Jacky Rosen exaggerates Sam Brown’s support for cuts to Social Security and Medicare

Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., is attacking her U.S. Senate race opponent, Republican Sam Brown, claiming that he’s backed cuts to Social Security and Medicare.

Rosen, who is running for reelection in a highly competitive race, said in an ad that Brown, a retired U.S. Army captain, supported a 2022 proposal by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that included automatically sunsetting federal legislation after five years, including Social Security and Medicare.

"Nevadans depend on Social Security and Medicare, but MAGA extremist Sam Brown is putting them at risk," a narrator says in the 30-second spot. "Sam Brown embraced sunsetting Medicare and Social Security. Sam Brown publicly supported forcing massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare and was caught on tape saying he admires the plan to phase out Social Security and Medicare in five years."

Saying Republicans want to cut Social Security and Medicare is a favorite Democratic attack line. Rosen used it in her successful 2018 run against then-Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., a claim we rated Half True.

Scott’s plan has also been a frequent target for Democrats in the past two elections. Some Republicans partly blamed Scott for Democrats’ unexpected congressional gains in the 2022 election, which may have upended his ambitions to succeed outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Democrats, at times, have exaggerated Republican support for Scott’s manifesto. FactCheck.org examined this specific Rosen ad and found it misleading.

Brown campaign spokesperson Kristy Wilkinson said in an email that Brown, who has never held elected office, does not support cutting Social Security or Medicare. 

But did Brown really call for sunsetting Social Security and Medicare as Rosen said? Let’s take a look.

Scott, then-chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, released his 11-point plan Feb. 22, 2022, as an alternative agenda to McConnell’s. The proposal included a plan that said all federal legislation sunsets in five years. 

"If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again," Scott wrote in the plan.

Democrats instantly attacked Scott and Republicans for pushing to end Social Security and Medicare. Although Scott did not specifically mention Social Security or Medicare in the plan, both are pieces of federal legislation that would theoretically sunset under his language.

We have fact-checked multiple claims from Democrats about Scott’s plan and typically found them misleading. That includes a March 22, 2022, claim by Democrats we rated Mostly False for describing the plan as the Senate Republicans’ plan rather than Scott’s alone.

Scott eventually revised the plan in February 2023 to include a note saying his call to sunset federal legislation was never intended to apply to Social Security or Medicare.

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The Rosen ad cites an Aug. 2, 2024, article from American Journal News saying Brown praised Scott for creating the original plan. 

The American Journal News is a liberal media outlet that receives funding from the American Bridge 21st Century Foundation, a political action committee founded by David Brock, a political consultant closely aligned with 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. The foundation specializes in opposition research against Republicans.

The article cites Brown’s comments during his 2022 Senate run, captured in a recording, to the Spring Mountain Republican Women in Las Vegas two days after Scott released his plan. 

Responding to a question about McConnell’s leadership and which senators he admired most, Brown mentioned Scott for his work on the plan.

"I think I appreciate that he is trying to look forward, he is trying to cast a positive vision," Brown said. "One of the things, I think, that some of the Republican Party leaders have failed at is we have become labeled — and sometimes we do this to ourselves — is we become the party of 'No. Oh, no, we're not going to do that.’ We're the party of just rejecting policy instead of the party of projecting ideas. What Rick Scott has done, attempting to create a roadmap for a better America, is something that I admire as well."

Brown never mentions specifics or outright endorses Scott’s plan in the recording.

Rosen spokeswoman Johanna Warshaw said there had already been ample news coverage of the potential impacts of Scott’s plan to Social Security and Medicare when Brown made his comments.

Warshaw also pointed to Brown’s support for broader federal cuts, such as those called for in a balanced budget amendment, as evidence that he supports cutting Social Security and Medicare.

In February, Brown backed a 2018 plan from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., that called for a 1% cut to federal spending across the board to balance the budget, according to a July 2024 article from the Nevada Current, a nonprofit news site. Although Paul described the mix of cuts and spending freezes as minimal — around $13 billion — the Washington Post Fact Checker found that description misleading, noting it did not account for increased participation in Social Security and Medicare as baby boomers retire. The Fact Checker report said that when accounting for factors such as increased population and inflation, Paul’s proposed cuts totaled trillions of dollars.

Brown told the Current he supported a balanced budget amendment and thought Paul’s proposal was "a very reasonable place to start." 

Then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised a vote on a bill in 2023 balancing the budget within 10 years. McCarthy said he did not want cuts to defense, Social Security and Medicare, but an analysis from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget found excluding those programs for cuts would mean reducing the rest of the budget by 85%. Including them would still mean cutting Social Security and Medicare by 25% to reach a balanced budget.

Despite economists’ questions on how Congress could feasibly balance the budget without cutting Social Security or Medicare, Brown told the Current he did not support cuts to Social Security or Medicare. Brown said the same in an Aug. 26, 2024, YouTube video released after the Rosen ad began airing, adding he thought Social Security income should not be taxed.

Rosen said, "Sam Brown publicly supported forcing massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare and was caught on tape saying he admires the plan to phase out Social Security and Medicare in five years."

Brown never said he supported Scott’s plan, only that he admired Scott’s trying to articulate a vision for the Republican Party.

Brown has also said he specifically does not want to cut Social Security or Medicare, but there is some truth to Rosen’s claim that Brown supported across-the-board cuts to federal agencies through a balanced budget amendment. Balancing the federal budget is not as simple as it sounds and the balanced budget plan Brown supported would almost guarantee cuts to Social Security and Medicare. 

We rate the claim Mostly False.