‘Missing A Check Means Missing A Dinner’: Tina Smith Condemns Looming Social Security Dismantling

2 days ago

During a Senate Finance Committee hearing last week, Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) slammed potential cuts to Social Security.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Mr. Bisognano, for being here today.

00:06So you can rest easy.

00:07I actually don't have any questions for you today.

00:11I can see the handwriting on the wall here, and I've heard your responses to the questions

00:16so far, so I'd like to just take my time to make a couple of observations about where

00:21we are.

00:22I have no doubt that you approach this job with the faith that your private sector experience

00:30can help make the Social Security Administration work better.

00:34But I have no doubt.

00:35It has become clear to me that since Elon Musk's doge took over the Social Security

00:42Administration last month, that this administration is intent on dismantling Social Security and

00:48cutting millions of Americans' benefits, including the more than one million Minnesotans

00:53who rely on it.

00:54And I don't think that I've heard anything today that has changed my assessment of that,

00:58and I honestly don't think that there's anything you could say, Mr. Bisognano, that

01:02would change that either.

01:04You recently said on CNBC that you are fundamentally a doge person, and I take you at your word.

01:10So what I see happening here is that President Trump and Elon Musk's move fast and break

01:15things game plan is, in fact, breaking Social Security.

01:20As several of my colleagues have noted today, Musk recently called Social Security the biggest

01:24Ponzi scheme of all time and described entitlement spending as the big one to eliminate.

01:29Commerce Secretary Howard Ludnick said that if Social Security checks didn't go out, seniors

01:34like his 94-year-old mother-in-law would just assume their check would come the next month

01:38and that would be fine.

01:39Obviously, Secretary Ludnick is not in touch with the reality that 22 million Americans

01:45including more than 16 million seniors would be living in poverty were it not for Social

01:50Security.

01:51Missing a check means missing dinner.

01:54Last week, acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek threatened to shut down the entire

01:59agency in a fit after a federal judge informed him that doge is not allowed to root around

02:04in people's private data.

02:05This is a travesty, and we can see what's going on here, and Minnesotans can see it

02:10as well.

02:11This is a wholesale effort to dismantle Social Security from the inside out.

02:15And this is not about rooting out waste and fraud and abuse, what's happening in the Social

02:19Security Administration right now.

02:21This is about undermining Social Security.

02:24Now President Trump understands that Americans love Social Security, and so he's claimed

02:28that his administration won't touch Social Security, but that is not what is happening,

02:34and Americans can see it.

02:36They are crippling the Social Security Administration.

02:38They're making it nearly impossible for people to get their benefits.

02:43Trump and Musk, President Trump and his administration, Elon Musk, are simultaneously trying to fire

02:49the people who make the Social Security system work.

02:53They're closing field offices and then requiring seniors and others to visit those offices

02:57to prove that the money that they need is theirs, that they earned.

03:02And I know what this means for Minnesota.

03:04I hear it from my constituents loud and clear when I was home last week and in my office

03:09today.

03:10Last week, the Social Security Administration announced that it would drastically reduce

03:14phone service and force people to apply for benefits in person, and yet a leaked internal

03:20memo acknowledged that this change would cause foot traffic and offices to rise sharply,

03:26but instead of expanding capacity, they're shuttering offices.

03:29So you can call this rank incompetence, or you can call it the don't-know-don't-care

03:34game plan that DOJ has taken across the board, but to me, it honestly looks like sabotage.

03:40So I know the people, Republicans, are saying that they want to save Social Security, but

03:44this is a funny way to go about it.

03:47And if you want Social Security workers to feel like they're winning again, I can tell

03:52you that right now the public servants at SSA feel like they are losing, and the people

03:57that they serve are losing, too.

04:00Thank you, Mr. Chair.

04:01I yield back.

‘Missing A Check Means Missing A Dinner’: Tina Smith Condemns Looming Social Security Dismantling

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