Former President Donald Trump directed his party not to cut Social Security or Medicare, which House Republicans have put on the table as part of any solution to the standoff over raising the US federal debt ceiling.
(Bloomberg) — Former President Donald Trump directed his party not to cut Social Security or Medicare, which House Republicans have put on the table as part of any solution to the standoff over raising the US federal debt ceiling.
Trump said in a campaign video released Friday that “under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny” from the entitlement programs to help pay for what he derided as “Joe Biden’s reckless spending spree.” He said lawmakers should cut waste, fraud and abuse and from other programs instead.
“The pain should be borne by Washington bureaucrats, not by hardworking American families and American seniors,” Trump said in the video. “Do not cut the benefits our seniors worked for and paid for their entire lives.”
Republicans who control the House are demanding deep spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt cap, which the US reached on Thursday and is now using special accounting maneuvers to tide the Treasury over at least until early June. Biden and congressional Democrats are insisting that the limit be raised without conditions.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday said the debt ceiling discussion should involve plans to stave off insolvency when asked whether GOP demands over raising the US borrowing limit includes entitlement spending.
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“You’ve got to protect Medicare and Social Security and the path that the Democrats are going on, they are going to go bankrupt,” he told reporters. “Let’s sit down and find a place where we can protect Medicare and Social Security for the future generations.”
Under current projections, the Social Security trust fund will not be able to cover full benefits after 2035 and Medicare’s hospital trust fund faces insolvency after 2028. To avoid insolvency, spending would need to be cut, revenue raised or some combination of the two. Most Republicans have said they would oppose any new tax increases, such as raising the cap on the payroll tax that funds Social Security.
While Trump is telling the GOP not to cut entitlement programs, he’s also egging them on using the federal debt limit as leverage to extract concessions from Democrats, potentially putting the country further toward the brink of default.
Trump’s comments could also stymie efforts by West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin to broker a debt ceiling compromise. Manchin wants a deal to create a series of special committees to come up with proposals for the trust funds in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. The proposals — which could include future benefit cuts — would get an automatic up-or-down vote in Congress.
The former president’s stance was praised by Senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, who said on Twitter that while he agrees with Trump on virtually nothing, Trump’s right that Republicans shouldn’t cut “a single penny” from entitlement programs and should raise taxes on billionaires instead.
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day,” Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said.
(Updates with Sanders comment from 10th paragraph.)
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