Sen. Mike Rounds condemned President Biden on Sunday for deploying “dog calls” on Social Security, accusing the Democrat of intentionally “trying to scare people” by saying the GOP seeks to slash the federal retirement benefits.
“This is not something that we should be talking about trying to scare people,” the South Dakota Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This is something that we should be saying, ‘Let’s plan now, so that Social Security has a long run ahead of it, more than 75 years.’ And why don’t we start talking about long-term plans, instead of trying to scare one another?”
Mr. Biden has made the assertion that Republicans want to cut benefits to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid a pillar of his messaging strategy as he prepares to launch his reelection campaign.
He has sharpened his attacks against Sen. Rick Scott of Florida in particular, who proposed last year when he led Senate Republicans’ campaign arm that all federal programs be sunset every five years and require reauthorization.
But few Republicans ever endorsed such an idea, with GOP lawmakers saying the president is making inaccurate claims as top House Republicans say slashing the retirement benefits are “off the table” in budget negotiations.
“I really think there’s a golden opportunity, and in a bipartisan way, to put Social Security on a long-term plan that would make it better in the future than what it is today and to assure its longevity,” Mr. Rounds said. “But you do that by managing it. You do that by actually talking about it and not doing dog calls every time somebody says, ‘let’s try to address managing it.’”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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