UNITED STATES—Over the past week, the first week of September, multiple news outlets have been slamming Democratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden after reporting false news about President Trump in his new campaign ad which began airing on August 24 and is running now in early September.
“If Trump gets his way, Social Security benefits will run out in just three years from now. Don’t let that happen. Joe Biden will protect your Social Security,” said the ad.
The Biden ad states, “The Chief Actuary of the Social Security Administration just released an analysis of Trump’s planned cuts to Social Security. Under Trump’s plan, Social Security would become permanently depleted by the middle of the calendar year 2023.”
In April 2020, the Social Security administration mentioned projections of depleted social security OASI Trust Fund in 2034 and the DI Trust Fund in 2065. There are no facts to back up Biden’s claims that social security would run out by 2023.
These details were inaccurately reported by 4 Democratic Senators requesting a hypothetical report from the Chief Actuary of the Social Security, Steve Goss. Republicans called out Goss for not stopping the false information when it began circulating.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and House Ways and Means member Kevin Brady asked Goss for clarification to the recently published analysis that allowed for this partisan misinformation to be spread by Democrats.
“Because your position was being used to perpetuate falsehoods in the run-up to a Presidential election, we would have expected you to have promptly cleared the record,” the Senate Finance Committee stated.
September 6 headlines read, “The Washington Post awards Biden campaign 4 Pinocchio’s for attacking Trump on a Social Security plan that does not exist.” Forbes stated that the Biden ad has “Planned cuts to social security,” and PolitiFact says the Biden ads are “exaggerated.”
