Commentary | Sen. Johnson’s Comments on Social Security Endanger Effort to Retake Senate – By Denise Collins (Real Clear Politics) / Sept 26, 2022
At the beginning of summer, political experts and pollsters predicted that Republicans would ride a red wave to overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate. However, the enthusiasm gap is shrinking, and polling shows closely contested races in key states nationally. Here in Wisconsin, Sen. Ron Johnson is in a tight race against his progressive challenger in the red-tinted Badger State; and while he has defied political odds before, his attacks on Social Security have concerned older voters, a critical voting bloc in midterm races. If the senator doesn’t reverse course quickly, he’s going to hurt his own reelection efforts – and with the Senate majority in the balance, we can’t let that happen.
Social Security provides critical benefits to millions of Americans across the country, folks who paid into the program for decades to provide a foundation of income during retirement. In Wisconsin alone, over one million of Sen. Johnson’s constituents receive monthly Social Security benefits. Most of these people depend on the fixed income that the program provides to make ends meet, and now, given record-high inflation and increasing prices on basic goods like rent, transportation, health care, and groceries, Social Security is more important than ever.
Despite its critical importance, Sen. Johnson stated in early August that Social Security should become a discretionary spending program, a move that would jeopardize and politicize earned and paid-for retirement benefits by subjecting them to yearly Congressional approval. Even though Sen. Johnson received significant public pushback on his initial comments, he argued that Social Security should be privatized. I’m afraid that these attacks on Social Security have given Democrats trying to maintain their slim Senate majority an opening, and instead of answering for out-of-control inflation and being dragged down by President Biden’s poor polling numbers, Wisconsin Democrats have hammered Johnson for threatening Americans’ essential benefits. And voters are starting to listen.
