The Claim: President Donald Trump Promised To ‘terminate’ Social Security If He Is Reelected
Recent posts from Social Security Works a nonprofit focused on expanding Social Security, improving Medicare and lowering the cost of prescription drugs claim that President Donald Trump will end Social Security if he is reelected.
“Donald Trump says he will ‘terminate’ Social Security if reelected,” a post on Monday reads. “A vote for Trump is a vote to destroy our social security system.”
“Millions of seniors and people with disabilities struggle to make ends meet,” another post from the same day reads. “Yet Donald Trump says he will ‘terminate’ Social Security if reelected. That’s a disastrous plan.”
The posts come after Trump signed a series of executive orders on Aug. 8 intended to provide relief from the detrimental economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Presidents Health Reform Vision
The budget anticipates $844 billion in health-care savings over the next 10 years from the presidents health reform vision, a vague plan for replacing the Affordable Care Act. About $744 billion of that would come from changes to Medicaid that would end what the administration describes as the financial bias that currently favors able-bodied working-age adults over the truly vulnerable.
Under the ACA, millions of uninsured low-income people gained coverage for the first time as part of the laws Medicaid expansion. Trumps plan would end federal dollars which dwarf the states contributions possibly making some 13 million people again uninsured, if states are unable to maintain expanded eligibility, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington think tank.
The administration also suggested its health reform vision could save money through instituting greater price transparency, lowering prescription-drug prices, and ending surprise bills but the budget does not offer a plan for accomplishing those initiatives or indicate exactly how much money each could save.
According to the budget, the plan would protect the most vulnerable, especially those with preexisting conditions.” Yet at the same time, the Trump administration is supporting a Texas lawsuit seeking to do away with the ACA entirely including its popular coverage guarantee for people with preexisting conditions.
Trump Keeps Proposing Entitlement Cuts And Then Denying That He Did So
In 2015 and 16, Trump differentiated himself from the rest of the Republican presidential hopefuls by campaigning on a vow to not cut entitlements.
Im not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican and Im not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid, Trump told the Daily Signal, a conservative publication affiliated with the Heritage Foundation, in 2015.
As his budget proposals indicate, this promise was an empty one. Trump, however, seems to realize that cutting entitlements is a political loser for him, and as a result has continued to make assertions about preserving them that are at odds with reality.
All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they dont, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also, Democrats will destroy your Medicare, and I will keep it healthy and well!
Donald J. Trump
Last month, however, Trump seemed to have a moment of radical honesty when he told CNBC during an interview conducted in Davos that at some point entitlement cuts will be on the table.
CNBC: Will entitlements ever be on your plate ?TRUMP: “At some point they will be”CNBC: But you said you wouldn’t do that in the pastTRUMP: “We also have assets that we never had”
Aaron Rupar
Those comments created a negative stir, so the very next day Trump tried to walk them back.
Democrats are going to destroy your Social Security. I have totally left it alone, as promised, and will save it!
Donald J. Trump
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Blueprint Includes Cuts For Care In Hospital Outpatient Departments Teaching Hospitals And Post
President Trump’s proposed $4.8 trillion budget slashes billions of dollars from Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs in an attempt to shrink the federal deficit.
Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act see about $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade, according to The Hill. The budget eliminates the enhanced federal match for Medicaid expansion enrollees. An additional $150 billion is expected to be shaved off of Medicaid from the implementation of work requirements, which is expected to result in people losing their healthcare coverage.
The “President’s health reform vision” to ax the Affordable Care Act takes $844 billion over 10 years from the ACA, the report said.
The decrease in federal spending on Medicare would total about $750 billion over 10 years, but that includes shifting two programs out of the budget. After accounting for those changes, the reduction is just over $500 billion, according to CNN. Much of that cut comes from reducing payments to providers.
The budget needs Congressional approval and is not expected to get past a Democratic-controlled House without changes.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tweeted: “The budget is a statement of values. Once again, the #TrumpBudget makes it painfully clear how little the President values the good health, financial security and well-being of America’s hard-working families.”
WHY THIS MATTERS
THE LARGER TREND
Trump Budget Calls For Steep Cuts To Medicaid Medicare Unified Payment System For Post
The federal government would like to slash Medicaid and Medicare by billions over the next decade, and establish a unified payment system for post-acute care providers, according to the fiscal year 2021 budget proposal unveiled by President Donald Trump Monday.
The deep cuts in Trumps budget proposal have alarmed providers.
We are still carefully reviewing the Presidents proposed budget, but were concerned about any changes to Medicaid that would threaten funding and access to long-term care, Mike Cheek, senior vice president of reimbursement policy for the American Health Care Association, said in a statement.
The budget calls for about $920 billion in cuts to the Medicaid program over 10 years, The Hill reported. In addition, post-acute care and hospice services could also see severe reductions in Medicare funding, according to LeadingAge, which said its reviewing the proposed budget to understand how provisions affect the health services LeadingAge members provide.
Moreover, proposals to fundamentally alter the vital safety net that the Medicaid program provides to many Americans can have an outsized impact on older adults who rely on Medicaid for their health care as well as to fund critical long-term services and supports, it added.
Under the proposal, the budget would transition payment for post-acute care to site-neutral payments over the span of five years. It also would reduce the growth rate of post-acute care payment during the transition period.
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Creating Hurdles For Beneficiaries To Enroll And Maintain Coverage
The Trump Administration is encouraging states to add complexity to their systems for verifying Medicaid coverage. For example, based on past guidance, Idaho had been using a simple process to automatically renew coverage for Medicaid beneficiaries for whom administrative data sources showed no income a best practice for keeping beneficiaries enrolled. But the Administration recently informed the state that its process didnt comply with federal requirements, leading Idaho to change its verification process and require additional documentation from beneficiaries. These changes have caused low-income people including eligible children with complex health care needs to lose coverage and forgo needed medical care while trying to re-enroll in Medicaid. Pressure for added paperwork and verification may have contributed to some states large declines in Medicaid enrollment, and will likely worsen the problem going forward.
Did Trump’s Budget Include A $2 Trillion Cut For Medicare Medicaid And Social Security
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he wouldnt try to cut Medicare or Medicaid.
But his federal budget proposal broke that promise, according to Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York City.
“He can’t talk about his own budget, where he threatened to cut $2 trillion from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” Jeffries said about Trump during an interview on CNNs State of the Union.
Trumps budget director, Mick Mulvaney, released the presidents federal budget proposal in February. The plan was met with little fanfare because Congress had already passed a two-year spending deal a few days earlier, making the presidential blueprint largely irrelevant.
Like any other budget proposal, Trumps showed where he wanted to spend money and where he didnt. Did he want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by $2 trillion?
Wheres $2 trillion from?
Jeffries spokesperson did not get back to us with information supporting his claim.
In a literal sense, Trumps budget did propose about $2 trillion in savings from Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid over 10 years.
The majority of those savings about $1.4 trillion would come from Medicaid, according to projections from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
About $530 billion in savings would come from Medicare and $25 billion would come from Social Security. Collectively, that totals almost $2 trillion.
What experts say
Featured Fact-check
Our ruling
We rate the statement False.
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Trump Budget Calls For Cutting Medicaid Aca By About $1 Trillion
Donald TrumpWendy Sherman takes leading role as Biden’s ‘hard-nosed’ Russia negotiatorSenate needs to confirm Deborah Lipstadt as antisemitism envoy NowFormer acting Defense secretary under Trump met with Jan. 6 committee: reportMOREs proposed budget includes about $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act over a decade, analysts said.
The budget released Monday includes $844 billion over 10 years in cuts from the Presidents health reform vision, a stand-in for the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare. There are also more than $150 billion in additional cuts from implementing Medicaid work requirements and other changes to the program, which would result in some people losing coverage if they did not meet the requirements.
The cuts drew swift condemnation from Democrats, who pointed out that Trump himself promised not to cut Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor, during his 2016 campaign.
Im not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid, Trump said in 2015, adding, Every other Republican is going to cut it.
Americans quality, affordable health care will never be safe with President Trump, Speaker Nancy PelosiNancy PelosiGOP senator knocks Biden for ‘spreading things that are untrue’ in voting rights speechSen. Ron Johnson: Straight from the horse’s mouthClyburn says he’s worried about losing House, ‘losing this democracy’ MORE said in a statement on the budget proposal.
Donald Trump Is Already Trying To Cut Entitlements
Earlier this week, at the bleeding-heart billionaire class annual handwringing exhibition in Davos, Switzerland, Donald Trump suggested that he would take a look at cutting entitlement programs at some point.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump had promised to oppose any and all cuts to seniors welfare benefits, a disavowal of conservative orthodoxy that led many voters to perceive the GOP nominee as a moderate . Thus, Democrats wasted little time in publicizing the presidents betrayal of the publics trust.
Even as the impeachment trial is underway, Trump is still talking about cutting your Social Security, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference Thursday, while headlines in the New York Times, the Associated Press, and Washington Post touted the presidents apparent interest in paring back the safety net.
Perhaps I am too blinded by elitist disdain for the war-crime-superfan-in-chief to recognize a cogent endorsement of Modern Monetary Theory when I see one. But to my eyes, this reads like Trump opting to recite blatantly false talking points about the strength of the U.S. economy instead of giving a clear answer to the question he was asked, as he does virtually every time he gives an interview to anyone about anything.
But it doesnt really matter what Trump said, or meant to say. There isnt any ambiguity about whether this president is willing to seek entitlement cuts. He already has.
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Cuts To Social Security Take Benefits Away From Wounded Warriors
President Trumps budget cuts Social Security benefits by at least $24 billion over 10 years despite the Presidents claims he would leave Social Security alone. This cut reflects $11 billion of the Presidents vague $63 billion disability reform to restructure and reduce federal disability benefits including Social Securitys Disability Insurance program along with payment integrity measures affecting programs administered by the Social Security Administration. The budget is silent on how much of the total $63 billion cut comes from DI versus other disability programs, so the total Social Security cut in the budget is unknown, but it is likely much larger than $24 billion. The DI benefits provide coverage for severely disabled workers and their dependents, including veterans. The budget cut to DI benefits could financially harm wounded warriorsapproximately 621,000 military veterans received these benefits in 2016.
Changing The Poverty Line
In May 2019, the Office of Management and Budget issued a notice requesting comment on a proposal to use a lower inflation measure to calculate annual adjustments to the federal poverty line. By lowering the poverty line, that proposal would ultimately cut billions of dollars from federal health programs and cause millions of people to lose their eligibility for, or receive less help from, these programs. Many programs, including Medicaid and CHIP, use the poverty line to determine eligibility and benefits, and the cuts to these programs and the numbers of people losing assistance altogether or receiving less help would increase with each passing year. After ten years, more than 300,000 children would lose comprehensive coverage through Medicaid and CHIP, as would more than 250,000 adults covered through the ACA Medicaid expansion. Some pregnant women, low-income parents in non-expansion states, and people receiving family planning services through Medicaid would also lose coverage.
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How Can Trump Cut Medicare Benefits
Although Trump represents one branch of government, the executive branch, his budget must be approved by Congress, the legislative branch. Typically by the first Monday in February, the president gives Congress his budget proposal for the next fiscal year. Congress then votes on a final budget. Medicare benefit cuts wont go into effect unless Congress approves them.
Its also important to know that Medicare falls into the mandatory spending category of the federal budget. Medicare benefits are a type of entitlement program which also includes Social Security and Medicaid. According to USA.gov, mandatory spending, including spending on Medicare benefits, typically uses over half of all funding.
Trumps Scheme To Sabotage Medicare And Social Security
Dont get too comfortable with your Social Security and Medicare.
Thats the warning President Trump sent from his New Jersey golf course Saturday as he announced a package of coronavirus relief that turns out to be more of a cynical and cruel campaign stunt.
Heres why its cynical:
- Democrats and even some Republicans are questioning the legality of his new executive orders, which depend in large measure on the voluntary cooperation of employers and cash-strapped state legislatures.
- The cut in payroll taxes that finance Social Security and Medicare is actually a deferment that workers or their employers would have to cough up next year. But Trump vowed to make the cut permanent.
- The temporary $400 in weekly supplemental unemployment benefits turns out to be only $300. States would be challenged to kick in another $100, but most legislatures are cash-strapped and forbidden by constitutions or laws to run deficits like the federal government can. They cant print money either. Trump would filch the $300 of federal money from funds budgeted for natural disasters in hurricane season no less and that is certain to be challenged in court.
- The order to resume a moratorium on evictions is nothing more than an instruction to government agencies to consider whether it needs to be done and to look for money in their existing budgets to help terrified renters.
Hes raising false hopes for everyone else. Thats what makes it cruel.
This is what he said:
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