To the editor:
Hours after Republicans approved Trump’s deficit-busting budget bill, the Social Security Administration (SSA) sent an email to millions celebrating the bill’s passage and how it delivers on President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security. The email also states that the SSA “remains committed to providing timely, accurate information to the public.”
The email is propaganda that misleads about the real impact of the GOP budget bill. Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano broke his agency’s commitment to accurate information in the very email in which it was sent.
The email is deceptive about how the budget bill lowers taxes on Social Security benefits and disregards how it puts Social Security at greater risk of insolvency. It also ignores Elon Musk’s DOGE attack on the agency which is leading to thousands of staff departures that have increased customer service backlogs and heightened anxiety for people who depend on Social Security benefits.
Only about half of Americans pay taxes on some portion of their benefits. While the bill increases the number of beneficiaries who won’t pay taxes, Trump broke his promise to end taxation of Social Security benefits. While that is a promise that wasn’t good for the long-term health of Social Security, he lied: Some 24 million Americans will still pay taxes, only three million fewer than under current law. Republicans are also hiding that the lower Social Security taxes expire in 2028, but tax breaks that favor the richest Americans and big business are permanent.
More important, the Trump administration and congressional Republicans ignore the overall harm the bill causes by stripping healthcare insurance and other benefits from millions of Americans in order to give tax breaks that go mostly to the rich. Indeed, $1 trillion of the tax cuts go the top one percent, paid for by cuts of nearly the same amount to Medicaid and food stamps. Medicaid is the primary source of healthcare for one in three people with disabilities. Food insecurity will rise as a result of the biggest cut to food stamps since the program was created during the Great Depression.
While the bill lowers taxes on Social Security for some, it puts future benefits at risk for all seniors. According to the non-partisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the Social Security Trust Fund is already in the most precarious position since the 1980s, projected to run out of money within the decade. Trump’s “beautiful” bill puts even more pressure on Social Security. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects that when insolvency hits in 2032, Social Security recipients will see their benefits cut by 24 percent.
I used to trust official communications coming from government agencies. With Trump and his cronies running the federal government, I no longer do. After all, he is the biggest liar ever to occupy the White House.
Jonathan Perloe
Great Barrington
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