Republicans Aren’t Even Hiding Their War on Young People

On display in the budget proposal is a rejection of the very sort of governmental protections that allowed older generations to thrive and accumulate wealth. Although voters in Ron DeSantis’s MAGA-dominated state of Florida reported that affordable housing is their number one priority, Republicans lawmakers are more concerned with banning trans people and books than they are with making owning a home and raising a family achievable for anyone without inherited wealth for a home deposit or childcare. And while funds for things like anti-poverty programs and the National Endowment for the Arts would disappear, money for defense and building The Wall would be guaranteed.

One solution that would have allowed more Americans to retire at a younger age would have been to scrap the cap on payroll taxes that fund Social Security. In 2023, those earning a salary below $160,200 per year are taxed at a rate of 12 percent, with 6 percent coming from the worker and 6 percent from the employer. According to the Center for Economic Policy and Research, 94 percent of workers earn less than $160,000 per year. The remaining 6 percent pay no additional payroll tax, even though they are more likely to live longer than those earning near the poverty line. A millionaire earning $88,000 per month stops contributing to Social Security by the end of February. This means that the burden of paying for Social Security falls disproportionately on low- and middle-class earners.

It is the propensity of every generation when they are young to complain about the old, and when they are old to complain about the young. And while each generation grows and faces its own unique struggles, one constant is the desire to make the world a better place for those who come after you. But never in the history of U.S. politics has one party advocated so fiercely to take so much from the young and give to the old. The world is literally burning, and for millions of young Americans, finding a home and earning a decent living is something they will read about in textbooks as a promise once given to their ancestors. A generation ago it may have been true that speaking ill or well of a generation was absurd. Now it would be an absurdity not to.