Tempers flare after GOP senator called Biden admin for lying about Social Security entitlement

Republicans and Democrats fought Thursday in the Senate after a GOP lawmaker said it was a “lie” to say President Biden is willing to work with Congress to save Social Security.

In a Senate Finance Committee hearing with Treasury Secretary Janet YellenSen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., accused the Biden administration of an unwillingness to work with Congress to save Social Security.

Cassidy has grilled Yellen over whether any of the funds from Biden’s proposed tax increases, which the White House said will raise nearly $3 trillion, are intended to extend the solvency of the Social Security program — which is expected to last until late 2020 Financing will have more in 2037.

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Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., grilled Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on President Biden’s commitment to finding a Social Security fix. (Reuters)

Yellen told him Biden is willing to work with lawmakers to keep the program solvent. “He’s willing to work with Congress,” she said.

“That’s a lie,” Cassidy shot back. “Because if a bipartisan group of senators has repeatedly asked to meet with him on social [Security] to avoid a 24% reduction in benefits for someone who is currently a beneficiary, we did not hear of our request. And we’ve asked to meet with the President multiple times.”

That response prompted Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., to chide Cassidy for accusing Yellen of lying.

“My colleague is running out of time and I just want to warn colleagues – we have a lot of disagreements here, but accusing witnesses of lying is an overstatement,” Wyden said.

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Committee chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, pictured, interrupted Sen. Bill Cassidy when he was running out of time. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“I accept that and I didn’t mean that for the woman secretary, who is just saying what she was told, I’m saying it for empirical observation — when the President says he’s ready to meet, and he has declined multiple times…” Cassidy said before being interrupted again by the Chairman.

Wyden interrupted Cassidy to tell him again that his allotted time was up.

“Accusing witnesses of lying is an overstatement,” the Democrat reiterated.

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