And Republican wing nuts are using the crisis and the skyrocketing federal deficit ($4 trillion+ this year) as an excuse to slash not only Social Security but all other federal departments not named Defense.
Of course the solution has always been and still is HIGHER TAXES for the rich and corporations.
It OF COURSE was a bad idea to slash these taxes beginning in the 1980s in the first place.
They used bogus supply-side trickle-down voodoo Reaganomics to tell us a rising tide would lift all boats, then shipped all the jobs overseas and all the cash to offshore accounts.
Boy did WE ever get duped and screwed!
But this "vast right wing conspiracy" has been cranking out lies since Brown v. Board of Education got the whole charade off the ground...a guy by the name of James McGill Buchanan talked George Mason University into a department and the Koch Brothers (among many others) into thick wads of cash, and voila! Cato Institute, Heritage Foundation, FreedomWofks, the Federalist Society, and an alphabets' soup of others appeared as if out of nowhere to start indoctrinating and brainwashing the American People into thinking and voting themselves right up Sh*t Creek.
So no, regrettably, it's not surprising at all.

I don't know but it seems like they should be saving millions of $$ because of the virus killing off so many older folks and others that would have been collecting entitlements like S.S.benifits, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and outrageous medical expenses for many years to come if they would have survived the virus.
My s.s. has been cut to almost nothing because I have retirement benefits from other non-S.S. connected employment. I did pay into it for many years before taking the job I am retired from now.

I am sure the Republicans and oligarchs are salivating to the point of slobbering because of this opportunity to get closer to the justification of ending Social Security and Medicare as well.

They will of course continue to print money without any hesitation to finance their wars which are profitiable to their buddies.

With Trump constantly trying to come up with a way to stop even more funds (payroll taxes) coming into the program and a Senate majority that would love nothing better than to see it disappear (their retirement paid by us will not suffer), I feel sorry for those nearing retirement in the next twenty years or so. Defined benefit pension plans have all but disappeared, if financial recovery drags on, 401k’s will be hard pressed to make up loses. Hoping you stay healthy enough to work until you’re 80 or living in death camps does not sound at all appealing.

Its all part of the deep state plan to hijack tje economy. Or is it? Mwah hahaha