WASHINGTON — A Republican senator warned his party against insisting it is not going to touch Social Security, arguing in an interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that such a pledge is “not honest.”
It comes as Democrats have sought to put potential cuts to the government entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare under GOP-led Washington in the spotlight, even as President Donald Trump has promised not to touch them.
“We're not being honest when we look people in the eye and say we're not going to touch it,” Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, said of Social Security. “If we don't touch it, it touches itself.”
The Utah Republican went on to make the case that his party should communicate that those in or near retirement are “safe,” while at the same time starting a conversation about what the insurance program will look like for younger generations.
“And the sooner we do it, the less dramatic it has to be,” he said. “If we don't do it, we have worse decisions thrust upon us.”
The Congressional Budget Office projects the Social Security trust fund could be exhausted by 2034 without congressional action. Curtis, who said he plans to introduce a bill implementing a change to the program, argued that not being up front about the need to address this damages trust with the American public.
“That's not being honest with the American people,” he said. “And I think that's one of the things that makes them not trust us when we say something that they just know is not true.”
The debate over potential changes to the popular program has taken a center role in Washington for a while, even causing a rowdy moment during former President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address. But it has received renewed focus amid Trump’s wide-scale efforts – being carried out by advisor Elon Musk and the U.S. DOGE Service – to downsize the federal government.
Despite Trump’s pledges not to cut Social Security, Musk has described the program as a “Ponzi scheme” and earlier this month told Fox Business’ Larry Kudlowthat spending on federal benefit programs was a “big one to eliminate” in his downsizing campaign.
“Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” Musk told Fox Business in an interview. “So that’s the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half-trillion, maybe six, 700 billion.”
The White House pushed back on coverage of Musk’s comment, saying Trump was going to “protect Social Security and Medicare benefits.” At the same time, the administration has said it will seek to slash “waste, fraud and abuse” from the program, which critics argue is just part of the effort to cut it.
Amid the focus on Musk's comments, the billionaire told reporters that he was "going to be very careful with any interruption to benefits."
"In fact, only by tackling the waste and fraud in entitlements like Social Security, Medicare, can we actually preserve those programs for the future because with unchecked fraud and waste, we won't be able to afford them," he added.
Democrats in Congress have sought to sound the alarm, claiming Republicans are seeking to slash the benefits, particularly through the blueprint the House GOP passed to implement Trump’s agenda on immigration, energy and tax cuts. Many have pointed to a report from the Congressional Budget Office last week that found Republicans cannot reach their spending cut goals as they laid out in their budget blueprint without cutting Medicaid.
