Kamala Harris Goes After Donald Trump's Weakness on Social Security

Kamala Harris has criticized Donald Trump's Social Security position after an independent report found his plans could accelerate the government agency's insolvency.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan public policy think tank, said in a report released on Monday that Trump's economic plans would "dramatically worsen Social Security's finances" as the government agency faces a total depletion of its trust funds that help pay benefits for tens of millions of Americans.

Altogether, through a combination of tax cuts, including eliminating levies on Social Security income, and a hardline immigration policy, the CRFB found Trump's policies would increase Social Security's 10-year cash shortfall by $2.3 trillion through fiscal year 2035 and bring forward the depletion of the trust funds to 2031. If the shortfall is not addressed, benefits could automatically be slashed by around 20 percent in 2034 under current fiscal policy.

Left: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks during a town hall campaign event at the Lancaster County Convention Center on October 20, 2024 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Right: Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice... Win McNamee/Megan Varner/GETTY

Citing the CRFB report, Harris said on a campaign stop in Michigan: "What I think most of us know is that we have many, many seniors in our country, their Social Security check is their only form of income. It's everything and the only thing they have to live on: to pay rent, groceries, all of that. So we must protect Social Security."

Speaking to CNN, the Democratic nominee said Trump is "hostile" toward "the whole notion and purpose of Social Security."

Referencing her desire to increase the minimum wage, Harris said: "From minimum wage to Social Security, Donald Trump clearly does not understand the needs of working people."

She said that if Social Security trust funds do become insolvent in six years, it would be "catastrophic."

Responding to the report, Karoline Leavitt, Trump campaign national press secretary, told Newsweek: "The so-called experts at CRFB have been consistently wrong throughout the years. President Trump delivered on his promise to protect Social Security in his first term, and President Trump will continue to strongly protect Social Security in his second term.

"The only candidate who poses a threat to the solvency of Social Security is dangerously liberal Kamala Harris—whose mass invasion of millions of illegal aliens will, if they are allowed to stay, cause Social Security to buckle and collapse."

Neither Harris nor Trump have directly addressed how they would confront the funding shortfall.

The CRFB is not alone in its assessment that Trump's policies may negatively impact the future of Social Security. Earlier this year, the Tax Foundation noted that unless a strategy is established to recover the revenue loss, Trump's Social Security taxes cut would reduce tax revenue by about $1.4 trillion from 2025 to 2034, and would "likely accelerate the insolvency of the trust funds."