American Independent: GOP Ohio Senate Nominee J.D. Vance Has Supported Cuts To Social Security And Medicare
July 8, 2022
For Immediate Release:
July 8, 2022
Columbus, OH – A new report from the American Independent exposes J.D. Vance’s longtime support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Vance wrote, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”
“While Ohio families are getting slammed with higher prices, multimillionaire J.D. Vance wants to make it harder for seniors to make ends meet by cutting Social Security and Medicare. Hardworking Ohioans deserve to know they can retire with dignity, but J.D. Vance only cares about fat handouts for his wealthy friends at the expense of those who can least afford it,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.
American Independent: GOP Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance has supported cuts to Social Security and Medicare
Josh Israel
July 7, 2022
- Ohio Republican nominee J.D. Vance is framing himself in his campaign for Senate as an opponent of powerful “elites.”
- Meanwhile, in 2011 the author and venture capitalist embraced a controversial GOP budget proposal that would have slashed entitlement protections for poorer and older Americans, ending both Medicare and Medicaid as we know them while cutting taxes for himself and other wealthy elites.
- In his writings, Vance […] embraced words like “reform” and “trim” in discussing the entitlement programs used by millions.
- In a column published on April 5, 2011, on the FrumForum, a group blog edited by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum that described itself as “dedicated to the modernization and renewal of the Republican Party and conservative movement,” Vance, under a previous surname taken from a stepfather, praised a budget proposal about to be released by then-House Budget Committee Republican Chair Paul Ryan.
- Ryan’s proposed budget called for trillions of dollars to be cut from entitlement programs over a decade: repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the program commonly known as Obamacare that provides health insurance coverage for millions of Americans; transformation of Medicaid into a program funded through limited lump-sum grants to states, which would then manage it; and conversion of Medicare into a capped voucher program.
- Robert Greenstein, president of the progressive-leaning nonprofit Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, said at the time that Ryan’s proposal was “a dramatic reverse-Robin-Hood approach that gets the lion’s share of its budget cuts from programs for low-income Americans — the politically and economically weakest group in America and the politically safest group for Ryan to target— even as it bestows extremely large tax cuts on the wealthiest Americans.”
- “The plan contains $1.4 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years (which includes repeal of the health reform law’s Medicaid expansion); large cuts in food stamps, low-income housing, Pell Grants, and other programs for people with limited incomes; and repeal of the health reform law’s subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people purchase health insurance,” Greenstein wrote.
- Vance wrote of the proposal, “Early reports suggest that along with serious changes to Social Security and Medicare, the budget will trim nearly $4 trillion from the 10-year budget deficit. I don’t know how the Left will react, but I’m confident that they’ll overreact. And I’m hoping that when the dust settles, we’re having a more intelligent conversation about spending cuts than we’ve had during my lifetime.”
- Vance added, “The way forward is as obvious as it is politically difficult: streamline the tax code, reform current entitlements and avoid enacting new ones.”
- On Sept. 7 of that year, he authored a post endorsing former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and explicitly praising him for supporting Ryan’s budget and entitlement cuts.
- “As governor, he enacted free-market health care reforms, balanced the budget, and thus far is the most public advocate of the Ryan plan to reduce long-term entitlement spending,” Vance wrote. He dismissed another Republican candidate, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, as “a man with no serious plan to curb entitlement spending.”
- In a May 2022 column published in the Atlantic, Frum noted that in his 2011 collaborations with Vance, Vance “endorsed cuts to the future growth of Medicare and Social Security” and lamented his subsequent evolution to full-throated support for former President Donald Trump.
- A Vance campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to an inquiry for this story.
###