Happy Friday! We’re two days away from the Super Bowl, which at least on paper looks to be a close matchup — maybe the closest ever. So what’s your call? Chiefs or Eagles?
Here’s what else you need to know this weekend.
McConnell Slams Scott as Republicans Feud Over Social Security
President Joe Biden has spent much of this week blasting a proposal from Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida to have all federal programs, including Social Security and Medicare, sunset in five years, a change that would require Congress to reauthorize any programs it wants to keep. On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) piled on with his own criticism of the Scott plan, which he had rejected early last year.
Asked in an interview with Kentucky radio host Terry Meiners if Biden’s claims about the Scott plan are true, McConnell again distanced himself and his party from the proposal: "Unfortunately, that was the Scott plan. That’s not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan," McConnell said. "The Republican plan, as I pointed out last fall, if we were to become the majority, there were no plans to raise taxes on half the American people or to sunset Medicare or Social Security. So it’s clearly the Rick Scott plan. It is not the Republican plan. And that’s the view of the speaker of the House as well."
McConnell’s mention of raising taxes was a reference to another portion of Scott’s plan, which initially called for all Americans to pay some federal income tax to have "skin in the game." Scott later walked back that proposal.
McConnell has feuded with Scott for months, and the two clashed over midterm election strategy last year as Scott was leading Senate Republicans’ campaign arm. Scott then challenged McConnell for Senate GOP leadership, but failed to unseat the longtime GOP leader.
McConnell on Thursday said his criticism of the Scott plan was not about those differences, but he emphasized that the Florida senator did not speak for all Republicans.
"Speaker McCarthy said Social Security and Medicare are not to be touched, and I’ve said the same, and I think we’re in a more authoritative position to state what the position of the party is than any single senator," McConnell said, adding of the Scott plan: "It’s just a bad idea. I think it will be a challenge for him to deal with this in his own re-election in Florida, a state with more elderly people than any other state in America."
Scott proposes a new plan: Scott on Friday kept up his barrage of attacks on Biden and announced a bill that he said would preserve Social Security and Medicare. The bill, he said, would rescind funding for the IRS included in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act and redirect the money to Medicare and Social Security. Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act last year provided $80 billion over 10 years for the tax agency to ramp up enforcement, improve its services and upgrade its technology. The Congressional Budget Office projected earlier this month that a previous GOP bill to repeal $72 billion of that funding would raise deficits by $114 billion over a decade.
Scott said his plan would also require any Medicare savings from new legislation to be used for the program "and are prohibited from being used to fund woke projects." And, he said, the bill would require a two-thirds majority of Congress to approve any cuts to Medicare or Social Security, "making it much more difficult for Congress to make cuts or reduce benefits."
Johnson again calls Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme’: If Scott doesn’t speak for all Republicans on Social Security and Medicare, McConnell may not either. Former president Donald Trump last month warned Republicans to avoid cuts to Medicare and Social Security, and party leaders in Congress have clearly decided to steer clear of such politically unpopular proposals, but the GOP still has some high-profile differences on programs.
Case in point: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Thursday reiterated his plan to have Social Security and Medicare shifted from mandatory to discretionary spending, meaning that Congress would have to approve them every year. In doing so, he again called Social Security a "legal Ponzi scheme."
"We've got to put everything on-budget so we're forced to prioritize spending," Johnson said in an interview with Milwaukee’s WISN-AM Thursday morning. "That doesn't mean putting on the chopping block. That doesn't mean cutting Social Security. But it does mean prioritizing."
The bottom line: Republicans are still scrambling to escape from the trap Biden sprung on them on Social Security and Medicare funding. Expect Democrats to continue to press what they see as their political advantage on the issue.
Quote of the Day: Wait ‘Til 2025?
"If you’re a good government person out there thinking, ‘Wait, Social Security and Medicare do have solvency issues, they have to be dealt with,’ that’s usually done with a bipartisan commission. What all this means is we’re going to go through at least one more presidential election before anybody is willing to have that conversation because they’re both locked in on the politics now."
– CNN Anchor John King, on the implications of this week’s clash between President Joe Biden and Republicans over Social Security and Medicare.
Biden Prepares Largest Military Budget in History
The Biden administration is reportedly close to settling on a record topline figure for defense spending in its 2024 budget proposal, scheduled for release on March 9.
The chief financial officer at the Department of Defense said the spending request for 2024 is expected to be larger than the $858 billion enacted in the 2023 fiscal year, making it the largest in history in nominal terms. The total for 2023 includes $817 billion for the Pentagon, with the remainder going toward defense programs in other departments, led by the Department of Energy.
Spending cuts ahead? While the president’s request will likely mark a historic high, Congress is expected to consider reducing that level as lawmakers look for ways to cut the deficit. Republicans in the House are calling for significant reductions in overall spending levels and are seeking to use the debt ceiling as leverage in negotiations over the issue even as the White House insists the issues should be handled separately.
One idea being discussed by Republicans is to reduce all discretionary spending, which includes defense, to 2022 levels. That would mean a reduction of about $75 billion next year for the Pentagon, or a nearly 10% budget cut.
However, there’s no agreement on that approach, or on the idea that defense should be subject to any cuts at all. There are plenty of defense hawks in the Republican conference, some of whom want to see an increase in spending in 2024 in the range of 5%. "We have a duty to protect taxpayer dollars to reduce our debt and deficit – but this must not come at the expense of compromising our military strength and readiness," Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) told Task & Purpose.
At the same time, a handful of fiscal hawks say that everything in the discretionary budget should be fair game for reductions, including defense and especially aid to Ukraine.
Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord told Politico that if Republicans do push ahead with defense cuts, they’ll have to get specific about where to reduce spending. "You are going to have to face the harder question of what is it that you want to do less? Do you want to have fewer people? Do you want to have fewer ships? Fewer airplanes? Smaller pay raises? That’s where the money is in the defense budget," he said.
One specific issue in the defense budget cited by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (D-CA) as a desirable target for cuts could be difficult to address. "Eliminate all the money spent on ‘wokeism,’" McCarthy said in January, referring to institutional efforts to reduce racism, increase diversity and deal with climate change, among other things. "Eliminate all the money [they are spending] trying to find different fuels."
McCord said that eliminating such efforts would produce very little by way of savings. "I’m not aware that anybody knows the number … but you would need a super telescope" to see it, he said.
The bottom line: Expect to see budget hawks battling defense hawks as Republicans attempt to negotiate a spending deal in exchange for raising the debt ceiling in the coming weeks.
News
- Quake Toll Passes 23,000 as Search Continues in Turkey, Syria – Washington Post
- U.S. Posts $39 Billion January Deficit After Pension Fund Bailout – Reuters
- Feud Between McConnell and Scott Boils as Biden Applies Heat – Roll Call
- GOP Races From Medicare, Social Security Third Rail – The Hill
- Biden Has Big Plans for Junk Fees, a Billionaire’s Tax and Paid Leave. But Can He Actually Enact Them? – The Hill
- Biden Prepares Largest Pentagon Budget in History as Spending Cuts Loom – Politico
- What Climate Law? Voters Clueless About Biden's Top Achievement – Politico
- The High Cost of Diabetes Drugs Has Led to a Flourishing Black Market – NBC News
- Biden’s $27 Billion Clean Energy Catalyzer Spurs Funding Feud – Bloomberg
Views and Analysis
- Sorry, Republicans, No One Should Trust Your Word on Social Security – Paul Waldman, Washington Post
- Fact Check: Breaking Down Biden’s Exchanges With Republican Senators Over Social Security and Medicare – Daniel Dale, CNN
- Why Would McConnell Do That to Rick Scott? – Aaron Blake, Washington Post
- Republicans’ Extreme Reaction to Biden’s Big Speech Helps Make His Point – Stephen Collinson, CNN
- Targeting Social Security, Ron Johnson Does Team Biden a Favor – Steve Benen, MSNBC
- Biden Tells a Deficit Fairy Tale – Wall Street Journal Editorial Board
- Quadrillion-Dollar National Debt? Chew, Don’t Nibble, on This Math – George F. Will, Washington Post
- The Twilight of the Deficit Hawks – David Dayen, American Prospect
- We’re Reaching Fascism’s ‘Inflection Point’ — Again – James Roosevelt, Jr., Henry Scott Wallace, Tomlin Perkins Coggeshall, June Hopkins and Harold Ickes, The Hill
- Medicare and Social Security Insolvency Is Right Around the Corner – Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
- One Plausible Explanation for This Too-Good-to-Be-True Economy – Heather Long, Washington Post
- Republicans Must Stop Biden From Stealing Their Populist Thunder – Henry Olsen, Washington Post
- The Medicare Finger-Pointing Is Accelerating – Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- Biden Says ‘Covid No Longer Controls Our Lives.’ Is He Right? – Andrea Salcedo, Washington Post
- What Lies Beyond the Covid Health Emergency – Daniel Payne and Krista Mahr, Politico
- How a Good Retirement Risks Becoming Just for the Privileged – Amy Bainbridge, Ainsley Thomson and Alice Kantor, Bloomberg