Democratic Delaware Sen. Chris Coons is continuing to insist that GOP lawmakers are seeking to make entitlement program cuts that a fellow Democrat says is not possible.
Coons suggested Tuesday that Republican lawmakers are working to slash Social Security benefits in the sweeping tax and spending bill Congress is currently negotiating. The senator continued to insist that the Republicans seek to cut Social Security benefits after the Daily Caller News Foundation pointed out a fact sheet from Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, ranking member of the House Budget Committee, that showed federal law and Senate rules prohibit changes to Social Security during the budget reconciliation process.
Congressional Republicans are seeking to enact President Donald Trump’s first-year legislative priorities through a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows Senate Republicans to bypass the filibuster and advance legislation by a simple majority vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has reiterated that Congress does not have the authority to make changes to Social Security through the budget reconciliation process.
“Social Security is not eligible for consideration under reconciliation, so that doesn’t get touched,” Thune said during the Senate GOP leadership press conference on March 25.
Similarly, Speaker Mike Johnson has said Republican lawmakers have no plans to make changes to Social Security in a forthcoming budget bill even if they were allowed to reform the entitlement program in budget reconciliation.
“The president said over and over and over, ‘We’re not going to touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid,” Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Feb. 26. “We’ve made the same commitment.”
Coons suggested that House Republicans’ initial budget resolution put Social Security on the chopping block despite federal law and Senate procedure prohibiting cuts to the popular entitlement program during budget reconciliation.
“House Republicans have made it clear their goal is to cut $2 trillion in spending to pay for their reconciliation bill,” Coons said at the press conference. “You can’t do that without cuts to Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. Social Security is not a giveaway. It’s not riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, and Democrats are united in protecting it. We need to strengthen Social Security, not cut it.”
However, Coons’ statement about alleged potential cuts to Social Security is directly contradicted by fellow Democrat Boyle, who acknowledged in January that lawmakers cannot cut Social Security in a forthcoming budget bill.
“Other special rules, which are designed to protect the rights of the minority party, apply to reconciliation bills,” Boyle said in a “budget reconciliation explainer” from Jan. 10. “For example, the Social Security program cannot be changed in reconciliation.”
Boyle’s fact sheet on budget reconciliation also cites a provision of the 1974 Congressional Budget Act, which “defines reconciliation bills that include changes to Social Security as out of order.”
The Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits budget reconciliation provisions to measures that have a budgetary impact, notably prohibits the inclusion of any provisions that “recommend changes in Social Security.”
A spokesperson for Coons proceeded to double down on his claim despite receiving the House Democrat fact sheet detailing how GOP lawmakers are not able to make changes to Social Security in the bill.
“Republicans have made it very clear: they want to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security in order to pay for more tax breaks for billionaires,” the spokesperson told the DCNF.
Coon’s speculation about congressional Republicans’ intentions toward Social Security comes as Democratic lawmakers are stepping up criticism of GOP lawmakers’ tax and spending bill encompassing some of President Donald Trump’s first-year legislative priorities.
Congressional Republicans are working to prevent the expiring provisions of the president’s 2017 tax cuts from lapsing by including an extension in the budget bill.
Most Americans would experience a tax hike if Congress fails to renew the expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts before the end of the year. The average American household earning $80,000 a year would see a $1,700 tax increase if the tax cut provisions are allowed to expire at the end of 2025, according to analysis from the Tax Foundation released on March 12.
“We expect the Democrats to resist us at every turn, but unfortunately for them, when they talk about fighting and fighting and fighting, what they are fighting, obviously, against – or for, I should say – is a $4.5 trillion tax increase on the American people at the end of the year,” Thune said Tuesday.
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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