Trump flunks test on Social Security basics amid larger debate

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Amid a larger debate over Social Security, Medicare and the Republican agenda, Donald Trump still doesn’t quite understand how the programs work.

Link to tweet

To be sure, I understand the larger political context. Trump is running on an anti-immigrant platform; he realizes that Social Security and Medicare are popular; so he’s eager to connect the dots, telling voters that migrants are undermining the programs.

But they’re not. That doesn’t make any sense. As a Washington Post fact-check report noted, the presumptive Republican nominee has reality backwards.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell if Trump thinks carefully before wording his social media posts. He wanted to defend his position on Social Security and at the same time knock President Biden for the migrant surge at the border. But 2 + 2 does not equal 5. Undocumented immigrants improve the health of Social Security and Medicare by paying payroll taxes without receiving benefits.

It’s really not that complicated. When employers hire undocumented workers, many of whom rely on fraudulent Social Security numbers, the businesses subtract payroll taxes that go toward the Social Security and Medicare systems. Those workers, however, will not receive Social Security and Medicare benefits — because they’re ineligible — which means each of those employees is inadvertently strengthening the programs’ finances: They’re putting money into the system without taking anything out.

(Why would they do that? Because even after the payroll taxes are subtracted, these workers believe they’ll make more money than they would in the countries they left behind.)

If Trump were to implement a mass deportation program, and succeeded in removing millions of undocumented workers, that would weaken Social Security’s and Medicare’s finances.

All of which is to say, the question isn’t just whether Republicans will successfully undermine the programs, the question is also why their presidential nominee still doesn’t understand how the programs work.

[dchill]

1. He doesn't have to understand it:

The people he wants to believe it already do.

[tanyev]

2. "Sometimes it's hard to tell if Trump thinks carefully before wording his social media posts."

Is it, WAPO? Is it really?

[senseandsensibility]

3. Well, he doesn't understand anything

but this is actually something that lots of people don't understand. It's very interesting. But, unfortunately, anything that's not black/white, we're good/they're bad is not going to penetrate maga skulls. The most we can hope for is that our side gets it.