Dancing on the Third Rail of Politics

The Trump administration's heartless slash-and-burn mentality around Social Security is poised to damage every American’s life.

For generations, Social Security has been referred to as the “third rail of American politics.” Politicians have seemed to know — sometimes instinctively, sometimes through lost battles — that if they tamper with it, their political careers would flounder or fail completely. Most politicians have understood that if you damage Social Security, your political career gets zapped.

The current administration has ignored that conventional wisdom. They’ve been planning drastic cuts to Social Security while simultaneously denying that they were planning any cuts. They seemed poised to pursue those cuts, none of which would be necessary if taxation in the U.S. were handled equitably and the cap on Social Security earnings¹ were eliminated. That single change would go a long way toward addressing Social Security’s long-term solvency issue.

With billionaires taking advantage of tax loopholes and corporations earning billions while paying $0 in taxes, the middle class and the poor are already s…