White House Social Security Tweet Doesn't Land Well

It's deleted after giving Biden credit for increase made necessary by inflation
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 3, 2022 2:56 PM CDT
White House Social Security Tweet Doesn't Land Well
President Biden speaks about threats to democracy ahead of next week's midterm elections Wednesday at the Columbus Club in Union Station, near the US Capitol in Washington.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The White House has deleted a tweet about Social Security after coming under all kinds of ridicule. As NBC News reports, the original tweet boasted that seniors received the biggest increase in payments in a decade thanks to "President Biden's leadership." But as many on Twitter were quick to point out, that increase was necessitated by surging inflation, not Biden policy, per the New York Times. After the tweet went up Tuesday, so many critics weighed in that Twitter added a "context" note linking to an explainer about Social Security increases as required under a 1972 law, reports Politico.

“Look, the tweet was not complete,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday, after the White House took down the post. “Usually when we put out a tweet, we post it with context, and it did not have that context.” For example, Jean-Pierre said the tweet didn't point out that Medicare premiums decreased as the Social Security payments increased. "This means that seniors will have a chance to get ahead of inflation due to the rare combination of rising benefits and falling premiums," she said.

Though the original tweet is down, you can see it in other tweets such as this one, with author Kate Davidson of Politico declaring, "This is embarrassing." The Times, meanwhile, points out that Biden himself has made a similar boast on the campaign trail lately. “On my watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security checks," he said in Florida. (In a speech Wednesday, Biden argued that democracy is at stake ahead of next week's midterms.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X