Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) criticized President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump‘s stance of doing “nothing” on Social Security.
Cassidy, who was responding to a campaign advertisement from Trump’s super PAC which slammed Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R-FL) past stances on reforming Social Security and Medicare, said that Trump’s stance makes it hard to prevent the fund from going insolvent.
CASSIDY ALLEGES BIDEN IGNORED MEETING REQUESTS ON SOCIAL SECURITY IN TESTY EXCHANGE
“You know, both Joe Biden and former President Trump have the same plan, which is to do nothing on social security and to allow a 24% cut to benefits from when the fund goes insolvent in about eight or nine years. They both have the same plan. It does make it harder,” Cassidy said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
“When your leading presidential candidates have made the decision to deceive the American people and to say there isn’t a problem when every actuary who looks at this says there is a problem and who is 80 years old, otherwise would be in poverty, will get a cut in benefits, by current law. It makes it hard when they are so irresponsible. It’s true for President Biden and it’s true for former President Trump,” he added.
Cassidy then proposed a $1.5 trillion fund to invest into the economy to “help bridge social security to sustainability” rather than let it go insolvent as is projected to happen in 2033 by some estimates.
“In our big idea, we create a fund that’s separate from social security. We put in $1.5 trillion in it, and we allow it to be invested in the nation’s economy. There’s no risk borne by the beneficiary, and there’s no social security dollars put into this separate fund, and we allow it to sit there, and we allow it to grow, and in the end, it helps bridge social security to sustainability. All the risk is borne by the fund,” Cassidy said.
He lamented the current state of the Social Security debate and called for honesty when it comes to reforms to prevent insolvency of the program.
“If one side proposes something, the other side will demagogue it. We see Trump and Biden demagoguing it now. We need honesty with the American people and we have a big idea to solve 75% of the problem, and that’s a big idea,” Cassidy said.
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The Trump-aligned super PAC released its second advertisement attacking DeSantis on Social Security and Medicare, making the same claims as a previous advertisement which claimed he wanted to cut the programs. The reality of the votes cited from when DeSantis served in Congress is more complex than the campaign ad may indicate.
DeSantis has not announced a bid for the White House but is expected to declare his candidacy in late May or early June.
