We're going to just keep asking members of the caucus as they come in. Sir, can we get a pledge to stand with President Trump against cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits? I think, you know what? When we look to reduce our national debt, I think these should be on the table. [00:00:17] Okay. You know, so I am a strong advocate of discussing this and reevaluating. And I do believe at the end of the day, there will be some cuts. Cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Yes. And that's on the table in the Doge caucus right now. Well, we're about to find out. Okay. Thank you so much. So there you have a member of the Doge committee, the Doge caucus, [00:00:36] fully supporting cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The gentleman you just heard from is Alex Lawson, who's actually the executive director for Social Security works. And he confronted a number of Republican lawmakers as they were entering [00:00:54] the first ever Doge caucus meeting. Now, of course, these are members of the House who are going to work alongside the Department of Government Efficiency, which is being run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. [00:01:10] In order to find, you know, inefficiencies in our government spending to cut. And so I love that Lawson asked all of these Republican lawmakers, hey, are you guys eyeing Social Security? Is that what's happening now? Now, most lawmakers pretended he didn't exist. [00:01:26] They didn't want to answer a question because, after all, Social Security is the third rail. It is tremendously popular across the political spectrum. And I'll give you evidence of that in just a minute. But I want to commend Republican Congressman Greg Lopez [00:01:41] for his transparency, for how candid he's willing to be in regard to his priorities in cutting something that we Americans pay for in every single pay cycle. [00:01:58] Look at your pay stub. It'll show you how much of your money, how much of your earnings went to Social Security. It'll show you how much of your earnings went to Medicare. These are things that we fund. And these are things that go to a specific or specific trusts. [00:02:13] So what you heard from Greg Lopez there, the Republican congressman was a lie as well, because he tried to tie these universal social safety net programs, Social Security, Medicare to government spending, when this has nothing to do [00:02:31] with government spending bills or anything like that. Okay. Again, we pay into Social Security and Medicare, and each of them have their own trust, a funds that are utilized to pay out benefits to those who qualify for these programs. [00:02:47] Now, with that in mind, what's also interesting is, Representative Lopez's statement and how it conflicts with what Trump's been saying, you know, not just on the campaign trail, but even as recently as this week, during a press conference at Mar a Lago, what did Trump have to say about Social Security? [00:03:04] Well, take a look at this. Through the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk has been working very hard with various people, including Vivek will go to eliminate hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud. [00:03:20] And I can only tell you I'll give you a little early report. They're finding things that you wouldn't even believe. So we're looking to save maybe $2 trillion and it will have no impact. Actually, it will make life better, but it will have no impact on people. It's not like we're we will never cut Social Security, things like that. [00:03:40] And if you guys can recall, Donald Trump also campaigned on protecting Social Security as well, saying at a rally this past July, I will not cut one penny from Social Security or Medicare. Now, look, considering the fact that 72 [00:03:56] million Americans rely on Social Security. One can understand Donald Trump's approach in promising over and over again that he won't cut Social Security and, Take a look at how the American public feels about these programs. [00:04:12] So Pew Research put out a poll just this past June showing that 79% say Social Security benefits, benefits should not be reduced in any way. When you have a number that high, you've got Democrats and Republicans wanting to protect Social Security. [00:04:30] It's not just Democrats, and it's not just independents. And you want to know why everyone who is in support of this program, they all know that we're paying for it. We're funding it. Okay. We see the money coming out of our paychecks. And so, yeah, we are entitled to it because it is something [00:04:48] that we have paid into. And, what about raising the retirement age? That's a typical trick that you'll hear from, you know, some Republicans in regard to fixing our Social Security. You know, it's not going to be solvent. You know, they'll engage in all of this fear mongering, by the way, the [00:05:06] whole solvency issue, very easy to solve. I'll get to that in a minute. But a Quinnipiac University national poll of adults found that 78% of respondents are opposed to proposals that would raise the full retirement age for Social Security benefits from 67 to 70. Opposition remained firm [00:05:26] even when respondents were asked whether they would support raising the full retirement age if it meant benefits would last longer, with 30% in favor and 67% against the move. Again, there's a reason why this is considered the third rail. [00:05:44] And I mean, it's so incredibly obvious that Social Security is the third rail of politics. When you look at how Republicans reacted to President Joe Biden during his state of the Union address, where he pointed to the Republican Party and essentially said [00:06:00] they're eyeing cuts to Social Security. They knew that it would not play well with the American public. And so they had this reaction. Some of my Republican friends want to take the economy hostage. I get it, unless I agree to their economic plans. [00:06:17] All of you at home should know what those plans are. Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset. I'm not saying it's a majority. [00:06:33] Let me give you anybody who doubts it. Contact my office. I'll give you a copy. I'll give you a copy of the proposal. You see Kevin McCarthy sitting right behind Joe Biden. [00:06:48] That was the the week or so that Kevin McCarthy was speaker of the House before he was ousted. You know, he's shaking his head because he knows it's not popular to go after Social Security, to pursue cuts to Social Security, or to increase the full retirement age for when people will qualify [00:07:06] for Social Security benefits. And, I do want to just address a common argument that you hear in regard to Donald Trump's first term, because on the campaign trail, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz kept talking about how Donald Trump actually did target [00:07:22] Social Security and Medicare for cuts, and he did so through the white House budget. So the white House, of course, puts out its own budget proposal. And members of Congress, certainly members that are aligned with the president, [00:07:38] politically speaking, will consider that as like a guide of drawing up legislation. Well, Donald Trump's budget proposals didn't exactly call for cuts to Social Security. So I looked into this because I believe that line myself. And I was curious how much accuracy is there behind it, [00:07:55] and it's not quite accurate to say that. So Washington Post had reported that Trump kept his promise not to touch retirement benefits, bucking longtime efforts by Republicans to raise the retirement age. But Trump did seek without success to reduce spending [00:08:11] for Social Security disability insurance, as well as Supplemental Security Income, which is administered by the Social Security Administration. Okay, so that still sounds bad to me. I would not want to cut, you know, funding for those programs. [00:08:27] But what kind of reductions are we talking about here? And so the post continues to write that the reductions generally were intended to make the program more efficient, such as eliminating double payments of both unemployment insurance and disability, which were also sought by Obama. [00:08:45] Now, Trump kept his promise not to mess with retirement and survivor benefits, which is the core of Social Security. So I just want to give you the details on that, because Trump does tend to speak out of both sides of his mouth. He he lies as well. He's a politician. He says he's going to do something or he's not going to do something, [00:09:02] and then he carries it out. And so in this case, for the most part, he actually did stay true to his promise to not touch Social Security, or cut Social Security benefits. But Trump isn't exactly like the conservative Republicans who fill the walls of Congress. [00:09:20] These are the people who have been wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits literally for decades. And I don't know if it's because they genuinely want to do it, or because their corporate donors want to scrap these programs entirely or privatize these programs entirely. [00:09:35] They don't want to pay payroll taxes, which help fund Social Security benefits. They don't want to deal with a yearly increase on the Social Security. You know, it's an income cap on Social Security taxation. And so every year that cap goes up higher and higher, meaning, a larger [00:09:54] sum of your income ends up getting taxed specifically for Social Security. After you meet that threshold, any income that you make after that amount is not taxed for Social Security. So the argument from the left is, why don't we raise that cap? [00:10:10] Right. Make that threshold much, much higher. So more income is taxed specifically for Social Security to keep it solvent. There's a big concern about solvency. Then we know how to fix it. But that's the thing we're talking about. [00:10:25] If you're just a normal middle class American, the entirety of your income is taxed for Social Security. If you are very wealthy, it is not the entirety of your income. Okay. There is a cap at around like $166,000. So with that in mind, let's talk a little bit about this tension [00:10:46] that might play out between Donald Trump and the conservative Republicans, who are now part and parcel of the House Doge committee or caucus. Okay, so Alex Lawson approached majority, Marjorie Taylor Greene to ask her, [00:11:01] you know, so what's up? You're about to enter this first Doge meeting. Are you guys going to cut Social Security? Because here's a flier that Donald Trump's campaign was blanketing the country with promising that he would not cut Social Security benefits. [00:11:17] This is Trump's flier. So what is it? Are you going to go along with Trump, or are you going to go against Trump and try to go after Social Security? Let's see what her answer was. Congresswoman PAC, he's funded by a Democrat PAC, [00:11:32] donates 100% to Democrats, is only here to make sure we're bipartisan. Trump no you're not. We looked you up. Yeah. You are 100% funded by Democrats. You donate to Democrats. You're out here asking questions. But what is the question? [00:11:48] All of your questions. This is this is a mailing. This is a mailing from the American. This is. This is Donald. - Trump. - Trump. We all campaigned on protecting seniors, social security. You can't lie about it. See? Yeah. This is your political agenda. You know what? We don't care. [00:12:03] - That's Donald Trump, that's. - Donald Trump's no mailing. No, you are done. You're not media. - That's Donald Trump's. - Mailing. Here is for Democrat ads to attack Republicans. Okay. But, Marjorie Greene, you make it way too easy to attack you when you act like that. [00:12:24] Because if you don't intend to target Social Security, you could just be a normal person and say, no, we're not going after Social Security. We want to protect it. But here's the thing. Does she does she want to protect Social Security because previous speeches that [00:12:40] she's given imply that she's not really a fan of the social safety net programs, and she has listed Social Security as one of those programs. In fact, here's one of those speeches. His big socialist programs were the Great Society, the Great Society, [00:13:00] where big government programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps and welfare, the Office of Economic Opportunity, [00:13:15] and Big Labor and Labor unions. Earlier in her speech, she talked about these big government programs like Social Security, which of course was not part of LBJ's, you know, Great Society program, but was, you know, secured through [00:13:31] policies implemented by FDR, Roosevelt. So I don't trust typical conservative Republicans because they have shown us who they are when it comes to Social Security and Medicare. [00:13:47] They have attempted to cut it forever. And so I'm not going to buy for a second that congressional lawmakers who have had their eyes on cutting Social Security and Medicare are somehow going to be hands off now. But the real question is, what what exactly can we expect from Donald Trump? [00:14:06] So let's say they do pass legislation, because remember, Republicans do have a slim majority in the House and the Senate. It's not impossible for them to attempt to pass cuts to Social Security and Medicare. But if that bill reaches Donald Trump's desk, what is he going to do? [00:14:26] Is he going to sign it or is he going to fight back against it? And unfortunately, Elon Musk is starting to make it abundantly clear that he does feel that Social Security should be a target. He shared a thread on X that was specifically attacking Social Security [00:14:43] as a tax plan that falls under the many deceptive sales techniques the United States government used on the American people. It is a policy that requires taxing people, [00:14:59] but it requires taxing people for a wildly popular universal social safety net program that was specifically implemented to keep elderly people off the streets. That's why it's the third rail in politics. [00:15:14] That's why with all of these Republicans, with all of these corporate donors funding these Republicans, they've been unable to pass cuts to Social Security or to privatize Social Security. But we're in this wait and see mode. We don't know what's going to happen. [00:15:31] And so we're going to stay on the story. We're going to wait and see. And if Trump reneges on his promise, we're going to keep him honest. And we're going to definitely call him out on this show. Thanks for watching. If you become a member, you get to watch all this ad free. Except for, of course, this ad still hit the join button below.