During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing last week, Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) spoke about Republican efforts to privatize Social Security.
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NewsTranscript
00:00sick with worry at the risk of fraudsters having their social security numbers,
00:05banking information, and other personal information shared with
00:09Musk cronies who've invaded the Social Security Administration.
00:15So let's be clear. President Trump and Elon Musk have launched a
00:20public campaign against Social Security.
00:24Mr. Musk is calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme and both he
00:30and President Trump are spreading widely discredited
00:34lies about the program and its integrity. But the facts don't add up. Let me read
00:40just a few of the countless news headlines debunking their false claims.
00:45The Associated Press says tens of millions of dead people
00:49aren't getting Social Security checks despite
00:52Trump and Musk claims. ABC News says Musk misread Social Security data.
00:59Millions of dead people are not getting benefits, experts say.
01:03CBS News says new Social Security chief refutes claims of deceased people over
01:11100 years old getting checks.
01:15The Washington Post says Elon Musk claims of Social Security fraud
01:19don't hold up and here's why. And the New York Times says millions of
01:25dead people on Social Security, the agency's own data says otherwise.
01:31And in fact the claims by Elon Musk are based on complete
01:35misunderstanding of Social Security's data systems
01:39which often lack complete birth and death information for people
01:43born before 1920, before Social Security was
01:47established and long before electronic records were
01:51kept. A 2023 Inspector General report said that
01:56almost none of these people born before 1920
02:00with misinformation are paid benefits.
02:05But my constituents are also worried because the Trump administration
02:10is taking a wrecking ball to the Social Security administration.
02:14Far from making the agency more efficient
02:17they are undermining its ability to serve the public and why are they trying
02:22to destroy the Social Security administration?
02:25It's the first step of a long-standing effort by Republicans
02:30to dismantle trust in Social Security and slash
02:33benefits. The Trump administration wants to close Social Security offices
02:39across the nation and slash the agency's workforce by nearly one
02:44in eight employees. Social Security administration, this
02:51administration is already at a 50-year staffing low due to
02:56years of underfunding and it's serving more beneficiaries than ever.
03:02How will gutting its workforce help it to serve the American people?
03:09Well the answer is that it doesn't and in fact it's very
03:12likely a move to undermine confidence so that the Trump administration can
03:19privatize it. And with that I yield back.
03:23Member yields back. I now recognize Ms. Moore for
03:27five minutes to strike the last quarter.
03:32Thank you so very very much Mr. Chairman and
03:36Ranking Member and Members. I am reminded of
03:42what Maya Angelou said when she said she said when someone shows you who they
03:48are believe them the first time. And then of course Rachel Maddow who is
03:55a news commentator on MSNBC often says you need to watch what
04:00people do and not what they say. And I think
04:04that that's those are very helpful admonitions in view of this
04:09discussion here today. We have our
04:14Republican colleagues swearing that Donald Trump
04:18will not do anything to Social Security and you know from your lips to God's
04:23ears let's hope you know I'm on your side I'm hoping
04:26that you're right. But we have known that
04:32Republicans have long wanted to destroy Social Security
04:36and really privatize it. As a matter of fact
04:41former chair of this committee my good friend Paul Ryan from Wisconsin
04:46openly tried to privatize Social Security. My own Senator Johnson was the
04:53first person I ever heard call it a Ponzi scheme
04:56long before before Elon Musk was on the scene.
05:01And Mick Mulvaney during the Trump one administration who was a former
05:08chief of staff testified before the Joint Economic
05:12Committee that yes we need to go after Social Security
05:16because just like Jesse James robbed banks it's because that's where
05:22the money is. And so I am you know I'm not convinced that that they're not
05:29going to do it. Musk has just basically said we need to go after
05:33entitlement spending which he designates as Social Security
05:37and Medicare. So I think that it's important
05:40for that our Republican friends not to be willfully ignorant to be useful
05:47idiots about this. You know and so that's what they say.
05:53What are they doing? Let's look at that.
05:58This CR that we passed just yesterday
06:03in order to flat fund the operations of the Social Security
06:08administration we would have had to have added 600
06:11million dollars. Instead of adding the 600
06:15dollars just to flat fund the agency they cut it by an additional 100 million.
06:20That's 700 million dollars. Watch what they do.
06:25You know you're trying to save Social Security but you want to destroy
06:28customer service. We heard Mr. Estes the new chairman of the subcommittee
06:33talk about how awful the customer service is.
06:36Well yeah but that is part of the scheme to undermine
06:42Social Security to the point that people lose faith in it.
06:46As a matter of fact Martin O'Malley sent me this text.
06:50He says they just want to wreck it so they can rob it.
06:54And now with this CR and the mass firings taking place of Social Security
06:59as we speak they are destroying customer service for the American people
07:03driving this agency to collapse and putting at grave and serious risk the
07:08monthly benefits of 72 million Americans. That's the
07:11former commissioner of Social Security Martin O'Malley.
07:17And then the President Trump tells us that he's going to
07:21cut taxes on Social Security. Well that really sounds great. Send
07:26people I heard five thousand dollar checks. That
07:29really sounds great and that of course would help people
07:33making twenty thirty thousand dollars immediately but in the long run
07:37they would be hurt the most and wealthy people would be
07:40helped the most. But in the meantime it would cost
07:44the trust fund 1.5 trillion dollars to do that. You know watch what they
07:52do not what they say. That would undermine
07:55Social Security tremendously. The Social Security
08:00payment accuracy is about 99.8 percent. So I don't know how much
08:07waste fraud and abuse can be found in it.
08:11This really the last point that I want to make
08:15is that Elon Musk is a tech tycoon and I wonder what the value
08:24of this data is to him. It's immeasurable.
08:27So this is a serious conflict of interest for this
08:31man to have Social Security data when he is a
08:34tech tycoon. Member's time has expired. Thank you so much Mr. Chairman for your
08:39indulgence and I yield back. I recognize Mr. Boyle to
08:42speak.