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In his first speech since leaving office, former President Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration’s staffing cuts and other changes at the Social Security Administration, but he made several misleading claims in the process.
- Biden made the misleading claim that during his presidency some Republicans “wanted to let Social Security expire every five years … unless reauthorized by the Congress.” A 2022 proposal from Sen. Rick Scott called for sunsetting all federal programs after five years, unless Congress extended them. But Scott said he wanted to “fix,” not end, Social Security, and a later proposal specifically exempted Social Security.
- The former president claimed that Republicans “threatened to raise the retirement age.” The conservative Republican Study Committee has proposed gradually raising the full retirement age for years, but that hasn’t gained enough support in Congress, even among Republicans.
- Biden said the Social Security Administration had its “lowest staffing levels in 50 years” when he took office as president. He failed to mention that staffing ended up even lower his last year in office.
- He said that staffing cuts and other changes under the Trump administration had caused concern that “Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted.” It’s true that experts have shared that concern over possible administrative errors. But a few of Biden’s comments could leave the misleading impression that monthly benefits for millions of people had nearly been, or were about to be, cut off.
Biden spoke April 15 in Chicago at the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled conference.
Old Chestnut on Letting Social Security Expire
Biden repeated a familiar talking point in misleadingly claiming that during his presidency some Republicans in Congress “wanted to let Social Security expire every five years. That was the proposal, let it expire every five years unless reauthorized by the Congress.”
That’s a reference to a 2022 policy proposal, called “An 11-Point Plan to Rescue America,” from Republican Sen. Rick Scott to sunset all federal programs after five years, unless Congress voted to extend them. “If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again,” Scott’s plan said. But there was never any serious effort to implement that policy, especially as it pertains to Social Security.
Scott, who then was the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, said at the time that he didn’t want to sunset those programs — and he didn’t know anyone who did — but rather he wanted to “review,” “fix” and “preserve” them so that they are financially solvent for the long term. Shortly after Scott introduced his plan, then-Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said that a bill sunsetting Social Security (and Medicare) in five years “will not be part of a Republican Senate majority agenda.”
By the following year, Scott had revised the language in his plan to specifically exclude Social Security and Medicare, and other programs. “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years, with specific exceptions of Social Security, Medicare, national security, veterans benefits, and other essential services,” the 2023 version of Scott’s plan said.
Democrats have gotten a lot of mileage out of that proposal, particularly during the 2022 midterms, making false and misleading claims about Republicans wanting to “end” these popular programs, as we’ve written. In his remarks in Chicago, Biden said this five-year-expiration plan was part of the “constant threat” his administration faced from Republicans who wanted to “cut and gut Social Security.” But there was no threat of Social Security being terminated, as Scott has made clear.
Retirement Age
Biden misleadingly claimed that Republicans “threatened to raise the retirement age as well. Now, that might not be a hardship for someone working in a comfortable job, but if you’re on your feet all day, you’re doing manual labor all day, you’re working with a disability, it’s a very different matter.”
As we wrote when Biden made a similar claim in his reelection announcement in 2023, the conservative Republican Study Committee has proposed budgets for years that have included gradually increasing the full retirement age, to either 69 or 70, and indexing it after that for life expectancy. The “full retirement age,” when a beneficiary can get full benefit payments, is age 66 to 67, depending on the beneficiary’s birth year. (Early retirement, with reduced Social Security benefit payments, is available starting at age 62.)
The most recent RSC proposal, for fiscal 2025, said it would “make modest adjustments to the retirement age for future retirees to account for increases in life expectancy.”
But raising the retirement age has failed to attract enough support in Congress, even among Republicans. In late December, Sen. Rand Paul introduced an amendment to raise the full retirement age, and it garnered just three “yes” votes.
Legislators will need to take some action in the near future if they want the program to continue to pay all of its promised benefits, and it’s possible that raising the retirement age, or raising taxes, will be under discussion. The trust fund for retirees’ and survivors’ benefits is expected to be depleted in 2033, at which point SSA will only be able to pay 79% of benefits, according to the Social Security trustees’ latest estimate.
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump said he “will not raise the retirement age by one day” and wouldn’t cut “one penny” from Social Security. Since taking office, he has said that he’s only interested in getting rid of fraud. “Social Security won’t be touched, other than if there’s fraud,” Trump said in a February interview.
More to the Story on Staffing Level
The former president said: “When we came into office, the Social Security Administration had its lowest staffing. … Lowest staffing levels in 50 years. And demand was going through the roof because of my generation, the Baby Boomer generation, reaching the retirement age.” He didn’t say anything more about a change in SSA staffing during his administration, but it’s worth noting that the number of full-time staffers was even lower his last year in office.
Full-time staffing at the SSA was 58,952 in fiscal year 2021, which began nearly four months before Biden took office. That was the lowest dating back to at least 1995, the earliest year in an SSA table on staffing levels. A report from the Associated Press from last year indicates that it was also probably the lowest level since the early 1970s.
But the total full-time staff was 57,148 in fiscal 2024, which ended on Sept. 30, 2024. The peak under Biden was 60,026 in fiscal 2023.
Under Trump, the SSA announced in February it will cut 7,000 jobs, with an agency-wide offer of early retirement and incentivized resignations, and the Washington Post has reported that thousands more in reductions are planned.
Misleading Claims on the Threat to Monthly Benefits
Biden criticized the Trump administration for staffing cuts, website crashes and computer glitches at the Social Security Administration that the former president said had left beneficiaries “genuinely concerned for the first time in history, for the first and only time in history, that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted.” As we’ve written, experts are concerned about SSA reorganizations, rushed changes and false fraud claims leading to administrative problems with Social Security, including the delivery of benefits. But a few of Biden’s comments could leave the misleading impression that monthly benefits for millions of people had nearly been, or were about to be, cut off.
“In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They’ve gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during the pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now, for the first time ever, that might change. There’ll be calamity for millions of families, millions of people,” Biden said.
There is no plan to stop monthly benefits, but, as we said, experts are worried that abrupt changes at the SSA, in the name of cutting staffing or finding fraud, could lead to operational mistakes. “I genuinely have never been this concerned about the ability of that agency to function,” Pamela Herd, a professor of social policy and faculty associate at the Institute for Social Research’s Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan, told us for an earlier story on the issue. “Yes, I think people are right to be worried about it.”
The former president also was largely accurate in citing comments by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but one line by Biden could leave the wrong impression that there was a “possibility of Social Security checks not going out this month.”
Biden said of Lutnick: “But the current secretary of commerce doesn’t seem to get it, or based on his comments, he doesn’t seem to even care. … But when he talked about the possibility of Social Security checks not going out this month, he shrugged it off. Here’s what he said. He said that his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t complain. It wouldn’t bother her.”
Lutnick, in an interview on the All-In Podcast on March 20, raised the hypothetical of checks not going out that month, saying that a “fraudster” would be the one to complain about it.
Lutnick said: “Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain. She just wouldn’t. She’d think something got messed up and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining. … Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen. Because whoever screams is the one stealing.”
Biden also said Lutnick, a billionaire, was “paying 8.5% in taxes.” We don’t know what rate Lutnick pays in federal taxes, but Biden’s figure refers to a White House calculation for the 400 wealthiest families in the U.S. that factors in earnings on unsold stock as income, as we’ve explained.
Alan Jaffe contributed to this story.
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