Biden adopts a decades-old strategy to fight GOP on Social Security and Medicare.
After attacking Republicans in Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Joe Biden (during which he received audible “boos” from GOP Congress members). This is to cut Medicare and Social Security. “Republicans want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare,” he declared at the University of Tampa on Thursday.
“If that’s your dream, I’m your worst horror.”
Social Security funding has been a campaign issue (putting Democrats versus Republicans) for decades because people see efforts to eliminate it as political poison, giving it the label “third rail of politics.”
A 1995 Senate floor statement by Biden that seemed to support reducing Social Security cuts to balance the budget went viral, reviving questions of his Social Security attitude.
Sanders utilized this video in his 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign against Joe Biden.
Biden remembers twice proposing suspending all government expenditure, including Social Security and Medicare, to balance the budget.
Biden said his comment was a warning that Social Security would be imperiled if every other government expenditure was not dramatically lowered.
The “third rail of politics”—Social Security—has been a campaign topic for decades, pitting Democrats against Republicans..
After fading during his assaults on the GOP this week, criticisms of Biden’s Social Security position has returned after a 1995 Senate floor speech went viral, in which he looked open to decreasing Social Security cuts to balance the budget.
To achieve budgetary neutrality, Biden has called for a freeze on all government spending, including Medicare and Social Security.
Biden said he was stressing that almost all public spending, not just Social Security, was at risk if drastic actions were not done.
Biden’s adoption of this technique this week recalls ruling Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 campaign commercial, which falsely claimed Gop opponent Barry Goldwater of having declared “on at least seven separate times that he would substantially restructure the Social Security system.”
This weakened Goldwater’s popularity, therefore he dropped his program change call.
In 1964, incumbent Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign commercial accused Republican opponent Barry Goldwater of suggesting “on at least seven consecutive occasions that he would dramatically reform the Social Security system.” Biden isn’t the first to do this. Goldwater’s image suffered, and he reversed his program reform demand.
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