Watch a Fox News contributor refuse to accept the facts about Social Security checks and the Postal Service
After Mike Huckabee denies any Social Security checks are sent in the mail and Marie Harf corrects him, anchor Harris Faulker confirms that some are, but then declares both Harf and Huckabee to be correct
Published
Citation From the August 18, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Outnumbered
MIKE HUCKABEE (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): Here's what I don't understand. This whole thing about the Post Office now being the centerpiece of American angst? My gosh, this is nuttier than a cashew factory. I've never seen anything quite crazy as this in my life. Let me give you a couple of examples. First of all, over 14,000 mailboxes got removed during the Obama administration, because nobody was putting mail in them. They were getting less than 25 pieces of mail per day, sometimes zero pieces. So that's why a lot of them were taken out. The thought that Donald Trump is sitting around trying to make the mail slow? I mean, accuse him of some stuff, but that's ridiculous.
And the whole notion that suddenly the Post Office is the Holy Grail, I heard a Democratic congresswoman yesterday on Martha MacCallum's show, Debbie Dingell — who I think is pretty decent — but she made a comment yesterday that I thought, “How did she get into Congress and stay there without knowing this?” She was saying all the constituents she has that aren't getting their Social Security checks on time. A Social Security check hasn't been in the U.S. mail since 2013. It's all direct deposit. There are no Social Security checks that are going out, and if you don't
MARIE HARF (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): That's not true, governor.
HUCAKBEE: No, go to Medicare.org, look it up —
HARF: Over 500,000 Americans got their Social Security checks this month. Over 500,000 Americans got their check in the mail this month. It still happens, it's a very small number. Some people still do, though.
HUCKABEE: Look at the website. They claim they do not use the Post Office to deliver those Social Security checks.
HARF: That's not true.
HUCKABEE: Well, tell the Social Security Administration, and Medicare, because they don't know they're doing it.
FAULKNER: Mollie —
HARF: It's on their website. It's actually, some months it's 800,000 Americans, last month it was over 500,000 that got the check in the mail, through the Postal Service.
FAULKNER: This is pretty checkable —
HUCKABEE: And Donald Trump's probably holding them out —
FAULKNER: — and we can check with the Fox News brain room. But in all fairness to our other guests, I'm going to get to Mollie [Hemingway], and I promise, I'm going to send an email while you guys are talking, so you're going to see the part on my left side as I look down, because I'm going to do that.
…
FAULKNER: All right, we have Team Fox on the Social Security watch. And I wanted to get this specific. And you know what we got? We actually got a statement from the SSA, Social Security Administration, who says, "Currently the SSA pays approximately 71.6 million, that's 98.8%, Social Security and SSI benefits electronically per month, and mails nearly 850,000 paper checks, that's 1.2%, per month. The electronic payments consist of direct deposits and direct express debit cards.”
I'm going to call that an old-fashioned Vegas push — you're both right. The number is relatively small, the number in which its electronic is reflective of the technology and where we are today, at above 98%.