Val Demings’ Campaign Blasts Rubio for Attempting to Hide His Desire to Cut Social Security and Medicare

The Democrat challenging Rubio for the Senate detailed the many ways the Republican senator has signaled his plans to undermine and cut benefits, affecting seniors and families.

Sen. Marco Rubio has not only shown his support for Sen. Rick Scott’s plan to sunset Social Security and Medicare after five years. He also unveiled his “New Parents Act,” which offers paid parental leave but forces parents to take money out of their future Social Security earnings, either delaying retirement or seeing cuts in Social Security benefits for up to five years. This is a plan that Florida Alliance for Retired Americans (FLARA) President Bill Sauers called “uncaring, heartless, and unnecessary.”

So, when the Republican senator recently claimed that he’s never supported cuts to Social Security or Medicare, Val Demings, the Democrat challenging Rubio in the race for the Senate was quick to call him out on what some call “double-speak.”

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“Time and time again, Marco Rubio has fought to gut Social Security and Medicare despite the fact that so many Floridians rely on these benefits,” Demings’ campaign communications director Christian Slater said in a statement. “It’s outrageous but unsurprising that he would lie to his own constituents.”

In the release, Demings’ campaign detailed the many ways Rubio signaled his plans to undermine and cut Social Security and Medicare: 

• Rubio supported a 2012 budget plan that aimed to “end Medicare as we know it.”
• In 2014, Rubio proposed raising the Social Security retirement age.
• While running for president in 2016, Rubio called for raising the retirement age and privatizing Medicare. 

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• After voting for massive tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited corporations and the wealthy back in 2017, Rubio proposed cutting Social Security and Medicare to help pay for it. 
• Marco Rubio recently released a “pro-family” framework that’s actually a Social Security cut in disguise.
• Just recently, Rubio introduced legislation that would prevent Medicare from negotiating lower drug prices for seniors and end the cap on Medicare recipients’ out-of-pocket prescription drug costs.

‘A Sacred Promise’

“Chief Demings is the only candidate in this race who has consistently fought to protect Social Security and Medicare, and she’ll continue that fight in the US Senate,” added Slater.

Demings, who in 2021 voted to prevent a scheduled $36 billion in automatic cuts to Medicare that would have hurt seniors, farmers, and working families, also introduced the ‘Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust,’ calling Social Security “a sacred promise and one that we must fulfill.”