Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. remains atop most national polls before the first votes are cast next month in the Democratic presidential primary. Before the Iowa caucuses, The New York Times reviewed recent statements he made defending his decades-long career, stressing his standing in the black community and highlighting his perceived strength on foreign policy. Here’s a fact check.

WHAT THE FACTS ARE

Mr. Biden tried to defend his record on Social Security and birth control with questionable claims.

WHAT WAS SAID

Antonia Hylton, a reporter for Vice News: “Do you think, though, that it’s fair for voters to question your commitment to Social Security when in the past you’ve proposed a freeze to it?”

Mr. Biden: “No, I didn’t propose a freeze.”
— at the Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum last week in Iowa

False. In 1984, faced with budget deficits under the Reagan administration, Mr. Biden was a co-sponsor of an amendment with two Republican senators that froze for one year nearly all military and domestic spending, including cost-of-living adjustments to Social Security benefits.

Social Security (24 percent of the 2018 budget): Social Security spending is projected to grow by $130 billion over the next three years due to more people becoming eligible for the program and benefits growing over time to keep up with wage growth and inflation. Avoiding this increase altogether would require cutting all benefits by 12 percent, and it would be impossible to freeze spending if current beneficiaries were exempted from cuts. No Social Security plan past or present has proposed a cut of close to 12 percent for all beneficiaries that quickly.

Medicare (14 percent of the 2018 budget): Spending on Medicare programs is expected to increase by $51 billion between now and 2018 as retiring baby boomers continue to enroll in Medicare and as health care costs increase.