More than 2 million Ohioans get Social Security checks. About 3 million are covered by Medicaid, including 44% of the state's kids. Those numbers come from the Ohio Independent.

Here is what Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican running for Ohio governor, thinks of those programs. In a clip posted by MeidasTouch on September 17, he says:

"I don't believe it is a separation of powers issue for Congress to say that there's a certain amount of money that gets paid out in Social Security or Medicaid payments or in welfare payments; I don't like the existence of those policies. I would vote to significantly constrain and attach work requirements to most of the welfare state as we know it. But as much as I would love to end that by any means possible…"

That transcript, which trails off there, was published by the Ohio Democratic Party, which called the clip "newly unearthed." Neither the party nor MeidasTouch says when or where it was recorded. But the words are his, on camera, and they match what he has said about these programs for years.

"I believe they were"

In October 2024, on The Ezra Klein Show, Klein asked Ramaswamy whether creating Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 had been a mistake. His answer, as reported by WVXU's Howard Wilkinson, was "I believe they were" — "particularly Medicaid, particularly the welfare state, without the work requirements attached to it."

He went on to say that in the 1960s, "we traded off our sovereignty for the stuff." WVXU explains that by "stuff," he means Medicare and Medicaid.

WVXU asked for an interview so he could "revise and extend" those remarks. His press staff didn't respond. Wilkinson's read: he "hasn't changed his mind, apparently."

His Social Security idea: put it in the stock market

Ramaswamy has also been clear about what he'd do with Social Security for people who aren't retired yet.

According to the Ohio Independent's review of his record, he told a New Hampshire town hall in August 2023 that if Social Security money had been invested "in a diversified portfolio, we would be swimming in surplus today." In a February 2024 AARP interview, he called it "a prior mistake" that the country didn't let people or the government invest Social Security money "in the stock market and in bonds."

He has said he'd leave Social Security and Medicare alone for people already collecting them, and consider major changes for people still paying in.

Experts cited by the Ohio Independent say this could leave future retirees with much less money if the investments go downhill or the market crashes. Instead of a fixed monthly payment, benefits would depend on whether the investments gained or lost value.

What "constrain" means in Ohio

When Ramaswamy says he'd "significantly constrain" most of the welfare state and attach work requirements to it, that lands on real people.

His own report card already lays out that he has called for work requirements on Medicaid and welfare, and that research from Brookings found stricter work requirements do little to get people jobs. What they mostly do is push eligible families off the rolls through paperwork.

Meanwhile, the Medicaid cuts in Trump's budget bill are already projected to cost 255,000 Ohioans their coverage. Ohio's governor oversees the state's Medicaid program. The man asking for the job says he doesn't like that the program exists.

The campaign he's running instead

Ramaswamy's slogan is "lower costs, bigger paychecks." The Ohio Independent found his campaign website says little about Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, beyond a May press release promising to "crush Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse."

That fits a pattern. Cleveland.com said it took months of pressure to get him to release a data center plan. His property tax plan would blow a $4 billion hole in the budgets of Ohio's schools, police and fire departments. And he won't rule out a law that cuts Ohio workers' paychecks.

What the record shows

Vivek Ramaswamy, who wants to run the state program that covers about 3 million Ohioans on Medicaid, has been recorded saying he doesn't "like the existence" of Social Security and Medicaid payments, and that he would vote to "significantly constrain" most of the welfare state. In 2024 he agreed that Medicare and Medicaid were mistakes, and during his 2023–24 presidential run he pitched investing Social Security money in the stock market, while promising to leave current retirees' benefits alone. When WVXU gave him a chance to revise that comment, his campaign didn't respond.

Source

• Vivek Ramaswamy on Social Security and Medicaid: "I Don't Like the Existence of Those Policies" — Ohio Democratic Party
• Vivek Ramaswamy backed Social Security privatization — Ohio Independent

Photo: AP, via the Ohio Independent.