It seems the hecklers at last week’s State of the Union speech owe President Joe Biden an apology. After some congressional Republicans tried to shout him down for saying some in the GOP want to cut Social Security and Medicare, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., stepped up to add his voice to the chorus alleging that Biden was lying — then promptly reiterated his call for a universal “sunset” on all federal programs every five years, which would apply to Social Security and Medicare. Oops.
And it’s not just Scott. Few other Republicans say it so bluntly, but the whole point of the current debt ceiling fight in the House is to force meaningful cuts in government spending, which cannot mathematically happen if Social Security or Medicare (or the equally untouchable Defense budget) aren’t on the table. Then there’s the party’s long history of more explicit calls for cuts.
Biden, in his speech, triggered Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and other extremists by alleging that “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.”
