During a town hall on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) was asked about potential cuts to Social Security proposed by Republicans.
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00:00Thank you for coming, Congressman. My question is, how much in danger is our Social Security?
00:09Great question. Let me say this about Social Security. As you know, Social Security is a social contract that came into being.
00:17Those of you who know the history of Social Security, after the tremendous stock market crash of 1929, this country went into a Great Depression.
00:26And part of that was the so-called New Deal. And the big part of the New Deal was the creation of Social Security.
00:36In fact, I've seen one study that indicated that at the time, over 80 percent of the seniors, senior citizens in this country were impoverished.
00:50And Social Security came online. And it cut that poverty level down to less than 10 percent.
01:00A lot of people said Social Security is the greatest anti-profit program ever created.
01:08Now, our Republican friends have always had a problem with Social Security. I've never been able to understand that.
01:18If you go back and look, as I have done, all the debate, don't look at the final vote on Social Security, but look at all the debate on Social Security.
01:31And the Republicans hated it. They tried everything they could to stop Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, let me be clear, from putting Social Security in place.
01:46Now, when they failed on all the amendments they put up, they then came on board.
01:56And when the final vote came, it was an overwhelming bipartisan vote.
02:02But the final vote is not indicative of the lead up to the Social Security.
02:10So, for some strange reason, they've always had a problem with it.
02:14So, the president has called Social Security a scam.
02:24Elon Musk has called it the greatest policy scheme of all time.
02:31To me, Social Security is a contract that our government has made with every worker.
02:44I started paying Social Security at the age of 16.
02:47And if all goes well, from July 21st, I'm going to celebrate the 46th anniversary of my 39th birthday.
03:07Now, that adds up to 85.
03:11Now, I've been paying Social Security a long time, paying into it.
03:20And even when I was a student at South Carolina State, I worked in the cafeteria paying Social Security.
03:30So, it's a big trust fund that's been there for a long time.
03:39And investors, some investors, have been trying to get their mittens on that trust fund for a long time.
03:48They would love to get into that trust fund and start gambling on Wall Street with the money you pay in.
04:01That is a big danger.
04:05Now, some of you may recall several years ago, around the time that George W. Bush was advocating privatizing Social Security,
04:15we had a scandal on Wall Street, a guy named Madoff.
04:25Madoff with a lot of people's money.
04:31True.
04:34And just think of what would have happened to Social Security
04:36if that trust fund had been exposed to that kind of investment.
04:44So, we've got to protect Social Security because the president calls to the scam.
04:49His most trusted advisor is calling it the Ponzi scheme.
04:54They're doing things that they can to discredit Social Security.
04:57They're closing Social Security offices.
04:59They're changing the rules.
05:01They're now saying, if you need to renew your disability or you need to prove your disability,
05:08you've got to come to a regional office.
05:10You can't do it by phone.
05:11If you've got a disability, it seems to me, it could very well prevent you from making that trip.
05:20But then, even if you don't have a disability and you're closing the regional offices
05:24and you're laying off workers, then what is there?
05:34So, Social Security is in danger.
05:40Big danger.