In response to the Biden-Harris administration taking new steps to protect Americans’ retirement security, DNC spokesperson Sarafina Chitika released the following statement:

“Today, President Biden is announcing new steps the Biden-Harris administration is taking to deliver on his promise to protect Americans’ retirement security. Meanwhile, MAGA Republicans in the halls of Congress and on the campaign trail are hellbent on threatening retirement security by putting Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block. The American people know they can count on President Biden and Vice President Harris to ensure their right to retire with dignity — and they’ll vote out MAGA Republicans working to gut the retirement programs Americans rely on.” 

President Biden is announcing that the Department of Labor will propose a new rule to close loopholes and require that financial advisers prioritize retirement advice that benefits hardworking Americans instead of chasing the highest payday — all a part of his Bidenomics agenda of growing the economy from the bottom up and middle out. 

Reuters: “The Biden administration on Tuesday will seek to impose new rules on retirement plan providers to close loopholes that officials argue allow the industry to sell products that boost their revenue at the expense of customers, the latest effort by the administration to crack down on so-called junk fees. The proposed Labor Department rules require retirement plan providers to only sell commodities and insurance products, such as annuities, to clients when doing so is in the customer’s best interest.”

MAGA Republicans running for president not only have long records of fighting to cut Social Security and Medicare — they are actively campaigning on ending these programs as we know them. 

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.”

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: “Other potential entrants in the Republican primary, such as former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) and South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, also voted for Ryan’s [proposal to cut and privatize Medicare] when they were in Congress.”

Christie: “We’re going to have to reduce Medicare benefits. We’re going to have to reduce Medicaid benefits. We’re going to have to raise the Social Security age. We’re going to have to do these things. We’re going to have to cut all types of other government programs that some people in this room might like.’”

Newly-elected speaker MAGA Mike Johnson is a member and former chair of the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee, which has pushed extreme proposals to slash Social Security and Medicare. 

Semafor: “These days, the RSC is best known around Washington as a GOP policy shop responsible for crafting proposals to balance the federal budget, often through changes and cuts to Social Security and Medicare.” 

“The Conservative Playbook” by the RSC, led by Chairman Mike Johnson in the 116th Congress: “With our entitlement programs facing dire financial futures and more Americans receiving welfare benefits than ever before, we cannot afford to waste money simply because the federal bureaucracy writes checks to the wrong people or for the wrong amount.” 

Johnson: “We have to get back to [entitlement reform] as the number one priority.”

The Republican Study Committee’s latest extreme MAGA proposal advocated cutting Social Security and taking steps toward ending Medicare as we know it.

Semafor: “A new budget proposal from the largest House GOP faction is reigniting a battle over the future of Social Security and Medicare.”

“For Medicare, it would begin offering seniors assistance to help buy private health coverage that competes against government insurance plans; it would also gradually raise the Social Security eligibility age to 69 for those who aren’t close to retiring.”

UpNorth News: “With the release of the Republican Study Committee’s budget, Republicans have ramped back up their attacks on [Medicare and Social Security]. 

“The proposed budget would make cuts to Social Security by raising the retirement age, though it does not specifically say what that new retirement age would be. Benefits would also be reduced for those who earned a ‘higher salary’ before retirement, but the budget again does not specify what that threshold would be. The budget also assures that there would only be ‘modest adjustments’ to Social Security as it operates now, but again, does not outline exactly what that means.”

Some Republican presidential hopefuls care more about corporate special interests than providing relief for hardworking Americans. Tim Scott called President Biden’s work to tackle junk fees “socialism.” 

Scott: “So the truth of the matter is that we need solutions for the American people. And it’s not a bunch of fees that will be eliminated by the president chatting fee control, income control, price control. It sounds more like socialism than free markets and capitalism that led to the lowest level of poverty, frankly, in the history of our country just a few years ago.”

In Congress, MAGA Republicans have ignored junk fees while lining their pockets with sizable contributions from the very corporations ripping off hardworking families with junk fees. 

CNBC: “GOP lawmakers in the hearing criticized the Biden administration’s push to eradicate ‘junk fees,’ largely regulated by the CFPB. Such fees constitute surcharges that companies levy for consumer goods and services.”

The New Republic: “‘Technically, junk fees don’t exist, OK? That’s a figment of Rohit Chopra’s imagination,’ Congressman Blaine Luetkemeyer told The New Republic on Monday afternoon. ‘It’s a made-up word for a made-up authority that he’s got,’ continued the Missouri Republican, referring to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra.”

“On the other hand, during his seven terms in Congress, Luetkemeyer has been on the take for millions in contributions from insurance, financial services, and utilities companies—industries long known to saddle consumers with hidden costs and, to borrow a term, junk fees.

“Luetkemeyer is not alone in raking in campaign cash from industries that Chopra and the CFPB seek to regulate on behalf of American consumers. North Carolina GOP Congressman Patrick McHenry, the new chair of the House Financial Services Committee, has also raked in millions during his career in the House of Representatives from the industries over which his committee has direct jurisdiction: nearly $2.7 million from the securities and investment sectors, nearly $2 million from the insurance industry, and more, according to OpenSecrets.org.”