Voters on both sides chose people who pledged to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

The results of November’s U.S. House elections were — among other things — a seemingly loud rebuke of right-wing economic policies.  Yet, scarcely a month after the Democrats flipped at least 40 congressional seats, some right-wing groups disingenuously draw the opposite conclusion. 

FreedomWorks, a conservative nonprofit, which supported Tea Party candidates, contends that House Republicans lost because their economic policies were not draconian enough.  

Specifically, the group’s president calls out the GOP for failing to cut "mandatory spending" — that is, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — to reduce the federal debt. (Never mind that Social Security and Medicare Part A are self-funded and add nary a drop of red ink). Meanwhile, FreedomWorks does not mention the Trump/GOP tax law, which ballooned the debt by some $2 trillion.

In fact, roughly 80 of the nearly 100 candidates supported by our organization in the 2018 elections prevailed.  Meanwhile, voters in Idaho, Utah, and Nebraska passed initiatives to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.  In three other states, they elected governors who pledged to expand the program. 

That’s because working families and retirees recognize that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid work. What FreedomWorks calls “flawed federal programs” are fundamental to a just society. For more than fifty years they have provided baseline financial and health security for the elderly, disabled, and poor.  Nearly every American has a loved one touched by these programs, which is one reason why they remain extremely popular in poll after poll.  

Voters aren’t blind. They saw the outgoing House majority try to slash more than a trillion dollars from these crucial programs in their 2018 and 2019 budgets.  At the same time, voters witnessed President Trump and the GOP cutting taxes for the wealthy and big corporations by roughly the same amount.  When it was reported that this reckless action would drive up the federal debt by nearly $2 trillion, so-called conservativesdemanded that "entitlements" be cut to pay for it.

Continued calls from the right to cut Social Security and Medicare rely on the false claim that these programs are the "primary drivers of the debt."  In reality, tax expenditures — revenue that the federal government forgoes through tax cuts and loopholes — are the number one driver of the debt.  - More
Voters on both sides chose people who pledged to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Seniors are big winners in House elections - The Hill