Trump ties the GOP in knots over Medicare and Social Security

“It got him elected for the first time, and I think it will lead to him being elected for the second time,” the Iowa senator said. Chuck Grassley, the top Budget Committee Republican, said of Trump’s rhetoric. “But it does nothing for our children and grandchildren, who won’t have the program that I now enjoy.”

Others say the Republican Party has changed for the better in the past 10 years — finally admitting that voters are not as divided as elected officials over whether to touch two-year-old programs like a senator. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) put it down.

“I distinctly remember that in 2012, someone was basically campaigning for the presidency on this: the Paul Ryan budget, the austerity budget,” Hawley said, referring to the former GOP running mate’s famous financial aggressiveness. “I don’t remember this ticket working very well. I personally don’t want to go back to it.”

Trump’s pugnacious message is at a crossroads within the party as a group of senators secretly meet with possible changes to be approved in Medicare and Social Security. And Trump’s tactics are leading some Republicans to hush up or endorse more modest ideas to keep programs from going bankrupt, despite predictions that both could go bankrupt in about a decade.

Among the GOP’s alternative proposals, as the party shapes its approach to the upcoming fight against debt restraint: targeting fraud and waste; imposing job requirements or raising the legal age; and other changes to the benefits formula. A number of Republicans also pointed to the Senator’s bill. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) Miss Joe Manchin (DW.Va.), who will create “rescue committees” to discuss changes that will save programs in the long run.

It’s enough to make Republicans roll their eyes up and down the Capitol.

“The best thing to do is just ignore him,” the senator said. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said about Trump. Sen. Mike Rounds (RSD) called Trump’s attack on DeSantis “very unfortunate.”

“We need a grown-up as president who will take on the tough tasks, the tough challenges, and be willing to share with the American people how serious this is. that we use facts. And not scare tactics,” said Rounds, a member of the Senate Rights Task Force.

But Trump clearly sees the promise to leave Medicare and Social Security alone as a winning message. He lashed out at main opponent Nikki Haley for a decade-old comment that they were even considering cuts in benefits to slow down the government’s growth.

Trump also disagrees with DeSantis, who as a congressman voted for three non-binding budgets calling for a gradual increase in the Medicare age, and his former vice president (Mike Pence recently said on CNBC that Social Security and Medicare should be ” per table in the long run).

DeSantis, Pence and Haley are not alone in being potentially vulnerable to Trump’s attacks on this. Other possible presidential candidates, including the governor of South Dakota. Christy Noem, Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senator Tim Scott (RS.C.), supported the rights changes.

When the GOP rights debate first flared up last month, Trump attacked Congressional Republicans in a video, warning them not to touch Social Security or Medicare as part of the debt ceiling showdown. Aides say he will continue to make rights reform a key part of his campaign, despite the GOP’s hand-wringing.

“It goes to the bigger picture that it’s not just Trump against the Democrats — it’s Trump against the establishment,” said a Trump adviser, who asked to remain anonymous. “This is a defining political moment for many Republicans.”

Republicans have long tried to cut back on popular programs, from former President George W. Bush’s failed Social Security privatization plan to GOP proposals to repeal Obamacare and curtail Medicaid expansion. Party leaders are currently pledging to stay away from rights as they implement as-yet-unspecified spending cuts in exchange for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling in line with Trump.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy said last month that cuts to Social Security and Medicare were “completely off the table.”

Sen. Kevin Kramer (RN.D.) said that while Trump is “gifted at making complex things simple,” he is annoyed by the former president’s “intellectually dishonest” campaign rights rhetoric. Trump’s allies see it differently, naming a party they say places too much emphasis on cutting or changing the age for some of the government’s most popular programs.

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said talk of pay cuts is “politically stupid.”

“I really don’t like the political stance that so many people are taking, where they take a set of programs that are hugely popular and very beneficial to Republican voters and point to all the other things that are more important than them.” said Vance, who supported Trump.

Notably, Trump’s past budgets have not quite matched his arguments against benefit cuts. Its fiscal year 2021 budget, for example, called for drastic cuts to the social safety net, including cuts of tens of billions of dollars in Social Security benefits for the disabled and changes to Medicare designed to save about $500 billion without cutting benefits.

Democrats have shown little interest in uniting around any of their own proposed rights changes, despite gloomy projections of the programs’ financial future. But they see an advantage in a split in the Republican Party.

The Republican division on the issue “demonstrates a lack of discipline,” the senator said. Mark Warner (Two.). “You wouldn’t think this is a group of people who have an organized plan for how we manage our budget, debt and deficit over an extended period of time.”

And the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee reluctantly paid tribute to Trump for resonating with his electorate.

“I give the devil his due,” said the Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) said. “I think he has a better finger on the pulse of the Republican primary electorate than the Romney-Ryan wing.”

Exploiting their opponents’ internal animosity could also help Democrats after a midterm campaign that saw Republicans recognize success in attacking GOP Senate candidates on the topic of rights. Last year, Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters toyed with the idea of ​​privatizing Social Security before abandoning it.

“Telling old people… that Blake Masters wants to privatize Social Security is probably going to scare them a little,” Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson said of Masters, who is considering another launch in 2024.

Meredith McGraw and Holly Otterbein contributed to this report.