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Weeks after Kevin Coughlin “committed” himself to cutting Social Security, new reporting from Heartland Signal outlines Coughlin’s plan to gamble Social Security on the stock market, saying, “it’s not gambling if you know what you’re doing.”
Coughlin, whose extremism, bigotry, and anti-worker platform have come under intense scrutiny, has reiterated time and again that “he believes privatizing or cutting Social Security would be the best path forward for the program.”
DCCC Spokesperson Aidan Johnson:
“Someone should let Kevin Coughlin know that Congress is not a casino and Northeast Ohioans’ hard earned benefits are not something you gamble away. Clearly Coughlin needs to spend more time talking to voters because his plan to privatize Social Security is straight from the minds of the Wall Street bankers bankrolling his campaign.”
Heartland Signal: Ohio Republican congressional candidate pushes for Social Security privatization
Caleb Brennan | June 7, 2024
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In Ohio’s 13th Congressional District, Republican congressional candidate Kevin Coughlin has made several comments on the campaign trail that suggest he believes privatizing or cutting Social Security would be the best path forward for the program.
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Kevin Coughlin — who previously had served in Ohio’s Senate and House of Representatives and is now the GOP nominee in the state’s 13th Congressional District race — said at a meeting with University of Akron College Republicans in late April that Social Security funds would stand to benefit should the government “do some bonds … some mutual funds, some securities, some straight up stocks and securities.”
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“The Democrats will say, well, you want to gamble the future of Social Security. No, it’s not gambling if you know what you’re doing. And that’s why you diversify, because you’re hedging your bets against losses in one part of the portfolio by being safe over here,” Coughlin added.
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Such remarks aren’t isolated. During the Republican primary in early 2024, Coughlin alluded to the need to slash spending on Social Security and Medicaid in the event that either benefit becomes insolvent.
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“Anyone with eyes and an honest heart can understand that when half of your budget is being spent on Medicaid and Social Security and it’s going to go broke very, very quickly, which isn’t going to mean that they’re going to go away, but it’s going to mean that the benefits that people get are going to be cut,” Coughlin said at the Ohio Christian Alliance Candidate Forum in February.
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Additionally, Coughlin has advocated “converting Medicare into a voucher program for anyone under 55” and increasing the “eligibility age to 67.”
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