(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democratic leaders stood in support of Social Security benefits on Monday in the wake of the Social Security Administration’s announcement it’s planning to cut 7,000 jobs as part of “significant workforce reductions.”
“Now we know that something we Senate Democrats have feared for a long time is coming true. Social Security is under attack and at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a Capitol Hill news conference.
Schumer, Senate Finance Committee’s Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., also at the news conference, said that the Social Security workforce cuts are just a pitstop Republicans are making on the road to privatizing the critical benefits system.
“DOGE’s attack on Social Security, in my view, is a first step on the path to privatizing Social Security,” Wyden said, referring to Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency.
The leaders also blasted Musk’s recent characterization of Social Security as a ‘Ponzi scheme.’
“Elon Musk says it’s a Ponzi scheme. The richest man in the world is telling Americans that earned benefits that they depend on and they paid into are a scam. They are not a scam. And if Americans know it,” Schumer said.
Asked about the Biden-appointed former Social Security commissioner Martin O’Malley’s recent prediction that a system collapse and an interruption of benefits could come within the next 30-90 days, Murray responded that the recent cuts to workforce and offices would be a “disaster.”
“Yeah, I mean, when you’re firing this many people, closing that many offices — don’t have people to write the checks, you are looking for disaster,” Murray said.
A government-funding connection?
Asked if Democrats would insist on preventing the cuts as part of a deal to bring a temporary funding (‘CR’ or continuing resolution) bill up for a vote, to keep the government open, Murray said “We are looking at a number of different” things pertaining to a funding deal.
“I’ll just say this. The only one who wants a shutdown right now is Elon Musk … nobody else wants a shutdown. We are all working to get this done,” Murray said.
Murray said that the best way to fund the government and avoid a shutdown would be through a CR.
“In my opinion, the best way to do this is to do a short-term CR. Our committees are capable of getting this done with this short term CR, and ready to go to work.”
She also said the White House sending an “anomalies” list to Congress was “completely inadequate” and then reaffirmed that Democrats were “at the table” and “ready” to pass a short-term CR.
Working with House Democrats to block Social Security cuts
Schumer referenced former President George W. Bush’s proposed cuts to Social Security programs in 2005, likening his current plans to work with House members in order to block any rollbacks to the work he did with Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid 20 years ago.
“We got together. We said we’re going to fight it, and we won. I will tell the American people, we’re getting together, House and Senate Democrats, we’re going to fight it, and guess what? We’re going to prevent the cuts,” Schumer said.
“But we need your help,” he said. “We need every person who’s a recipient or would-be recipient who would like to get this benefit to call their congressmen– their Republican congressman and senators — and give one simple sentence. ‘Hands off my Social Security.'”
President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have insisted that Republicans won’t try to cut Social Security benefits or benefits from other entitlement programs.
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