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Dear Fellow Vermonter,
Yesterday, I had the opportunity, as a member of the Senate Finance Committee, to raise my strong objections to the disastrous steps President Trump, Elon Musk and his administration have been taking to undermine Social Security. I voiced my concerns during a hearing to consider President Trump’s nominee to lead the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, a financial services executive who made $100 million in compensation in 2017.
Unfortunately, Trump’s attacks on Social Security are growing by the day.
At a time when 30,000 Americans already die each year waiting for the Social Security disability benefits they were eligible to receive due to a grossly understaffed and under-resourced Social Security Administration, what is Trump doing about it? Unacceptably, his administration is making a bad situation even worse by laying off up to half of Social Security’s staff and ending the ability of seniors and the disabled to apply over the phone to receive their benefits while shutting down Social Security field offices all over the country. In response to my questions about these disastrous cuts, Mr. Bisignano reluctantly admitted that it “probably” isn’t a great idea to cut up to half of Social Security’s staff, but would not commit to reversing Trump’s cruel policies.
That’s not all. During his State of the Union, President Trump falsely suggested that “millions and millions” of Social Security checks are going out to people who are between the ages of 140 and 360. That is simply not true. The reality is that well over 99 percent of Social Security checks are going out to people who earned those benefits. Further, the Social Security Administration automatically stops sending checks to people after they turn 115. In other words, no one who is 150 or 200 or 300 years old is receiving Social Security benefits. While Mr. Bisignano agreed with me that Social Security’s error rate is less than one percent, he would not admit that what President Trump said is a blatant lie.
But it’s not only President Trump.
Elon Musk, the wealthiest man alive, recently made the absurd claim that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Wrong again. The reality is that Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American for nearly 90 years. Some “Ponzi scheme”!
Last week, Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a billionaire, said if Social Security checks were not sent out this month, the only people who would complain would be “fraudsters” because his 94-year old mother-in-law would just think “something got messed up” and she’d get it next month. Secretary Lutnick’s statement is completely out of touch with reality. Tens of millions of seniors and people with disabilities rely on Social Security checks to pay for groceries, rent, prescription drugs and to keep their homes warm during the winter. Of course, they would complain if they didn’t receive their Social Security checks. Not only did they earn them, their lives depend on them.
Let’s be clear. Social Security is the most successful and most popular government program in the history of our country. Social Security keeps more than 27 million Americans out of poverty each and every year and is so important to the 150,000 older and disabled Vermonters who receive Social Security benefits.
In my view, not only must we protect and preserve Social Security, we must expand Social Security so that every senior in America can retire with the dignity they deserve and everyone with a disability can live with the security they need.
That’s why I recently introduced legislation to extend Social Security’s solvency for the next 75 years and expand benefits by $2,400 a year while not increasing taxes by one penny on 90 percent of Americans who make less than $250,000 a year. How? By lifting the cap on income that is subject to the Social Security payroll tax which is now limited to $176,100 a year. When I asked Mr. Bisignano if he believed we should lift this cap so that the wealthiest Americans pay more into Social Security, he refused to say yes or no. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality and when 22 percent of seniors are struggling to survive on $15,000 a year or less, it should have been an obvious yes.
As your senator, I will do everything I can to fight back against President Trump’s attacks on Social Security. In my view, if we stand together, we can not only defeat this assault against Social Security, but we can increase the financial security of seniors and people with disabilities in Vermont and throughout the country. As always, if you need assistance with your Social Security benefits or any other federal program, please call my office and we will do our best to assist you.
Best,
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