MSNBC - With the election over, Republicans are suddenly interested in cutting Social Security
Like clockwork, the party is back to talking about its favorite target.
Dec. 5, 2024, 6:00 AM EST
By Ryan Teague Beckwith, Newsletter Editor
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The question is what happens next. If history is any guide, any effort would run right into a brick wall of opposition. President George W. Bush after all, proposed privatizing Social Security after he won a second term in 2004. In a press conference shortly after that victory, Bush declared that he had earned "political capital" in the election and intended to spend it. He made it the centerpiece of his State of the Union address and barnstormed the country. And the more he talked, the less popular the idea became. Within a few months, the plan died quietly in Congress. In the 2006 midterms, Democrats flipped both houses of Congress without a single incumbent losing.
Trump wouldn't even start with Bush's level of single-minded focus on the issue, either, as he'll be too busy promoting his other plans to deport millions who are in the country illegally, restructure the federal government by fiat and levy tariffs right and left. With narrow majorities in the House and Senate, just a handful of Republicans could tank any proposal, and Social Security has one of the strongest lobbying and grassroots advocacy efforts in Washington.
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That says, short term, Social Security should be safe.
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