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NEW: Independent Fact Checker Rates Tim Sheehy’s Lies About Jon Tester’s Social Security Record “False”
“Tim Sheehy is wrong that Jon Tester backs ‘slashing Social Security benefits’”
BILLINGS – An independent fact checker found that Tim Sheehy lied about third-generation dirt farmer Jon Tester’s Social Security record, rating Sheehy’s claim “false.”
Sheehy claimed that “Tester is the only candidate in this race who supported slashing Social Security benefits,” but PolitiFact uncovered that Sheehy “ignores Tester’s stated position of supporting Social Security as is, and his endorsement by several Social Security advocacy groups.”
Read more about Tim Sheehy’s continued lies below:
PolitiFact: Tim Sheehy is wrong that Jon Tester backs “slashing Social Security benefits”
By Louis Jacobsen
September 25, 2024
- In a Sept. 10 op-ed in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Republican candidate Tim Sheehy accused Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of endangering Social Security, which provides income security for retirees and people with disabilities.
- However, Tester’s broad support for the commission more than a decade ago is not equivalent to supporting “slashing Social Security” now; the connection is more tenuous than the Sheehy campaign portrays it.
- Tester’s campaign website calls him “Montana’s leading champion to protect and bolster Medicare and Social Security,” adding that he “will never stop fighting for Montana seniors and to protect the earned benefits that provide a dignified retirement.”
- Meanwhile, several groups that advocate for Social Security and its beneficiaries have endorsed Tester: the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, the Montana Alliance for Retired Americans and Social Security Works.
- In its endorsement, the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare — which has given Tester perfect scores for voting in line with the group’s priorities in 2018, 2020 and 2022 — said, “Let us say this about Senator Tester: Time and again, he has been a leader on seniors’ issues. He has opposed GOP efforts to privatize Social Security.”
- Sheehy cites broad favorable comments Tester has made about the Simpson-Bowles commission, which in 2010 proposed but did not execute a range of fiscal policies, including three that likely would have cut Social Security benefits.
- However, Tester’s comments generally focused on the commission’s bipartisan approach. He and his campaign said after the commission’s final report was released in 2010 that he didn’t agree with all of its proposed blueprint, including the Social Security provisions.
- Sheehy’s statement also ignores Tester’s stated position of supporting Social Security as is, and his endorsement by several Social Security advocacy groups.
- We rate the statement False.
