News

News

·
46 views
·
5 mins read

Kamala Harris Repeats Dubious Claim That Donald Trump Would Cut Social Security

Editor
Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Share on pinterest
Share on telegram
Share on email
Share on reddit
Share on whatsapp
Share on telegram
Kamala Harris Repeats Dubious Claim That Donald Trump Would Cut Social Security


Kamala Harris

Declaration: “donald trump intends to cut Social Security.”

In the 2024 presidential campaign, Democrats have repeatedly targeted former President Donald Trump as a threat to Social Security.

Vice President Kamala Harris, just over a week into her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee, repeated the phrase during a July 30 rally in Atlanta.

“Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Harris said.

For this fact check, we will focus on Trump’s Social Security plans. We’ll address Harris’ claim about Medicare in another fact check.

During his years-long tenure in the public eye, Trump has provided his critics with The rich vein in statements expressing openness to cuts to Social Security. But Harris’ campaign ignores most of what Trump said during the 2024 campaign — namely, that he won’t cut Social Security and Medicare.

We previously evaluated a similar claim from the President Joe Biden – whom Harris succeeded as presumptive nominee – Mostly false. The evidence that the Harris campaign provided to PolitiFact for this article was essentially the same as the evidence that the Biden campaign gave us for our previous fact check. It’s no longer persuasive now.

What is the fiscal challenge of Social Security?

O main threat for the long-term viability of Social Security, the universal income support program for older Americans, is a shortage of workers who feed the system with their tax dollars, plus a growing number of retirement-age Americans who qualify for benefits .

As the baby boom generation increasingly moves into retirement, fewer workers are contributing to the system.

Unless changes are made, such as raising the retirement age or reducing benefit levels, the trust fund that supports Social Security is set to end in the 2030s. If nothing is done, significant cuts will take effect.

However, cutting Social Security has long been “third rail in policy” – touch that and you die politically – so even making smaller cuts to avoid bigger cuts in the future has been controversial.

This is why both Biden and Trump promised in their 2024 campaigns not to cut the program.

The history of Trump’s statements on Social Security

Before the 2024 campaign, Trump flirted with supporting Social Security cuts.

At least two references occurred during the 2020 presidential campaign: one Fox News City hall which was clipped and shared on June 12 by the Biden campaign and a interview with CNBC.

And before becoming president, Trump periodically opined that Social Security needed to be cut or privatized, including in a 2012 interview with CNBCThe 2004 appearance on MSNBC and a 2000 book“The America We Deserve,” in which he called Social Security “a huge Ponzi scheme” and said he would consider privatization.

“The solution to the Great Social Security Crisis could not be more obvious: allow every American to dedicate a portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds,” he said. he wrote. “We can also raise the age for receiving full Social Security benefits to 70.”

Trump’s record in office

Harris’ campaign also noted that as president, Trump presented budget proposals which included cuts to Social Security. These were never implemented because of opposition in Congress.

However, Harris (and Biden before her) covered up what these cuts entailed. The proposed cuts were focused in two parts program – Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income – and not the more widely used old-age and survivor benefits.

SSDI benefits people with physical and mental conditions severe enough to permanently prevent them from working. SSI payments are limited to low-income Americans – older adults, or disabled or blind adults or children.

Although these cuts affected around 10 million Americans, the number of those receiving old-age and survivor benefits is nearly seven times bigger. The Harris campaign’s decision to frame Trump’s record as cuts to Social Security may lead people to assume that Trump sought to cut old-age and survivors’ benefits, even though he did not do so.

What Trump said recently

Biden and Harris cited a March 11 comment from Trump about CNBC that, with regard to benefit programs such as Social Security, “there is a lot that can be done in terms of rights, in terms of cuts”.

But this is the exception to the rule for Trump during this campaign cycle, and he immediately it returned his comments on CNBC.

In an interview with the conservative outlet Breitbart News, Trump said he would “never do anything that would jeopardize or harm” Social Security. He added: “We will have to do it somewhere else. But we won’t do anything to harm them.”

The rest of Trump’s 2024 campaign rhetoric is more in line with his comment to Breitbart — that he doesn’t intend to cut Social Security — than with CNBC’s statement about being open to cuts.

More than a year before the CNBC appearance, Trump posted a video to his campaign website, in which he says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security. “DO NOT CUT the benefits our seniors have worked and paid for their entire lives,” Trump said. “Save Social Security. Don’t destroy it.”

Trump has said repeatedly he wouldn’t cut Social Security at campaign rallies in Michigan It is Georgia and in several posts on from him True Social platform.

Karoline Leavitt, national press secretary for the Trump campaign, told PolitiFact in June that he “will continue to strongly protect Social Security and Medicare in his second term.”

PolitiFact Decision

Harris said, “Donald Trump intends to cut Social Security.”

Before the 2024 campaign, Trump said about a half-dozen times that he was open to major Social Security reforms, including cuts and privatization. More recently, in an interview with CNBC in March, Trump said of entitlement programs like Social Security: “There’s a lot that can be done in terms of entitlements, in terms of cuts.”

However, Trump quickly walked back that statement, and the CNBC comment is at odds with essentially everything else Trump has said during the current presidential campaign. His campaign website says that not “a single penny” should be cut from Social Security, and he has repeated similar phrases at campaign rallies.

The statement contains an element of truth, but ignores critical facts that would give it a different impression, so we classify it as Mostly False.

Our sources

This article originally appeared in the Austin American-Statesman: PolitiFact: The claim that Trump would cut Social Security is baseless





Source link

Post Views: 46

Support fearless, independent journalism

We are not owned by a billionaire or shareholders – our readers support us. Donate any amount over $2. BNC Global Media Group is a global news organization that delivers fearless investigative journalism to discerning readers like you! Help us to continue publishing daily.

Support us just once

We accept support of any size, at any time – you name it for $2 or more.

Related

More

1 2 3 … 9,595
Copyright 2024. All rights reserved. Designed by BNC Global Media Group.

Don't Miss

General Hospital Star Johnny Wactor, 37, Remembered as a ‘Beautiful Soul’ by Co-Stars After Actor’s ‘Senseless’ Death

General Hospital Star Johnny Wactor, 37, Remembered as a ‘Beautiful Soul’ by Co-Stars After Actor’s ‘Senseless’ Death

TRIBUTES have poured in from family and fellow actors to
Israeli attack on UN school used as a shelter in Gaza kills at least 16 | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Israeli attack on UN school used as a shelter in Gaza kills at least 16 | Israel-Palestine conflict news

Dozens of Palestinians were also injured in the bombing of