¶ Overview
- McCormick proposed adjustments to Social Security to reduce costs.
- McCormick said that Republicans have to “deny” Social Security.
- McCormick suggested raising the retirement age due to longer life expectancies.
- McCormick highlighted fraud and waste in Social Security and called for Elon Musk to fix it.
- McCormick advocated for targeted spending cuts in mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
¶ McCormick Supported Gutting Social Security
¶ McCormick Wanted To “Adjust What Social Security Does”
[AUDIO] McCormick Bemoaned “Mandatory Spending, Which Is Not Really Mandatory,” And Wanted To “Adjust What Social Security Does” To Reduce Costs. “Realize that they're picking mainly on discretionary spending. Discretionary spending right now. If you if you don't count the military and nondiscretionary spending, you're only talking about 10% of the budget you can't get. We're in 30% deficit spending. You could cut the entire budget. It doesn't have to do with Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and military. And you still haven't gotten to a balanced budget. We have a significant problem. We're going to have to address mandatory spending, which is not really mandatory. We have a choice in this. We need to adjust what Social Security does, and we can do it without touching anything that anybody who's receiving right now or anybody is going to receive in the next ten years.” [Main Street Matters, 5/2/25]
- [AUDIO] McCormick Claimed That Medicare And Social Security Had “All Kinds of Problems” And Called For “A Bipartisan Solution.” “Medicare has all kinds of problems, too. It's being expanded dramatically. And then, of course, Social Security has its own problems, which I just talked about a bipartisan solution for. We can fix it, but we have to have the stomach to do it without partisanship, to actually fix it for America and make this something that we as legislators actually face down together because there is no one partisan solution. There is an American solution, and we have to do it for the sake of our children.” [Main Street Matters, 5/2/25]
¶ Nearly A Quarter Million Georgians Depended On Social Security
2023: 245,992 Georgians Depended On Social Security. According to the Social Security Administration, “Total, Georgia 245,992” [Social Security Administration, SSI Recipients by State and County 2023, Georgia, Accessed 5/12/25]
¶ McCormick Warned That Congressional Republicans “Have To Deny” Social Security And Medicare
[AUDIO] McCormick Was Eager For Musk To “Slice” Social Security And Medicare And “Get Rid Of Some Of Waste, Fraud, And Abuse.” “So we have to, we have to deny some of the biggest spending items we have, which is Social Security. Medicare. Right. They're the two biggest spenders we have in government. We talked about health care alone. We spent about two and a half trillion dollars or at least over $2 trillion on tons of waste. I can't wait to see what the DOGEs can do to to slice that up and get rid of some of waste, fraud and abuse” [John Fredericks Show, 2/11/25]
¶ McCormick Claimed There Were “Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars To Be Saved” From Entitlement Spending
McCormick Warned Of “Hard Decisions” On Social Security, Medicaid, And Medicare And Claimed There Were “Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars To Be Saved, And We Know How To Do It, We Just Have To Have The Stomach To Actually Take Those Challenges On.” According to The Hill, “Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that lawmakers will ultimately face tough choices on spending in next year’s unified GOP government, suggesting cuts may be coming to social welfare programs. ‘We’re going to have to have some hard decisions. We got to bring the Democrats in to talk about Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare. There’s hundreds of billions of dollars to be saved, and we know how to do it, we just have to have the stomach to actually take those challenges on,’ McCormick told Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.” [Hill, 12/3/24]
[VIDEO] McCormick: “We Have To Find Where We Can Cut These, Whether It Be In Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Whatever It Is.” “We have to be more original, and we have to find where we can cut these, whether it be in Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, whatever it is, which does 75% of our budget right there. We don't do something. We're in trouble.” [NewsNation: Cuomo, 2/19/25]
¶ McCormick Wanted To Raise The Retirement Age
[AUDIO] McCormick Claimed He Was “Trying To Save” Social Security “By Small Incremental Adjustments” And Suggested Congress Should “Incrementally Back It Off Because People Are Living Longer.” “We're not going to cut Social Security in this budget. We need to touch it, because if we don't, within about eight or maybe seven years, it will be bankrupt and they'll have an automatic 21%. But that's what we're trying to avoid, actually. We want to avoid that. We're trying to save it by small incremental adjustments that grandfathered people in who are close are receiving and then incrementally back it off because people are living longer, quite frankly.” [McCormick AFP Tele-TownHall, 2/11/25]
¶ McCormick Wanted Elon Musk To Identify Waste And Fraud In Social Security
McCormick Highlighted Musk’s Alignment With His Own Belief That “We Need To Attack The Fraud And Waste To SAVE Social Security, Medicare, And Medicaid.” Congressman Rich McCormick tweeted, “Thank you, @elonmusk for sharing the message that we need to attack the fraud and waste to SAVE Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This is what I’ve been saying all along! @POTUS” [Twitter, @RepMcCormick, 3/11/25]
¶ McCormick Called For Drastic Overhauls
[VIDEO] McCormick Warned Of An Automatic “21% Cut For Everybody” At The Current Rate And Called For Congress To “Set Our Politics Aside For A Second To Come Up With Real Solutions” To Social Security. “So, we need to work on this together. It's not a partisan issue. If we don't solve Social Security's ills, there'll be an automatic cut in about seven years. We will vote on that 21% cut for everybody. So, let's work together and make sure we preserve everything that everybody's supposed to get. That is getting it right now. Everybody who's about to get it. That's a bipartisan issue. And you know what there's bipartisan solutions to that as on we can set our politics aside just for a second to come up with real solutions. We can do that. No reason to shout each other over that. No reason to work against each other for that.” [Rich McCormick GA Senate Floor, 3/18/25]
[VIDEO] McCormick Touted Bipartisan Solutions To Social Security And Declared That “We Can't Make It A Partisan Issue On The Biggest Spending Items In Government.” “But what I'll do is I'll work with you on Social Security, which we have some good bipartisan bills out there already to tackle that same thing with many good bipartisan things that exist that both of us can agree on. But we can't make it a partisan issue on the biggest spending items in government.” [NewsNation: Cuomo, 3/4/25]
[VIDEO] McCormick Suggested “Bipartisan Ways To Extend Social Security” And Called For “Small Adjustments Over A Long Period Of Time.” “Yeah, one of the things that's not going to be covered is the mandatory spending that's really not being looked at right now, which has to be tackled. There's bipartisan ways to extend Social Security by being responsible, by small adjustments over a long period of time. But there's a ton of spending that DOGE has identified that we can get rid of. There's some Medicaid fraud, waste, abuse for Medicare and Medicaid as well. And I think we do a lot to cut back on some real wasteful spending. But I want to lock in those tax cuts.” [FBN: The Bottom Line, 2/28/25]