Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage, I get it.
Unless I agree to their economic plans.
All of you at home should know what those plans are.
Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans,
some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.
I'm not saying it's a majority.
Let me give you anybody who doubts it.
- Contact my office. - I'll give you a copy.
I'll give you a copy of the proposal.
At the 2023 state of the Union, Republicans booed
when Biden accused them of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare.
But it turns out that Brandon was right, because yesterday, a massive group
of House Republicans released a budget proposal that would do just that.
Specifically, that group is the Republican Study Committee.
It has over 170 representatives in it.
We're going to focus on what they want to do with Social Security
in today's segment, but just know that they're coming for Medicare, too.
That aside, here is their plan for Social Security.
The budget endorses modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to
account for increases in life expectancy.
It calls for lowering benefits for the highest earning beneficiaries,
and it emphasizes that those ideas are not designed to take effect immediately.
The RSC budget does not cut or delay retirement benefits
for any senior in or near retirement.
Interestingly, the budget proposal admits that Social Security funding could be
bolstered by raising taxes, but raising taxes on people will further punish them
and burden the broader economy, something that the spend and print regime has proven
to be disastrous and regressive.
The budget says, adding that the committee also opposes a multi-trillion dollar
general fund transfer that worsens our fiscal situation.
Now, to understand the game that Republicans are playing here,
we need to do some math.
We'll start with the proposal to raise your retirement age.
You can start collecting your full Social Security benefits at age 67. Let's say,
hypothetically, that Republicans raise that age to 70. Here's how much money
they would have taken from you.
According to the Social Security Administration, the average monthly check
for Social Security as of December 2023
is just about $1,700 1770.
So we multiply that by 12 to find out how much money that is per year.
It's 21,240.
And then we multiply that by three because of the three year gap between 67 and 70.
That's 63,007 20. So if Republicans raised
your retirement age to 70, they would have stolen over $60,000 from you.
As we mentioned earlier, the proposal stated that Social Security benefits
should be lowered for the wealthy, but that's a smokescreen smokescreen
to make it seem like they care about economic justice.
And here's why.
If an individual files for Social Security at age 67, the most they can
receive per month is around $3,820.
Who is eligible for the maximum benefit?
People whose earnings equaled or exceeded Social Security's maximum taxable income.
The amount of your earnings on which you pay Social Security taxes for
at least 35 years of their working lives.
The maximum taxable income in 2024 is $168,600.
So maybe Republicans would reduce the maximum Social Security check
by a few hundred dollars.
But let's dive back into some numbers.
All of us are taxed at a rate of 6.2% to fund Social Security.
So let's find out how much you pay into the program.
If you make the maximum taxable income or higher, $168,600
times 0.062 is $10,453.20.
Now let's eliminate that cap.
We'll use Tucker Carlson as an example, who reportedly made $8 million per year
during his time at Fox News, that at that rate, it's $496,000.
It's a lot more money. But that measure alone wouldn't be enough.
Many billionaires receive all of their money
in the form of bonuses and stock options.
Elon Musk is the highest paid CEO in the world, but because none of it is
wage income, he doesn't pay a single penny into Social Security.
And that's why investment income should be included as well.
A lot to digest here, Jake.
I'm curious at first to go back to Republicans acting outraged
by the suggestion that they want to cut Social Security and then openly admitting
that's exactly what they want to do.
I mean, will this resonate? Will this land with voters in November?
Because this is a hot button issue in elections.
A lot of mainstream media don't give you honest news.
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Yeah, so let's break this down because I know there was a lot of numbers in there,
but these numbers are life changing for you guys, so I want you to understand it.
So first of all, on the Republicans saying that they wouldn't cut Social Security and
Medicare, told you they've been trying. And now why do we say that?
Because I've been covering the news for about 30 years now.
And every year the Republicans come up with a new proposal
to cut Social Security and Medicare.
It happens like clockwork.
Anytime they're challenged on it, they're like, no, no, we're not cutting.
We're just going to raise the retirement age.
That's why we showed you the math.
If they raise the retirement age, you do not get that money.
Do you get it?
So if you're 67 and you're going to get, you know, the $21,000 that year because of
Social Security, when they raise it to 68, you never get that $21,000 back.
Never.
So if they raise it by three years, as they're saying, that is literally
stealing $63,000 from all of you.
And then the trick in there of, oh, we are going to take it from the rich
because we are populists.
So, oh, the their proposal might cost the rich 1 or $2000.
But as Jordan showed you there, if you take somebody making $8 million
a year, their proposal actually gets them half $1 million extra.
Do you think the Republicans don't know that?
And most of their donors don't make 8 million a year.
They actually make more.
So they're like, oh, we are going to take $1,000 from them
and then give them a million bucks back.
Bunch of suckers think that Republicans are populists, and they're for the
average American and American for that.
Ha ha ha ha.
So meanwhile, I mean, look at the defense budget.
It's the most bloated, pork barrel corruption stuffed budget in the world.
They can't account for $400 billion when the Republicans are like, spend it,
spend it, because that's their donors, the defense contractors.
You come to Israel, they're like 14 billion, no, 17 billion.
Spend it, spend it. Well, where are you going to get it from?
Well, why don't we just take 63,000 thousand dollars
out of the pockets of the average man and make him work till he's 70?
That's Republican 101.
A lot of the voters that are Republicans might not believe that, but almost all
of your politicians believe that, and they just proved it in spectacular fashion.
Yeah, I think the cap is an interesting point
because we hear all of these arguments.
Oh, we have to privatize it.
Oh, we need market based solutions for Social Security because it's insolvent.
We don't have enough money. We're running out of money.
Okay, well, you're refusing to tax the wealthy.
You're capping it at some arbitrarily low number relative to the wealth
of many of your donors.
But there's going to act like they don't have any solution other than raise the age
for working people.
And eventually, I'm sure we'll see another resurgence of the privatize argument,
because that's what Paul Ryan wanted.
I'm sure that's what many Republicans want,
because that's what their donors want.
Wall Street would love to turn Social Security into a new investment fund,
and that would be bad news for everybody, especially people who rely
on Social Security to make ends meet.
Fixed income people shouldn't be at the whims of a volatile market,
but Republicans don't care because that's what their donors want.
So I'm interested to see how this plays out in November.
It's a hot button issue.
A lot of, the older generations in this country, Janki, are now a member of them.
They vote reliably. They they care.
They care about this issue. They care about Social Security.
And that Republicans are again trying to bring this up.
It's an opportunity for Democrats to make clear messaging around this.
This is a cut. They're not just raising the wage.
It's not just adjusting for life expectancy.
You paid in since when you were young, with the expectation
you'd get it at a certain age.
You can't change that.
And even if people are young now, and even if they're a few years into
the process, say they're young 20s, no, the deal was you get it at a certain age,
you can't just change it.
That is a cut.
So if Democrats can do good messaging around this, we could see people shift.
Hopefully they don't buy into Republicans arguments that it's just adjusting
for life expectancy expectancy.
But it's a hot button issue.
And I'm curious why Republicans are even doing it.
Yeah.
So guys, they keep saying that it's going to be insolvent, even in this otherwise
really good NBC article about it.
They say, oh, well, Social Security will be insolvent by 2033.
All we have to do is raise the cap, which means for people making above 168,000,
they continue to pay an extra .06 2%. So that Republican study group,
or the most theoretically conservative Republicans and 170 of them.
So the great majority of the Republicans in the House, they say,
no, you will never touch our beloved rich.
Not even 0.062%. We'd rather steal $60,000 from the average
American, all of you guys, to fund this, rather than touch the people
who we actually serve, even if it's the smallest fraction you've ever heard.
So that's who Republican politicians are.
They're the most corrupt people in this whole system.
And so I criticize the Democrats to know, and you watch this show,
you know, that the Democratic leadership and establishment hate me.
But at least on this one, they do not propose cutting Social
Security and Medicare, and the Republicans definitely do.
And unfortunately, Jordan is right. I did turn 54 today, so I'm getting there.
But if you're out there and you're watching, I'm not saying
this is a great time for a super chat or to join by hitting the join button below.
I'm not saying a contribution at Tyt.com slash join wouldn't be
greatly appreciated, but there.
That's out in the world just in case.
But mainly, let's make sure that we all fight together to protect all of our money
from these thieves in Washington.
Thanks for watching The Young Turks really appreciate it.
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