Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) voted to give billions to wealthy Wall Street corporations, but thinks America can't afford Social Security.
Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) won't stop spreading misinformation about earned benefit programs like Social Security — one of the most successful anti-poverty programs in U.S. history.
1.8 million Georgians rely on Social Security. But in an April appearance on C-SPAN, Perdue suggested he wants to slash benefits for Social Security, a program created in the 1930s as part of the New Deal, because he thinks it costs too much.
"You had the sweeping programs from the '60s, the Great Society, the New Deal, things from back in the 20th century have now come home to roost. And we cannot afford the commitments that we've been making," Perdue said ominously.
In a June speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Perdue was caught blatantly lying about the effectiveness of programs like Social Security.
"And the irony is that these big sweeping federal programs have all failed the very people the Democrats claim to champion, the working poor and the working men and women of America," Perdue said.
Perdue has a long history of attacking the crucial program. American Bridge, a progressive research organization, has documented Perdue making similar claims as far back as 2013, a year before he was elected to the Senate.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2013, Perdue said the New Deal and the Great Society brought America to a “moment of crisis."
Perdue may not like programs like Social Security, but that gives him no right to lie about them.
Social Security benefits "lift more Americans above the poverty line than any other program," according to research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. In fact, the program lifts more than 15 million elderly Americans and more than 1 million children out of poverty.
As the AARP points out, the idea that Social Security is going bankrupt is a myth. And the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Republicans, not only reject the idea of cutting Social Security benefits — they also favor increasing them.
Perdue slams programs like Social Security — yet in his home state of Georgia, more than 1.8 million residents rely on the very benefits Perdue is threatening.
Perdue's excuse that he is motivated out of concern for the deficit is flimsy one, based on the fact that he wholeheartedly embraced the GOP tax scam. That 2017 boondoggle gave billions of dollars to wealthy Wall Street corporations, left working-class families out in the cold, and added nearly $2 trillion to the nation's debt.
It seems that Perdue will enthusiastically embrace blowing a hole in the deficit if it benefits his wealthy corporate donors. And then he will turn around and blame the very debt he helped create to attack earned benefit programs like Social Security that lift children and the elderly out of poverty.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
