Our federal government is being held hostage by a band of Republican extremists who want to radically reshape our country. But while Republicans have made high-profile attempts to defund President Obama’s signature healthcare law, that’s not their only target.
Fifty House Republicans, including Rep. Mark Amodei, just sent a letter to Speaker Boehner urging him to make cuts to Social Security benefits before the debt ceiling is raised and our government is reopened. That’s why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to Rep. Amodei and the other 49 House Republicans who signed the letter, says the following:
Stop irresponsibly and recklessly demanding cuts to Social Security benefits as a precondition for ending the government shutdown and raising the debt ceiling. End the hostage-taking and leave Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits alone!
The letter Rep. Amodei sent to Speaker Boehner reads like a wish list straight out of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s playbook:
- raising the retirement age
- slashing annual cost-of-living adjustments through a new formula known as “chained CPI”
- means testing for Social Security recipients
- asking the wealthy to pay even less into the Social Security trust fund
Cutting benefits for those most in need just to give the very wealthiest Americans another tax break is outrageous enough. Demanding them as a precondition for funding the government and ensuring we don’t default on our national debt obligations is both reckless and irresponsible.
Our Social Security system needs to be expanded, not cut. Cost-of-living adjustments already struggle to keep up with the rising costs that seniors face every day. If these Republican extremists get their way, everyone who receives Social Security now — or who will receive it in the future — will see less and less in return for what they paid in over their lives.
I hope you’ll speak out today and tell these extremist Republicans to stop their hostage-taking.