Social Security Not Immune to Cuts, GOP Says

Senate Republican leaders raised the possibility today that Social Security cost-of-living raises will not be immune from spending cuts under the severe budget-balancing requirements of Gramm-Rudman.

The new Gramm-Rudman Act calls for automatic cuts in October if Congress cannot agree on a way to reduce the federal budget deficit of more than $200 billion to $144 billion next fiscal year.

Social Security is exempt from the automatic cuts but that does not prevent Congress from taking money from the program as part of its effort to meet the deficit goal.

“I think what is going to happen in my mind as we do the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings caper, we’re going to find that we left off the table the biggest item, where if we just removed the cost-of-living allowance for a year we could save billions,” said Assistant Senate GOP leader Alan K. Simpson.

“We’re going to have to look at Social Security,” he said in an interview on CBS Morning News. “We’ve got to revisit it.”

Social Security was the most controversial of budget-cut items last year, with GOP leaders calling for some reduction and President Reagan and Democrats resisting.

At one point, Reagan agreed to a small trim but then reneged, angering Republicans who were willing to vote for a slight cut.

Senate Republican leader Bob Dole, asked today if anything other than Social Security was safe from budget cuts, said, “Who said that was sacred?”