Thread by @chrisjacobsHC

THREAD: @JoeBiden attacked @GOP in #SOTU for wanting to 1) sunset Medicare/SS, 2) “cut” those programs, and hold the debt ceiling hostage to pass those “cuts.”

As we’ll see, those are all things BIDEN PROPOSED HIMSELF.

Follow/RT for additional details… 1/

Let’s start with sunsetting Medicare/SS. This is a topic @JoeBiden should be very familiar with—because he proposed it himself. In 1975, he sponsored a bill (S. 2067, 94th Congress) to sunset all federal programs every four years. 2/

Here’s the language of the bill, which revokes authorizations for all federal programs—including SS and Medicare—after four (not five) fiscal years. 3/

Budget experts might try to claim that revoking the budget authorization might not shut down Medicare/SS benefits. But @JoeBiden viewed the sunset bill expansively. 4/

In a floor speech, @JoeBiden said his bill “requires every program to be looked at freshly at least once every four years. The examination is not just of the increased cost of the program, but of the worthiness of the entire program.” 5/

Then there is the question of “cuts” to Medicare/SS benefits. @JoeBiden had a long history of supporting an across-the-board budget freeze, which would have overridden the annual Social Security COLA. 6/

In spring 1984, Biden co-sponsored an amendment that would have halted COLAs for SS beneficiaries, along with federal employees and the military. Here is text of that amendment. 7/

Even more noteworthy is Biden’s stated reason for supporting an across-the-board budget freeze, according to an October 1984 floor speech. 8/

.@JoeBiden: Voters “understand that in order to get something done, everybody has to be in the barrel. Everybody. They are not stupid…They are not dumb. These folks understand. They know that to cut the deficit, everybody has to be in it.” 9/

Then there’s the issue of tying “cuts” in Medicare/SS to a debt ceiling increase. Yep—@JoeBiden supported that too. 10/

In a debt limit debate in October 1984, Biden co-sponsored an amendment offered by Sen. Paul Tsongas (D-MA). The amendment would have raised the debt limit to $1.73 trillion, instead of the $1.824 trillion specified in the underlying bill. 11/

The Tsongas amendment Biden supported also stated that Congress could not approve a further increase in the debt limit “prior to consideration of, and a vote upon the question of agreeing to, a federal deficit reduction bill.” 12/

And the “federal deficit reduction bill” specified in the Tsongas amendment called for the same budget freeze @JoeBiden supported several months earlier—meaning it froze Medicare payments, and cancelled the SS COLA. 13/

Biden supported using the debt ceiling to reduce federal spending, saying that the Tsongas amendment would “focus our attention…at the most critical time attention should be focused on taking on the tough measures. And that is when you have to raise the debt ceiling again.” 14/

When the Tsongas amendment—which included a budget freeze that cancelled the SS COLA—was withdrawn, @JoeBiden voted AGAINST raising the debt ceiling. 15/

@JoeBiden: “I cannot agree to vote for a full increase in the debt without any assurance that steps will be taken early next year to reduce the alarming increase in the deficits and the debt.” 16/

So there you have it: Over his long career, @JoeBiden:
1)Supported sunsetting Medicare and Social Security (but every four years, not every five);
2)Supported reducing Medicare/SS benefits; and
3)Linked reducing benefits to an increase in the debt ceiling. 17/

Every single line of attack @JoeBiden has used against @GOP, Biden has supported himself. All of which raises questions: Why is Biden making such disingenuous attacks? If these bills are so bad, why did Biden previously support them? 18/

I’ll give @JoeBiden the last word: “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere.”

Maybe he should look in the mirror. END