Sunday, March 24, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Republican lawmakers took a huge swipe at middle- and low-income Americans last week after the party’s largest legislative caucus proposed raising the retirement age and eliminating certain Social Security and retirement benefits.
Of course, the GOP wouldn’t dream of making such changes effective immediately, because that might alienate the baby boomers and Gen Xers who helped usher Donald Trump into office in 2016. But for millennials, Zennials (Generation Z) and current K-12 and college students — generations that already struggle to realize milestones such as homeownership — the Republican Party is more than happy to strip away the dream of retiring at a reasonable age or the benefits we spend decades paying for.
Last week, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) released its budget recommendations for fiscal year 2025. The RSC represents 178 GOP members of the House of the Representatives, fully 80% of all House Republicans.
Among the recommendations is a plan to raise the age at which hard-working Americans can access government-backed retirement benefits such as Social Security and Medicare and cutting benefits for people who do access Social Security. The same document also proposes helping corporations cut health care costs by eliminating funding for preventive care such as mammograms, and taxing health care benefits received by Americans. The savings and taxes could then be used to subsidize corporate health care costs.
Put those three things together and the wealthiest Americans and corporations would make out like bandits while many American workers would find themselves in spiraling debt when they should be enjoying retirement.
Americans who are employed but develop a serious health care condition would be too poor to pay the taxes levied on their health care coverage but too young to retire or access Social Security benefits.
Consider that right now in the United States, more than half of all cancer diagnoses occur in people younger than the current retirement age of 67. Women are particularly susceptible to a cancer diagnosis at a young age, with half of all diagnoses occurring before age 62.
Republicans want to raise the retirement age, most likely to 70, and tax health care benefits received prior to retirement.
As such, hard-working Americans who have “good” jobs with “good” benefits could be on the hook for years of tax bills for cancer treatments that are supposed to be covered by insurance.
According to AARP the Magazine, the cost of treating cancers varies widely based on individual circumstances, but averages more than $150,000. Even for someone with low co-pays and low deductibles, that would mean a $25,000 tax bill for employer-provided health care.
That’s just one example of one possible health condition.
With the retirement age increased and taxes driving the costs of health care up, retirement wouldn’t be an option for anyone who isn’t independently wealthy, putting the opportunity to enjoy retirement while still in reasonably good health out of reach for most Americans.
If all that weren’t enough, the Republicans also propose cutting Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments to people with chronic health conditions, such as blind and disabled children and their parent caretakers.
In one of the most shockingly insensitive statements we’ve ever encountered in a policy document, the Republican committee describes how children who receive SSI benefits due to being blind or disabled, “often become dependent on the (Social Security) program as adults.” That is true. That’s how blindness and other disabilities work. Do congressional Republicans not understand that most disabled people don’t grow out of their disability or miraculously gain sight when they reach adulthood?
The proposal is outright cruel and the Republican committee members should be ashamed of themselves.
Let’s pause for a quick tally of the different people targeted for punishment by Republicans in these proposals: the working class, the middle class, all younger people now being told to work longer and pay taxes on health benefits throughout their lives, disabled people of all kinds and their families and caregivers.
In short, the vast majority of working people will be harmed. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is careening about on the campaign trail promising to eliminate Obamacare and further cut Social Security and Medicare.
Nevada’s lone congressional Republican, Mark Amodei is not a member of the Republican Study Committee, but he is a member of the Republican Party. He has a responsibility to call out the inhumane proposals of his GOP colleagues.
He should demand that his party’s leadership do better than saddling younger generations of Americans with a bill to cover the profits of billionaire corporate executives who want to force their employees to work into their 70s.
But we’re guessing he’ll remain silent, as he almost always does.
Despite a plethora of issues facing the American people in recent months, Amodei hasn’t published a press release or issued a public statement on his legislative website since October 2023. The “Amodei Analysis” section of his website, where he shares his opinion on important public policy topics, hasn’t been updated since 2022. Even his X (formerly Twitter) account is all but inactive, with only three tweets this year.
Rather than being a champion of working-class Nevadans, Amodei has become quite comfortable doing nothing to communicate with his constituents while earning a taxpayer-funded paycheck.
But we want to know if Amodei supports his colleagues who want to raise the retirement age, cut SSI funding for children with disabilities and tax health care benefits.
Nevada’s economy is built with sweat equity. From miners and ranchers to hospitality and construction workers, we are a state that works on its feet and with our hands. We deserve to retire at a reasonable age at which we can enjoy the fruits of our labors. We deserve to know that in our twilight years, we will not be taxed out of our modest homes to fund the mansions of the super-rich.
The Republican proposal should be rejected, along with the Republican members of Congress who support it and their colleagues who stand silently watching their working-class neighbors get robbed.
Even if Democrats block these proposals from moving forward, when November arrives voters should remember what the Republicans tried to do here and vote forcefully to deny them majorities in the House and Senate.
