Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey misleads in ad claiming rival will cut Medicare and Social Security

In Pennsylvania’s competitive U.S. Senate race, incumbent Democrat Bob Casey accused his opponent, Republican Dave McCormick, of threatening entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security.

In a recent TV ad, Casey said McCormick wants to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid funding to pay for extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Trump administration law that cut income taxes for all earners, but gave higher earners the biggest tax breaks. 

In the ad, Casey spoke directly to the camera and said McCormick has promised "the richest people in America a massive tax break."

"To pay for it, he’s made clear he’ll slash your Medicare and Social Security, and cut Medicaid for nursing home care," Casey said in the ad. 

McCormick said when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2022’s Republican primary that Social Security and Medicare needed reforms to remain solvent, but he did not call for specific measures to cut the programs’ funding. In recent interviews and debates, McCormick said he would not support any changes to Social Security and Medicare.

McCormick has also not called for cuts to Medicaid funds for nursing home care. 

He has said in 2022 and 2024 that Social Security and Medicare are not sustainable expenses in their current form. According to the programs’ annual reports, the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund — the main source of Medicare funding — is expected to be depleted by 2036, while the Social Security trust fund for retirees and survivors is expected to run out in 2035. 

To back up its claim that McCormick supports slashing Social Security and Medicare, Casey’s ad pointed to a March 2023 article from Americans for Tax Fairness, a liberal advocacy organization. 

The article argued that renewing the 2017 tax cuts would drive up the deficit, and the debt "would be used by Republicans as an excuse to significantly cut Social Security, healthcare (including Medicare and Medicaid)," and pointed to recent statements from Republican leaders supporting changes to the entitlement programs. The article didn’t mention McCormick specifically. 

Most of the 2017 tax provisions are set to expire in 2025, so the next Congress will have a major role in shaping future tax policy. McCormick has called for those tax cuts to be made permanent. If the tax cuts are extended, the federal deficit will likely grow $3.3 trillion higher over the next 10 years than it would if they were allowed to expire, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

Casey’s campaign pointed us to a statement McCormick made in 2022 when he was running in the Senate primary. He was quoted in The Daily Beast saying Social Security and Medicare "aren’t sustainable in their current form for the future of our country." 

"We have to face that reality and do two things at the same time: keep our promises to people we made them to, and change our entitlements in a way that are defensible and fundable into the future," McCormick said in the August 2022 article.

More recently, McCormick has continued to say the programs are not sustainable in the long run. He has not called for specific changes but advocated for lower federal spending generally. We reached out to McCormick's campaign about the ad's claims, but we didn't receive a response.

In an October statement to AARP, McCormick said he would not support benefits changes for "anyone near retirement (or) in retirement — frankly even well along in their careers." He said spending over the last two decades has been "out of control" and said "we’re going to have to find fiscal sanity." 

"It’s the out-of-control spending across the board that’s the driving problem, it’s not the spending from Social Security," he said in an August interview with the Williamsport Sun-Gazette. "So I wouldn’t touch Social Security."

Social Security is the federal budget’s largest spending category. In fiscal year 2024, Social Security accounted for 24% of the federal budget, and Medicare was 13%, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.  

Featured Fact-check

Tim Sheehy

stated on September 27, 2024 in an ad

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester “voted to give taxpayer-funded health care to illegal immigrants."

McCormick said he would support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which would require Congress to not spend more than it receives in revenue.

Republican leaders have pointed to the rising debt as evidence that Medicare and Social Security changes are necessary. The House Republican Study Committee, which consists of most House Republicans and leaders, released a budget proposal in March that called for increasing the retirement age over time for future beneficiaries. 

Casey’s campaign pointed us to the same Americans for Tax Fairness article, and McCormick’s statements disparaging the Affordable Care Act, as evidence that he supports cutting Medicaid funding for nursing home care. 

McCormick said in the August interview with the Williamsport Sun-Gazette that the Affordable Care Act "failed in its two primary goals" of reducing cost and enhancing access. Medicaid expansion created under the Affordable Care Act made more people eligible for nursing home care, and Casey’s campaign argued McCormick’s criticism of the law means he opposes the funding for nursing homes the law created.

McCormick also said, though, that he does not support repealing the Affordable Care Act. 

"That is the law we have, and so I would be one of those people that would be saying, ‘How do we make that law better?’" he said. 

Casey said McCormick "made clear he’ll slash your Medicare and Social Security, and cut Medicaid for nursing home care" in order to pay for extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

McCormick has called for a cut in federal spending across-the-board, but he has not called for cutting benefits for older adults to pay for the tax cuts, or for cuts to Medicaid. In interviews, he has said he would not not touch Social Security nor support benefits changes for people in or near retirement.

We rate the claim False.