Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), newly elected Speaker of the House, will hold a town hall meeting Jan. 19 in Bakersfield, Calif.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said this week that Republicans will not seek changes to Social Security or Medicare as part of their efforts to review the federal budget.
“We will not touch Medicare or Social Security,” McCarthy told Donald Trump Jr. during an hour-long interview that aired online Thursday night.
The answer is a shift for McCarthy, who has not previously said Republicans would spare the popular retirement programs from their austerity plans — though he has only spoken in vague terms, such as saying Republicans will “always protect” the programs.
HuffPost asked McCarthy’s office if he intended to make such a final statement. We will update this story if we get a response.
The California Republican has repeatedly likened the federal government to a teenager with a maximum credit card and said the Republicans would impose discipline. So-called “entitlements”, such as social security, simply represent the largest share of government expenditure.
Several other Republicans, including House Budget Committee chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), have said they favor changing some aspects of Social Security and Medicare, though no one has provided specific details. McCarthy has suggested that President Joe Biden may need to figure out where to cut spending.
Former President Donald Trump said in a video last week that “Republicans should under no circumstances vote to save a single penny on Medicare or Social Security.” Trump’s antipathy to entitlement reform has long been one of the biggest policy differences between him and the Republican establishment.
In the interview that aired Thursday, the younger Trump reminded McCarthy of his father’s advice. “For example, we’re crushing on our own people who’ve basically funded these things all their lives,” he said, prompting McCarthy to shut him up and say Republicans wouldn’t get rights.
The Republican plan is to force Democrats to accept cuts by refusing to support an increase in the government’s borrowing limit, threatening a possible bankruptcy that could have catastrophic economic consequences.
“I’m just saying, look, let’s be responsible, let’s be reasonable, let’s be sensible,” McCarthy said.
