How Social Security and Medicare became the latest battleground in Biden's showdown with the GOP

• Social Security and Medicare have taken the spotlight in the battle to raise the debt limit.
• The GOP vowed cuts to the two programs are off the table, but Biden and Democrats aren't convinced.

It's not often that Republican lawmakers get to heckle a Democratic president during a major speech and call him a "liar" — but all it took was for President Joe Biden to mention cuts to Social Security and Medicare for the GOP to erupt on the floors of Congress.

Now, the two programs have become central to Biden's — and Democratic lawmakers' — latest attacks on Republicans.

After securing a majority in the House, preventing an economically catastrophic default by raising the country's debt limit was a top item on the GOP agenda. But rather than quickly coming to a bipartisan agreement, as when the limit needed to be raised during the Trump administration, they chose to use this opportunity as leverage to push through spending cuts in a potential future debt limit deal with Democrats.

Then came the big question of what exactly Republicans want to cut, and Social Security and Medicare entered the frame. Over the past decade, Republican lawmakers have proposed legislation and made comments suggesting cuts or changes to the two programs — last year, the GOP budget proposed raising the eligibility age for the programs — and the debt limit battle prompted concerns from Biden and Democrats that the GOP will once again return to those proposals.

"We have no choice but to make hard decisions," Rep. Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, leader of the Republican Study Committee, told The Washington Post last month. "Everybody has to look at everything."

With concerns about cuts to the programs circulating, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy ending up clarifying in late January that cuts to Medicare and Social Security were "off the table" in debt limit negotiations. But that did not stop Biden from calling out Republican lawmakers' past comments suggesting cuts during his State of the Union address, prompting heckling from the GOP that ended in applause when Biden said both parties are in agreement to preserve the programs.

"So, folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare is off the books now. Right?" Biden said. "All right. We've got unanimity!"

Since then, though, Biden has only increased his attacks on the GOP for looking to cut, or weaken, the two programs — and Democratic lawmakers are nervous Republicans won't stand by their word. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said that McCarthy "cannot both say, we're going to balance the budget, we're not going to touch any of the Trump tax cuts, and we're also not going to cut any critical services. The math does not work in Kevin McCarthy's favor."

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer isn't feeling too confident himself.

"Last week, Republicans erupted like wild hornets during the State of the Union where President Biden pointed out the obvious: that many within their own party have been very open about wanting to target Social Security and Medicare," Schumer said this week on the Senate floor.

"Until Republicans actually show us their plan, we simply can't take them at their word that Social Security and Medicare won't be touched because their record clearly shows over the past few years that many of them are open to doing just that," Schumer said.

White House, Biden double down on GOP attacks

The receipts kept coming once Republicans claimed they never proposed cuts to Social Security and Medicare. A White House fact sheet last week highlighted the GOP's "long record" of working to cut or sunset the two programs including the following examples:

• Sen. Mike Lee saying in 2010 that "it will be my objective to phase out Social Security"
• Sen. Rick Scott's 12-point plan to sunset federal programs, like Social Security and Medicare, every five years
• And the Republican Study Committee's budget last year that included raising the eligibility ages for the programs and privatizing funding for Social Security.

"Prioritizing tax giveaways for the wealthy and specific handouts for Big Pharma over the Medicare and Social Security benefits that middle class families pay to earn throughout their lives is a recipe for making our economy work from the top-down," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement. The last thing that Americans who've felt invisible want is cuts to lifeline programs in exchange for permanent trickle-down economics."

The White House also took to Twitter to call out past GOP comments on the two programs, and in a recent speech in Florida, Biden brought pamphlets of Scott's plan to criticize it.

But the lawmakers Biden has explicitly called out haven't kept quiet. Lee wrote in a statement last week that the comment he made in 2010 also included his belief that those who paid into the system should be protected and said that he is aware of "NO REPUBLICAN — in either House of Congress — who has suggested any modification of Social Security as a condition for raising the debt ceiling."

Scott has also repeatedly defended his plan on Twitter by saying he has never called for cuts to the program, and he even invited Biden to debate him on the issue. Scott has also posted on numerous occasions a video of Biden as a senator in 1995 supporting cuts to federal programs, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment on what Biden said decades ago.

GOP still maintains Social Security and Medicare are safe

Last week, the House GOP Budget Committee released a list of areas in which it would support cutting spending, including student-loan forgiveness programs and environmental investments. It noted, though, that Social Security and Medicare "are earned benefit programs that must be saved and strengthened."

"Democrats' should stop preying on the fears of seniors by accusing Republicans of cutting Social Security and Medicare and, instead, work with us on bipartisan solutions to address their insolvency," it wrote.

Scott also introduced legislation last week that would rescind Internal Revenue Service funding and reallocate it to Medicare and Social Security to "address threats of insolvency."

While McCarthy said he will continue to meet with Biden and negotiate terms to raise the debt limit, Democratic lawmakers are still working to protect the programs from potential cuts. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders joined some of their colleagues on Monday in reintroducing a bill that would extend Social Security solvency through 2096 and expand benefits by $2,400 a year.

"As House Republicans try to use a manufactured debt ceiling crisis to cut the Social Security that Americans have earned, I'm working with Senator Sanders to expand Social Security and extend its solvency by making the wealthy pay their fair share, so everyone can retire with dignity," Warren said in a statement.