Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made an look on Trump stooge David Sacks’ podcast “All In” on Thursday, throughout which he mentioned that anybody calling for assist as a result of their Social Safety test didn’t receives a commission is probably going a fraudster.
“For instance Social Safety did not ship out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she would not name and complain. She simply would not. She thinks one thing bought tousled and he or she’ll get it subsequent month. A fraudster at all times makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining. And all the fellows who did PayPal, like Elon is aware of this by coronary heart, proper? Anyone who’s been within the cost system and the method system is aware of the simplest solution to discover the fraudster is to cease funds and pay attention,” he mentioned.
Lutnick is a multibillionaire, so it is unlikely that his mom would ever need assistance with a lacking Social Safety test.
“Is that because her son-in-law is a billionaire or?” the Democrats of the Home Methods and Means Committee wrote on X.
Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of Social Safety recipients are depending on these checks to pay for his or her important dwelling prices.
Roughly half of the inhabitants aged 65 or older dwelling in households that obtain not less than 50% of their household earnings from Social Safety advantages, and about 25% depend on Social Safety advantages for not less than 90% of their household earnings, in response to a 2017 report from the Social Safety Workplace of Analysis, Analysis, and Statistics.
For these Individuals, lacking a Social Safety cost may very well be the distinction in affording hire, meals, or medical bills.
“For 40% of seniors, Social Security checks are their sole source of income—including 365,000+ in New Mexico. Trump’s billionaire class doesn’t care. Not being able to pay your bills doesn’t make you a fraudster,” Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández of New Mexico wrote on X.
Lutnick’s feedback increase the query about whether or not the Trump administration will goal individuals who have points with their Social Safety funds, accusing them of fraud in the event that they attain out for assist and shutting off their earned advantages for good.
Lutnick’s feedback are the most recent proof that President Donald Trump and multibillionaire Elon Musk are making an attempt to kill Social Safety—one of many hottest social security web packages within the nation.
Trump already plans to chop 7,000 jobs from the Social Safety Administration and shut a number of Social Safety places of work across the nation, which can make it more durable for the 73 million Social Safety recipients to resolve points with their advantages.
And Musk’s so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity has modified protocol for Social Safety recipients to validate their identification, forcing them to show their identification on-line or journey to one of many overloaded Social Safety places of work in particular person—if they will even get an appointment.
“This change will substantially delay their access to their earned benefits. All families with children who qualify for benefits will have to visit S.S.A. in person because children cannot have ‘my Social Security’ accounts,” Kathleen Romig, director of Social Safety and incapacity coverage on the Heart on Funds and Coverage Priorities, advised The New York Instances.
Musk is actively making an attempt to destroy Social Safety, which he’s referred to as a “Ponzi scheme”—possible in an effort to justify cuts to this system—to pay for Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy.
In the meantime, Leland Dudek, the appearing head of the Social Safety Administration, threatened on Thursday to close the entire company down over a court docket ruling that restricts DOGE’s entry to delicate data.
Dudek complained to the Washington Put up on Friday that the order was too broad and he didn’t perceive it.
“Unless I get clarification,” he advised the Put up, “I’ll just start to shut it down.”
And now Lutnick is in on the hassle, too.
It’s in all probability simply because Lutnick is an fool who’s obsessive about Musk, a lot in order that he made a pitch on Fox Information for individuals to purchase Musk’s shitty Tesla vehicles to assist the flailing firm’s inventory worth get better.
Home Democrats at the moment are investigating Lutnick’s feedback, accusing Lutnick of illegally utilizing his authorities place to advertise a product.
But it surely’s undoubtedly the grandmas calling about their Social Safety checks who’re the fraudsters.
