Threats to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid came into stark relief as Republicans in Congress and elsewhere ratcheted up attacks on programs that help working families.  Sen. Bernie Sanders marked Tuesday's 77^th anniversary of Social Security with a reminder of how the retirement program has cut poverty without contributing to the deficit. And on Wednesday Sanders released a new video rebutting attacks on Medicare and Medicaid. He analyzed who and what really caused budget deficits. Unpaid-for wars and tax breaks for the rich are the prime culprits. Hypocritical deficit hawks - like House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan - voted to go into wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without figuring out how to pay for them and passed tax breaks for the wealthy without any concern for deficits. 

Medicare 

Medicare is under attack by people who call themselves deficit hawks but really aren't. The assault on working families is being waged by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and others who, in fact, squandered a big budget surplus that President George W. Bush inherited from President Bill Clinton. They voted for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without coming up with revenue to pay for them. They dug the deficit hole deeper when they gave tax breaks to the rich. They caused more red ink to flow the Wall Street deregulation they rammed through resulted in a horrible recession. "Our Republican friends, who are working day and night for the wealthiest people in this country, want to balance the budget on the backs of people, who are already hurting as a result of this terrible, Wall Street-caused recession. They want to protect the wealthiest people and the largest corporations, who today are doing extremely well. This is a fight that we've got to engage in. It is a moral issue. It is an economic issue," Sanders said. 

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Social Security 

"We are now in the midst of the fiercest and best-financed attack against Social Security in our lifetimes," Sanders warned on Tuesday, the 77^th anniversary of the most successful program in the modern history of the United States. "Hundreds of millions of dollars are now being spent to destroy Social Security and endanger the well-being of millions of Americans. We must not allow that effort to succeed." In the years since President Franklin Roosevelt signed Social Security into law on August 14, 1935, the retirement program has been one of the nation's most successful anti-poverty programs. "Before Social Security existed, about half of America's senior citizens lived in poverty," Sanders said. "Today, less than 10 percent live in poverty." 

Read the Huffington Post column »
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