‘I refuse to do that.’ Andrews claims Mace’s plan would reduce Social Security spending

South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District candidate Dr. Annie Andrews made a stop Thursday in Beaufort County to denounce her opponent’s plan to cut Social Security to balance the federal budget, and to urge young voters to speak up about abortion.

Andrews, the Democratic nominee, said her opponent — Republican U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace — has claimed that the federal budget could have been balanced in four years if Congress had shut off spending and subtracted a single penny for every dollar spent.

With the staggering increase in federal debt over that time, the plan would require over five pennies for every dollar spent, Andrews said. To accomplish this balance, Andrews said Mace has proposed to cut the Social Security budget. This move, she said, is “completely unacceptable.”

“She has claimed over and over again that the system is broken and that [young people] will never see Social Security so she has decided to sacrifice it in her penny plan, which she claims will balance the federal budget within five years,” Andrews said.

Andrews, a pediatrician, appeared at a rally in Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort.

In a press release later, Mace blasted Andrews’ press conference as further evidence the pediatrician has “no idea what she is doing.” Mace’s campaign manager, Austin McCubbin, said Mace’s Penny Plan to Enhance Infrastructure Act of 2022, which aims at establishing spending limits for infrastructure spending, does not harm Social Security or veterans benefits.

“The real challenge facing seniors and veterans today is inflation, and the fact is Annie Andrews supported the Biden-Pelosi spending spree that caused this economic pain in the first place,” McCubbin said.

Over a dozen Beaufort County supporters stood behind Andrews as she read aloud from a prepared speech.

“I fully agree that the federal government should be held to the same standards as Lowcountry families,” she said. “They shouldn’t spend more than they have. I agree we need to make some serious changes to federal spending in order to achieve a more balanced budget.”

Andrews said her opponent’s plan is one that she “unequivocally” disagreed with along with any move to privatize Social Security and Medicare.

“Doing so shifts the burden and risk to the individual which will disproportionately impact our most vulnerable seniors; I refuse to do that,” Andrews said.

If elected, Andrews vowed to oppose Medicare and Social Security cuts, lower prescription drug costs and reduce the Medicare eligibility age.

“Anyone who works hard and plays by the rules deserves to retire with dignity, financial security and access to high-quality health care and affordable prescriptions,” she said.

Touching upon reproductive rights Thursday, Andrews said Americans “deserve so much better” and young voters have the opportunity to weigh in on that. Without their input, “it will take decades to restore what we have lost.”

“Their vote is their voice and they must use their vote to restore reproductive freedom,” she said. “There are generations of women standing beside them ready to fight ... but we have this one shot on Nov. 8 to set us on the right course.”

One Andrews supporter at the rally, Kathy Woods of Port Royal, said that as a Wisconsin high schooler in the Roe V. Wade era of the 1970s, she never imagined America would go “backward.”

“Our legislators don’t understand reproductive rights,” she said. “Abortion rights is health care.”

The 1st Congressional District in South Carolina includes Beaufort County, Charleston and the Lowcountry.