Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton speaks at the Angry Elephant in San Antonio earlier this month. Credit: Michael Karlis

In a statement to the Current, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton’s campaign denied claims circulating online Friday that he supports privatizing Social Security.

Speculation about Paxton’s stance on the matter began circulating in Texas political circles this week after a spokeswoman for his campaign, Madison Cercy, reposted a tweet by New Hampshire Republican House candidate Ron Rule advocating for privatization. Rule’s tweet was about President George W. Bush’s 2001 attempt to pass a bill that would have partially privatized the retirement program.

“This does not represent Attorney General Ken Paxton’s views,” Paxton’s campaign said in a statement. “Seniors worked their entire lives and paid into Social Security with every paycheck. They earned these benefits, and Washington has no business cutting them. Attorney General Ken Paxton will fight to protect Social Security for today’s retirees and keep that promise for our children and grandchildren.”

Independent political journalist Aaron Rupar noticed Cercy’s interaction with Rule’s post and speculated that Paxton’s campaign also may be interested in privatizing Social Security.

However, Paxton’s campaign rejected the idea in a statement to the Current, instead pledging to root out “waste, fraud and abuse draining the system.”

“Benefits should go to Americans who paid in, not to those here illegally. Texans deserve a senator who will defend what they’ve earned, protect the program’s long-term solvency, and never balance Washington’s reckless budgets on the backs of our seniors,” the statement said.

Privatizing Social Security has been an economic policy idea floated by Republicans since the turn of the century, with many right-leaning economists pointing to Chile’s privatization of its Social Security system in the ’80s as an example of how it could work.

Indeed, with the nation’s birth rate declining and the Trump administration’s mass-deportation program in full swing, less money is being paid into the system to fund benefits for baby boomers. As a result, some experts project that Social Security could run out of reserve funds as soon as 2032, as reported by PBS.

Even so, some groups, including the Texas Alliance for Retired Americans (TARA), remain staunchly opposed to any privatization of the retirement benefits.

“Social Security is not a stock pick — it’s a promise this country made to workers who pay into their system their whole lives,” TARA said in response to speculation about Paxton’s policy position.

Although Chile’s privatization efforts boosted national capital markets, the scheme has faced severe criticism, and anger over its unequal retirement payouts led to mass protests in 2019.

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...