The House Freedom Caucus was founded in the hangover of the Tea Party movement, ostensibly to revolt against the fiscal moderation of then-House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican. So, I laughed out loud at the response a Freedom Caucus member gave me after asking him, eight days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, what his plan for Social Security and its looming insolvency would be: “Ask me next Wednesday.”

The 2026 midterms obsessed over Gaza, Iran, gas prices, and groceries, but no single policy issue will occupy the center of the 2028 campaign more than the 91-year-old entitlement program. Social Security is already the single largest line item of the federal government. It consumed 30% of every dollar collected by the federal government this past fiscal year; Social Security’s insolvency is a ticking time bomb that goes off before voters head to the polls in 2032.