Lawler’s Promise to Preserve Social Security is Hard to Believe
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
Congressman Mike Lawler, whose district includes much of northern Westchester County, likes to give the impression he will protect your Social Security benefits. But will he?
He consistently votes for Republican Party policies, and the GOP, starting with its leadership, is calling for cuts in Social Security. A fiscal 2024 budget plan from the Republican Study Committee, which includes about 80 percent of House Republicans, would phase in a two-year delay in the full retirement age, moving it from 67 to 69 and slice $718 billion from Social Security funding.
The two years of lost income proposed by Republicans would particularly hurt lower-income people, who rely more on Social Security in their old age than do people who have other sources of retirement income. According to one estimate, the change would amount to a roughly 13 percent reduction in lifetime benefits. The plan would force low-income workers who may be in poor health or in physically difficult jobs to keep working longer.
In a recent e-mail blast, Lawler promised to keep working to preserve Social Security. Most likely he means he will support Republican plans to make benefit cuts supposedly necessary to preserve the program, not that he will work to preserve the benefits his constituents rely on. There are other, better ways to keep Social Security solvent, such as by requiring the very rich to pay their fair share into the program.
Lawler is trying to have it both ways, professing support for Social Security while supporting policies that would erode its benefits to America’s seniors.
Ricki Rusting
Croton-on-Hudson
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