During Wednesday’s House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) discussed Democrat criticisms of DOGE and Elon Musk and addressed concerns about cuts to social security.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you Mr. Chairman. It's fascinating this morning to hear the feigned outrage of the Democrats today.
00:09It's as if they haven't heard the message of this previous election, like it never occurred.
00:15I can tell you, in my district, what the American people wanted was to prioritize America,
00:22prioritize the American people over the bureaucracy, over the massive federal government.
00:28You know today that government spending is over one-third of GDP.
00:34This is what the Democrats are defending, over 3 million employees in the federal government alone,
00:41not including state and local.
00:43And the fallacies that have been brought up here today, Social Security being privatized,
00:49no one has mentioned that. In fact, the President has said he wants to protect Social Security.
00:57Look at his record in his first four years. No, I will not yield. Look at his record in the first four years.
01:03He did nothing, nothing to hurt, to change Social Security in any way.
01:09And he's said multiple times he's going to protect Social Security, going to protect Medicare.
01:15And I can tell you, every Republican on this side of the aisle believes and agrees
01:21that we should protect the vulnerable among us, we should protect those programs for individuals
01:27who truly need them, who have been paying into the system.
01:31So it's bizarre, it's outrageous, the kind of things that they've been saying.
01:35Now, let's talk a little bit about Musk.
01:41And Mr. Larson, in particular, knows that Social Security will be bankrupt in nine years or ten years.
01:50At that point, no, I'm not going to yield. You had your time. You had your time.
01:56In nine or ten years, projections show that what is owed in Social Security will be more than we're taking in.
02:05So you ought to be extremely happy if we're finding waste in the system.
02:14Because every dollar of waste in Social Security, in Medicare, in every other program,
02:21every dollar of waste and fraud is a dollar that is available to the people, to the recipients who deserve that service.
02:29So, you know, many presidents have tried this.
02:33We've seen under the Clinton years, they trimmed back the federal workforce, Nixon talked about it.
02:39But this is finally a president who's willing to take on the bureaucracy and really make a difference.
02:45Three million employees. You don't think that we can find some ways to trim?
02:51And you know, we've seen, we've heard reports here, there's waste all over the place, there's fraud.
02:57And what Mr. Musk is finding could impact our deficit in a big way.
03:04The American people know that we're bankrupt.
03:08The American people know we're bankrupt. Just think of this.
03:13This year, we're spending seven trillion, and we're taking in five.
03:18You're all voting to, you're arguing to keep that.
03:21If we don't change our course, if we don't change course, we're going to see a sovereign debt crisis,
03:27and every American is going to be impacted.
03:29Will the gentleman yield?
03:30No, I'm not going to yield.
03:31You voted to yield yesterday.
03:33You'll have your time, I'm not yielding.
03:35We will have a sovereign debt crisis if we don't change course.
03:39And where we should start is exactly what the president is doing.
03:42Root out every bit of waste and fraud that we can find.
03:46That's where we should start. It might make an amazing difference.
03:49This is why, by the way, I think you're on the wrong side of this.
03:52I think the American people are going to see the kind of waste and fraud.
03:56They support this.
03:58Why do you think today the majority of the American people support what Elon Musk is doing?
04:04Why do you think today the majority of the American people support what the president is doing?
04:09And one other thing.
04:11You keep talking about him, he should be right here.
04:14You can follow what he's doing.
04:16He's doing interviews, he's got doge.gov, he's uncovering what he's doing.
04:21This is not someone who is doing this in the dark.
04:25He's being very open about what is happening.
04:29So, again, I think you're on the wrong side of this.
04:32The American people side with us today.
04:35They sided with us in this previous election.
04:38And you keep this up, they're going to be siding with us with many elections to come.
04:42I yield back.