CNBC's Squawk Box hosted JD Vance for a 25-minute interview this morning, during which the Republican vice presidential nominee rattled off numerous falsehoods and misleading campaign talking points. Even though the hosts did push back against some of his false claims regarding Trump's inflationary tariff policies and record energy production under the Biden-Harris administration, they failed to rebut multiple falsehoods from Vance about immigrants, or even mention his vote against a strong bipartisan border security bill just five months ago.

These falsehoods from Vance included blaming immigrants for draining Social Security and Medicare when they actually strengthen these programs, and claiming that higher immigration raised inflation and lowered wages. In fact, wages are now outpacing inflation and economists credit increased immigration for keeping inflation lower while meeting demand for labor.

The Squawk Box hosts also inexplicably failed to confront Vance about his debunked, explicitly racist smear against Haitian immigrants, who he falsely claimed were abducting and eating pets in the community of Springfield, Ohio. (During the interview, Vance claimed that Haitian immigrants were hurting the economy of Springfield.) Vance mainstreamed this smear by promoting it just days prior to the presidential debate, encouraging his supporters to spread it, and then continuing to defend the debunked story after it was repeated on the debate stage by his running mate, Donald Trump.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box, JD Vance falsely claimed without pushback that immigrants are harming Social Security and Medicare

During the interview, Vance falsely claimed that so-called “illegal aliens” are “collecting Social Security and Medicare, sometimes fraudulently,” and that it “blows up the federal budget.” Individual anecdotes of crimes aside, this claim is contrary to the facts.

• Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Social Security or Medicare benefits. As The New York Times reported after Vance’s running mate repeated this false claim, the Congressional Budget Office states that “most unauthorized immigrants are prohibited from receiving many of the benefits that the federal government provides through Social Security” and other need-based programs. Additionally, as KFF has explained, “undocumented immigrants are not eligible to enroll in federally funded coverage including Medicaid, CHIP, or Medicare or to purchase coverage through the ACA Marketplaces.” [The New York Times, 6/27/24; KFF, 9/17/23]
• Undocumented immigrants pay billions into Social Security and Medicare each year, even as they’re unable to collect these benefits. A July report on taxes paid by undocumented immigrants from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) reported that “undocumented immigrants paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes, $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, and $1.8 billion in unemployment insurance taxes in 2022.” [Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 7/30/24]
• Undocumented immigrants paid nearly $100 billion in federal, state, and local taxes in 2022. The ITEP report explained that “most of that amount, $59.4 billion, was paid to the federal government while the remaining $37.3 billion was paid to state and local governments.” [Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, 7/30/24]

Squawk Box also failed to rebut Vance’s false claim that increased immigration has raised inflation and lowered wages

Vance proclaimed: “Over the past three and a half years, while we’ve had this massive influx of illegal labor, what's happened? We’ve had skyrocketing inflation, lower take-home pay.” Even though co-host Joe Kernen acknowledged an analysis showing “positive aspects for the jobs market” from immigration, the hosts allowed Vance to get away with these specific falsehoods.

• Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman explained that increased immigrant labor has allowed the economy to grow more without raising inflation. In an April 2023 column, Krugman stated that “the immigration surge has probably been a significant contributor to the economy’s ability to continue rapid job growth without runaway inflation.” Krugman reiterated this point in February, explaining that a major reason for hiring growth without refueling inflation is due to immigration swelling the labor force. [The New York Times, 4/13/23; Fortune via Yahoo! Finance, 2/6/24]
• Inflation for the past year has stabilized to below 3%. Three key measures of inflation show that it has declined drastically and over the past year has stabilized, and is currently below 3% for each measure. [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 9/12/24]
• The annual inflation rate now matches inflation from 2019 during the Trump administration. Economist Michael Linden explained in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the most recent consumer inflation report shows that the annual inflation rate has declined to where it was in February 2020, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. [Twitter/X, 9/11/24]
• Studies have found that immigrants do not lower the wages of native-born Americans and do not take their jobs. An April 2020 article from the right-leaning Cato Institute explained: “New immigrants only have a consistently negative impact on the wages of other immigrants but not on natives. That’s because immigrants are most substitutable or competitive with other immigrant workers and are not really substitutable for many native‐​born American workers.” A 2016 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine also concluded that “immigrants do not take American jobs” and “found little to no negative effects on overall wages and employment of native-born workers in the longer term.” [Media Matters, 2/20/24]
• Average U.S. wages have outgrown inflation by nearly $4,500 during the Biden-Harris administration. In September, the Senate side of the Joint Economic Committee released a fact sheet showing that “updated calculations by the JEC Democrats find that average U.S. wages and salaries grew by over $17,600 between January 2021 and July 2024, outpacing price growth during that period by nearly $4,500. It is clear that costs have risen due to pandemic disruptions and global conflicts, but incomes have also grown and at a faster rate.” [U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, September 2024]

Squawk Box hosts inexplicably failed to confront Vance about his racist smear of Haitian immigrants

During his anti-immigration tirade on CNBC, Vance also complained about “communities like Springfield, Ohio, where you have 20,000 Haitians who have come in, housing costs aren’t affordable, communicable diseases are on the rise, and people can't afford to live a good life in this small Ohio town. If the path to prosperity was flooding your nation with low-wage immigrants, then Springfield, Ohio, would be the most prosperous city in the world.” (According to the director of Ohio’s Health Department, Bruce Vanderhoff, the state isn’t seeing a “measurable or discernible increase” in vaccine-preventable illnesses. Vance had earlier claimed tuberculosis was on the rise there, but last year’s data shows a mere 1-4 cases of TB in the entire county that Springfield resides in.)

In recent weeks, Vance has repeatedly spread the horrifically racist and false smear against Haitian immigrants in Springfield — people who are his own constituents — claiming that they are eating family pets. After this disgusting smear was repeated by Vance’s running mate during the September 10 presidential debate, Springfield was subjected to multiple bomb threats and Haitian residents have reported vandalism of their property and fears for their safety. Yet, the Squawk Box hosts failed to challenge Vance on this at all, or to acknowledge that — contrary to Vance’s claims — the influx of Haitian immigrants has reportedly strengthened the city’s economy.

• Reuters: “How Haitian immigrants fueled Springfield's growth.” A September 11 Reuters article reported that “the arrival of … as many as 15,000 other immigrants from Haiti over roughly the last three years has reshaped this city of 58,000, offering some promise of economic revival along with growing pains.” According to Reuters, “wages didn't collapse, but surged with a rising number of job openings in a labor market that remained tight until recently.” [Reuters, 9/11/24]
• Economic data shows that Springfield’s economy and wages have grown during the Biden-Harris administration. Springfield’s economy grew by 7% during the first year of the Biden-Harris administration, after it declined the year prior to the pandemic during the Trump administration. Hourly earnings in Springfield also showed significant growth during the first two years of the Biden-Harris administration. (More recent data is unavailable.) [Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 9/12/24, 9/12/24]