Democratic ad misleads on Kari Lake’s support for Social Security and Medicare

In the Arizona Senate race, Democrats are attacking Republican nominee Kari Lake’s stance on funding Social Security and Medicare, arguing that Lake would put the programs at risk. 

"Kari Lake is threatening Social Security and Medicare, taking the benefits we earned," a Facebook and Instagram ad from WinSenate, a Democratic political action committee, said. 

According to Meta’s Ad Library, the ad started running Oct. 24. We previously fact-checked WinSenate in October for a different claim about the Pennsylvania Senate race.

This claim about Lake needs context. 

On one hand, Lake has vowed to not touch funding for Social Security and Medicare, according to reporting from The Arizona Republic. She also said she will "never vote to reduce or hurt Social Security" during an Association of Mature American Citizens forum in May. 

At the same event, however, she proposed overhauling the federal budget. 

"I think we can slash the federal government by 50%. Most of it is grossly overweighted with employees that are doing nothing," Lake said.

In July, Lake raised her proposed budget cuts to "50% to 75%" in remarks to the Payson Tea Party in northern Arizona, according to the Payson Roundup, a local news outlet. Later that month, Lake won the Republican primary to face off against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego. 

It’s unclear whether Lake meant that 50% to 75% cut to refer to the entire federal budget, or everything left over after retaining Social Security. Lake’s campaign did not respond to PolitiFact’s multiple requests to clarify her position.

In 2023, the federal budget was about $6.1 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Of that, Social Security accounts for about 14%, with Medicare accounting for an additional 21%. So, if she meant cutting 50% to 75% of the entire federal budget, it would be hard to avoid cutting one or both programs.

Even if she intended to protect Social Security in full and cut 50% to 75% of everything else, then those cuts would be massive. The discretionary part of the budget, which doesn’t include mandatory programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, exceeds $1.7 trillion, roughly half for defense programs and half for everything else the government does.

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Steve Ellis, the president of nonprofit budget watchdog Taxpayers for Common Sense, said in an emailed statement that "it’s hard to see the math work" for Lake’s proposal.

"If she was talking about cutting the primary deficit by those percentages, it would still be a big leap, but something that could be done with hard choices on both the spending and revenue side," Ellis said. 

A pro-Democratic groupsaid Lake "is threatening Social Security and Medicare." 

Lake has said on several occasions that she won’t cut the two programs. 

However, she has called for a 50% to 75% reduction in the federal budget, without specifying how that fits with her intention to protect Social Security. At the high end of that range, Social Security and Medicare funding would be at risk for cuts. 

We rate this Half True.