Where the Super Committee Members Stand on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Where the Super Committee Members Stand on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

The Super Committee is entrusted with deciding the fate of our nation’s most important social programs: Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is important to understand where the 12 members of Congress appointed to the Super Committee stand on these critical programs. 

To help with this, the Strengthen Social Security Campaign has compiled some recent voting records and past statements of Super Committee members. They reveal that Super Committee members include some of Social Security’s staunchest defenders and its fiercest opponents. However, in the current environment in Washington that prioritizes deficit cutting above all else, even Social Security’s strongest champions feel pressure to make a bipartisan deal that includes benefit cuts. That’s why we must pressure all Super Committee members—defenders and opponents of the program alike—not to cut Social Security. And no cuts to Medicare and Medicaid, too!

Republican Senators

Voting Record
In the past year alone, Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Rob Portman (R-OH), and Pat Toomey (R-PA) have all voted to cut Social Security benefits, end Medicare as we know it, slash Medicaid, and cut taxes for the richest Americans and for corporations.

• Voted for a bill that could cut your Social Security benefits by up to one-third by 2016—a $5,700 a year benefit cut for the average earner. (Voted YES on H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, July 19, 2011.)
• Voted to take away Medicare as we know it and leave seniors at the mercy of insurance companies. Voted to increase seniors’ health care costs by nearly $7,000 a year and to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.)
• Voted to slash $1.4 trillion from Medicaid—the health care program for seniors, women, children and people with disabilities. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.)
• Voted to give a $1.1 trillion tax cut to the richest Americans and to cut their tax rate and the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.)

Key Statements
Senators Kyl, Portman and Toomey’s extreme votes are nothing new. For years now, each of these senators have tried to cut Social Security and privatize it, increased our budget deficits by cutting taxes for the richest Americans, and made disparaging remarks about Social Security.

Call Sen. Kyl: (602) 840-1891

Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) Supported plans to privatize Social Security. Kyl called privatization a “responsible, constructive proposal that does not have a lot of negative downsides that have been attributed to it.” (Federal News Service,Hearing from Senate Finance Committee on the Final Report Produced by the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, October 3, 2002. Retrieved from LexisNexis, August 11, 2011. Link unavailable.) Opposed ending subsidies for Big Oil. Kyl abandoned budget negotiations with the Obama White House in June 2011 because he did not want to reduce subsidies for big oil and gas companies. Kyl said reducing those subsidies amounted to “[punishing] you, because you make a lot of money.” Does not care about deficits when it comes to tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent alone will increase the deficit by $830 billion over the next ten years.  When Kyl was negotiating with the White House to extend these tax cuts in December 2010, he claimed that you should not “have to offset a tax cut.”

Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) Supported Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Portman said in 2005 that privatization was the“greatest force in the universe,” and later claimed that Bush showed “political courage and leadership” on Social Security.

Call Sen. Portman: (614) 469-6774

Call Sen. Toomey: (215) 241-1090

Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA) Wants to privatize Social Security. Toomey has supported privatizing Social Security for years, saying that “personal accounts mean personal prosperity.” Toomey claims, “you don’t really have to worry about a fluctuation in the stock market.” Calls the Social Security Trust Fund a “hoax.” Toomey writes: “The Social Security Trust Fund is the biggest hoax since the Loch Ness monster.” Soft on Wall Street. Toomey said that deregulation of derivatives did “absolutely nothing to cause the financial crisis.” Uses fuzzy math to defend Bush tax cuts. “It is not clear that [extending the Bush tax cuts for all] would add trillions to the deficit.”

 

Democratic Senators

Voting Record
In the past year alone, Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Max Baucus (D-MT), and John Kerry (D-MA) have all voted AGAINST cutting Social Security benefits, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid, and cutting taxes for the richest Americans and for corporations.

• Voted AGAINST a bill that could cut your Social Security benefits by up to one-third by 2016—a $5,700 a year benefit cut for the average earner. (Voted NO on H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, July 19, 2011.)
• Voted to PROTECT Medicare and NOT put seniors at the mercy of insurance companies. Voted AGAINST increasing seniors’ health care costs by nearly $7,000 a year and raising the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.) Voted AGAINST slashing $1.4 trillion from Medicaid—the health care program for seniors, women, children and people with disabilities. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.)
• Voted NOT to give a $1.1 trillion tax cut to the richest Americans and NOT to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the Senate Republican Budget, May 25, 2011.)

Key Statements
Senators Murray, Baucus and Kerry’s record of voting to defend Social Security in the current Congress comes as no surprise. They have long expressed their commitment to preserving the integrity of Social Security and Medicare from Republican attacks. Still, more recently, under pressure to make a deal, they have shown varying degrees of openness to cuts.

Call Sen. Murray: (206) 553-5545

Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), Super Committee Co-Chair Strongly opposes weakening Social Security, and cutting benefits including raising the retirement age. “I am writing to state my commitment to defend the integrity of Social Security against efforts to reduce its benefits or weaken its protections…to advocate against raising the retirement age, and to support responsible efforts to strengthen and preserve Social Security benefits.” Says Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid won’t be taken off the table in the Super Committee’s discussions. “We can’t take anything off the table to begin with.”

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) Opposed raising the Social Security retirement age to 69, as proposed in the Bowles-Simpson Commission, of which he was a member. “These retirement age changes would place burdens on older Americans that I simply cannot support. There are too many people in poor health and in physically-demanding jobs who simply cannot — or should not — work as long as this plan would ask them to.” Led the fight to stop President Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. As ranking member on the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus was an influential opponent of Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security in 2005. “We do not need to privatize Social Security in order to save it,” he said at the time. “We do not need to make drastic changes.”

Call Sen. Baucus: (406) 449-5480

Call Sen. Kerry: (617) 565-8519

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) Supports a grand bargain with Republicans that could cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. [We need to] “send Wall Street and the marketplace a message that the United States of America is deadly serious about dealing with this long-term structural debt. That means putting a plan on the table, $4 trillion plus, if necessary, that lays out how we go forward in terms of our debt and deficit.” Believes Social Security and other programs are to blame for the deficit. [The real problem is] “the long-term debt. It’s the structural debt of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid measured against the demographics of our nation.” Campaigned against cutting benefits as a presidential candidate in 2004. “I will not privatize [Social Security]. I will not cut benefits,” Kerry said during the 2004 race.

Republican Representatives

Voting Record
In the past year alone, Representatives Jeb Hensarling (R, TX-5), Dave Camp (R, MI-4), and Fred Upton (R, MI-6) have all voted to cut Social Security benefits, deprive the Social Security Administration of essential funding, end Medicare as we know it, slash Medicaid, and cut taxes for the richest Americans and for corporations.

• Voted for a bill that could cut your Social Security benefits by up to one-third by 2016—a $5,700 a year benefit cut for the average earner. (Voted YES on H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, July 19, 2011.)
• Voted to cut the Social Security Administration by $1.7 billion. (Voted YES on H.R. 1, Feb. 19, 2011.)
• Voted to take away Medicare as we know it and leave seniors at the mercy of insurance companies. Voted to increase seniors’ health care costs by nearly $7,000 a year and to raise the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)
• Voted to slash $1.4 trillion from Medicaid—the health care program for seniors, women, children and people with disabilities. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)
• Voted to give a $1.1 trillion tax cut to the richest Americans and to cut their tax rate and the corporate tax rate from 35 percent  to 25 percent. (Voted YES on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)

Key Statements
The votes taken by Representatives Hensarling, Camp and Upton reflect ideological opposition to the idea of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as to increasing revenues in any way. 

Call Rep. Hensarling: (214) 349-9996

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R, TX-5), Super Committee Co-Chair Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are “cruel Ponzi schemes.”

Rep. Dave Camp (R, MI-4) “What we want to do is not have higher revenues,” even if that means higher deficits. “I think revenue’s off the table.”

Call Rep. Camp: (989) 631-2552

Call Rep. Upton: (269) 385-0039

Rep. Fred. Upton (R, MI-6) Tax increases are “just not going to be part of the equation.” Interested in closing corporate tax loopholes. "I'm not afraid of looking at tax loopholes. I don't think anybody was happy to see that GE didn't pay any taxes." Against cutting Medicare for current beneficiaries, but open to cutting it for future beneficiaries. "I wanna make sure that folks who are on Medicare today, that their benefits are not reduced, that their access is not reduced...I have one vote out of 12, and I know that Medicare gonna be part of the discussion." Open to raising the cap on income taxed for Social Security. "Lifting the cap or raising it...will probably be part of the [Super Committee's] discussion." Resistant to raising the retirement age. "I have been asked before, 'Fred, are you interested in raising the age above 67?' My answer has been 'No.' I don’t want to see that happen and I’ll tell you why. Because I know, many hard laborers, maybe farmers, maybe working in factories...[for whom] the body wears out, and you can't simply continue raising the age knowing that people's physical strength probably isn't there. I would be very resistant to raising the age above 67, but we'll see where discussions go."

Democratic Representatives

Voting Record
In the past year alone, Representatives Xavier Becerra (D, CA-31), Jim Clyburn (D, SC-6) and Chris Van Hollen (D, MD-8) have all voted AGAINST cutting Social Security benefits, depriving the Social Security Administration of essential funding, ending Medicare as we know it, slashing Medicaid, and cutting taxes for the richest Americans and for corporations.

• Voted AGAINST a bill that could cut your Social Security benefits by up to one-third by 2016—a $5,700 a year benefit cut for the average earner. (Voted NO on H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap and Balance Act, July 19, 2011.)
• Voted AGAINST cutting the Social Security Administration by $1.7 billion. (Voted NO on H.R. 1, Feb. 19, 2011.)
• Voted to PROTECT Medicare and NOT put seniors at the mercy of insurance companies. Voted AGAINST increasing seniors’ health care costs by nearly $7,000 a year and raising the age of eligibility for Medicare from 65 to 67. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)
• Voted AGAINST slashing $1.4 trillion from Medicaid—the health care program for seniors, women, children and people with disabilities. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)
• Voted NOT to give a $1.1 trillion tax cut to the richest Americans and NOT to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent  to 25 percent. (Voted NO on H.Con.Res. 34, the House Budget Resolution, April 15, 2011.)

Key Statements
Representatives Becerra, Clyburn and Van Hollen are among Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid’s strongest champions in Congress. Their past statements reveal a deep commitment to the programs’ core values. Still, more recently, under pressure to make a deal, they too have shown varying degrees of openness to cuts.

Call Rep. Becerra: (213) 483.1425

Rep. Xavier Becerra (D, CA-31) Said that Social Security should not be on the table for debt ceiling increase discussion, because it did not contribute to the deficit. “I believe that Social Security should not be on the table because Social Security hasn’t contributed 1 cent to the deficit that we face today, nor 1 cent to any of the national debt, the $14.3 trillion.” Opposes the Social Security COLA cut. “Seniors have higher healthcare costs... What's going to happen if you change the CPI, the backdoor cut to Social Security? Why? Because while you and I are nimble enough still to make a consumer choice to say not buy a Mercedes Benz and buy a Ford -- less expensive Ford vehicle, a senior can't decide, I need to find a substitute for health care. I need health care. And so, the changed CPI does exactly, it changed seniors to lower benefits, which is unfair to them because they worked for those Social Security benefits.”

Rep. James Clyburn (D, SC-6) Opposes raising the retirement age. "I've got a real problem with [raising the retirement age.] Those working in coal mines, why should they have the same retirement age as those of us who work in air conditioned offices? ... Raising the retirement age, I don’t think is shared sacrifice." Favors lifting the cap on wages taxed for Social Security. "If you make $100,000 a year, you’re being taxed on 100% of your income. If you make $200,000 a year, you’re only being taxed on 50%. So that’s a way to go, increasing or lifting the cap." Against increasing tax rates. "Let me be very clear: Even in the Biden committee none of us ever talked about raising tax rates, we are not there." Reticent to cut Defense. "Defense may be something that most members on the Democratic side don't mind going after. But I do mind going after [Defense]. So I'm going to be very reticent."  Opposes Super Committee making cuts in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and supports making rich contribute fair share in taxes. Clyburn does not want any cuts made to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that will affect beneficiaries. But he did not rule out cutting payments to Medicare and Medicaid providers, such as doctors and hospitals. [Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid] “aren’t causing these problems,” Clyburn said. “This is just blaming poor people…when fat cats in the upper 2 percent of Americans are getting tax cuts.” Open to means testing Social Security benefits. “I think that’s one way we ought to be…we ought to be discussing means testing. I think that those of us who operate at the income level that I operate at ought to be means tested.” Willing to consider a COLA cut. “Now the question is will some other look at CPI [consumer price index for determining Social Security’s annual COLA] make sense? And I think that it makes sense to look at it all to see what is an accurate account, a better way to determine benefits. I certainly wouldn’t walk away from that kind of discussion.”

Call Rep. Clyburn: (803)799-1100

Call Rep. Van Hollen: (301) 424-3501

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D, MD-8) Wants to address Social Security solvency apart from debt negotiations. “What we should not be doing is trying to balance the rest of the budget on the backs of Social Security beneficiaries. What we could do is work to strengthen Social Security on its own track and there may be ways to dedicate more revenue to Social Security as part of any discussion and further strengthen the solvency of Social Security.” Open to a “grand deal” that could cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  “I would like to see and the President and others would like to see a $4 trillion deal. It would send a very important message that the United States is serious about getting its long-term fiscal situation under control.”

“Super Committee” Created to Develop Deficit-Reduction Plan Should Exempt Social Security from Cuts

Cuts to Social Security, which are a likely target of the Super Committee, should not be considered by the committee for the following reasons:

• Social Security does not contribute a penny to the federal deficit.
• Social Security already operates under its own spending cap as benefits will automatically be cut across-the-board, without any action by Congress, if Social Security ever does not have enough income to cover its costs.
• Social Security is a pension plan with its own dedicated revenue stream that demands it be considered totally separate from deficit discussions. Doing otherwise will likely intensify the public’s suspicions that Congress is raiding Social Security.

Click here to read a more detailed fact sheet on why the “Super Committee” should exempt Social Security from cuts.

Return to main Super Committee page.