Harris claims Trump win would be 'catastrophic' for Social Security, but first term tells different tale

Vice President Kamala Harris criticized former President Trump's proposal to eliminate income taxes on Social Security benefits during a campaign stop on Monday, citing a nonpartisan budget report that claimed Trump's plan would "dramatically worsen Social Security's finances."

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a nonpartisan policy think tank, published a report Monday claiming Trump's plans to "eliminate taxation of Social Security benefits, end taxes on tips and overtime, impose tariffs, and expand deportations would all widen Social Security's cash deficits."

"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," Harris said during a campaign stop in Michigan Monday. "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."

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If elected, the policy think tank also found that Social Security's cash shortfall could increase by $2.3 trillion through 2035. This change would push the program's insolvency date up from 2034 to 2031, meaning the next president will need to deal with this issue sooner than expected. If these changes happen, people could face a 33% cut in their benefits by 2035, compared to a 23% cut projected earlier, the report noted.

Additionally, the annual shortfall is expected to rise by about 50% in 2035, going from 3.6% to 4% of payroll. To fix the long-term funding issues for Social Security, the report suggests there would either need to be benefit cuts by one-third or revenue increases of about 50%.

But a former Trump administration adviser who worked on Social Security policy told Fox News Digital in an interview that "what the Biden Harris folks are doing to mismanage the agency is bleeding money in over payments."