House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said this week that Republicans will not seek changes to Social Security or Medicare as part of their efforts to overhaul the federal budget.
“We’re not going to touch Medicare or Social Security,” McCarthy said Donald Trump Jr. during an hourlong interview broadcast online on Friday night.
The response was a shift for McCarthy, who had previously not said Republicans would save the popular pension program from plans to cut spending — though he spoke only in vague terms, such as saying Republicans would “always protect” the program.
HuffPost asked McCarthy’s office if he plans to make a definitive statement. We’ll update this story if we get a response.
The California Republican has repeatedly compared the federal government to a teenager with a maxed-out credit card and said Republicans will impose discipline. So-called “entitlements” such as Social Security happen to be the majority of government spending.
Several other Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), said they favor changing some aspects of Social Security and Medicare, though none provided specific details. McCarthy suggested that President Joe Biden should know what to cut.
Former President Donald Trump said in a video last week that “it doesn’t matter if the Republicans vote to cut one cent from Medicare or Social Security.” Trump’s antipathy to entitlement reform has long been one of the biggest policy differences between him and the Republican establishment.
In an interview that aired Thursday, the younger Trump reminded McCarthy of his father’s advice. “Like, we’re crushing our people who are actually funding these things their whole lives,” he said, prompting McCarthy to cut him off and say Republicans won’t touch their rights.
The Republican plan is to force Democrats to accept spending cuts by refusing to support an increase in the government’s debt limit, threatening a potential default that could have economic consequences.
“I’m just saying, look, let’s be responsible, let’s be reasonable, let’s be sensible,” McCarthy said.