On July 3, 2025, Mike Collins voted for final passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which adds to Social Security's costs and moves the retirement fund's projected depletion to the fourth quarter of 2032. Collins had also voted for the budget plan that set up its tax changes, which passed by two votes.
Collins called whoever came up with the Department of Government Efficiency "a genius" as the administration cut Social Security staff. In Georgia, 2,023,789 people receive Social Security.
In his first House campaign, in 2014, Collins called for a proposal to gradually raise the retirement age, which means a 7 percent cut in benefits for a worker who claims at the old age after a one-year increase.
Mike Collins's Votes and Statements on Social Security
- Collins Voted for a Law That Adds $168.6 Billion to Social Security's Costs, in July 2025. On July 3, 2025, Mike Collins voted for final passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 218 to 214, after voting for the House version on May 22. By lowering the income tax on benefits, part of which is credited to the trust funds, the law adds to Social Security's costs: Social Security's chief actuary estimated that the law increases the program's net cost by $168.6 billion from 2025 through 2034. The law's new senior deduction applies only to a taxpayer who has attained age 65 before the close of the taxable year, so the 235,621 disabled workers on Social Security in Georgia cannot claim it.
- Collins Voted for the Budget Plan That Set Up the Tax Changes, by Two Votes, in April 2025. On April 10, 2025, Collins voted for the final budget resolution, H.Con.Res. 14, which passed 216 to 214, so a switch by him alone would have tied it, and a tie fails. It let the Ways and Means Committee write tax changes that increase the deficit by not more than $4,500,000,000,000, the room used for the law's lower tax on benefits. The retirement trust fund is now projected to run short in the fourth quarter of 2032, three months earlier than previously expected, at which point current law means retirees face an automatic 22% benefit cut unless Congress acts.
- Collins Called the Creator of DOGE "a Genius" While It Cut Social Security Staff, in March 2025. On March 22, 2025, as the Department of Government Efficiency carried out its cuts, Collins posted: "Whoever came up with @DOGE is a genius." He added that "we are going to get the 4th branch of government, the federal bureaucracy, under control." In 15 months the administration pushed out more than 8,000 Social Security Administration (SSA) workers, and Georgia lost 220 Social Security staff, 14%, from January 2025 to April 2026. A Justice Department court filing also disclosed DOGE's sharing of data via a third-party Cloudflare server, after which the agency said the agency can’t determine what data was shared or whether it still exists on the server.
- Collins's 2014 Campaign Plan Called for Raising the Social Security Retirement Age. In January 2014, running for the House in Georgia's 10th District, Mike Collins posted "The Mike Collins Plan" on his Overhaul DC campaign site, which said Congress should adopt a proposal by Rand Paul, Jim DeMint and Mike Lee to gradually raise the retirement age in step with life expectancy. Raising the full retirement age is a benefit cut: the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare explains that when the age rises by one year, a worker who claims at the old full retirement age gets less, and "this beneficiary will see a 7 percent cut in benefits."
What the Social Security Changes Mike Collins Voted For and Praised Mean for Georgia
- Who relies on it. 2,023,789 Georgians received Social Security in December 2024, including 235,621 disabled workers; in Georgia's 10th District, 162,789 people received benefits, 19,444 of them disabled workers.
- Projected cut at insolvency. If Congress does not act before the retirement fund runs short, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects an average cut of $487 a month for about 1.7 million Georgians.
- Fewer staff. Georgia's Social Security offices lost 97 customer-service staff, 9%, between January 2025 and April 2026, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Frequently Asked Questions About Mike Collins on Social Security
What is Mike Collins's record on Social Security under Trump?
Mike Collins voted for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Social Security's chief actuary found adds to the program's costs and which moves the retirement fund's projected shortfall to late 2032. He voted for the budget plan that set up its tax changes, and he praised the Department of Government Efficiency as it cut Social Security staff; Georgia lost 14% of its Social Security staff from January 2025 to April 2026.
Did Mike Collins support DOGE while it cut Social Security?
Yes. Mike Collins posted on March 22, 2025 that "whoever came up with @DOGE is a genius," during the months when the administration was cutting the Social Security workforce by more than 8,000 people nationwide.
Does the senior deduction Mike Collins voted for help people on Social Security disability?
No. The deduction in the law Mike Collins voted for on July 3, 2025 applies only to people who have reached 65, so the 19,444 disabled workers on Social Security in his district cannot claim it, and the deduction itself lasts only through 2028.
Last updated: 2026-10-25