I'm opposed to the Republican plan to cut Medicare and Social Security. Here's why:

Statement

Dear Friend,

We have a responsibility as a community to make sure that seniors retire with dignity and with a respectable standard of living. That begins with preserving critical programs that were established to protect the health and well-being of our nation's seniors -- Social Security and Medicare.

For many retirees, Social Security is their only or primary source of retirement income. For others, it supplements additional sources of income, but regardless, it is a vital program that seniors paid into for decades and have every right to expect will be there to help them.

Similarly, Medicare plays a key role in providing health and financial security to millions of Americans who are over 65. It is easy to forget that almost half of all senior citizens were uninsured before Medicare was created. Today, it provides affordable, reliable, and comprehensive coverage to more than 5.5 million people in California alone.

Instead of working to strengthen these programs, Republicans in Congress have announced they plan to cut these programs to pay for the deficit-exploding tax cuts they passed this year for big corporations and wealthy families. In fact, just last month, Senator Mitch McConnell confirmed as much when he said:

"The three big entitlement programs that are very popular, Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.… There's been a bipartisan reluctance to tackle entitlement changes because of the popularity of those programs. Hopefully, at some point here, we'll get serious about this."

Here's the truth.

Republicans promised their tax cuts would "pay for themselves" -- they knew that wasn't true, but they said it anyway. They have now made it abundantly clear that they would like to make cuts to programs such as Medicare and Social Security to make up for the massive $1.5 trillion hole in our budget caused by the tax bill. This would be shocking were it not a further continuation of an unsustainable policy of cutting taxes for the wealthy, while targeting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for massive cuts.

I believe we have to protect Social Security and Medicare and strengthen them, not use them to pay for irresponsible tax giveaways.

I will do everything I can to oppose efforts to undermine Social Security and Medicare and the benefits that so many Americans depend on-- and deserve. I remain committed to protecting these vital safety net programs for this generation, and for generations to come.

You can always share your thoughts through Facebook or Twitter. As always, I welcome hearing from you on these and any other issues, and hope that you will stay in touch.

All my best,

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