Social Security and Medicaid

Hands off our safety nets!

Seniors and other vulnerable people are being put at risk through attacks on Social Security and Medicaid. These programs aren’t handouts; they’re insurance that working people have paid into for their entire lives. In Congress, I’ll defend Social Security and Medicaid, fighting for substantial additional investment in our safety nets. 

Protecting Social Security

Social Security is one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in American history. For tens of millions of retired workers, disabled Americans, and surviving family members, it is the difference between stability and bankruptcy. The administrative gutting carried out by DOGE has resulted in closed local offices, longer wait times, and reductions in the staff who process claims. Once elected, I will fight to undo DOGE damages to the Social Security Administration, restore staffing and field office access, and make the program easier for people to actually use. 

Concerns about Social Security’s long-term solvency have driven budget cuts, raising of the retirement age, and reduction of services. The solvency problem is easily fixable if we get rid of the cap on Social Security payroll taxes so that high-income earners pay into the system on all of their income. Right now, a worker earning $60,000 a year pays Social Security tax on every dollar they earn, while a CEO earning $6 million pays on only a small fraction of their income. Lifting the cap makes the system more equitable and fixes the program’s solvency without cutting any benefits. 

Protecting Medicaid

Medicaid provides healthcare for more than 70 million Americans including low-income families, children, people with disabilities, and seniors in nursing facilities. When people talk about cutting Medicaid, what it means is cutting healthcare for kids, seniors, and disabled people, and forcing hospitals in working class and rural communities to close.

I will push for legislation to maintain and expand Medicaid until we pass Medicare-for-All and everyone is guaranteed comprehensive healthcare. Until then, Medicaid is crucial for tens of millions of people, so we need to protect it from cuts and attacks. 

Creating Long-Term Reform

I will work to reverse the damages of the "Big Beautiful Bill” that has ravaged our country through massive tax cuts for billionaires and corporations, paid for by cuts and restrictions on average people’s benefits. 

Every attack on Social Security and Medicaid follows the same pattern: first, right-wingers claim a vital safety net is full of fraud, broken, or insolvent; then, cuts to services and staff make the program inefficient and frustrating; finally, they use the inefficiency and frustration to argue that the program should be privatized or eliminated. Their goal is to break public programs so the private sector can cannibalize the services and boost the profits of their billionaire buddies. The incredible part is how often establishment Democrats agree with them and lose the fight inch by inch. 

Social Security and Medicaid are among the most successful and important policies our government has ever implemented. As a member of Congress, I will defend them, expand them, and make sure everyone is able to benefit from the systems they’ve paid into their whole lives.