Some reasons not to listen to Republicans

People's World

1935: Almost all Republicans in Congress oppose the creation of Social Security.
 
1939: 75 percent of Republicans in Senate try to kill legislation providing Social Security benefits to dependents and survivors as well as retired workers.

1950: 79 percent of House and 89 percent of Senate Republicans vote against disability insurance to defeat it.

1956: 86 percent of Republicans in Senate oppose disability insurance; program approved nonetheless.

1964: Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater and future president Ronald Reagan both suggest that Social Security be made voluntary.

1965: 93 percent of Republicans in House and 62 percent in Senate vote to kill Medicare.

1981: Reagan administration proposes $200 billion in Social Security cuts between 1982 and

1990. (The U.S. Senate repudiated the President's proposals by a vote of 96 to 0.)

Think Progress

- Ronald Reagan: Before he was president, Reagan actually led a campaign against the creation of Medicare. He ominously warned: "[I]f you don't [stop Medicare] and I don't do it, one of these days you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it once was like in America when men were free." [1961]

- Barry Goldwater: Goldwater, a conservative icon, said that establishing Medicare would lead us down the slippery slope of subsidizing alcohol for all

- Bob Dole: In 1996, during his campaign for the Presidency, Dole openly bragged that he was one of 12 House members who voted against creating Medicare in 1965. "I was there, fighting the fight, voting against Medicare . . . because we knew it wouldn't work in 1965."

- Dick Armey: The House GOP leader told reporters in 1995 that "we need to wean our old people away from Medicare." [1995]