'Cutting Social Security Is Murder': Flood of Public Outrage Greets Trump Proposal to Slash Benefits for Hundreds of Thousands

“This policy change is abhorrent and absolutely unjustifiable.”

“We all know that the cruelty is the point with this administration, but this sinks to yet another low.”

“This would be a crushing blow to me and my family.”

Those are just a few of the more than 1,700 official comments members of the U.S. public have left on President Donald Trump’s proposed Social Security rule change, which could strip lifesaving disability benefits from hundreds of thousands of people.

“They want to destroy every part of Social Security, including retirement benefits, and turn it over to their criminal friends on Wall Street. We must stop Trump’s plan.”
—Alex Lawson, Social Security Works

The proposal received hardly any media attention when it was first published in the Federal Register in November. But recent reporting on the proposed rule change, as well as outrage from progressive Social Security advocates, sparked a flood of public condemnation and calls for the Trump administration to reverse course.

Backlash against the proposal can be seen in the public comment section for the rule, where self-identified physicians, people with disabilities, social workers, and others have condemned the change as monstrous and potentially deadly. The number of public comments has ballooned in recent days, going from less than 200 to more than 1,700 in a week.

The public comment period ends on January 17, 2020. Comments can be submitted here.

“Cutting Social Security is murder and this immoral administration knows it,” wrote one commenter. “I will fight it every way I can.”

A commenter who identified as Karla Kirchner said Social Security is her “only source of income.”

“If I lose my checks, there will be nothing left to keep me alive,” Kirchner wrote.