Shocking: The Trump Administration Grabs the Third Rail With Both Hands
August 19, 2025
Our grandparents all urged us to defend and strengthen social security.
Last week, President Trump signed a proclamation celebrating the 90th anniversary of Social Security, suggesting that his “Big Beautiful Bill” would strengthen social security for future generations “.
Unfortunately, Trump’s mega is exactly the opposite. It does absolutely nothing to tackle the imminent insolvency of Social Security in 2035, and would rather suck $ 1.6 trillion According to the non-partisan, the Tax Not Prodale Foundation.
What should really be worrying for “future generations” is the shocking declaration of Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, that children’s savings accounts included in the mega bill are a “back door to privatize social security”.
Social security has long been described as the “third rail of American politics” – touches it and dies. The presidential candidate Mike Pence in 2023 proposed to privatize him and his presidential campaign quickly died. President George W. Bush did the privatization of his priority in 2005, but even the Republicans would not do so for a vote. Fortunately too. If he had succeeded, the American retirees would have lost more than half of their retirement savings in the great recession. The voters gave the Democrats the control of the two chambers of the Congress the following year.
President Eisenhower warned that there could be “a small group of Splinder” of politicians who wanted to play with Social Security, but “their number is negligible and they are stupid”.
Although Bessent quickly made his blunder and the White House tried to go back, the cat had come out of the bag.
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As descendants of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the cabinet who created the most popular and popular government program in our country, let’s be perfectly clear: transforming social security into private investment companies and the tender mercy of Wall Street would be a violation of the most precious guarantee of the security of the income of American workers.
The untouchable longevity of social security is attributable to its structure – not a government gift, but an insurance service won. The workers pay each pay check in their lives. Some 75 million Americans are counting on him for age security, disability insurance and the advantages of survivors. Privatization would be a stupid way to celebrate your birthday.
According to a study in 2024, nine out of ten Americans want social security to remain a priority for the nation, regardless of the state of budget deficits. And it is not a supporter: support comes from 90% of Democrats, 86% of Republicans and 88% of the self -employed.
Although Trump insists that he would not harm hair on the head of Social Security, his own story denies his in progress blithe insurance. His objective of social policy not reduced the most at the end of his first mandate was the complete cessation of the main source of social security financing, the payroll tax. And he told the World Economic Forum when he presented himself to the re -election in 2020 that a second term Trump would mean reductions in social security, health insurance and medicaid – the latter has already managed to decimate in his mega invoice giving billions of dollars of tax reductions to the rich.
Indeed, the privatization of social security would be tragically coherent with the tax cutting law. It would be a gold mine for the rich managers of money and the magnates of Wall Street, to the detriment of people who work ordinary at risk of losing their retirement security on the stock market. Trump’s regressive prices have also struck the families of workers that are much more difficult than the rich.
The Americans want to preserve social security massively, through the parties of the parties, according to a study in 2025 of the National Academy for Social Insurance. To respond to income deficits during the next decade, the vast majorities prefer to increase income to the reduction of advantages. Their favorite income reduction option is to eliminate the payroll tax ceiling, which exempts the profits greater than $ 176,100 from the tax. He obviously benefits the richest while leaving ordinary workers to carry the part of the Lion of the burden. The typical American CEO (median remuneration: $ 16.8 million) stops paying social security after the fourth day of the new year (Elon Musk stops after four minutes) – A scandalous injustice towards the 160 million Americans who pay 6.2% of each pay check in social security throughout the year.
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The second episode of workers’ preferred income to guarantee social security finances is, impressively, to increase the payroll tax that everyone pays – workers, employers, rich or not – from 6.2 to 7.2%. As the Nasi study revealed, the preference for increasing income rather than ending, privatizing or reducing social security crosses all age lines, income, education and the political party, including three in four Republicans.
The economic security of all Americans who rely on Social Security forces us to channel our illustrious ancestors who created it. Social security is a solemn and reliable promise to workers, children, the elderly, people with disabilities and survivors. The FDR said the best: “Home security, safety of livelihoods and social insurance security – seem to me, a minimum of the promise that we can offer to the American people.”
Let us take seriously the secretary to the Treasury besse. As we say in Washington, a “blunder” is when a politician accidentally tells the truth. No walk. Do not put the toothpaste back in the tube. Our grandparents were all urging us to defend ourselves to defend and strengthen Social Security.
At this time of crisis, we need a unified and progressive opposition to Donald Trump.
We are starting to see a form in the streets and in the ballot boxes across the country: from the campaign of the candidate for the town hall of New York, Zohran Mamdani, affordable, to communities protecting their neighbors from ice, to senators opposed to arms expeditions to Israel.
The Democratic Party has an urgent choice to make: will he embrace a policy that is based on principles and popular, or will it continue to insist on losing elections with the elites and the outside contact consultants that brought us here?
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