Trump Suggests He's Open to Entitlement Cuts

'At some point' they will be on his plate, he says in CNBC interview
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 22, 2020 2:34 PM CST
Entitlement Cuts? Trump Now Not Allergic to Idea
President Donald Trump leaves the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare could potentially get cut under President Trump, or so he suggested at the very end of a CNBC interview from Davos on Wednesday. In what the Washington Post describes as a "new openness" to the idea—he pledged to protect entitlements from cuts during his 2016 campaign—Trump said that going after entitlement spending is "the easiest of all things" and seemed to indicate the ease comes in part from higher economic growth. His answer came to Joe Kernen asking him, "Do I dare—one last question? ... Entitlements ever be on your plate?" Trump's reply: "At some point they will be. We have tremendous growth. We’re going to have tremendous growth. This next year I—it’ll be toward the end of the year."

"The growth is going to be incredible," he continued. "And at the right time, we will take a look at that. You know, that’s actually the easiest of all things, if you look, cause it’s such a ... big percentage. ... Well, we're going—we’re going look. We also have—assets that we’ve never had. I mean we’ve never had growth like this." Meanwhile, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have been battling over the subject, reports CNBC, with Sanders' campaign on Tuesday putting out a video that shows a circa 1995 Biden saying, "When I argued if we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security, as well. I meant Medicare and Medicaid." Biden says his comments have been taken out of context and said, "No. No. No. No" when asked Wednesday if Social Security would be on the chopping block were he to win the presidency. (More President Trump stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X