In response to Nikki Haley doubling down on her support for gutting Social Security and Medicare in a CNBC interview this morning, DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement: 

“Nikki Haley was a champion for MAGAnomics before ‘MAGAnomics’ existed — calling to cut Social Security and Medicare and slash taxes for the ultra-wealthy. Make no mistake about it — Haley is just another vessel to ram through Donald Trump’s economic agenda that would leave millions of Americans behind and line the pockets of her wealthy buddies and special interest donors. The American people have rejected this out-of-touch agenda time and time again, and they’ll reject it next year no matter who stumbles out of the Republican primary.”

NEW: Haley today doubled down on her MAGAnomics agenda of cutting Social Security and Medicare.

Andrew Ross Sorkin: “Are you on board with cutting entitlements in a big and meaningful way?”

Haley: “Social security goes bankrupt in 10 years, Medicare goes bankrupt in eight. Anyone that says they’re not going to take on entitlement reform means they’re going to go in and be president and leave the country bankrupt. You can’t do that.”

Haley has a yearslong record of being a proponent of devastating cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

Associated Press: “Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is proposing changes to entitlement programs for younger generations, opening the door to potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare if elected.”

Washington Post: “Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U. N. ambassador who is planning to announce her own presidential bid this month, also praised Ryan’s Medicare proposal at the time and said lawmakers should examine Medicare and Social Security spending to address federal debt.

“‘What they need to be doing is looking at entitlements,’ Haley said in a 2010 interview on Fox News. ‘Look at Social Security. Look at Medicaid. Look at Medicare. Look at these things, and let’s actually go to the heart of what is causing government to grow, and tackle that.’”

Haley: “Any candidate that says they’re not going to touch entitlements, means that they’re basically going to go into office and leave America bankrupt. … We change retirement age to reflect life expectancy.”

Semafor: “As governor of South Carolina at the time, Nikki Haley praised the [Paul Ryan] fiscal blueprint for ‘trying to bring common sense to this world of insanity.’”

Haley put the rich and powerful over working families as governor of South Carolina and now wants to go even further by making permanent Trump’s tax breaks that handed the ultra-wealthy and big corporations billions in tax cuts while running up the deficit. 

Haley: “Well I think what I’d like to see is us go back to what Trump had under the tax cuts under him … I was there.”

Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

Aiken Standard: “Gov.-elect Nikki Haley, who takes office next week, campaigned on eliminating the state’s corporate income tax.”

Augusta Chronicle: “State budget advisers predict eliminating South Carolina’s corporate income tax over four years, as both Haley and House Republicans propose, would reduce state revenues by $61.6 million in the first year and $218.3 million annually when the phase-out is complete.”

It’s not just Haley who is pursuing a MAGAnomics agenda — her 2024 GOP opponents are also coming after Social Security and want more tax giveaways for the wealthiest Americans. 

CNN: “Former President Donald Trump once backed raising the retirement age to 70 and called for privatizing Social Security which he called a ‘Ponzi scheme’ – two positions he has hammered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for supporting as a former member of Congress and congressional candidate. … but a CNN KFile review found Trump himself also once praised Ryan on Medicare, along with the 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney, without praising their specific policy proposal, which called for similar changes to Ryan’s plan.”

CNN: “A CNN KFile review of comments from DeSantis’ 2012 congressional campaign found he repeatedly said he supported plans to replace Medicare with a system in which the government paid for partial costs of private plans or a traditional Medicare plan. In one interview with a local newspaper, DeSantis said he supported ‘the same thing’ for Social Security, citing the need for ‘market forces’ to restructure the program.”

Trump on whether his second term tax policies would echo those of his first term: “Yes, and I do even more taxes.”

DeSantis on whether he’d keep Trump’s tax rates in place: “The current rates that are due to expire, we want to keep those rates in place. We don’t want to see increases in taxes. We definitely wanna see things like permanent bonus depreciation, making sure you have full expensing.”