September 24,2020

Grassley Corrects Record on Dem Social Security Misinformation, Again

Washington – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today made the following comment to, once again, correct the record and call out misinformation spread by leading Congressional Democrats regarding payroll tax policy.
 
“It’s confounding that I have to keep saying this, especially after the Washington Post gave these claims Four Pinocchios, but they're just not true. Senate Democrats fabricated a policy out of whole cloth, attributed it to the President and continue to claim it will undermine Social Security. To be clear, the policy doesn’t exist, and if it did no one supports it. These false claims were repeated today in the House Ways and Means Committee, but shouldn’t have been. My colleagues in the House and Senate know better.”
 
Grassley and House Ways and Means Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Texas) received affirmation from the Chief Actuary for Social Security that there is no actual proposal like the one Senate Democrats asked him to evaluate.
 
The Washington Post fact checker also assigned the campaign of Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden four Pinocchios for spreading this misinformation in an ad, saying in reference to Biden’s Senate allies, “To make a long story short, Democrats ginned up a letter from the chief actuary to describe a plan that does not currently exist.”  
 
At a recent Senate Budget Committee hearing, Grassley also asked the Director of the nonpartisan CBO, Phill Swagel, whether the employer-side payroll tax deferral in the CARES Act or the optional employee-side payroll tax deferral associated with a recent Executive Order would have any effects on revenue going into Social Security’s trust funds. He affirmed they would not—further clarifying the record on these false Democrat claims.
 

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