Joe Biden Is Lying To Americans About Medicare And Social Security’s Insolvency

A dozen years ago, Democrats faced a dilemma. A long-term care entitlement known as the CLASS Act that they added to what became Obamacare faced serious solvency concerns. But after Scott Brown, R-Mass., won a shock Senate victory for Republicans in a January 2010 special election, ending Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority, Democrats didn’t have the votes to alter the CLASS Act or remove it from Obamacare.

What did Democrats do? The Obama administration suppressed the internal documents showing that the CLASS Act wouldn’t work. (I and Republican staff colleagues later obtained these documents, compiling them into a report.)

Democrats also convinced many in the disability industry to support Obamacare, in no small part by arguing that the CLASS Act would benefit them — even though many, if not most, Democratic policymakers realized the program contained too many structural flaws ever to get off the ground. The Obama administration eventually admitted just that — 18 months after the law passed.

It was one of the more cynical stunts I have seen in my time in Washington of exploiting a vulnerable community by selling them false hope. But in some ways, it echoes the tactics President Biden is using in a likely futile attempt to avoid an electoral wipeout on Nov. 8.

Selling People a Lie

In a recent speech that more closely resembled a harangue, Biden attacked “mega-MAGA trickle-down” economics. He inveighed against Republican lawmakers who he claimed will “threaten the full faith and credit of the United States for the first time in our history, putting the United States in default unless — unless we yield to their demand to cut Social Security and Medicare.” He followed up by proudly proclaiming, “I will not cut Social Security. I will not cut Medicare, no matter how hard they work at it.”

By claiming he will never reduce Medicare or Social Security spending, Biden is trying to sell the American people a lie — the lie that either program can last without significant changes. Medicare is already functionally insolvent and faces a cash crunch that will see the program officially unable to pay its bills within six years. That could happen even sooner if an impending recession lowers the amount of payroll taxes going into the program’s trust fund. Social Security faces similar solvency issues soon afterward.

If you need any additional convincing that our entitlement programs need fixing, consider this quote: “If you look at the numbers, then Medicare in particular will run out of money and we will not be able to sustain that program no matter how much taxes go up. I mean, it’s not an option for us to just sit by and do nothing.”

That quote comes from, of all people, Barack Obama, in a 2011 press conference. Yet what have his vice president and the rest of his party done to fix the problem? Not just nothing — worse than nothing.

Destroying Medicare, in Three Simple Steps

Thus far, Democrats’ “plan” for Medicare has consisted of the

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