Biden’s Social Security Spin

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.