payroll tax holiday’ as a remedy, even though it is poorly targeted and too slow to offer much relief to struggling businesses and families.

Social Security Works has been steadfast: Trump has been attacking our earned benefits throughout his entire administration. We won’t allow him to use this crisis to achieve the long-held right-wing project of destroying our Social Security system!

Protect seniors from the Trump administration! Chip in $7 today!

Trump and McConnell have already jammed through a 'deferment' of payroll taxes for businesses. Now they want to continue undermining Social Security by making the deferral permanent. Together, we will stop them.

Thanks,

Michael Phelan
Social Security Works