CLAIM: President Joe Biden claimed during the first presidential debate on Thursday that former President Donald Trump wants to cut Social Security and Medicare.
VERDICT: False. Trump has said many times that he does not want to cut these entitlement programs. However, Biden has moved to cut Medicare Advantage.
“He wants to get rid of Social Security. He thinks there’s plenty to cut in Social Security. He wants to cut Social Security and Medicare,” Biden said.
Biden has frequently claimed that Trump would like to cut entitlement programs.
Breitbart News has reported about Biden’s frequent claim that Trump would slash entitlement programs such as Social Security or Medicare; however, the 46th president has actually cut Medicare Advantage (MA):
Biden’s move would impact more than half of Medicare enrollees, as many American seniors now look to Medicare Advantage for their healthcare needs. American seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage could see their supplemental benefits reduced or cost-sharing increased by $33 a month in 2025, according to experts.
Fifty-one percent of American seniors enrolled in Medicare enroll in Medicare Advantage over traditional Medicare.
As recently as last weekend, Trump decried Biden’s cut to Medicare Advantage during a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, referring to the cut to this popular program as a “total betrayal of seniors.”
“I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare, which Joe Biden is destroying by letting millions of people come into our country,” Trump said.
The former president continued, “By contrast, Joe Biden has cut Medicare Advantage for the last two years.” He added that this cut is a “total betrayal of seniors.”
Trump has also issued videos calling on Republicans not to call for cuts to the entitlement programs:
WATCH — Trump Warns GOP Against Cutting Medicare or Social Security amid Debt Ceiling Fight:
Donald J. Trump For President 2024Biden also sponsored a bill in 1975, when he was a senator from Delaware, that would have sunset and subsequentially required review and reauthorization — or not — of federal programs, which included Social Security and Medicare.
“We must… begin reviewing existing programs to determine whether they are still effective, and whether they are worth the money that we are putting in them. We must eliminate the wasteful ones,” Biden said when introducing the 1975 legislation.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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