Slate gives Jim Newell the headline, “Republicans Are Angry at Joe Biden for Accurately Describing Plan to Sunset Social Security.” I don’t think that’s why they’re mad.
Here’s the passage in question from the State of the Union address:
So my — many of — some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage — I get it — unless I agree to their economic plans. All of you at home should know what those plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans — some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.
Newell, like a lot of reporters, points out that some Republicans have indeed proposed to sunset those programs, at least by implication. Senator Rick Scott (R., Fla.), who ran the party’s Senate campaign committee last year, proposed sunsetting all federal programs.
What Biden was saying was not just that some Republicans want to sunset Social Security and Medicare, which would be an entirely fair shot, even if “a tiny number” would have been more precise than “some.” He was saying that some Republicans “want to take the economy hostage” to force the sunsetting of these programs: that they refuse to raise the debt ceiling unless Social Security and Medicare are sunsetted. Senator Scott has not said that; I’m unaware of any Republican who has.