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For Immediate Release

Social Security and Medicare Are Alive. Paul Ryan is (Politically) Dead.

WASHINGTON

The following is a statement from Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works, in reaction to Paul Ryan's announcement that he will not be running for re-election:

"Paul Ryan has spent decades attempting to cut and dismantle Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But in a victory for everyone but Wall Street billionaires, Ryan will be leaving Congress without attaining his long-held fantasy of destroying them.

But other Republicans are waiting in the wings to take up Ryan's mantle. If they retain control of Congress this November, they will use their massive tax handout to billionaires and corporations as an excuse for cuts to the American people's vital benefits. The only way to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in the long run is to vote Republicans out of power and replace Ryan with a Speaker who supports protecting and expanding benefits."

Social Security Works' mission is to: Protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations; Safeguard the economic security of those dependent, now or in the future, on Social Security; and Maintain Social Security as a vehicle of social justice.