Last week, the White House boasted on Twitter that, under President Biden’s leadership, seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security payments in ten years. The White House neglected to mention that this benefit increase is due to an inflation adjustment: interestingly, Biden has never once taken accountability for high inflation. After deleting the tweet, the President still peddled this lie on the campaign trail. 

The tweet read as follows:

“Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.”

Soon after it was posted, it was fact-checked by Twitter, adding necessary context to this claim: 

“Seniors will receive a large Social Security benefit increase due to the annual cost of living adjustment, which is based on the inflation rate. President Nixon in 1972 signed into law automatic benefit adjustments tied to the Consumer Price Index.”

The White House then deleted the tweet. 

However, in the week leading up to the midterm elections, President Biden continued to repeat this lie. 

At a fundraiser in Pennsylvania, Biden said, “On our watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they’ve gotten.” He repeated this statement at numerous campaign events in Illinois, New Mexico, Florida, Oregon, and California. 

The fact that Biden has taken credit for Social Security benefit increases is especially curious, as he has never once taken accountability for surging inflation. 

Since July 2021, the Biden administration has insisted this problem would go away. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen described this inflation as “transitory.” Evidently, those claims have not held up. 

Rather than admitting fault, the Biden administration has tried to blame inflation on anybody but themselves: the Russia-Ukraine war (despite inflation pre-existing the conflict by nearly a year), “out-of-date” inflation data, the pandemic, the “greed” of oil and gas companies, and shipping conglomerates. 

In reality, the administration is largely responsible for high prices. 

Some of the first actions Biden took when he began his presidency were canceling numerous energy projects and preventing new drilling leases. 

In March of his presidency, while the economy was already in recovery, Democrats passed a $1.9 trillion bill, the “American Rescue Plan,” which paid Americans not to work, created new welfare programs, and contained an obscene amount of wasteful spending—all policies that significantly drive inflation

In August, when inflation was already surging, Democrats passed the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act,” which, ironically, increases inflation. 

This bill contained substantial tax hikes including a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax, a $6.5 billion natural gas tax, a $12 billion crude oil tax, a $1.2 billion coal tax, and several more. These tax hikes will be passed on to consumers through higher prices. According to a 2020 National Bureau of Economic Research paper, 31% of the corporate tax rate is borne by consumers through higher prices of goods and services.  

Reckless spending on climate initiatives, Obamacare subsidies, and supersizing the IRS—also contained in the bill—will exacerbate inflation. The Biden administration also announced a radical plan to forgive student loan debt, extend the moratorium again, and reform repayment rules. This plan could cost up to $1 trillion, again, exacerbating inflation.

Biden is right. He is responsible for an increase in Social Security benefits. His administration and congressional allies have mismanaged the economy, leading to record inflation.