Chuck Schumer Slams Trump's Pick For SSA Chief: It’s ‘Hiring An Arsonist To Run The Fire Station’

2 days ago

During a Senate Democratic press briefing about Social Security on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) slammed Trump’s appointment to lead the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano.

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00:00And next, we'll hear from the leader.

00:04Thank you very much.

00:05I thank Senators Warren and Wyden for leading this,

00:07and thank my colleagues, Senator Coons and Smith and Schatz,

00:13I'm missing it, nope, for being here.

00:16Look, Social Security has always been the third rail

00:19in American politics.

00:21You touch it, you get burnt.

00:23George W. Bush learned that the hard way.

00:26These, this Trump-Doge-Musk vote administration is

00:33in such a bubble, they don't understand it.

00:38They are so frothing at the mouth for tax cuts for the wealthy

00:45that they're willing to even touch Social Security.

00:49And they're not just touching it.

00:51They're trying to destroy it.

00:54They're trying to strangle it.

00:55When you shut off phone lines, when you close offices,

00:58when you increase wait times, three years for someone on disability

01:02to get Social Security, make no mistake about it,

01:05they're trying to strangle Social Security

01:08so it has no more life in it.

01:10That's their goal.

01:12It's incredible.

01:13I mean, we're incredulous.

01:15We never thought as harsh and right-wing

01:18as a Republican administration is that they would actually try

01:22to kill Social Security, and they are doing that by strangling it,

01:26by doing all the things that have been mentioned here.

01:29And there's an outcry everywhere in the country.

01:31White Plains, they shut the office.

01:33200,000 people use that office.

01:36Elmira, Chemung County, a Republican county, they shut that office.

01:41Now there's huge pressure from the local Republican congressman

01:44to try and open it up again.

01:45Who knows what will happen?

01:47So it's amazing what they're trying to do.

01:51And their callousness, their in-the-bubbleness,

01:55if that's a word or adjective, is incredible.

01:59I could not believe that the Secretary

02:02of Commerce said his mother-in-law wouldn't miss a check.

02:07It was incredible.

02:09Raise your hand here if you have a mother-in-law

02:12who has a billionaire son-in-law.

02:16They're the only ones with this.

02:19And, you know, Musk is often the truth teller here.

02:22He's so arrogant, he doesn't care, and he says our job is to kill it.

02:26That's what he said.

02:29And we take him at his word that that's what they want to do,

02:31but he better take us at our word that we're going

02:34to do everything we can to stop them from touching Social Security.

02:38And another tell, the guy they want to put in charge, Bizignano.

02:44I knew him when he was a businessman in New York.

02:48And businesses would bring him on board

02:50if they wanted a cut, cut, cut.

02:53You don't bring Bizignano on board to head the agency

02:57if you want to strengthen it.

02:59You bring him on if you want to emaciate it.

03:02And that's what he has done.

03:04So it is so good to see all the Democrats opposed.

03:08Putting Bizignano as head of Social Security is hiring an arsonist

03:12to run the fire station, plain and simple.

03:16So they don't care.

03:19Musk says it's a Ponzi scheme.

03:22Tell that, tell that to a 78-year-old woman who needs her check

03:27to buy medicines that keep her alive each month, who needs that $1,100.

03:32Tell that, tell her she's part of a grand Ponzi scheme after she put

03:37in money week after week and month after month and year after year

03:42so she knew in retirement she'd never get rich,

03:45but at least she could afford the bare necessities

03:47like food and drugs.

03:50Finally, it is a great, great idea that Senators Warren

03:56and Wyden have had to dedicate a war room.

04:01Because one thing we have to do is show how bad it is

04:06or lay out how bad it is.

04:09But second, we've got to reach the American people.

04:11And the war room will do all the things we are doing.

04:15It's going to do oversight work.

04:16It's going to do social media posts.

04:19It's going to get all of us to visit local offices.

04:23We'll host town halls.

04:24AARP is doing lots of town halls in all of our states.

04:27They're allied with us.

04:29And we'll be calling on our Republican colleagues to wake up.

04:36As I said yesterday, not on Social Security, but on Medicaid.

04:39I was within three Republican districts demanding

04:44that those Republicans vote no on this budget,

04:48which is so devastating to people on Medicaid.

04:52And we're all doing that as well.

04:54And that's why they're reeling.

04:56That's why they're having trouble putting together a budget,

05:00a reconciliation budget.

05:02Because the American people are catching

05:04on to how bad, how terrible this administration is for them.

05:10And the war room will make sure on Social Security.

05:13People know that very, very well.

05:16I thank my colleagues.

05:17And Senator Kelly is here, too.

Chuck Schumer Slams Trump's Pick For SSA Chief: It’s ‘Hiring An Arsonist To Run The Fire Station’

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