‘Not on my watch’: Biden pledges to stop cuts to social security and Medicare

Joe Biden swiftly seized on Donald Trump’s suggestion that he would cut “entitlements” like social security and Medicare if re-elected, saying: “Not on my watch.”

That was in a presidential tweet. In a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Monday, Biden elaborated.

“Many of my Republican friends want to put social security and Medicare back on the chopping block again,” he said. “If anyone tries to cut social security or Medicare or raise the retirement age again, I will stop them.

“We have two ways to go at social security and Medicare. Republicans will cut social security and Medicare to give us more tax cuts for the wealthy. Even this morning, Donald Trump said cuts to social security and Medicare are on the table again …

“I’m never going to allow that to happen. I won’t cut social security. I won’t cut Medicare. Instead of … giving tax breaks to the wealthy, I will protect and strengthen social security and Medicare and make the wealthy begin to pay their fair share.”

Most US adults oppose cuts to social security and Medicare. Trump campaigned for the Republican nomination promising to protect both, an effective card to play against rivals including Nikki Haley who said cuts should be considered.

But on Monday, Trump told CNBC: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting. And in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements – tremendous bad management of entitlements – there’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do.”

He also said Democrats would “end up weakening social security because the country is weak. I mean, take a look at outside of the stock market … We’re going through hell. People are going through hell.”

One Trump spokesperson