In what has become an annual Washington exercise, Democrats and Republicans are waging a war of words over the president’s proposed budget and how it would affect programs for seniors. President Donald Trump tweeted that he “will not be touching your Social Security or Medicare” in the budget, while Democrats have charged it does exactly that.
Sen. Bernie Sanders says former Vice President Joe Biden has a long history of supporting cuts to Social Security. Biden says the opposite is true. We sort through some of the competing claims.
A viral YouTube video rehashed, and added to, a debunked hoax about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi taking money from Social Security to pay for the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump. The claim originated on a self-described satirical website.
Viral Facebook posts claim President Donald Trump has endorsed a supposed “Congressional Reform Act of 2017.” But no such bill exists. The text in the posts has circulated for years without references to Trump, and it is riddled with false claims.
A popular meme falsely claims that each month refugees in the United States receive over three times more money in “federal assistance” than Social Security beneficiaries. That’s a new version of an old claim we debunked over a decade ago.
Q: Did members of Congress approve a salary increase for themselves and deny an increase in Social Security benefits?
A: No. Congress is still contemplating whether to allow an automatic pay increase for its members, and it does not determine cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security beneficiaries.
A meme circulating on Facebook gives the false impression that there is no cap on the number of refugees that can be admitted to the U.S., and that Social Security beneficiaries did not receive a cost-of-living increase this year.
In a televised town hall, newly announced presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders repeated several misleading claims that we have written about in the past.
The weekslong partial government shutdown has led to around 800,000 federal employees not working or working without pay. It also has led to some false or questionable claims from Democrats about the shutdown’s impact on a host of federal services.
Social media posts wrongly claim Democrats voted against the Social Security cost-of-living increase for 2019. Adjustments to Social Security benefits are not decided by lawmakers.