Paul Brandus

Opinion columnist

Some of President Donald Trump’s lies fall into what I call the “yeah, right” category. Like saying he doesn’t have time to watch TV, or how, as a candidate, he said he'd be too busy working to play golf. Yeah, right. Others are cringeworthy and delusional, like the time he described himself as “like, really smart” and “a very stable genius.”

But then there are presidential lies that affect you personally, right in the wallet. During a brief session with reporters in the Oval Office this month, Trump was swamped by questions about Bob Woodward’s book “Fear” – and he impulsively grabbed onto the oddest of lifejackets: Social Security and Medicare. Here’s what he said:

“We’re saving Social Security. The Democrats will destroy Social Security. We’re saving Medicare. The Democrats want to destroy Medicare. If you look at what they’re doing, they’re going to destroy Medicare. And we will save it. We will keep it going. We’re making it stronger. We’re making Social Security stronger.”

Trump has weakened Social Security, Medicare

It’s the kind of sound bite that Trump’s supporters, cult-like, automatically believe.The truth is that Trump has been president for just 20 months, but Social Security and Medicare have both gotten worse on his watch. And his own actions — and those of his fellow Republicans in the House and Senate — are to blame. Don’t take my word for it. Even his own advisers say so.

First some background, starting with Social Security. Last year, this Goliath of a program served 61 million Americans, with the vast majority — 51 million — covered by the Old Age and Survivors Trust Fund, and another 10 million by the Disability Trust Fund. Total cost to taxpayers in 2017: a whopping $952 billion.

Trump says he has bolstered Social Security? The old age and survivors fund will begin paying out more than it takes in by fiscal year 2022, which starts three years from now. From there, it’s a fast, slippery slope to 2034, when the fund’s $2.8 trillion reserves are gone. What happens then? Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who is also the government’s chief Social Security Trustee, acknowledges that monthly checks to tens of millions of Americans will have to be slashed 21 percent in 2034 unless something is done. When Trump took office, the insolvency date was 2035.

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To be fair, the much smaller part of Social Security — the Disability Trust Fund — is in better shape. Thanks to a drop in the number of people claiming benefits, its insolvency date has been extended four years. But the big enchilada — the old age fund — is weaker, not stronger.

Of course, Social Security has always been something of a pyramid scheme, relying on younger workers paying into the system to support retirees via a payroll tax. So how has Trump made it worse? The report from Mnuchin and the other trustees blames a series of steps that have reduced money coming in: the tax cut law, lower than expected wage increases, and Trump’s killing of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that has allowed hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants to live and work here legally. All of these, in the aggregate, have made a wobbly program even less stable.

Trump blames Democrats for his own damage

As for Medicare — a gigantic health insurance program that gobbled up $591 billion in federal spending last year — the financial day of reckoning is approaching even faster. When Trump took over, Medicare’s core program (“Part A”) wasn't due to run out of money until 2029. But the Medicare Trustees (including Mnuchin) now say Part A will run out of money by 2026.

Thus in Trump’s 20 months on the job, it has lost 36 months of solvency. The chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Paul Spitalnic, cites both tax cuts and lower than expected wage growth.

What’s amazing here is that Republicans control the House, Senate and White House; they’ve inflicted damage on these programs — programs you’ll one day rely on if you don’t already — and yet Trump is sounding the alarm about Democrats.

There hasn’t been a serious effort to bolster Social Security and Medicare since the failed “grand bargain” between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans in 2011.

If Trump wants to step up, he can work with lawmakers to take one or more of the following steps: raise the full retirement age (now 67), trim benefits, require higher income people to pay more, and bring in more money from workers by raising the cap on income subject to the payroll tax.

These options mean pain for voters, and that’s why Trump is the the latest in a long line of politicians who can’t or won’t act. The only difference: He lies and says everything's great. The joke will soon be on us.

Paul Brandus, founder and White House bureau chief of West Wing Reports, is the author of "Under This Roof: The White House and the Presidency" and a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @WestWingReport