Sen. John Kennedy on Sunday accused President Biden of “demagoguing” funding for entitlements amid fierce debate in Washington over how to prevent programs like Social Security and Medicare from becoming insolvent.
In his State of the Union address and on the de facto campaign trail, Mr. Biden has repeatedly claimed that Republicans want to “sunset” the retirement benefits and require new authorization every five years, based on a plan from Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Republicans denounce the idea and say Mr. Biden is misleading Americans to score political points ahead of announcing his reelection campaign.
“The problem is that President Biden, in his State of the Union address, decided to demagogue the issue. We all saw it, he basically told us, ’if you talk about Social Security or Medicare, I’m going to call you a mean, bad person,’” Mr. Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “And that just took the issue off the table when the president decided to demagogue it. You can only be young once, but you can always be immature, and I thought it was a very immature thing to do.”
Mr. Biden’s budget proposal, released last week, includes a 10% increase for the Social Security Administration amid projections that the funds will become insolvent within the next decade and lead to steep benefit cuts.
Mr. Kennedy blasted Mr. Biden’s $6.8 trillion budget proposal, which includes tax increases, saying the “only way I know how to improve the president’s budget is with a shredder.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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