GOP Senate nominee Tim Sheehy falsely accuses Sen. Jon Tester of cutting Social Security
Tester has been endorsed for reelection by Social Security Works PAC as ‘one of our greatest Social Security champions.’
Montana Republican U.S. Senate nominee Tim Sheehy and the National Republican Senatorial Committee are falsely accusing incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of cutting Social Security and Medicare.
In a joint campaign ad shared on Aug. 21 by Punchbowl News, a person identified as a Billings resident endorses Sheehy’s candidacy: “For 50 years, I worked and paid into Social Security and Medicare, but Joe Biden and the Democrat politicians have raided the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Jon Tester is one of the worst. Tester supported huge cuts to Social Security while spending our money on benefits for illegal immigrants.”
The ad does not cite any sources for the claims. Neither the Sheehy campaign nor the NRSC immediately responded to a request for comment for this story.
Tester has not voted for any cuts to Medicare or Social Security benefits. Republicans have previously lied about the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which Tester backed, falsely framing provisions that save Medicare hundreds of billions of dollars through negotiations to lower prescription drug costs as cuts to the program. PolitiFact debunked that claim in July, noting that experts said the savings will benefit both the government and Medicare enrollees.
Tester’s campaign site issues page includes a section touting his work in support of older Americans that says, “Jon is Montana’s leading champion to protect and bolster Medicare and Social Security, and he will never stop fighting for Montana seniors and to protect the earned benefits that provide a dignified retirement.”
Sheehy says on his own campaign site: “We must keep our commitment to every Montana senior to protect their Social Security and Medicare benefits. Our nation made a promise to our seniors, and I will fight each and every day to honor that promise and preserve the benefits they’ve earned.”
In August 2023, however, he was recorded at an event telling attendees: “Our hospitals have been built around federal health care subsidies. So in my opinion, we need to return health care to pure privatization.” Sheehy claimed in the remarks, posted online by Semafor, that the system functioned before health insurance, when people paid for medical care entirely out of pocket.
Total privatization of the health care system would mean the elimination of Medicare and Medicaid. Hundreds of thousands of Montanans receive health insurance coverage through those programs.
The claim that Tester spent funds on Medicare or Social Security benefits for undocumented immigrants is also false, as they are already barred from accessing the programs under federal law.
Tester earned 100% ratings from the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare on the nonpartisan nonprofit’s 2022, 2020, and 2018 scorecards, indicating consistent support for the programs.
Social Security Works PAC, the campaign arm of an advocacy group that works to protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, endorsed Tester’s reelection in March.
“Senator Tester is one of our greatest Social Security champions,” said Social Security Works president Jon Bauman in a press release featured on Tester’s website. “He has said that even entertaining the prospect of cutting Social Security or Medicare is a slap in the face to everyone who has earned those benefits throughout their lifetimes, and he has always voted that way as well.”
In February 2022, then-NRSC chair Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott proposed a “Rescue America” plan that called for the automatic expiration of all federal programs, including Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, every five years. Tester opposed that proposal; Sheehy donated $4,700 to the NRSC that October.
