BIDEN AT HIS WORST IN DC’S LATEST BS BATTLE. One of the most commented-upon moments of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address happened when Biden accused some Republicans of wanting Medicare and Social Security to “sunset.” In other words, Biden said, those Republicans want Medicare and Social Security, the twin foundations of the safety net for the retired, to go out of existence.
The weird thing about what Biden said was that just the day before, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) had declared, in a much-watched speech, that “cuts to Medicare and Social Security are off the table.” McCarthy clearly anticipated Biden’s attack and made sure that in the coming debt ceiling negotiations, House Republicans’ position would be clear: no cuts to Medicare, no cuts to Social Security.
Nevertheless, during the State of the Union, Biden went on the attack. “Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans — some Republicans — want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” the president said as boos began to rise from the GOP side of the floor. “I’m not saying it’s the majority,” Biden continued, to more boos. “Let me give you — anybody who doubts it, contact my office. I’ll give you a copy — I’ll give you a copy of the proposal.”
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The “proposal” to which Biden referred was an election agenda released last year by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who was in charge of the 2022 GOP Senate midterm election effort. Like any Republican, Scott called for fiscal responsibility. He wanted to reduce the size, scope, and expense of government. To that end, Scott advocated all sorts of measures, such as drastically simplifying the tax code, “eliminating the advantages of those who can afford tax lawyers and lobbyists,” moving much of the federal government out of Washington, and “selling off nonessential government assets, buildings, and land, and us[ing] the proceeds to pay down our national debt.”
And then Scott added this: “All federal legislation sunsets in five years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” To which Democrats immediately screamed: All legislation? That would include Medicare and Social Security! Look! Republicans want to kill Medicare and Social Security!
The fact is, Democrats have long accused Republicans of wanting to kill Medicare and Social Security. In 2012, they made an ad depicting then-Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), at the time Sen. Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate, pushing a terrified grandmother in a wheelchair off a cliff. They really did that. You can watch it today — it’s actually funny. But it was only a tiny bit more extreme than the accusations Democrats have actually leveled at Republicans over the years.
So when Scott proposed a five-year sunset on legislation, and Democrats began yelling that that must surely include Medicare and Social Security, nearly all Republicans began to run away from Scott — including Scott himself, who loudly proclaimed that he had no intention of cutting Medicare and Social Security. “No one that I know of wants to sunset Medicare or Social Security,” Scott said. Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) repeatedly told the press that Republicans most emphatically did not support Scott’s plan. In addition, the Washington Post fact-checker gave the Democratic charge “Four Pinocchios,” which the paper defined as a “whopper.”
Nevertheless, Democrats kept up the attack because accusing Republicans of wanting to kill Medicare and Social Security is what they do. So no one was surprised when Biden did what he did in the State of the Union.
Republicans, knowing that McCarthy had just the day before declared that “cuts to Medicare and Social Security are off the table,” booed and catcalled. That is simply not their position, many of them suggested, although in not so many words. Biden engaged. “I tell you, I enjoy conversion,” he said, suggesting that Republicans had somehow come over to his side. But he continued: “You know [sunset] means if Congress doesn’t keep the programs the way they are, they go away. Other Republicans say — I’m not saying it’s a majority of you, I don’t even think it’s even a significant — but it’s being proposed by individuals. I’m politely not naming them, but it’s being proposed by some of you.”
The person Biden “politely” did not name was, of course, Rick Scott. And then Biden concluded: “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now, right? They’re not to be touched? All right. We got unanimity!” Democrats and their allies in the media cheered. Biden may be 80 years old, but he sure outfoxed those Republicans!
It was a perfect Washington BS moment. But here’s the thing. Everybody knows that Congress will have to make significant changes to Medicare and Social Security for those programs to remain solvent. And the government can’t just keep spending more and more on the programs lest they someday consume the entire federal budget.
That is just a fact. Republicans have been the only ones to attempt to address the coming crisis, and for their troubles, Democrats have beaten the hell out of them. So now, McCarthy has come to an understandable conclusion. He still knows the programs’ expense will rise out of control, but he can’t come out and address it because the Democratic attacks, amplified in media reports, will mean another debacle for Republicans. So he will have to look for other ways to approach the problem, if there are other ways.
Now, Biden is staying on the offensive, cheered on by those partisans in Congress and the media. The day after the State of the Union, he headed to Wisconsin, where he again accused Republicans of wanting to do away with Medicare and Social Security. “They seemed shocked when I raised the plans of some of their members and their caucus to cut Social Security,” Biden told the crowd in DeForest, Wisconsin. “And Marjorie Taylor Greene and others stood up and said, ‘Liar! Liar!’ It reminds of that ‘liar, liar, house on fire.'” Everybody laughed. A moment later, Biden was holding up a copy of the Scott proposal and reading aloud from it. On Thursday, Biden headed to Florida to do more of the same.
Meanwhile, the problem grows. Just Google “Medicare insolvency date” — you’ll find out it is about 2030 under a best-case scenario — and “Social Security insolvency date” — it’s about 2035. If the programs continue unreformed, the government will have to devote increasingly large amounts of money to pay for old age and healthcare. The result could be fiscal calamity. Something must be done. Given Washington’s habit of not addressing problems until they become crises, any action will probably come closer to 2030 and 2035 than to today.
Everybody knows this. Republicans have been, at times, honest and bold enough to say it. Now, in the face of continued attacks from Biden, Democrats, and their media allies, GOP lawmakers are taking a different approach. Let’s try to work around the edges of the problem, they say, until it gets too bad to ignore, and then, maybe, Democrats will work with us on fixing Medicare and Social Security. Until then, Biden will keep playing the game. It has worked reliably for the many decades of his career in government and Democratic politics. Why change now?
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