Protect Social Security & Medicare

The Current Situation

An earned promise, on a clock

About 68 million Americans receive Social Security benefits (SSA, 2024) — retirees, surviving spouses and children, and disabled workers. More than 150 million Americans earned wages in 2023 (SSA), most of them paying in with every check. And the program's own trustees project that, absent action by Congress, the combined trust funds face depletion in the mid-2030s (SSA Trustees Report, 2024).

68MAmericans receiving Social Security benefits, aboutSocial Security Administration, 2024

150M+Americans who received wages — the workers paying inSocial Security Administration, 2023

Mid-2030sProjected combined trust fund depletion, absent actionSSA Trustees Report, 2024

The compact between generations

Every paycheck funds the promise: today's workers carry today's beneficiaries, as tomorrow's workers will carry them.

Sources: Social Security Administration wage statistics, 2023; Social Security Administration beneficiary data, 2024. Counts shown for scale.

What "depletion" actually means — and doesn't. Trust fund depletion is not the program vanishing. Payroll taxes would still be coming in from every working American's check, still funding benefits. But absent action, the program could no longer pay full scheduled benefits on time. That is the honest shape of the problem: not a collapse — a shortfall that Congress can fix, and hasn't yet.

Why It Matters

For working people, this is the retirement plan

The median American wage earner made about $48,000 in 2023 (SSA). At that wage — with consumer prices up about 21% from January 2020 to December 2024 (BLS CPI) — building a private fortune for retirement is not a spreadsheet exercise; it's a tightrope. For millions of working households without a big 401(k), Social Security is not a supplement. It is the plan. It is the difference between an old age with dignity and an old age with fear.

And it reaches further than retirement. Among the roughly 68 million beneficiaries (SSA, 2024) are widows and widowers, children who lost a parent, and workers whose bodies gave out before their careers did. Every one of them was promised the same thing: pay in while you work, and the country will hold up its end.

Social Security is not an entitlement handed down. It is wages you already earned, set aside with every paycheck, coming home on schedule.

That's why the trustees' projection deserves respect, not panic — and action, not slogans. A mid-2030s deadline (SSA Trustees Report, 2024) is close enough that today's fifty-year-olds will feel the outcome, and far enough that an honest fix, made soon, lands gently. Every year of delay makes the eventual repair steeper and more painful for the working majority.

The register we refuse. Some use the trust fund projection to argue the program is doomed, so workers should surrender it to Wall Street. We read the same report and reach the opposite conclusion: a promise this important, to this many people, is exactly what a serious country repairs — and never gambles.

Our Position

Protect it. Strengthen it. Never privatize it.

This is an advocacy position of 120K or Less — and it is a boundary line for everything else we propose, including our own tax plan.

We protect

Social Security and Medicare as earned benefits — wages already worked for, promises already made. We oppose benefit cuts imposed on the working majority as the path of least resistance.

We strengthen

We support congressional action well before the trustees' mid-2030s horizon (2024 report). Lawmakers have long discussed a range of strengthening options; we will publish plain-English explainers on them and put the movement's preferred fix to a member vote.

We refuse

Privatization — in every form and under every rebrand. Retirement security for the working majority should never depend on the timing of a market crash. On this, the movement does not negotiate.

We guarantee our own math

Our federal income tax relief plan explicitly and fully maintains Social Security and Medicare payroll funding. Relief comes from the income tax — payroll contributions, and the benefits they fund, are untouched.

How our tax plan protects payroll funding. The first question any honest reader should ask about "no federal income tax under $120K" is: what happens to Social Security and Medicare? Our answer is structural, not rhetorical — the plan touches only the federal income tax and leaves payroll funding fully intact. Read the tax relief plank →

What It Would Mean

The promise, kept in full

For the 68 million receiving benefits today: Checks that keep arriving, in full and on time — with the question mark lifted off the kitchen table. About 68 million Americans (SSA, 2024) should not have to read actuarial tables to know whether their country keeps its word.
For the 150-million-plus still paying in: A program strengthened well before the mid-2030s means today's workers (more than 150 million earned wages in 2023 — SSA) can plan on the benefit they're funding, instead of discounting it to zero the way so many quietly do.
For every family in between: Survivor and disability protections that hold. Social Security is life insurance and disability insurance for working families who could never buy that much coverage privately — kept public, kept promised, kept whole.
For the movement's own credibility: A tax plan that delivers relief without touching payroll funding proves the two goals can live together: keep more of your paycheck today, and keep the promise waiting at the end of it.

The American flag — the national promise behind Social Security — Pay in while you work, and the country holds up its end. That is the whole deal.

Where This Stands

An honest accounting of where we are

The clock is public, the fix is Congress's to make, and our job is to organize the working majority loudly enough that it gets made well. Here is the road as we see it.

2024 — the trustees publish the clockThe SSA Trustees Report projects the combined trust funds face depletion in the mid-2030s absent congressional action. The projection is public, annual, and nonpartisan.
Today — a movement in formationCongress has not yet enacted a fix. Our position — protect, strengthen, never privatize — is adopted; our plain-English explainers on the strengthening options lawmakers have discussed are in the works.
At launch — members choose the fix we championOne member, one vote. We will publish the options with honest arithmetic and put the movement's preferred strengthening path to the membership — then advocate for it through education and civic participation. We run no political committee.
Mid-2030s — the deadline that shouldn't matterIf the working majority does its job, the fix lands years before the horizon does — and this date becomes a footnote instead of a cliff.

Common questions

Is Social Security going bankrupt?

No — and precision matters here. The trustees project the combined trust funds face depletion in the mid-2030s absent action (2024 report). Even then, payroll taxes from working Americans would keep funding benefits; the danger is that full scheduled benefits could no longer be paid on time without congressional action. Serious problem, solvable problem — and the sooner it's solved, the gentler the solution.

Wouldn't eliminating income tax under $120K defund Social Security?

No. Social Security and Medicare are funded by payroll taxes, which are separate from the federal income tax. Our plan reduces or eliminates the federal income tax for earners at $120,000 or less while fully maintaining payroll funding — that boundary is written into the plank itself. See Federal Income Tax Relief.

Which specific fix does the movement support?

Our boundaries are set: protect earned benefits, strengthen the program before the mid-2030s horizon, and never privatize. Within those lines, lawmakers have discussed a range of strengthening options, and we have deliberately not pre-selected one — under one member, one vote, that choice belongs to the membership at launch, informed by explainers we commit to publishing with honest arithmetic.

Is this a partisan issue?

It shouldn't be, and with us it isn't. The roughly 68 million Americans receiving benefits (SSA, 2024) and the 150-million-plus paying in (SSA, 2023) span every party and no party. We are nonpartisan and will stand with any lawmaker, of any party, who protects and strengthens the promise without privatizing it.

Keep Reading

Related planks of the platform

Federal Income Tax Relief

Relief on the income tax for earners at $120,000 or less — with Social Security and Medicare payroll funding fully preserved by design.

Read the plank →

Affordable Healthcare

The average family premium hit $25,572 in 2024 (KFF). We believe care should be affordable — or free at the point of service.

Read the plank →

Veterans

The people who kept the country's biggest promise deserve to have the country keep its promises back.

Read the plank →

Your Work. Your Voice. Your Future.

You paid in. Now stand up for the promise.

The mid-2030s clock only wins if the working majority stays quiet. Membership is free, every member gets one vote, and the promise you've been funding since your first paycheck is worth defending.

Join the Movement See How Our Tax Plan Protects It

Membership opens at national launch. Joining the list now reserves your place.