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Wisconsin Watch partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.

No.

In August, Wisconsin’s incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson stated his stance in an interview that the government should make all federal spending—including budget items currently “on automatic pilot” like Medicare and Social Security—discretionary. He argued that this change would allow the government to evaluate and “fix” broken programs.

A spokesperson for Johnson elaborated his belief that “without fiscal discipline and oversight … Congress has allowed the guaranteed benefits for programs like Social Security and Medicare to be threatened” to the point whereby seniors may “question whether the programs they depend on remain solvent.”

Amid Democratic criticism, Johnson clarified in a September tweet that he wanted to “save” the programs from “massive, out-of-control deficit spending.” Johnson has expounded on an overall budgetary stance in favor of fiscal discipline and procedural reform. 

Sources

Heartland Signal: Clip from U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson’s appearance on the Regular Joe Show

USA Today: Sen. Ron Johnson calls for subjecting Medicare and Social Security to annual budget talks

Senator Ron Johnson: Tweet from September 27, 2022

WIS Facts: Get the facts: Social Security & Medicare

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Jacob Alabab-Moser joined as Wisconsin Watch’s fact checker in September 2022, as part of the effort by The Gigafact Project in partnership with different state-level news outlets to combat misinformation in the 2022 midterm elections. Jacob has several years of experience as a fact checker and research assistant at a variety of organizations, including at The Gigafact Project. He holds a BA from Brown University and is pursuing a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.