President Donald Trump said at a Fox News town-hall forum on Thursday that he intended to cut entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Trump was asked about the $23 trillion national debt, which has continued to surge under his watch. He campaigned in 2016 on wiping it out but has enacted laws like the 2017 tax law that have piled on more.
The Fox News host Martha MacCallum told the president that if “you don’t cut something in entitlements, you will never really deal with the debt.”
“Oh, we’ll be cutting,” he told the audience in Scranton, Pennsylvania. “We’re also going to have growth like you’ve never seen before.”
That would be a reversal from Trump’s promise to leave the two largest federal government programs untouched. But he has recently expressed a willingness to cut funding for both programs, including in a CNBC interview earlier this year.
“At the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that’s actually the easiest of all things, if you look,” he told CNBC’s Joe Kernen.
He walked back those remarks after that interview and again after the Fox News town hall.
Trump tweeted on Friday morning: “I will protect your Social Security and Medicare, just as I have for the past 3 years. Sleepy Joe Biden will destroy both in very short order, and he won’t even know he’s doing it!”
The White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, also defended the president on Twitter, saying Trump was speaking “about cutting deficits, NOT entitlements.”
Social Security and Medicare represent a major chunk of government spending; they constituted almost 40% of the federal budget in 2018. Social Security alone makes up nearly a quarter of all federal spending.
The Congressional Budget Office has projected that both programs will cost $30 trillion over the next decade. But any reform efforts would likely encounter resistance from Democrats who have pledged to shield Social Security and Medicare from cuts.
Read the original article on Business Insider
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-says-hell-cut-entitlements-150639114.html
bohica
Social Security is not an entitlement .. although you are 100% entitled to it .. that is your money.
My thoughts exactly!!
Leave my money alone!! And give back what you’ve already stolen. In fact, many of us are comin’ to get it.
.
Thank you Eddy
100% right
As president he should be making dam sure it’s 100% funded
Pilfering traitors
You fraudulent, so called president, social security is a taking of the working mans money without due process of the law which is a violation of THE RATIFIED LAW.
Trump, you are a nothing, nobody with NO authority to do ANYTHING!
Fox News election town hall with Trump is most watched in cable history:
https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-fox-news-town-hall-most-watched-cable-history
.
Trump: unlimited billions for military. No mention of how since Reagan the surplus Social Security income was stolen. AND, as always, if the cap on taxable Social Security income were lifted Social Security would run in the green forever. The cap means well-off people pay a smaller percentage of their income to Soc. Sec. than lower-income earners. The current cap is $132,900.
“What Is the Social Security Tax Limit?
“In 2019, you aren’t required to pay the Social Security tax on any income you earn beyond $132,900. This limit is known as the Social Security Wage Base. This means that, regardless of how much income you earn, you’ll pay no more $8,240 in Social Security taxes. This tax will increase to $137,700 in 2020.” https://smartasset.com/retirement/social-security-tax-limit