WGAL checks claim made in Stelson ad targeting Perry’s stance on Social Security
WGAL is continuing its Get the Facts: Ad Watch series, checking claims made in political ads. WGAL News 8 Today anchor Matt Barcaro checks an ad in the state’s 10th Congressional District race between Congressman Scott Perry and Janelle Stelson.
This ad is from Stelson’s campaign, criticizing Perry’s position on Social Security.
Here’s the first claim:
Ad: “Scott Perry wrote on his website that he wants to cut our Social Security benefits, raise our Social Security taxes, and make me work until I’m 69. So, he wants me to pay more but get less when I retire.”
So where does this claim come from?
If you look at the video in the ad, the website the claim refers to is Scott Perry’s campaign website, but from 2016.
We found the page in an internet archive, and, yes, he wrote in 2016 that he proposed “a combined mix of benefit reductions and tax increases, along with increasing the retirement age to 69 to ensure the solvency of Social Security for generations to come.”
Again, that was 10 years ago.
We asked the Perry campaign if Perry still supports raising the retirement age to 69.
The campaign sent us a statement about Social Security, but it did not answer that specific question.
Perry’s position on Social Security on his current campaign website is quite general, saying he would “preserve and protect” the program.
His official government website says he supports “responsible” and “comprehensive” reforms to protect Social Security, without giving details. We’ll get back to this. But we want to get to another part of the claim in the ad.
Ad: “So he wants me to pay more but get less when I retire.”
The Stelson campaign defends this part of the claim by citing a vote Perry took in Congress in 2015. He voted for a budget plan that, among other changes, would have gradually increased the retirement age for Social Security to 70 and reduced benefits for what it called “wealthy earners,” though the bill said the changes would not “involve reductions in earned Social Security benefits.”
The plan did not ultimately become law.
The Stelson campaign says that by voting for this, Perry wanted to raise the retirement age. Therefore, people would have to work longer and pay into Social Security longer, while missing out on benefits for the additional year they would have to work.
So, as you saw here, the Stelson campaign uses campaign language and a vote from more than 10 years ago as the basis for these claims.
We can go back just two years, though, to hear Perry say what he thinks about the retirement age.
It was during a debate between Stelson and Perry when they first ran against each other in 2024.
Stelson brought up Perry’s old campaign website, which mentioned raising the retirement age for Social Security.
In the debate, Perry did not reject the idea, saying reforming Social Security would take a bipartisan solution in which both sides would have to give.
“You can see that in 2016, it was a long time ago, but we weren’t talking about changing benefits for beneficiaries or people who were about to be beneficiaries. It was going to have to start much earlier, and you’re going to have to be willing to compromise. Lastly, so we might be raising the retirement age? It might be part of the compromise, right?” he said.
So, you heard: Just two years ago, he agreed that raising the retirement age might be on the table.
With all that in mind, here’s how we rate the main claim in this campaign ad:
Did Perry say on his website that he wanted to cut Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 69? Yes, that’s true.
We showed you the website from 2016 and gave you the context that Perry said those at or near retirement would not see benefit changes, but those farther from retirement might.
And his campaign has not given us any statements to show that his position on that has changed.
We’re also checking an ad from Perry’s campaign against Stelson, and we’ll have that Ad Watch report Wednesday on WGAL News 8 at 6 p.m.