President Donald Trump opened the door Wednesday to overhauling entitlement programs such as Medicare, a move that could run counter to a campaign promise – and one that Democrats attacked.
During an appearance on CNBC, Trump was asked if restructuring entitlement programs would ever be on his plate.
“At some point, they will be,” Trump said from Davos, Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum.
Trump cited the “tremendous growth” in the economy and suggested that would make it easier to change entitlement programs.
“At the right time, we will take a look at that,” he said. “You know, that’s actually the easiest of all things.”
Democrats pounced on Trump’s remarks and accused him of breaking a campaign pledge.
Trump’s proposed budgets would already hurt some of these programs, the Democratic National Committee said in a statement.
“Trump’s on video breaking his promise not to cut safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,” the DNC said. “Trump has already proposed cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from these vital programs.”
Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg criticized the president.
“Over and over, Donald Trump promised Americans that he would not cut Social Security and Medicare. He lied,” Sanders wrote on Twitter. “When we win, we’re not going to just protect Social Security and Medicare, we’re going to expand them.”
Buttigieg, also on Twitter, accused Trump of targeting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid “to fund tax breaks for giant corporations and the wealthiest among us.”
Trump promised early in his presidential campaign that he would not cut entitlement programs and lashed out at other GOP candidates over the issue.
“The Republicans who want to cut SS & Medicaid are wrong,” he wrote on Twitter in July 2015.
“I’m not going to cut Social Security like every other Republican, and I’m not going to cut Medicare or Medicaid,” Trump told The Daily Signal in May 2015, weeks before he launched his White House run. “Every other Republican is going to cut, and even if they wouldn’t, they don’t know what to do because they don’t know where the money is. I do.”
As president, Trump’s budgets have called for reductions in Medicare and Medicaid spending. He proposed cutting billions of dollars from Social Security disability programs but has not suggested reducing retirement benefits.
White House spokesman Judd Deere defended Trump’s record on entitlements.
“With no benefit cuts, President Trump is keeping his commitment to the most vulnerable Americans, especially those who depend on Medicare and Social Security,” Deere said.
“His budgets have proposed more savings to mandatory programs than any president in history, including lowering drug costs, eliminating waste, fraud and abuse and getting people off welfare and back to work,” he said.