Not real - Tax Scam 2.0 ending taxes on Social Security payments. Still real? Looming Medicare cuts

I was among millions of Americans who got an odd email from the Social Security Administration after Trump/GOP passed Tax Scam 2.0 into law. It was soon edited on the web site, but I still have the original email.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is celebrating the passage of the One Big, Beautiful Bill, a landmark piece of legislation that delivers long-awaited tax relief to millions of older Americans.

The bill ensures that nearly 90% of Social Security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits, providing meaningful and immediate relief to seniors who have spent a lifetime contributing to our nation’s economy. “This is a historic step forward for America’s seniors,” said Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano. “For nearly 90 years, Social Security has been a cornerstone of economic security for older Americans. By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect Social Security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned.

The new law includes a provision that eliminates federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples. Additionally, it provides an enhanced deduction for taxpayers aged 65 and older, ensuring that retirees can keep more of what they have earned.

I’m well over a decade away from collecting Social Security, but I have an account with ssa.gov to check up on my benefit situation, so I suppose that’s what got me on this list. However, I’d tracked the Big Bunch of BS enough to know that Social Security recipients still would have to pay taxes, so what’s with this claim?

It's a classic “lie by omission” move, where other parts of the bill may cause seniors to not have to owe any federal income taxes, but not because taxes on Social Security taxes have been eliminated.

One of Wisconsin Senators was among a group that was calling BS on the Trump hacks’ deceptive mailing last month.

U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) led a group of their colleagues in demanding that the Social Security Administration (SSA) stop peddling lies about the Republican reconciliation bill using the agency’s email platform, which reaches tens of millions of Americans.

The Republican reconciliation bill does not amend, reduce, or eliminate federal taxes on Social Security benefits. Contrary to the release’s claim that taxes would be eliminated on 90% of benefits, about half of beneficiaries will still owe some amount of income tax on their benefits. The bill also does not change tax filing requirements for people receiving Social Security benefits. The Trump Administration’s distribution of misleading and blatantly inaccurate information could upend the lives of millions of American seniors who depend on Social Security benefits. Inaccurate information could lead to Americans making benefit claims against their best interests or even missing payments on taxes they owe….

On July 3, SSA sent a mass email and issued a press release falsely announcing that the Republican reconciliation bill would cut taxes on Social Security benefits. The agency doubled down on those lies by burying its misleading language on its website and keeping millions of Americans who received the initial email in the dark. Commissioner Bisignano has abandoned his promise to the Finance Committee and to the American people that, under his leadership, SSA would not become a partisan agency subject to the whims of Trump.

“Rather than focusing on improving customer service, you are using your position as Commissioner to stroke Donald Trump’s ego and peddle lies on his behalf. We urge you to retract SSA’s July 3 statement and issue a correction–on SSA’s website and via email for ‘my Social Security’ account users–clarifying the federal tax treatment of Social Security benefits,” Baldwin and the Senators continued.

You can check out the analysis from the Tax Policy Center yourself, but as you'll see, there won't be a major difference in how many Social Security recipients will have $0 taxes to pay on their benefit income this year.

That won't mean this move to give seniors a tax break won't have an effect - one well beyond the additional 3.5% of Social Security beneficiaries who now won't have any taxes to pay on their benefits this year. It's one that could hit millions of Americans planning to collect Social Security benefits in future years, as Citizens for a Responsible Federal Budget notes that this Big Bogus Bill speeds up potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.

OBBBA would impact Social Security and Medicare indirectly, mainly by reducing the revenue collected from the income taxation of Social Security benefits, which is deposited into the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

Under current law, Social Security benefits are 50 percent taxable for seniors with over $25,000 ($32,000 for couples) of annual income, and 85 percent taxable for seniors with over $34,000 ($44,000 for couples) of income. That 50 percent is deposited into the Social Security trust fund, and the additional 35 percent into Medicare’s Hospital Insurance (HI) trust fund…

OBBBA would not only extend most of the 2017 tax cuts but also expand them and add further tax cuts on top of them. Of particular relevance for Social Security beneficiaries, the Senate version of OBBBA would increase the total standard deduction for many senior couples by over $13,000 (including a temporary $12,000 increase in the additional senior deduction) in 2026, to over $47,000. This would reduce the number of seniors paying taxes on their benefits and reduce the marginal rate at which some of their benefits were taxed.

We estimate that the extension and expansion of the 2017 tax cuts, the expanded senior deduction, and other OBBBA changes would reduce total taxation of benefits by roughly $30 billion per year. This would be enough to accelerate insolvency of the Social Security Old-Age and Survivors (OASI) trust fund from early 2033 to late 2032 and to accelerate insolvency of the HI trust fund from late 2033 to mid-2032.

That would be a much bigger effect on incomes for seniors and others, as lower consumption from reduced benefits would likely slow down the overall economy in a country that has more than 2/3 of it rely on consumer spending.

And it's not just Gen Xers whose later years are seeing their standards of living endangered after Trump Tax Scam 2.0. There was another omission Republicans made in this bill, and the Congressional Budget Office said earlier this month that it has yet to be fixed, leaving seniors susceptible to cuts for their earned health care benefits as early as next year.

In accordance with S-PAYGO, OMB will estimate the average increases in deficits over the 5- and 10-year periods and record those amounts on the PAYGO scorecards; OMB has not yet done so. By CBO’s estimate, the average increases in the deficits stemming from the act will total $415 billion over the 5-year period and $339 billion over the 10‑year period.

Without enactment of subsequent legislation that would offset the deficit increase, waive the recordation of the bill’s effects on the scorecard, or otherwise mitigate or eliminate the statutory requirements, OMB will be required to issue a sequestration order not more than 14 days after the end of the current session of Congress (excluding weekends and holidays) to reduce spending by $415 billion in fiscal year 2026, CBO estimates...

Under S-PAYGO, reductions in Medicare spending are limited to 4 percent— or an estimated $45 billion for fiscal year 2026. That would leave $370 billion to be sequestered from the federal budget’s remaining direct spending accounts in that year.

How Would Medicare Be Affected Between 2027 and 2034?
The 4 percent maximum reduction in Medicare spending would continue to apply to sequestration orders for years after 2026. If OMB ordered a sequestration of $415 billion for each year through 2029 and $339 billion each year from 2030 through 2034, the ordered reductions in Medicare spending would increase to $76 billion in 2034 and would total $491 billion over the 2027–2034 period (see Table 1).

Previous Tax Scams and stimulus measures have either included PAYGO waivers in the actual bill, or passed bills later not to count these allegedly limited-time measures, as the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget has tracked over the last decade, But it hasn't happened with Tax Scam 2.0 yet, which means Republicans in Congress either have to do so when they finally get back in to avoid spending cuts to another program that Trump/GOP has claimed was hands-off. Or the GOP is lying and planning to back-door these cuts through sequestration, and/or having Russ Vought and other scumbags in TrumpWorld try to take away even more tax dollars and supports that Americans have the right to receive BY LAW?

That seems like something Democrats and anyone else who gives a crap about the quality of life for seniors should be bringing to the attention of both media and the general public, and forcing Republicans to answer the question as to whether the Big Bunch of Bogusness is really an attempt to make back-door cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and will hurt older Americans a lot more than whatever help they might receive from a short-time "Senior Bonus".