For millions of American seniors, Social Security and Medicare aren’t just government programs — they’re the financial lifeline that keeps prescriptions filled, doctor visits affordable, and retirement secure. Now, leaked audio from a private fundraising event is raising urgent questions about where Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton really stands on those benefits.
Audio first obtained by the Texas Tribune captures Paxton speaking candidly to lobbyists at a private fundraiser last month, when the conversation turned to the national deficit. His answer revealed a willingness to cut the very programs that tens of millions of Americans depend on for their health and financial survival.
“Making some reasonable cuts to mandatory spending—you’re gonna have to do it. Or there is no solution. That’s just the reality. We have to suck it up.”
Mandatory spending — the category of federal spending required by law rather than decided annually by Congress — is dominated by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. When politicians talk about cutting mandatory spending, they are, in practical terms, talking about reducing the benefits that retirees, disabled Americans, and low-income families rely on every day.
What the Public Actually Wants
Paxton’s private remarks stand in stark contrast to what the American public supports. A recent Navigator Research poll found that the overwhelming majority of Americans across party lines oppose cuts to these programs — including 89% of Democrats, 78% of independents, and even 53% of Republicans. Protecting Social Security and Medicare is one of the rare issues that unites most of the country, regardless of political affiliation.
Supporters of cutting Social Security sometimes argue that reductions are needed to prevent the program from running out of money. The Social Security trust fund, which guarantees full retirement and survivor benefits, is currently projected to be depleted by 2032. But that argument comes with an important caveat: there are other ways to shore up the fund that don’t require slashing benefits for current or future retirees.
Paxton’s opponent in the 2026 Texas Senate race, Democratic state Rep. James Talarico, has put forward one such approach — a modest increase in Social Security taxes on income above $400,000 per year. That targeted adjustment would affect only the highest earners while leaving benefits intact for ordinary working families and retirees.
A $1 Trillion Medicaid Cut — and Who Pays the Price
Paxton’s openness to reducing safety-net programs isn’t new. He has publicly praised the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which cuts Medicaid by $1 trillion — not to balance the budget, but to help finance tax breaks for wealthy individuals and large corporations. In Texas alone, an estimated 200,000 residents are expected to lose their health insurance as a direct result of that law.
For those families, losing Medicaid coverage doesn’t just mean a loss of insurance — it can mean skipped doctor visits, untreated chronic conditions, unaffordable emergency care, and the kind of medical debt that derails household finances for years.
Despite the enormous scale of those cuts, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the One Big Beautiful Bill is not deficit neutral. The law is projected to add more than $4 trillion to the federal deficit over the next decade — meaning the tradeoff isn’t fiscal responsibility, but a transfer of resources away from lower-income families and toward those at the top of the income scale.
Ryan Martin, a spokesperson for the Talarico campaign, framed the contradiction plainly:
“Paxton has no problem adding trillions to the debt to cut taxes for billionaires, but wants cuts when it comes to protecting seniors’ retirement benefits and healthcare.”
A Beacon Research poll conducted last month shows Talarico narrowly leading Paxton by two points, suggesting that voters in Texas may be paying close attention to where each candidate stands on the programs their families count on most.
