GOP tries to neutralize Democrats’ attacks on Medicare and Social Security
Story by Samantha-Jo Roth, Washington Examiner, 2/20/23
Republicans are hoping to disarm one of Democrats’ most recent, and possibly potent, attacks: that the GOP wants to cut Medicare and Social Security.
President Joe Biden has pounced on a 12-point plan by Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) that sunsets all federal legislation unless Congress votes to renew it every five years. Although the plan is the policy agenda of a single senator, Democrats have pointed to this and other proposals from the party’s most conservative lawmakers to claim that Republicans want to put Social Security and Medicare “on the chopping block.”
Biden invoked Scott’s plan at his State of the Union address earlier this month, and congressional Democrats have repeatedly accused Republicans of wanting to gut the programs in exchange for a hike in the debt ceiling.
Republicans loudly object to the accusation, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has vowed not to touch Medicare and Social Security as part of his negotiations with the White House. Scott, facing pressure from his own party, even clarified on Friday that his 12-point plan exempts them.
Republicans’ reaction to the attacks showcases how politically toxic the issue has become on Capitol Hill, where both parties are courting the votes of seniors who rely on the programs.
But, understanding the political saliency of the messaging, Republicans have begun to flip the script, arguing it’s Democrats who want to jeopardize the entitlements.
On Friday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee began targeting vulnerable Democratic senators in a new five-figure digital ad that accuses them of “voting to put Medicare and Social Security at risk.”
The ads specifically call out Democrats in swing states who supported the American Rescue Plan. The NRSC highlights a provision in the bill that threatened billions of dollars of cuts to Medicare and blames the funding for causing inflation. The new ads target Sens. Jon Tester in Montana, Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin, Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, and Jacky Rosen in Nevada.
“You earned your retirement benefits, you followed the rules and paid into the system, but Jon Tester wants to take them away,” one of the ads says. “Tester backed Joe Biden’s extreme agenda, putting your Social Security and Medicare at risk.”
The ads don’t mention that Congress ultimately voted to avert an estimated $36 billion in cuts to Medicare and tens of billions more in farm subsidies and other safety net programs that would have helped pay for the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill enacted in 2021. Yet they capitalize on the threat of the cuts.
“We are fully prepared to hold Democrats accountable for backing policies that threatened Social Security and Medicare. Democrats’ reckless spending is the true threat to these two popular programs,” said NRSC Communications Director Mike Berg.
The ads were released coincidentally the same day Scott, the former chairman of the NRSC, amended his policy agenda to exempt Social Security and Medicare from his sunset proposal. “Note to President Biden, Sen. Schumer, and Sen. McConnell — As you know, this was never intended to apply to Social Security, Medicare, or the US Navy,” he says in the updated plan.
“I have never supported cutting Social Security or Medicare, ever. To say otherwise is a disingenuous Democratic lie from a very confused president,” Scott wrote in a Washington Examiner op-ed published Friday morning.
Behind the scenes, Scott faced growing pressure from fellow Republicans to amend the proposal, with some specifically calling for him to carve out the exemptions in an effort to end attacks from Democrats, according to people familiar.
Allies of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has called the plan a “bad idea,” say Scott’s revisions are evidence he realized the plan’s language was a mistake.
“We are all thankful the senator decided to update his proposal — this has been an unnecessary political headache for us all,” said a Republican speaking anonymously in order to reflect candidly on the situation.
Some Republican strategists say the Florida senator’s messaging on the topic was flawed but do not believe it will hurt his chances of reelection to the Senate in 2024.
“If he had to do it over again, I’m sure he would do it differently. It’s one of those things where, you know, he was trying to be simple and on message and kind of understandable, and he didn’t think through some of the nuances,” said Saul Anuzis, a GOP strategist and former Michigan Republican Party chairman.
“The problem is, in politics, when you’re explaining, you’re losing,” he added. “I think that’s kind of the principle, that people are looking at it as — he’s constantly going to be explaining his position.”
Yet some Florida Republicans have come to Scott’s defense, accusing Democrats and even McConnell of playing “gotcha” politics in attacking his proposal.
“Sen. Rick Scott is absolutely right; America has a massive spending problem that harms all Americans, especially the working class,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida Republican strategist and former congressional candidate. “Unfortunately, today’s politics of gotcha games are more powerful as weapons of deceit than good policy ideas are as solutions for what ails us, and that is why Scott amended his plan.”
Democrats have made clear they aren’t backing down from their previous lines of attack even after the Florida senator updated his 12-point plan.
“It’s too little, too late for Rick Scott to rewrite his history of doubling down on his plan to put Social Security and Medicare on the chopping block,” the Democratic National Committee said in a press release on Friday.