An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics have said.
The reconciliation bill – which the president called the “one big, beautiful bill” before signing it on Friday after Republicans in Congress passed it – includes provisions that will strip people of their health insurance, cut food assistance for the poor, kill off clean energy development and raise the national debt by trillions of dollars.
But the bill also “eliminates federal income taxes on social security benefits for most beneficiaries, providing relief to individuals and couples”, the previously apolitical SSA stated in an email circulated on Thursday.
Frank Bisignano, the commissioner of the agency, said in a statement that nearly 90% of social security beneficiaries will no longer pay federal income taxes on their benefits.
“This is a historic step forward for America’s seniors,” Bisignano said. “By significantly reducing the tax burden on benefits, this legislation reaffirms President Trump’s promise to protect social security and helps ensure that seniors can better enjoy the retirement they’ve earned.”
However, the spending bill does not actually eliminate federal taxes on social security due to the rule constraints of passing a bill this way – through the reconciliation process, to avoid a Democratic filibuster.
Instead, the legislation provides a temporary tax deduction of up to $6,000 for people aged 65 and older, and $12,000 for married seniors. These benefits will start to phase out for those with incomes of more than $75,000 and married couples of more than $150,000 a year.
Previous SSA officials said that the Trump administration’s framing of the bill was misleading. “People are like: ‘Is this real? Is this a scam?’ Because it’s not what they signed up for,” Kathleen Romig, a former senior adviser at the SSA during the Biden administration, told CNN.
“It doesn’t sound like normal government communications, official communications. It sounds like – you know – partisan.”
Jeff Nesbit, who served as a top SSA official under Republican and Democratic presidents, posted on X: “The agency has never issued such a blatant political statement. The fact that Trump and his minion running SSA has done this is unconscionable.”
The New Jersey representative Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House’s energy and commerce committee, wrote on X that “every word” of the SSA’s email on Thursday “is a lie”.
“This big, ugly bill doesn’t change that,” Pallone wrote. “It’s disturbing to see Trump hijack a public institution to push blatant misinformation.”