Cheat Sheet: Collins’ Record Record of Risking Medicare and Social Security

Trump’s Latest Threat to Medicare, Social Security Spotlights Collins’ Votes to Cut Billions from Medicare

Senator Susan Collins’ long record of pushing to gut earned benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security is once again in the spotlight as Donald Trump makes the GOP’s latest threat to gut those programs. Senator Collins has voted for budgets that would cut Medicare by hundreds of billions of dollars, split with Olympia Snowe and voted for the Bush tax cuts over boosting funding for Social Security, and her corporate tax giveaway “trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.”

Check out the cheat sheet on Collins’ record of pushing to gut earned benefits programs:

• 2003: Voted against reducing the Bush tax cuts and creating a $396 billion Social Security Reserve account, a bipartisan measure also supported by Sen. Olympia Snowe. [Vote 93, 3/25/03]

• 2011: Voted for the “Cut, Cap and Balance” plan that “would necessitate deep cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.” [Vote 116, 7/22/11; Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 7/16/11] 

• 2015: Voted for a budget that called on Medicare to be subjected to “$430 billion in spending cuts without explaining where they would be made.” [Senate Vote 171, 5/5/15; Conference Report, 4/29/15; Bloomberg, 3/27/15; Congressional Actions, S. Con. Res. 11]

• 2017: Voted for a budget resolution that “propose[d] $473 billion in cuts to Medicare’s baseline spending over a decade and about $1 trillion from Medicaid” [Senate Vote 245,10/19/17; The Hill, 10/19/17; Congressional Actions, H. Con. Res. 71]

• 2017: Voted for a corporate tax giveaway that spiked the federal deficit, “trimmed a year of solvency from the primary Medicare trust fund and had a negative effect on the Social Security trust fund.” [Politifact, 9/5/18]

“Senator Susan Collins has repeatedly tried to gut Medicare and Social Security, so it’s no surprise that she is refusing to stand up to her party’s latest threat to put these benefits back on the chopping block,” said DSCC spokesperson Helen Kalla. “Make no mistake — with Medicare and Social Security on the ballot in 2020, Mainers know that Senator Collins is to blame, and she cannot hide from her toxic record of trying to cut and undermine her constituents’ retirement security.”

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