Biden Budget Calls for Protecting Social Security, as Trump Supports Cuts

President Joe Biden vowed Monday in his 2025 budget to protect Social Security by opposing any benefit cuts as well as proposals to privatize Social Security. Former President Donald Trump, meanwhile, told CNBC’s Squawk Box the same day that he’d make massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare if reelected.

Biden’s budget states that he’d extend Social Security’s solvency by asking the highest-income Americans to pay their fair share.

“Currently, middle-class and lower-income Americans pay Social Security taxes on all of their earnings, but higher-income Americans do not. That’s not fair,” a Fact Sheet of Biden’s budget states.

Biden’s budget also funds staff, information technology and other improvements at SSA, increasing the agency’s funding by 9% from the 2023 enacted level, the fact sheet states.

Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley said Monday in a statement that “the Administration supports efforts to improve Social Security benefits, as well as SSI benefits, for seniors and people with disabilities, especially for those who face the greatest challenges making ends meet.”

Trump: ‘A Lot You Can Do … in Terms of Cutting’

“Make no mistake: Social Security is on the ballot this November,” Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, said Monday in a statement.

This morning, Trump “went on television and called for cuts to Social Security, along with Medicare and Medicaid,” Altman said.

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Joe Kiernen asked Trump his opinion on entitlement spending in the face of a ballooned federal deficit.

“First of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting, and in terms of, also, the theft and bad management of entitlements,” Trump responded. “Tremendous bad management of entitlements. There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement.”

“This is consistent with Trump’s record as President, when he proposed cuts in every single one of his budgets and tried to permanently eliminate Social Security’s dedicated funding,” Altman continued. “It is consistent with Trump’s past calls to privatize Social Security and raise the retirement age, as well as his slandering it as a ‘Ponzi scheme.’”