President Joe Biden claims he caught former President Donald Trump declaring that he wants to reduce Social Security and Medicare. The Trump campaign said that Trump was talking about cutting down on waste and fraud in those systems, not benefits.
There is some opportunity for debate regarding what Trump meant. However, Trump has stated repeatedly, both during the campaign and as president, that he will not cut Social Security or Medicare payouts.
However, even if Trump meant to indicate that he intended to tackle Social Security and Medicare’s financial problems by eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse, analysts say that would do little to improve the programs’ long-term solvency. That comes down to the old problem of there being too many people on the programs and not enough people working to support them.
First, here’s what Trump actually said during an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen. We bolded the section that Biden and his campaign have highlighted.
From the CNBC Interview:
“Kernen, March 11: There are stark policy differences, obviously, Mr. President, but one thing that I think that at least the perception is that there’s not a whole lot of difference between what you think we should do with entitlements or non-discretionary spending and what President Biden is proposing. It’s almost a third rail of politics. And we’ve got to what a $33, $34 trillion total debt built up and very little we can do in terms of cutting spending. Discretionary is not going to help. Have you changed your, your outlook on how to handle entitlements Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Mr. President? Seems like something has to be done, or else we’re going to be stuck at 120% of debt-to-GDP forever.”
VISIT OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL“Trump: So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement. I know that they’re going to end up weakening Social Security because the country is weak.”
Trump never said he would cut social security or Medicare. He talked about cutting waste, fraud, and abuse of those programs. Trump does not talk like a politician. He doesn’t watch every way he phrases things. He speaks in vulgate.
Later that day, on X, Biden shared a video of the conversation, which ended with Trump remarking, “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting.” Biden said, “Not on my watch.” He cut out everything else Trump said. This seems to be a pattern with Democrats, removing exculpatory information from things Trump has said. They did that in the audio tape of his phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky; they did it in his Charlottesville speech, where he condemned the hate groups, and they just did it in his rally speech, where he used the word bloodbath. Democrats are liars and are not to be trusted.
And on March 12, Biden reposted the audio clip. Biden tweeted, “I watched the clip of Trump proposing cutbacks to Social Security and Medicare. I will not allow Trump to use seniors’ hard-earned benefits to give tax relief to his rich friends.”
The next day, during a speech in Wisconsin, Biden promised not to slash Social Security or Medicare and chastised Trump for his recent comments. “You know, just this week Donald Trump said cuts to Social Security and Medicare are on the table,” said Joe Biden. “When asked if he’d change his position, he said, quote, ‘There’s a lot we can do in terms of cutting. Tremendous amount of things we can do,’ end of quote.”
But it wasn’t the “end of quote,” as Trump’s full reaction shows.
The Trump team responded with a post on X that read, “If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste.” The article provides a tape of Trump’s interview that finishes with him adding, “So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement.”
WATCH the both videos in order as they appear. In the first one from the Trump War Room you will hear the question and Trump’s answer. In the latter video, under Biden and Harris, you will hear they cut off the rest of Trump’s response to make it appear he said he will cut social security.
If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste. https://t.co/q4Ng9U3iTP pic.twitter.com/yEZxuV2U5q
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) March 11, 2024
According to the Washington Post, the Trump team also sent out an email blast titled “President Trump Reiterates Protecting Entitlements Like Social Security and Medicare; Would Get Rid of Waste and Fraud.” According to Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung, the “transcript of his answer … clearly states he did not say anything about cutting entitlements.”
In an interview with Breitbart on March 13, Trump said, “I will never do anything that will jeopardize or hurt Social Security or Medicare. We’ll have to do it elsewhere. But we’re not going to do anything to hurt them.”
#socialsecurity #medicare #bidenlies
