Election season can be a stressful time of year. At some point in our lives we’ve all experienced it. You know, those friendly discussions that turn into political debates where hyper emotions get tossed around and directed toward us by friends and loved ones alike. Politicians do this with exceptional rigor and finesse, competing to win over our hearts and minds.
But Democrats take things to the next level, a much lower level, with their outright lies and dangerous scare tactics involving one of the most critical programs in American history. With so much at stake for President Joe Biden and the Washington liberal class so desperately trying to cling to power, and the livelihoods of Americans hanging in the balance, Democrats flat out lied to voters before the 2022 midterm election, about social security, entitlements and a lot of other things, in their thirst for power. Here are some of the things Democrats said on the campaign trail, their motivations, and how Republicans fought back.
Long regarded as the “third rail” of national politics, politicians have for decades experienced first hand the perils of rocking the social security boat and the seniors on board. Regardless of the merits lacking in their arguments, Democrats tried to paint Republicans as quick to throw grandma over the cliff. Democrats early on sought to push the false “Republicans are going to cut your medicare” narrative. A press release from Rep. John Larson (D-CT) on August 5, 2022, three months out from election day, reprinted an opinion piece originally published in Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post and was equally entitled “Republicans are coming after social security, Democrats take note.”
“Your Social Security you paid for your whole life is on the ballot,” President Biden declared weeks before election day at a virtual fundraiser for a House Democrat. This wasn’t a one-off, it was a central theme of President Biden and Congressional Democrats’ claims that the popular program “is on the chopping block” as they sought to retain control of Congress.
One of six different campaign ads backed by $8.6 million in spending from Democrat Jon Fetterman’s Senate campaign said, “Mehmet Oz, the man with nine houses, just doesn’t care,” despite Oz saying during a live televised debate that he doesn’t want to end popular programs as Fetterman falsely claims.
Mere days before election day, Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer reported on the left’s lies and Republican efforts to push back. Any political observer of the last two or more decades will recount this is not the first election cycle that Democrats have told voters that Republicans want to cut Social Security.
“Without fail during a tough election season, Democrats bring up Social Security,” Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler wrote in a 2020 analysis. Blitzer reflected on how in 2020 Kessler “awarded the Biden campaign Four Pinocchios for an ad in which they said that then-President Donald Trump would cut Social Security. Kessler took the campaign to task for basing their assertion on ‘a plan that does not currently exist.’”
“It is understandable that Democrats will use whatever is available to get people to fear the election of Republicans,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum President, told Bloomberg . “I think this is playing the fear card.”
President Biden didn’t only mislead Americans about Republicans were planning to do with entitlements, but he mislead them on his own record. A now-deleted tweet from the official White House twitter account on November 1 claimed, “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.” While the increase is true, what it fails to mention is that social security payments are tied to the federal cost of living adjustment or COLA, which is tied to inflation, which hit a 40-year high of 9% last year thanks to President Biden and Washington Democrats’ reckless out of control spending. I guess the president thought Americans would fall for this baloney.
Biden and Washington Democrats knew that record-high inflation, a baby formula shortage, over $5 a gallon gasoline, out of control housing and food costs, and the larger recessionary environment was going to turnout voters in favor of Republicans. People were rightly pointing to massive Democrat passed tax-and-spend bills totalling over $6 trillion dollars as adding fuel to the recession fire. As the campaign heated up with each passing day, the scare tactics took center stage, backed by over $50 million of advertisements on TV, radio, and the internet over five weeks leading up to election day in order to spread fear. Republicans should be ready to face these and even more extravagant lies in 2024, and take preventative steps to ensure that the party stays on message and doesn’t give the other side an inch of cover to push their propaganda.
Bob Carlstrom is President of AMAC Action
