'The Facts Are Very Clear': Sanders Team Hits Back After Biden Claims Social Security Video Was 'Doctored'

I am constantly aware of how we Americans are relentlessly fed disinformation, distractions, and dangerous lies. So I add this post to correct more of the insidious propaganda that the mainstream media is so often complicit with as they pass on the lies of corporate politicians from both major political parties. Truth-telling in this era where reality is often on life support is, to me, a civic responsibility of us all. — Molly

"Biden not only pushed to cut Social Security—he is on tape proudly bragging about it on multiple occasions," said Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir in response to accusations by the former vice president.

By

Jon Queally

Highlighting a major contrast between the current top two candidates in the Democratic primary field in terms of how they have addressed the issue over their long legislative careers, the Bernie Sanders campaign hit back against a claim made by Joe Biden earlier in the day in which the former vice president said there was "doctored video" being circulated by the Sanders campaign that showed him agreeing with former Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan about the need to cut Social Security.

"It's simply a lie, that video is a lie," Biden said at a campaign event in Iowa when asked about his position on Social Security by an attendee.

Biden said the video was attributable to "Bernie's people," and that he was looking for the Sanders campaign "to come forward and disown it but they haven't done it yet."

According to Reuters:

After Biden's comments, his campaign said the candidate was referring to recent claims by Sanders that Biden has proposed cutting Social Security in the past. The Sanders campaign has pointed to a speech Biden gave to the Brookings Institution think tank in 2018, when Biden said of Ryan's plan to reform the tax code: "Paul Ryan was correct when he did the tax code. What's the first thing he decided we had to after? Social Security and Medicare."

For its part, the Sanders campaign appeared to relish the opportunity to have the issue discussed in detail. National press secretary Briahna Joy Gray tweeted a video capturing Biden's comments at the Iowa event and said she hoped "the media covers this as a substantive policy disagreement." ....

And despite the Biden campaign's now repeated assertion that the comments about agreeing with Paul Ryan were taken out of context, Grim's reporting argues that "Biden's record on Social Security is far worse than one offhand remark." According to Grim:

Biden’s fixation on cutting Social Security dates back to the Reagan era. One of Ronald Reagan’s first major moves as president was to implement a mammoth tax cut, tilted toward the wealthy, and to increase defense spending. Biden, a Delaware senator at the time, supported both moves. The heightened spending and reduced revenue focused public attention on the debt and deficit, giving fuel to a push for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

In the midst of that debate, Biden teamed up with Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley to call for a freeze on federal spending, and insisted on including Social Security in that freeze, even as the Reagan administration fought to protect the program from cuts. It was part of the Democratic approach at the time not just to match Republicans, but to get to their right at times as well, as Biden also did on criminal justice policy.

That push by Biden to join forces with Republicans to cut spending on social programs like Medicaid and Social Security in the mid-nineties included numerous speeches and statements Biden made in the Senate, many of them also captured on video and available to watch. 

For the full article plus videos, please go here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/18/facts-are-very-clear-sanders-team-hits-back-after-biden-claims-social-security-video