When most of corporate America refused to take Donald Trump up on his offer to "terminate" the payroll taxes that pay for Social Security and Medicare, at least for the next several months, Trump decided he had to impose his scheme on someone. So he forced it on his captive employees: federal workers. Democratic senators—and one Republican!—have told him to back off.
About two dozen lawmakers, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen—who represents many federal workers who live in Maryland—wrote to the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget to tell them to knock it off. "We urge you to let federal workers and uniformed service members choose whether to defer their payroll tax obligations … rather than forcing them to participate," they wrote. "While some federal employees may want to defer their payroll tax payments," the lawmakers continued, "unions representing federal workers have made clear that many others do not." The Republican who joined them is the Republican who is still trying to pretend that she's not a Trump supporter—Susan Collins. But hey, at least it can now be a "bipartisan" group of lawmakers rebuking Trump.
At issue is, of course, funding to Social Security and Medicare in the interim, but also the problem that this holiday comes to an end next year. Every employee who gets the benefit of not paying the tax for the next several months ends up seeing a larger portion of their paycheck withheld next year, because the full amount has to be paid back by May. That's a pretty crappy deal. Trump has said that if he's reelected, he will "terminate" the taxes entirely, so they wouldn't have to be repaid.
Terminating them entirely is ending the funding stream for Social Security and Medicare. Social Security Disability payments would end next year and Social Security retirement funds would be depleted by 2023, Social Security's chief actuary told Congress. That's if there were no intervening plan to save the programs. Trump says he would fund the programs from the general treasury, but at the same time Trump is telling his key staff that addressing the "debt is a big second term priority."
He has no plan for funding Social Security and Medicare. Just like he has no plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act while he's arguing before the Supreme Court that the whole law should be struck down. In fact, imposing this scheme on federal employees is Trump's foot in the door of privatizing Social Security. In fact, as Social Security Works points out, a key architect of former President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization scheme is gleefully arguing just that.
No wonder Collins is concerned about this one.