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Donald Trump on Social Security
2016 Republican incumbent President; 2000 Reform Primary Challenger for President
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Seniors should not pay tax on Social Security benefits
In a post on Truth Social today, President Trump declared that "SENIORS SHOULD NOT PAY TAX ON SOCIAL SECURITY!" President Trump is likely referring to the fact that some Social Security benefits are currently taxed as ordinary income and have been since
1984.Under current law, seniors that earn less than $25,000 per year ($32,000 for married couples) of "combined income"--that is adjusted gross income and half of their Social Security benefits--pay no taxes on Social Security retirement benefits.
Above that amount, 50% of Social Security benefits are subject to income tax, with the revenue going toward the Social Security retirement trust fund.
This year, taxation of benefits is projected to raise about $94 billion. We estimate that eliminating
taxation of Social Security benefits for seniors would cut taxes and thus reduce revenues by about $1.8 trillion between 2026 and 2035. This includes $1.05 trillion less in revenue for Social Security and $750 billion less revenue for Medicare.
Source: CRFB Budget Watch on 2024 Vice Presidential hopefuls
, Jul 31, 2024
Migrants coming in will destroy Medicare & Social Security
TRUMP: [Biden is] destroying Medicare because all of these people are coming in, they're putting them on Medicare. They're putting them on Social Security. They're going to destroy Social Security. This man is going to single-handedly destroy
Social Security. These millions and millions of people coming in, they're trying to put them on Social Security. He will wipe out Social Security. He will wipe out Medicare. I took care of the seniors.
What he is doing is destroying all of our medical programs because the migrants coming in. They want everybody. And look, I have the biggest heart on the stage. I guarantee you that. And I want to take care of people. But, we're destroying our country.
They're taking over our schools, our hospitals, and they're going to be taking over Social Security. He is destroying Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. [See FactCheck: undocumented immigrants do not receive Social Security benefits].
Source: First Trump-Biden debate, at CNN in Atlanta
, Jun 27, 2024
FactCheck: No,undocumented immigrants can't collect benefits
Trump said, "Millions of people coming in, they're trying to put them on Social Security. He will wipe out Social Security." Is it true that immigrants could wipe out the Trust Fund by collecting benefits? No, according to this FactCheck from CNBC (July
30, 2023):"Undocumented immigrants are not legally permitted to receive Social Security benefits and few actually do. When you apply for a job, you're required to provide your Social Security number. Undocumented immigrants, who don't have an Social
Security number, may choose to use an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or an ITIN. Those who use an ITIN cannot receive Social Security retirement benefits [but still must pay taxes]. Sometimes undocumented immigrants do receive retirement
benefits by using a [borrowed or fake] Social Security number. A 2013 report found that $1 billion worth of retirement benefits were paid out to undocumented immigrants. However, undocumented immigrants paid a whopping $13 billion in payroll taxes."
Source: First Trump-Biden debate, at CNN in Atlanta
, Jun 27, 2024
Cut waste and fraud, but don't cut benefits
President Biden said he has caught Donald Trump admitting that he wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. The Trump campaign said, in context, Trump was talking about cutting waste and fraud in those programs – not benefits.There's some room
for disagreement about what Trump may have meant. But Trump has consistently said at other times--not only in this campaign but also as president--that he would not make any cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits.
Here is what Trump said in an
interview with CNBC: "There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the tremendous bad management of entitlements."
Biden posted a clip of the interview, ending with Trump saying, "There
is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting." Biden commented, "Not on my watch."
The Trump campaign responded, "If you losers didn't cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste."
Source: FactCheck.org on 2024 State of the Union
, Mar 15, 2024
Never cut Social Security; payroll tax cut won't affect it
Q: Would you allow cutting Social Security?TRUMP: We'll never cut Social Security, and you can rely on that. We will guard it with everything we have.
Q: You have said you would like to "terminate the payroll tax" if you win reelection. Payroll
taxes fund Social Security and Medicare. How would you finance these programs without payroll taxes?
TRUMP: Providing a payroll tax deferral poses no risk to the Social Security trust fund and puts more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans.
Source: AARP Survey on 2020 Presidential hopefuls
, Sep 28, 2020
Improve SSI youth transition to self-sufficient work
According to Donald Trump's FY 2021 Budget Proposal Major Savings and Reforms, "Improve SSI youth transition to work--To promote greater self-sufficiency for transition-age youth, the Budget would implement several SSI reforms. First, the Budget would
better identify medical improvement at the earliest point to increase oversight and signal the importance of SSI youth investing in their education and development by instituting initial disability reviews at age six and 12. Second, the Budget would
improve SSI youth work incentives by disregarding all earned income and eliminating income reporting requirements through age 20, providing a higher disregard of earnings with a gradual phase-down for SSI recipients between ages 21 & 25, and eliminating
school enrollment reporting requirements. In addition, the Budget would improve access to vocational rehabilitation services for SSI transition-age youth by allowing the Social Security Administration (SSA) to make referrals to these services."
Source: Trump Research Book on Mike Pence
, Sep 22, 2020
Going "full-steam ahead" on limiting disability benefits
The Social Security Administration is "still going full-steam ahead" on new rules limiting disability benefits, according to a source in the agency.
One set of proposed changes to the claims process could affect hundreds of thousands of applicants each year if finalized. The agency previously said to expect the new rule in June.
Source: Huffington Post on Trump Administration
, Mar 24, 2020
FactCheck: Yes, "privatization would be good for all of us"
Democratic vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine said in the V.P.debate, "Donald Trump wrote a book & said Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and privatization would be good for all of us." Is that true? Yes, it's true; we found the relevant book passage
that Kaine referred to:"The solution to the Great Social Security crisis couldn't be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and
bonds. Federal guidelines would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds, and not in emu ranches....Privatization would be good for all of us. Directing Social Security funds into personal
accounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy." (Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.198-199 & 203 , July 2000)
Source: 2016 Vice-Presidential Debate at Longwood University
, Oct 4, 2016
I will save Social Security with more jobs, less waste
I'm going to save Social Security. You have tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. We have in Social Security thousands of people over 106 years old. You know they don't exist. There's tremendous waste, fraud and abuse, and we're going to get it.
But we're not going to hurt the people who have been paying into Social Security their whole life and then all of a sudden they're supposed to get less. We're bringing jobs back.
Source: 2016 CBS Republican primary debate in South Carolina
, Feb 13, 2016
I'll give up my Social Security; leave it to each person
Q: Chris Christie says billionaires and people who make and earn far less should no longer get Social Security, or there should be limits based on income.A: I'm OK with it. I would be willing to say I will not get Social Security.
As a policy, I would leave it up to the people. Don't forget they pay in, and maybe they do well, and maybe some people want it. But the fact is that there are people that truly don't need it, and there are many people that do need it very, very badly.
Source: 2015 Republican two-tiered primary debate on CNN
, Sep 16, 2015
Cannot change Medicare or Soc.Sec. and still win elections
[At CPAC, Trump said}: "As Republicans, if you think you are going to change very substantially for the worse Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security in any substantial way, and at the same time you think you are going to win elections, it
just really is not going to happen," Mr. Trump said, adding that polls show that tea partyers are among those who don't want their entitlements changed. "What we have to do and the way we solve our problems it to build a great economy."
Source: 2013 Conservative Political Action Conf. in Washington Times
, Mar 15, 2013
Social Security isn't an "entitlement"; it's honoring a deal
Social Security faces a problem: 77 million baby boomers set to retire. Now I know there are some Republicans who would be just fine with allowing these programs to wither and die on the vine. The way they see it, Social Security and Medicare are
wasteful "entitlement programs." But people who think this way need to rethink their position. It's not unreasonable for people who paid into a system for decades to expect to get their money's worth--that's not an "entitlement," that's honoring a deal.
We as a society must also make an ironclad commitment to providing a safety net for those who can't make one for themselves.Social Security is here to stay. To be sure, we must reform it, root out the fraud, make it more efficient, and ensure that the
program is solvent.
Same goes for Medicare. Again, people have lived up to their end of the bargain and paid into the program in good faith. Of course they believe they're "entitled" to receive the benefits they paid for--they are!
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 68-69
, Dec 5, 2011
Disability Racket: $25B in fraudulent disability filings
The top estimates are $2,340,000,000 in Medicare fraud over a decade--or 16% of America's entire national debt!Then there's the disability racket. Did you know that one out of every 20 people in America now claims disability? That adds up to $170
billion a year in disability checks. Between 2005 and 2009, it is estimated that $25 billion were eaten up in fraudulent Social Security Disability Insurance filings. On and on, scam after scam it goes; as always, taxpayers are the ones getting stiffed.
Source: Time to Get Tough, by Donald Trump, p. 77
, Dec 5, 2011
Pay off debt; put $3T interest savings into Trust Fund
I would impose a one-time, 14.25% tax on individuals and trusts with a net worth over $10 million. That would raise $5.7 trillion in new revenue, which we would use to pay off the entire national debt. We would save $200 billion in interest
payments, which would allow us to cut taxes on middle-class working families by $100 billion a year or $1 trillion over ten years. We could use the rest of the savings--$100 billion-to bolster the Social Security Trust Fund. By 2030, we [will
have] put $3 trillion into the trust Fund, which would make it solvent into the next century. [In addition to shoring up Social Security for the long term], I say it’s high time to separate Social Security from the general treasury. It is time to
lock-box it and throw away the key.
The rich will scream. Only the top 1% of people-those with a net worth of $10 million or more-would be affected by my plan. The other 99% would get deep reductions in heir federal income taxes.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.169-171 & 201
, Jul 2, 2000
Let people invest their own retirement funds
The solution to the Great Social Security crisis couldn’t be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds. Federal guidelines
would make sure that your money is diversified, that it is invested in sound mutual funds or bond funds, and not in emu ranches. The national savings rate would soar and billions of dollars would be cycled from savings, to productive assets, to
retirement money. And unlike the previous system, the assets in this retirement account could be left to one’s heirs, used to start a business, or anything else one desires. Privatization would be good for all of us. Directing Social Security funds
into personal accounts invested in real assets would swell national savings, pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into jobs and the economy. These investments would boost national investment, productivity, wages, and future economic growth.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.198-199 & 203
, Jul 2, 2000
No government investment of retirement funds
I would never support what has to be the craziest ideas in the history of U.S. politics: allowing the government to invest Social Security retirement funds in the stock market. Not only would a market downturn spell
disaster for millions of retirees, but the process by which government would choose stocks would also be entirely political, making lobbyists and other political hacks the new masters of the universe.
Source: The America We Deserve, by Donald Trump, p.273-74
, Jul 2, 2000
Page last updated: Dec 27, 2024; copyright 1999-2022 Jesse Gordon and OnTheIssues.org