Theriault Vows No Medicare, Social Security Cuts

State Rep. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) issued several statements this week in which he promised to defend Social Security and Medicare, aligning his position with that of his opponent Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and former Republican President Donald Trump.

“Over the next few months, Austin’s political opponents will lie to voters about his stance on protecting Social Security and Medicare,” Theriault’s campaign said in a email to supporters.

“While Jared Golden struggles to defend his record and that of Joe Biden’s, Austin Theriault has made his stance on the issues clear: he’ll put people over politics by protecting Social Security and Medicare,” the campaign said.

Rep. Theriault also made comments directly to the Bangor newspaper, saying he would oppose any Republican efforts to reduce or curtail the benefit programs, which are popular among seniors but are also the largest drivers of the U.S. national debt.

Theriault’s statements come as calls have grown among some Republicans to reform the welfare programs, which are projected to account for 80 percent of the increase in the federal deficit from 2023 to 2032.

[RELATED: Theriault Rips Golden for Opposing Trump Era Border Policies…]

“Watch our first general election ad! My message to all the forgotten people across Maine’s 2nd District: Time to put people over politics. Time to protect Social Security & Medicare. Time to get costs down for hardworking Mainers. This is one of the most competitive races in the country, and I need your help,” said Theriault.

Social Security and Medicare remain popular among older Americans. With Maine being the oldest state in the Union, that makes entitlement reform a tricky subject to tackle for the Republican challenger.

Republicans in more conservative Congressional Districts across the country have taken aim at Social Security and Medicare as targets for reform and reduction, arguing that it would be impossible to rein in the ballooning national debt without addressing the two biggest drivers of that debt.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the amount of interest the U.S. government pays on the its U.S. national debt eclipsed for the first time the total amount the federal government spends on national defense.

Theriault, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Golden, expressed a position similar to that espoused by President Trump in his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

The overt press campaign is an attempt to get ahead of likely left-wing attacks falsely alleging that Golden wants to reduce benefits for seniors — a common tactic left-wing politicians and political operatives use to scare older Americans out of voting for Republicans, regardless of whether it’s true.

As president, Trump, who has endorsed Theriault, left U.S. entitlement programs almost entirely unchanged and signed off on spending bills that contributed significantly to an increase in the national debt, many of those driven by the panic surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic.

Golden has supported maintaining programs in their current forms. However, in an April 14, 2023 blog post all about the national debt, Golden admitted that the trust funds backing Medicare and Social Security are headed for “insolvency within the next decade.”

“Even if the economy grows faster than it has in recent decades, stabilizing the debt will require policy decisions that affect not only discretionary spending, but also mandatory spending programs like Medicare and Social Security,” Golden wrote.

As a potential solution to the entitlement program’s trajectory and the U.S.’s $34 trillion national debt, Golden proposed $200 billion in spending reductions, better fraud clawbacks on COVID-19 programs, and tax hikes on corporations, individuals, and stock buybacks.

In his statements to the Bangor newspaper, Theriault doubled down on his position, and vowed to go against his party if Republicans move to defund the massive entitlement programs.

This strategy could ultimately help Theriault’s election chances, because, as of the 2020 census, Maine had the highest percentage of people over 65 out of any state in the nation, at 21.8 percent.

Maintaining the status quo, however, could lead to economic disaster, feeding the national debt and inflation, and ultimately leading to the downfall of the programs themselves.