Fact Check: Analyzing the Impact of Senator Rick Scott's Rescue America Plan on Medicare and Social Security

President Biden recently tweeted about how Florida Senator Rick Scott’s 12-Point Rescue American Plan will put “Medicare and Social Security” on the chopping block. This is somewhat true; the Plan calls for all federal legislation to be reviewed every 5 years, with Congress deciding if the legislation should be renewed or not, including Medicare and Social Security.

In a tweet on September 13th, President Biden posted about how Florida Senator Rick Scott’s Rescue America plan will put Medicare and Social Security “on the chopping block” in a response to another tweet from the Senator about the plan.

Medicare and Social Security are pieces of federal legislation that were established by the Social Security Act. Medicare is a federal health insurance program that serves people who are 65 and older, certain younger people with disabilities, and people with end-stage renal disease. It consists of four parts - A, B, C, and D - which cover hospital services, medical services, extra benefits that Original Medicare doesn’t cover, and prescription drugs.

Social Security is another federal program that provides benefits to retired workers, disabled workers and their dependents, and survivors of deceased workers. The program is funded by Social Security taxes, which are paid into a trust and disbursed to beneficiaries, and it serves more than 63 million Americans.

Under Senator Scott’s Rescue America plan, Congress would need to vote to re-approve all federal legislation every five years or the legislation would become inactive. This would include Medicare and Social Security. The Rescue America plan does not have a high likelihood of getting passed because Senator Mitch McConnell, the current Senate minority leader, stated that if Republicans take control of the Senate after the midterm elections in November 2022, he will become the Senate majority leader once again, and “a bill that sunsets Social Security and Medicare within five years…will not be a part of the Republican Senate majority agenda.”

While Social Security and Medicare aren’t sure to be defunct under Senator Scott’s plan, the continuation of these programs would become uncertain if Senator Scott garners enough support from other Republicans because Congress would need to affirmatively vote to keep them every five years. Based on that context, President Biden’s claim that these programs would be “on the chopping block” under Senator Scott’s plan is somewhat true.