#GOPTaxScam Two Years Later: Spiking the Deficit, Threatening Medicare & Social Security

Thanks to GOP’s Tax Giveaway “The Deficit for 2020 Will Hit $1 Trillion and Will Stay Above $1 Trillion for the Next Decade” & Vulnerable GOP Senators Are Already Pushing Plans That Could Cut Earned Benefits

Every GOP Senator Voted for Corporate Giveaway That “Trimmed a Year of Solvency From the Primary Medicare Trust Fund and Had a Negative Effect on the Social Security Trust Fund”

This week marks two years since Senate Republicans pushed their tax scam through Congress, and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is keeping a spotlight on how the GOP’s deeply unpopular legislation put corporate special interests and the wealthiest Americans ahead of hardworking families.

In addition to the tax law’s unprecedented handout to corporations and the wealthiest Americans, its record-breaking corporate stock buybacks, and its cruel penalty hurting Gold Star families, Republicans’ “lopsided giveaway to corporations” also sent the federal deficit surging past $1 trillion.

This reckless giveaway already “trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.” Now, Senate Republicans are using the soaring debt caused by their tax scam to justify putting their constituents’ earned benefits on the chopping block, putting these critical programs at risk.

“If Senate Republicans’ tax scam wasn’t evidence enough, the fact that they’re also threatening programs like Medicare and Social Security to pay for their giveaway to billionaires and giant corporations makes it crystal clear whose side they’re on,” said DSCC spokesperson Stewart Boss. “Republicans’ shameful efforts to pay for their tax scam by undermining their constituents’ retirement security and threatening earned benefits is one more reason why Americans — and particularly seniors — can’t afford the GOP’s toxic agenda.”

More on how Senate Republicans blew up the deficit and want to put earned benefits on the chopping block to pay for it:

• Reuters: Republican tax cuts to fuel historic U.S. deficits: CBO

• Washington Post: GOP leader concedes tax cuts may not pay for themselves as 2019 deficit grows

• Associated Press: “The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the deficit for 2020 will hit $1 trillion and will stay above $1 trillion for the next decade… the fiscal imbalance started to grow again after President Trump and Congress pushed through a massive tax cut in 2017 while ramping up spending.”

• Portland Press-Herald (Editorial): Our View: Deficit would be zero if not for tax cuts

• PolitiFact: “The Republican tax cuts trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.”

• New York Times: “Fears of trillion-dollar deficits could renew the desire of Republicans in Congress to propose cuts to social programs, like food stamps, Social Security and other safety net benefits.”

• Bloomberg News: “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blamed rising federal deficits and debt on a bipartisan unwillingness to contain spending on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security…”

• New York Times: “Conservative groups — which largely supported Mr. Trump’s tax cuts — have pushed Congress to cut future deficits by reducing benefits for federal health care and retirement programs, like Medicare and Social Security… Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, said that ‘it probably takes a second-term president’ to prioritize the issue.”

• CNN: “The White House’s Office of Management and Budget has predicted that the deficit will exceed $1 trillion for the entire fiscal year, which ends on September 30… The last time the gap was that big was in 2012, in the aftermath of the financial crisis.”

• Washington Post: “The financial future of the part of Medicare that pays older Americans’ hospital bills has deteriorated significantly… According to the report, less money will be flowing into the hospital-care trust fund in part because the tax law passed this year will cause the government to collect less in income taxes”

• The Hill: Tax bill could fuel push for Medicare, Social Security cuts

###