.@paulkrugman is egregiously wrong on the facts in this column excusing Biden's record of calling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare. let me explain nytimes.com/2020/01/20/opi…
in 2018, Biden gave a speech at Brookings. the Sanders campaign said he "lauded Paul Ryan for proposing cuts to Social Security and Medicare." @paulkrugman says this is a lie, analogizing it to anti-Semitic propaganda 
but what did Biden say? here is the relevant portion of the transcript. Biden does attack Ryan's *tax cuts,* but in asides notes that we need to "do something" about Social Security and Medicare & they "need adjustments"
what does he mean by this? as I cover here, this is classic Beltwayese for cuts to Social Security and Medicare, which Biden has advocated for decades. I covered the history here: theweek.com/articles/88868…
additionally see @ddayen on how Biden's austerity logic actually did percolate into other government programs: prospect.org/politics/biden…
@ddayen but it's even more obvious that that. let's return to Biden's Brookings speech. here he UNQUESTIONABLY says the top 1 percent or top 0.1 percent don't need Social Security benefits: brookings.edu/wp-content/upl…
the *very obvious* implication here is that rich people don't need Social Security benefits -- hence we should introduce means-tested cuts, as Biden has tried to do for the previous 30 years, to take away their benefits
anybody who is even slightly literate or has paid attention to the Beltway discourse for the past decade knows what is going on here. it is not subtle at all
in conclusion, @paulkrugman is utterly mistaken on the facts, he should retract his accusation that the Sanders campaign lied about Biden's austerity record, and @nytopinion should print a retraction
and here is an addendum from @DeanBaker13 on why cutting Social Security with a means test is wretched, stupid policy:
