OPINION:
After 22 days without a speaker of the House, Republicans selected Rep. Mike Johnson to lead the House of Representatives. At the time, the Republicans claimed they wanted fresh leadership and new ideas at the top of the party’s leadership hierarchy to help curb government spending.
After his successful bid to become speaker, Mr. Johnson laid out his plan to do just that. In remarks on the House floor, he promised to set up a commission to study the issue and find a solution. The devil remains, as always, in the details, and Republicans need to beware of any effort to cut benefits for the Social Security program.
Setting up a debt commission has long been a goal of Mr. Johnson’s. He has fought for years to cut government spending. In June, when his predecessor, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was struggling to find a solution to keep the government open, Mr. Johnson urged Republican leaders to set up a commission following a deal with President Biden to avert a default on the nation’s debt. This past fall, concerningly, Mr. Johnson helped craft legislation that would have set up a committee to study the national debt.
Our national debt is certainly a serious issue, and it’s important that our leaders find a solution to the problem. But setting up a debt commission runs the risk of fast-tracking legislation that would cut Social Security. In fact, the proposal would exacerbate the problems caused by Congress using money from Social Security for other purposes and jeopardize the benefits that millions of Americans depend on to make ends meet. That’s something Mr. Johnson should take completely off the table.
Social Security’s importance cannot be overstated. In 2023 alone, the Social Security Administration estimates that almost 67 million Americans receive some Social Security benefit every month. The SSA calculates that 9 in 10 recipients are 65 or older, an age group that accounts for approximately 17.3% of the country’s population, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
In other words, millions of Americans who have worked hard for decades paying into Social Security now enjoy the benefits they’ve rightly earned. Many of them, especially those no longer working full time or with disabilities, use Social Security to help support themselves and pay monthly costs like groceries or rent.
Those benefits could be in jeopardy if Congress and our elected leaders decide that a commission of a few can decide the fate of a program millions depend on. This also poses a political problem for lawmakers, considering the overwhelming majority of U.S. adults oppose any cuts to Social Security. If a commission introduces these cuts, members of Congress will have some explaining to do to their constituents, and voters certainly will not forget it.
Millions of Americans depend on Social Security for the retirement they worked for and deserve. Congress should do right by those Americans and make sure Social Security is kept out of all conversations about easing the ever-growing deficit.
Playing politics with Social Security — a taxpayer-funded program — would be a slap in the face to our friends and neighbors who contributed to this program for years and now rely on it. Lawmakers should do what’s right and keep their word to the millions of Americans who are Social Security recipients by not even letting it get close to the chopping block at the behest of a small group of people in Washington.
• Cresent Leo Hardy represented Nevada’s 4th Congressional District from 2015 to 2017.
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