Distrust over GOP plans for Social Security, Medicare marks rocky start to budget talks

Republican leaders vowing to protect Social Security and Medicare benefits as part of the coming budget battles are running into a wall of skepticism across the aisle, lending a rocky start to the high-stakes debate over the future of federal spending.

Despite Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) promise that entitlement cuts are “off the table” in the debt-ceiling talks, House Democrats simply don’t believe that the same Republican Party that’s fought for decades to slash those programs has reversed course so drastically this year.