Trump at Fox News Town Hall: ‘Oh, We’ll Be Cutting’ Entitlements Like Medicare, Social Security
During a Fox News town hall, President Donald Trump promised to cut entitlements like Medicare and Social Security if were to win a second term, breaking his 2016 pledge not to cut those programs “like every other Republican.”
Pressed by Fox News anchor Bret Baier about the explosive growth in the national debt during his first term, Trump insisted he did care about the issue even though he also made a 2016 campaign promise to eliminate the debt after two terms.
“Mr. President about national debt and since being present you signed into law $4.7 trillion of debt including $2.1 trillion of discretionary spending,” Baier noted. “When you ran for president — at one point, you said you would pay off the diet within 80 years. Now about four years in, the debt is up $3.5 trillion that’s about 18 percent.”
Trump blamed his first-term deficit spending on the problems he claimed President Barack Obama left him when he took office in 2017.
“So this would be a focus of a second term?” Baier asked.
“Oh, absolutely,” Trump confirmed. “But when the trade deals kick in, now we were disturbed by what’s going on with the virus, but it’s going to be fine and, everybody, it’s going to be fine. But that was a disturbance.”
“But if you don’t cut something in entitlements, you will never really deal with the debt,” town hall co-moderator Martha MacCallum interjected, alluding to social safety programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
“Oh, we’ll be cutting,” Trump rushed to confirm. “But we’re also going to have growth like you’ve never had before.”
Trump’s 2020 budget backs up this strategy, as it proposes to slash funding to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, even though, as a candidate, he pledged not to cut those programs during his first run for president.
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
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