President Donald Trump vowed Wednesday that his administration is "not going to touch" entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but didn't rule out that spending cuts can come through rooting out fraud and waste in the programs.
"We are going to look for fraud," Trump said during the first cabinet meeting of his second administration, reports CNN. "I'm sure you're okay with that."
He also pointed to reports alleging that "illegal aliens and other criminals" are collecting Social Security payments and to "people that are 200 years old that are being sent checks."
His promise came after House Republicans passed their budget blueprint, including plans to cut $880 billion over the next 10 years from federal programs for health and energy.
Many experts, however, have warned that such deep cuts can't be made without cutting back on the entitlement programs, and there is no evidence that rooting out fraud can recoup the billions of dollars being sought, reports CNN.
Trump has often promised that the entitlement programs would not be touched, and last summer while he was running for the White House promised to end taxes on Social Security benefits.
The Social Security tax was signed into law in 1983 by then-President Ronald Reagan with the intention of strengthening the program's trust fund.
The law allows up to 50% of a recipient's Social Security benefits to be taxed if that person's income falls between $25,000 and $34,000, and when the person's income is over $34,000, up to 85% of it can be taxed.
The Republican Party platform, approved last summer and written in part by Trump, prohibits cutting Social Security or Medicare and rules out hiking the age for retirement.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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