UAW Action Guide: Don't Let Billionaires Cut Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare
UAW VALUES:
Every American has the right to one day enjoy the dignity of a stable and secure retirement. Social Security is a fundamental American value that ensures working people receive the benefits we have earned when we need them most.
Retirees, disabled workers, and survivors have relied on the program’s dependable payments for almost 90 years. For millions, programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare are the difference between stability and poverty.
Now, UAW Members and Retirees’ hard-earned Social Security, Medicare, and even Medicaid benefits are under attack by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress.
THE FACTS:
FACT: An unelected billionaire, Elon Musk, is slashing benefits for working people. Elon Musk called Social Security a “Ponzi Scheme”, and said Social Security and Medicare are “The big one to eliminate.”
Under the direction of the Elon Musk-led “Department of Government Efficiency” (“DOGE”), the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or about 12% of its staff, and the Washington Post reported the SSA is now considering a proposal to END TELEPHONE CLAIMS AND BENEFITS PROCESSING AND END DIRECT DEPOSIT OF SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS. This will result in late social security payments and unprocessed claims, and also force beneficiaries to make in person visits to SSA offices, all while they are closing the number of offices. This will destroy Social Security as we know it.
The union representing those workers said that high number of jobs slashed would “adversely undermine the ability of SSA to fulfill its responsibilities to the American people for the provision of Social Security benefits.” The former Social Security commissioner, Martin O’Malley, said the drastic changes to staff “will lead to interruptions in service, ... ultimately leading to system collapse and eventually the interruption of benefits.”
FACT: Congressional Republicans are aiming to enact dramatic cuts to critical federal programs to extend 2017 tax breaks benefiting the billionaires.
They want to cut $880 billion dollars from Medicare and Medicaid, another $330 billion from student financial aid and loans, and $230 billion from SNAP, which includes food stamps—all to give over four and a half trillion dollars in tax cuts to the billionaires and corporations.
Meanwhile, most UAW families will end up paying more in taxes than even now, according to some estimates.
BY THE NUMBERS:
Extending 2017 Tax Breaks for the billionaires: Up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts.
- In 2025, the top 1% will see an average of $61,000 in tax cuts; the top 0.1% will enjoy an average of $250,000
- Comparatively, the bottom 40% of income earners will see an average of under $400 in tax cuts this year
Making Us Pay: At least $2 trillion in spending cuts to critical programs
- $880 billion in spending cuts that a nonpartisan agency is reporting will be impossible to achieve without cuts to Medicaid or Medicare
- These cuts would equal almost 11% of all Medicaid spending, impacting seniors who 30% of Medicaid spending supports.
- According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, these cuts to Medicaid would cut the bottom fifth of household income by 7.4%.
TAKE ACTION: THE WORKING CLASS FIGHTS BACK
UAW members say: STOP THE CUTS AND STAND UP FOR OUR FUTURE.
Contact your representative today to let them know that we will not stand for cuts to our hard-earned benefits. Use this link to enter your phone number, and you'll receive a phone call connecting you to your Congressional representative.