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Democrats Misleadingly Claim ‘Republicans’ Plan’ Would ‘End’ Social Security, Medicare By Robert Farley - FactCheck.org Posted on April 29, 2022 As part of his plan to downsize the federal government, Republican Sen. Rick Scott says he wants all federal legislation to “sunset” in five years, and “[i]f a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” Well, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were all created by legislation. And now Democrats are saying Republicans want to end those programs. But Scott, who is chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, says he doesn’t want to end those programs, and he doesn’t know any Republican legislators who do. Rather, Scott says he wants to “review,” “fix” and “preserve” those social programs so that they are financially solvent for the long term. Scott has not detailed how exactly he wants to change the programs, and whether that might mean fewer benefits. Nonetheless, Democrats go too far in ads and social media claims that say Scott, and all Republicans by extension, want to “end” or “phase out” those popular programs. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell flatly said that, if the Republicans win control of the Senate, sunsetting Social Security and Medicare “would not be a part of our agenda.” Scott’s ’11-Point Plan’ Outlining his vision for what he thinks a Republican-controlled Congress should do after the 2022 elections, Scott in February put out “An 11-Point Plan to Rescue America.” Under Point Six, which aims to shrink the size of the federal government, Scott writes, “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.” Scott also writes that he would: “Force Congress to issue a report every year telling the public what they plan to do when Social Security and Medicare go bankrupt.” The idea of sunset provisions — which the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service defines as a “concept [that] provides for programs and agencies to terminate automatically on a periodic basis unless explicitly renewed by law” — is not new. President George W. Bush called for the creation of a federal sunset commission in his fiscal year 2006 budget, and Rep. Kevin Brady, now Republican leader of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and other Republicans in Congress have repeatedly introduced sunset commission bills, or bills that include sunset measures. Scott never specifically mentioned Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid in his call for sunsetting all federal legislation in five years, but he has acknowledged that they would be included. Scott says his aim would be to “fix,” not end, the programs. But as the New York Times wrote, it “would leave the fate of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security to the whims of a Congress that rarely passes anything so expansive.” Still, some Democratic attacks have attached wider Republican support to the plan than it appears to enjoy, and have gone too far with claims that Republicans would necessarily do away with the social safety net programs entirely. “What would they [Republicans] do if they were in the majority?” Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow said at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on March 30. “So under their plan, all federal laws sunset in five years. And of course, if you think about it, the implications of that are shocking. I mean that would mean an end to Medicare and Social Security and to Medicaid, which provides health care coverage for 86 million Americans including our seniors in nursing homes.” Other Democratic Attacks