It’s not exactly a secret that Democrats would love to spend the next several months arguing with Republicans about the future of Social Security and Medicare. Polls show most voters heavily favor the Democratic approach on the social insurance programs, and the GOP often finds itself on the defensive on the issues, which is why it prefers to focus attention elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the Republican Study Committee released a budget plan last week, and as NBC News reported, the group — representing more than three-quarters of the House Republican Conference, including the entirety of the GOP leadership team — endorsed going after Social Security and Medicare, which in turns helped set the stage for a political fight Democrats were, and are, eager to have.
Indeed, it wasn’t long before Democrats started treating the Republican Study Committee agenda like a pinata. As my MSNBC colleague James Downie summarized, “When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can’t help themselves. Even after years of attempted cuts have backfired, they continue to attempt to sabotage the popular entitlement programs — and in doing so sabotage themselves.”
All of this, evidently, gave Donald Trump an idea.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t an especially good idea.
The former president — whose positions on the programs have been largely incoherent and contradictory — published an item to his social media platform late last week, claiming that Democrats are “KILLING SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE by allowing the INVASION OF THE MIGRANTS.” For good measure, the former president said incumbent President Joe Biden is “killing” the social insurance programs “with the INVASION.”
For now, let’s not dwell on the fact that Republicans really should be more responsible about throwing around reckless words such as “invasion.” Instead, let’s take a moment to highlight the fact that Trump, even now, doesn’t seem to understand how Social Security and Medicare work.
To be sure, I understand the larger political context. Trump is running on an anti-immigrant platform; he realizes that Social Security and Medicare are popular; so he’s eager to connect the dots, telling voters that migrants are undermining the programs.








