Trump proposed cuts, but Congress didn’t bite

As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to make no cuts to Social Security. As president, he has periodically proposed policies that would cut aspects of the program, but so far, none of them have been enacted.

Trump released a proposed budget for 2021, as he had in previous years, that advocated cutting two disability programs administered by the Social Security Administration: Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income. Collectively, the two programs serve millions of Americans. 

SSDI and SSI are separate from and smaller than the agency's main retirement income program. SSDI benefits people with physical and mental conditions that are severe enough to permanently keep them from working. It is funded by Social Security payroll taxes. Meanwhile, SSI payments are limited to low-income Americans — senior citizens, or adults or children who are disabled or blind. The payments are funded through general revenue from the Treasury.

Trump's actions very well should have earned him a Promise Broken. He tried multiple times to break his own promise. But our promise meters (often to the dismay of our readers) are about outcomes. We've gotten complaints over the years about promises that couldn't happen because they were blocked by Congress, but we repeatedly rated them on the outcome.

In this case, a Promise Broken rating would suggest that seniors had their Social Security benefits cut. But that isn't the case.

That's because Congress stopped Trump from breaking his own promise. All of this is unusual, but it still means that Social Security benefits haven't been cut. That's a Promise Kept.

This post was updated on July 24, 2020, to make clearer our process rating promises based on outcomes.