Embarrassing! White House deletes 'bogus claim' by Biden on 'biggest' Social Security hike

In an embarrassing moment for US President Joe Biden and the White House, social media giant, Twitter has red-flagged a "bogus claim" made by POTUS, wherein he credited himself for the biggest increase in Social Security payments. The major development came as Biden, during his last election speech in Florida, boasted his administration for the increase in Social Security payments and asserted "it will be the first major increase in the past ten years". "On our watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they’ve gotten," he said ahead of US midterm elections.

Later, the same was posted by the White House on the microblogging platform on Tuesday. Notably, neither Biden nor the White House explained the reason behind the "unusual change in policy", despite knowing the fact that the country has been facing the worst-ever inflation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. But his bogus claims were marked fake by the fact-checking mechanism of the microblogging site. It informed that there was an increase in every year of the Trump administration and the first two years of the Biden administration.

Check the actual increase in Social Security payments

The microblogging site underscored that the increase of 8.7% is the biggest in years, at least since 1981 but not due to the achievements accomplished by the Biden administration. Later, the "misleading post" was deleted by the White House on Wednesday following brutal trolling on the social media platforms. In fact, new Twitter boss, Elon Musk praised the fact-checking mechanism of the platform and said, "The community notes feature is awesome. Our goal is to make Twitter the most accurate source of information on Earth, without regard to political affiliation."

What is a COLA and how it is calculated?

According to the details updated by the SS department, the legislation enacted in 1973 provides for cost-of-living adjustments or COLAs. With COLAs, Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits keep pace with inflation. The Social Security Act specifies a formula for determining each COLA. According to the formula, COLAs are based on increases in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). CPI-Ws are calculated every month by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Image: AP/Unsplash