Sunday night was a vastly different debate than any other in the 2020 Democratic primaries. The field was whittled down to just the two candidates—Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and former vice president Joe Biden—with no audience present at CNN’s studio in Washington, DC. (Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is also still running but has secured a single delegate and didn’t make the Democratic National Committee’s new debate qualifications.)
The first half hour of the two-hour debate was relatively calm, with Biden and Sanders debating the differences their proposed health policies would make with the current coronavirus pandemic. But things became heated when Sanders asked Biden a question of his own: “Let me ask you a question, Joe. You’re right here with me. Have you been on the floor of the Senate—you were in the Senate for a few years—time and time again, talking about the necessity—with pride!—about cutting Social Security, cutting Medicare, cutting veterans programs?”
“No,” Biden said.
“You never said that?” Sanders asked.
“No.”
“Alright,” Sanders said, turning away from Biden and to the camera, “America, go to the website right now, go to the YouTube right now.”
In 1984, then senator Biden decried the Ronald Reagan administration for increasing the national deficit. Biden introduced a budget proposal co-sponsored with Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas that, among other things, called for a one-year freeze on Social Security spending. At the time, he said, “So, when those of my friends in the Democratic and Republican Party say to me, ‘How do you expect me to vote for your proposal? Does it not freeze Social Security COLAs for one year? Are we not saying there will be no cost-of-living increases for one year?’ The answer to that is ‘Yes, that is what I am saying.'” He added, “Within the next 12 to 18 months this country will face an economic and political crisis of extraordinary proportions if Congress refuses to take decisive action on the deficits that we face.”
In a 1995 C-SPAN clip, Biden argues in favor of proposing a balanced budget amendment, which would constitutionally bar the government from running a deficit. Biden said, “When I argued that we should freeze federal spending, I meant Social Security as well. I meant Medicare and Medicaid. I meant veterans’ benefits. I meant every single solitary thing in the government. And I not only tried it once, I tried it twice, I tried it a third time, and I tried it a fourth time.”
According to the New York Times, that proposed amendment failed in the Senate by a single vote.