Public policy experts, healthcare analysts and economists are warning Florida voters that Medicare and Social Security are on the ballot this November in Florida.
So critical to 4.8 million Floridians and the Florida economy, voters this fall will have the chance to determine whether Social Security and Medicare benefits continue to help pay the bills for nearly a quarter of the state’s population.
The Senate race in Florida is shaping up to be a ground zero contest to determine whether the U.S. seeks to continue to help seniors maintain a high standard of living, or whether food is taken off their tables and prescriptions are swept from their medicine cabinets.
Fortunately for voters, the sides are clearly defined.
Rep. Val Demings is a Democrat with a voting record of proven commitment to expanding and protecting the American Safety Net for seniors. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, not only has his own history of plotting to gut benefits, but he finds himself running amid a GOP Senate platform with a dangerous gimmick that would wipe out the crucial health care and retirement benefits that Floridians depend on.
It’s all documented.
The Republican Party no longer whispers its intention to burn a hole in the American Safety Net; it shouts it out load with no regard for who suffers while in total servitude to the wealthiest Americans who don’t want to pay a fair share to keep America growing. Led by Florida’s two MAGA-driven senators, the GOP blatantly flaunts its agenda for gutting Social Security and Medicare for its current recipients and outright eliminating the benefits for the next generations that are paying into the system and expect it to be there for them.
“Social Security is a sacred promise and it’s one that we must fulfill,” Rep. Demings said when she unveiled legislation called Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, which would ensure America keeps its promises to Florida seniors. “Without our legislation, Social Security is on a path towards future cuts. That is unacceptable.”
Rep. Demings history of fighting for Social Security and Medicare recently earned her the endorsement, among others, from the Alliance for Retired Americans (ARA), a grassroots advocacy organization with more than 200,000 members across Florida.
“Rep. Demings has already proven as a member of the U.S. House that she will look out for older people in Washington. She has earned a lifetime score of 100% in the Alliance’s annual Congressional Voting Record,” said Florida ARA President Bill Sauers. “We trust her to work to expand and preserve our hard earned Social Security and Medicare benefits in the U.S. Senate. She knows that many seniors in Florida rely on those benefits, and she’s working to protect all of our retirement security.”
Florida ARA also saluted Rep. Demings votes in Congress to lower drug costs by requiring Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for seniors, cap out-of-pocket drug costs at $2,000 a year and cap insulin copays at $35 per month – measures the majority of Republicans in Congress consistently have rejected.
For his part, Rubio’s most recent scheme would force parents to choose between paid family leave to care for new babies or whether to get all their future Social Security benefits – that’s Rubio’s idea of family values. As described by Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and Disability Policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “Under the Rubio proposal, parents opting for parental leave would face permanent cuts to their Social Security retirement benefits that ultimately would far exceed their parental leave benefits.”
It’s appalling that Rubio would resort to a choice that amounts to a subtle form of blackmail for middle class parents, but it’s not surprising for anyone who knows how Rubio operates. Since 2010, Rubio has tried every scam possible to take away Social Security and Medicare benefits, beginning with raising the retirement age for benefits and reducing cost-of-living increases for recipients.
It doesn’t stop there. Rubio has pushed for Republican plans to privatize Social Security, which as we have seen the past three years are no longer epic failures just in theory; they are a bad investment in reality. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the volatility of the global financial markets, triggering trillion-dollar gyrations that threatened 401ks and private pension funds, which Rubio would model his privatization plans after.
Floridians just saw first hand how little control over their private retirement funds they have in a crisis. Social Security, however, was immune to the financial markets covid-driven crash, and payments to retirees continued without interruption or reductions. Yet Rubio would gladly line the pockets of fat-cat investment banks at the cost of gambling away middle class livelihoods.
How much is enough for Rubio’s wealthy patrons? Rubio already gave billionaires and corporations a free cash bonanza when he voted for the Trump tax cuts, which even Republicans say laid the foundation for the rampant inflation Floridians are now enduring. Rubio was also an ardent backer of the Trump tariffs that many of the same economists say set in motion the supply chain problems gripping America. When he shows up for work, Rubio appears unable to balance the federal checkbook let alone show he can be trusted to keep benefits flowing to Floridians, who already paid into the system.
As if Rubio’s record of maintaining a red ledger balance sheet in the Senate isn’t tough enough on Floridians, his partner in the Senate, Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, has upped the ante on ending Social Security and Medicare with an even more blatant path to killing the benefits programs.
Scott, currently the richest serving U.S. senator and former CEO whose company engaged in one of the largest Medicare fraud scandals in U.S. history (the company he headed was fined $1.7 billion), is using his position as chairman of the National Republican Senate Committee (NRSC) to wage what many people believe is a personal vendetta against the American Safety Net, some say it‘s payback because the company he headed got caught with its hands stealing from the Medicare cookie jar.
As chairman of the NRSC Scott is charged with winning back the GOP majority in the Senate, so his agenda is meant to be gospel to the GOP. He pulls no punches, either, calling for putting sunsets on Social Security and Medicare within five years. He’s since resorted to double talk to try to hide the pain and suffering his multi-point agenda written for Senate GOP candidates would cause nearly 25 percent of Floridians. But the experts know the truth.
“The stakes couldn’t be higher for seniors. We need Val Demings in the Senate fighting against any Republican plan to cut or ‘sunset’ Social Security and Medicare,” said Sauers, speaking for his retirees’ organization. “Under the plan of Sen. Rick Scott (FL), chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Social Security and Medicare would be automatically terminated within five years unless renewed by legislative action.”
Written by Ken Bazinet. Ken is a respected, longtime national political reporter and freelance writer based in rural Maryland.