The president had promised to protect Social Security and Medicare while he was campaigning last year.
President Donald Trump said that his administration will protect Social Security and Medicaid, when asked about which programs he would want to see cut in a congressional reconciliation bill.
During remarks to reporters at the Oval Office on Aug. 25, Trump was asked what he would prioritize if Republicans, who control Congress, tried to cut costs.
“One thing I said and I gave my word—we’re not going to hurt anybody on Medicaid, Medicare, or Social Security,” Trump said, adding that “we’re doing great on Social Security,” and that “we’re going to protect it.”
Trump had promised to protect Social Security and Medicare on the campaign trail last year, often echoing those statements after he took office in January. His administration has sought cuts to other federal programs and various government agencies in a bid to root out what it says is fraud, waste, and abuse.
A report from the trust that operates Social Security stated that the combined trust funds used to make payments to retired Americans and people with disabilities are projected to run out by 2034. Following its depletion, it would only be able to pay 81 percent of scheduled benefits to its recipients, it said.
“The Trustees recommend that lawmakers address the projected trust fund shortfalls in a timely way in order to phase in necessary changes gradually and give workers and beneficiaries time to adjust,” the report said.
“Implementing changes sooner rather than later would allow more generations to share in the needed revenue increases or reductions in scheduled benefits.”
Meanwhile, the Medicare trustees’ report, released earlier in the summer, said that the program’s Hospital Insurance trust fund is projected to be depleted by 2033, or three years earlier than the previous projection.
Separately, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) released an analysis in July saying that Social Security recipients face a 24 percent cut to their monthly payments in less than a decade due to the trust fund drying up.
