For Immediate Release
Friday, August 3, 2018
Contact: Brad Bainum, bradb@wisdems.org
Bought-And-Paid-For: Nicholson Backs Donor’s Social Security Cuts Agenda
Billionaire Dick Uihlein has spent more than $8 million to buy an election for Kevin Nicholson. Now Nicholson is calling for Uihlein-backed Social Security benefit cuts and raising the retirement age.
MADISON — After receiving $8 million-and-counting in financial support from billionaire megadonor Dick Uihlein, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson is explicitly endorsing Uihlein’s plans to cut Social Security benefits.
In a recent interview, Nicholson endorsed significant changes to Social Security, a vital program that more than 1.2 million Wisconsinites count on. Among other things, Nicholson endorsed:
- Raising the retirement age;
- Reducing benefits by imposing means-testing; and,
- More broadly, “chang[ing] [Social Security] for the younger people.”
“Billionaire Dick Uihlein has single-handedly spent $8 million to elect Kevin Nicholson and buy a U.S. Senator who will work for him,” said Brad Bainum, DPW spokesperson for the 2018 Senate race. “Now, Uihlein’s bought-and-paid-for candidate is embracing Uihlein’s agenda to privatize Social Security and gut health care programs that Wisconsin families rely on.”
Uihlein-funded groups that support Nicholson, including Club for Growth and Restoration PAC, have advocated for Social Security to be “completely restructure[d]” and even privatized. Previously, Club for Growth — which has spent millions to help Nicholson — ran a campaign called “Privatize Social Security? Hell Yeah!,” and in 2005, the group supported then-President George W. Bush’s Social Security privatization efforts.
Read more — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kevin Nicholson floats mean-testing and raising age for Social Security.
