How News Sources Portray Social Security Spending Policies
This chart shows how major news sources across the ideological spectrum frame social security spending policies, from left to right-leaning perspectives.
Social security is a social policy in the United States that provides monthly payments to retirees, disabled individuals, or the families of retirees, disabled persons, and deceased individuals. Workers in the country pay into the Social Security fund and, once eligible, receive monthly payments back. The estimated average monthly Social Security payment is $1,976 as of January 2025.
In 2021, approximately 176 million people were covered by government spending on Social Security, constituting about 94 percent of all jobs in the United States. However, a small subset of jobs provides their own retirement plan in lieu of Social Security; this is particularly true for state and local government employees, as well as teachers.
History of Social Security
The first program in the United States that resembled modern-day Social Security was developed in the wake of the American Civil War, when widows, orphans, and soldiers who were disabled as a consequence of military duty were provided with generous monthly payments. By 1910, 90 percent of surviving Civil War veterans were covered under this program.
However, the Social Security program as it exists today was signed into law two decades later, on August 14, 1935, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Throughout the 1930s, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down many of Roosevelt’s proposed policies, and there was initial concern that the Social Security Act would be ruled unconstitutional. There was significant opposition to the program at its onset for fears that it would contribute to a reduced workforce, increase the burden on farmers, and be perceived as socialism.
Nevertheless, the Social Security fund gradually expanded from the 1930s and into the 1970s. Following stagflation under President Jimmy Carter and broader concerns about the trajectory of the program, amendments curtailed Social Security from the 1970s into the 2000s, with an increase in the retirement age and restrictions in eligibility for individuals with addictions to alcohol and drugs, as well as non-citizens. Despite efforts to reform the program, recent years have seen an increase in concerns about the sustainability of Social Security over the next few decades.
Social Security in the Modern Era
In a July 2025 AARP poll, 96 percent of Americans considered Social Security an important program, and nearly three-quarters of the country ranked it as one of the most important. National support for the program spanned political divides, with 98 percent of Democrats, 93 percent of Republicans, and independents considering it important. It also garnered strong support across generational lines. However, confidence in the long-term sustainability of the program has decreased in recent years.
Recent forecasts suggest that, as a consequence of the aging population in the United States, Social Security spending may outpace income in the early 2030s. This would result in benefit cuts of 19-23 percent for beneficiaries, potentially impacting the quality of life for recipients. Domestic social spending on Social Security is a pressing issue for both political parties in America to address, though they differ in potential solutions to the problem.
The Democratic Stance on Social Security
The Democratic Party’s policy stance on Social Security spending is strongly in favor of federal spending on Social Security. In an April 2024 Pew Research poll, 83 percent of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said that Social Security benefits should not be cut in any way, and 51 percent of those voters said that the program should instead be expanded.
In an effort to raise additional money for Social Security, the primary goal among Democrats is to raise the payroll tax. Currently, only income up to $176,000 annually is taxed, but Democrats aim to increase the taxable income up to $400,000 annually. As noted in the Democratic Party platform, middle-class Americans pay 6.2 percent of their income into Social Security, whereas multi-millionaires contribute less than 1 percent of their income. The party argues for wealthy individuals to “pay their fair share.”
Americans broadly support increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations according to a March 2025 Pew Research poll. Plans introduced in the House of Representatives and backed by a majority of the party would increase overall Social Security benefits by 2 percent, particularly for lower-income seniors, widows, and widowers. A 2025 bill titled the Social Security Expansion Act, cosponsored by multiple Senate Democrats and 2 dozen House Democrats, would ensure Social Security is fully funded while expanding benefits by $2,400 a year.
Democrats routinely argue that Republicans are in support of privatizing Social Security or reducing overall benefits, calling such efforts a betrayal to workers who have contributed to the program for their entire lives. They also point to those efforts as an indication that the Republican Party prioritizes wealthy citizens over low-income Americans.
Politicians Who Support Social Security Spending Rights
83% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters said that Social Security benefits should not be cut in any way.
Donald Trump
“While we absolutely need to stop Bidens out-of-control spending, the pain should be borne by Washington bureaucrats, not by hardworking American families and American seniors. The seniors are being absolutely destroyed in the last two years.Cut the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars going to corrupt foreign countries. Cut the mass-releases of illegal aliens that are depleting our social safety net and destroying our country.Cut the left-wing gender programs from our military. Cut the billions being spent on climate extremism. Cut waste, fraud, and abuse everywhere that we can find it, and theres plenty of it.But DO NOT CUT the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives. Save Social Security. Dont destroy it. The Democrats are looking to destroy Social Security. We are not going to let them do it.”
J.D. Vance
“If the argument here is we have to cut Social Security, then what you’re effectively saying is we just have to privatize what is currently a public problem of who pays for the older generation,” he was quotes as saying. “And I don’t know why people think that you solve many problems by taking a bunch of elderly people and saying, ‘You’re on your own.”
The Republican Stance on Social Security
The Republican Party policy stance on Social Security spending favors Social Security spending at current levels. In an April 2024 Pew Research poll, 77 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters said that Social Security benefits should not be reduced in any way. However, relative to the 51 percent of Democratic voters who advocated for expanding the program, only 29 percent of Republican voters responded the same way.
The GOP party platform pledges not to reduce spending for Medicare or Social Security, nor raise the current retirement age. The current Republican nominee, President Donald Trump, has suggested potentially ending the current tax on Social Security benefits. Legislatively, House and Senate Republicans have focused their efforts on preventing further expansion of the government program. However, in 2025, President Joe Biden signed the Social Security Fairness Act that was introduced by a House Republican, repealing some of the more restrictive provisions within the original Social Security Act.
Republicans commonly argue that Democrats are depleting the social safety net by spending unnecessary amounts of money on illegal immigrants and climate change agendas, and they favor a more conservative approach to expanding the program. Some Republicans have suggested privatization of Social Security, while others have floated increasing the retirement age, though neither of these ideas have progressed in recent years.
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