A White House tweet taking credit for the upcoming big cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security benefits has drawn a clarification from Twitter, along with criticism from Republicans.
“Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership,” the White House said in a tweet on Tuesday afternoon.
Twitter has appended a note to that post on its service, pointing out that the large benefit increase is an automatic adjustment that’s based on the rate of inflation and required by law. That added context about the 2023 COLA of 8.7% is shown below.
Republican lawmakers also have responded to the White House’s tweet, as it gives them another chance to argue that President Joe Biden’s policies, such as March 2021’s stimulus package, have contributed to raging U.S. inflation.
“Next year’s Social Security increase will be one of the largest in decades b/c of Biden’s disastrous policies, which have caused prices to rise, fueled record inflation, & cut it into critical retirement savings,” tweeted GOP Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York.
Republicans look poised to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives in Tuesday’s midterm elections, and they’re increasingly favored to win the Senate as well, after having seized on high prices for gasoline
RB00,
and other essentials in their campaigns.
See: Republicans have over 70% chance of winning Senate in midterm elections, betting markets say
And read: Here’s what the midterm elections could mean for the financial sector, energy, healthcare and more
Plus: If this seat flips red, Republicans will have ‘probably won a relatively comfortable House majority’
Twitter is now controlled by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla
TSLA,
and SpaceX. He completed his takeover of the social-networking service last week, and he has been hinting about charging $8 per month for a verified account and saying blocked users such as former President Donald Trump won’t be allowed back until there’s a process in place.
DJIA,
lost ground Wednesday, as traders braced for another big interest-rate hike from the Federal Reserve as the central bank tries to tame inflation. The S&P 500 is down 20% this year.
