Republican lawmakers push back after Biden says GOP wants to cut Social Security, Medicare: 'Dishonest move'

GOP senators on Wednesday pushed back against President Biden’s assertion that Republicans want to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 

The president rallied a group of union workers near Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday as part of a post-State of the Union blitz to tout his administration’s economic achievements. 

During the speech, Biden targeted "leading Republicans" like Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, and Mike Lee of Utah. The president read a brochure from Scott’s campaign which called for federal spending legislation to sunset in five years, subject to votes in Congress that could preserve programs. 

"This is clearly and obviously an idea aimed at dealing with all the crazy new laws our Congress has been passing of late," Scott later said. "Joe Biden is confused … to suggest that this means I want to cut Social Security or Medicare is a lie, and is a dishonest move… from a very confused President."  

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"Does he think I also intend to get rid of the U.S. Navy? Or the border patrol? Or air traffic control, maybe? This is the kind of fake, gotcha BS that people hate about Washington. I’ve never advocated cutting Social Security or Medicare and never would," Scott said. 

At other points in Biden’s Wednesday speech, the president accused Sens. Ron Johnson and Mike Lee of wanting to phase out Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. 

"President Biden is lying about me. He lied last night, and he lied again today. I never suggested putting Medicare & Social Security on the chopping block," Johnson said. 

The Republican senator noted that Biden himself, as a senator back in the 1970s, put forward a bill requiring all federal programs to sunset after four years. When pushing his bill as a senator, Biden said "it requires every program to be looked at freshly at least once every four years." 

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Biden doubled down on his legislation in the ‘90s, saying on the Senate floor that his bill would affect Social Security. 

"When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security, as well," Biden said. "I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits." 

"I meant every single solitary thing in the federal government," he said. "And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time." 

Johnson insisted that he wanted to "save these programs."

"I have simply pointed out the greatest threat to these programs is out-of-control debt and deficits," he said. "We need a process to prioritize spending and decease our deficits."  

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has insisted that cuts to Medicare and Social Security are "off the table" — and many House and Senate Republicans vehemently agreed during Biden's State of the Union address, some shouting "liar!" as he suggested they were proposing reductions.

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But it's unclear what Republicans will demand instead of entitlement cuts as they leverage the upcoming negotiations to extract federal spending reductions. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.