Trump’s Comments About ‘Cutting’ Entitlements in Context

Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate.

President Joe Biden said he has caught former President 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.

However, even assuming Trump meant to say that he planned to solve the financial predicament faced by Social Security and Medicare by combating waste, fraud and abuse, experts say that wouldn’t do much to fix the long-term finances of those programs.

First, here is what Trump said in an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen. We bolded the part that Biden and his campaign have highlighted.

: There are stark policy differences, obviously, Mr. President, but one thing that I think that at least the perception is that there’s not a whole lot