President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday night during his State of the Union speech to protect Social Security from being held hostage by Republicans during the debt ceiling fight, saying any cuts are off the table.
Some Republicans "say if we don't cut Social Security and Medicare, they'll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history," Biden said.
Still other GOP members, he continued, "want to take the economy hostage unless I agree to their economic plans," and want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.
"That means if Congress doesn't vote to keep them, those programs will go away," Biden said, adding, "I won't let that happen."
Biden "skillfully corralled Congressional Republicans during his speech by coaxing them to agree that Social Security and Medicare are off the table now in the debt ceiling standoff," Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told ThinkAdvisor Wednesday in an email.
"That does not mean, however, that seniors' earned benefits are completely safe," Richtman said.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's "right flank still may press for cuts to Social Security and Medicare as part of a debt ceiling deal, as some Republicans have threatened to do," Richtman continued.
Further, said Richtman, "the debt ceiling debate unfortunately has revived several bad ideas in both chambers of Congress for 'reforming entitlements' that would lead to benefit cuts — which we and President Biden will continue to fiercely oppose."
