The Progressive

NewsWire

A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Linda Benesch, lbenesch@socialsecurityworks.org

Mulvaney Lies About Trump's Promise Not to Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid

The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, Founding Co-Director of Social

WASHINGTON

The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, Founding Co-Director of Social Security Works, in reaction to OMB Director Mick Mulvaney claiming that Trump's campaign promise was to "save" Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and that Republican plans to cut the programs (which Mulvaney says Trump is going to "look at") would be consistent with that promise:

"Mick Mulvaney and Republicans in Congress are attempting to rewrite history. Throughout the campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly and unequivocally promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, even specifically ruling out one of the GOP's favorite cuts, raising the retirement age. No cuts for anyone, period.

Mulvaney and other Republican elites, who hate Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, are now claiming that Trump was simply promising to "save" these programs. Like the infamous comment about destroying the Vietnam village to save it, they argue that cutting or even dismantling these programs "saves" them. In this twisted logic, Trump can cut these vital benefits, and not break his campaign promise not to cut them!

The American people are not going to be fooled. If Mulvaney succeeds in convincing Trump to sign on to cutting Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, or even worse, ending them as we know them, Trump voters will know that they have been betrayed. And all Americans will know that the Republicans in Washington, including Trump, are working for Wall Street, not Main Street."

Social Security Works' mission is to: Protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations; Safeguard the economic security of those dependent, now or in the future, on Social Security; and Maintain Social Security as a vehicle of social justice.