Did You Ever Believe That Trump Was Being Honest When He Said He Would Protect Social Security?

The GOP’s Final Grift… They’re Coming For Social Security

Chuck Grassley is 91 years old. He was first elected to the Iowa House in 1958, to Congress in 1974 and to the U.S. Senate in 1980. He’d be up for reelection in 2028 and I’m guessing he won’t be running again. And that should free him up to vote his conscience. So far though… no go. Yesterday, chair of the Senate Judiciary, he was kvetching that Congress is powerless in the face of cuts from DOGE. “Congress can’t do anything except complain” about the slashing of the federal government at the hands of Musk and his allies, Grassley said during a press call on Tuesday, according to a report from Radio Iowa. The Iowan's comments serve as a stark admission that, despite growing Republican discomfort that Musk's actions are getting the green light from President Donald Trump, there is little the GOP might be able, or willing, to do. “It’s a tragedy for people that are getting laid off," Grassley said.

It’s a tragedy for America that Republican members of Congress feel that they can’t speak up and assert themselves… even someone like Grassley who has little to lose from Trump’s barking and from Musk’s threats to fund primaries against anyone who doesn’t toe the line.

Yesterday, Nikki Ramirez reported that the Trump Regime is about to allow the banksters to soak the American people again, as they rescind the rule “limiting major banks’ ability to penalize customers with overdraft fees, a reversal that has major banking associations salivating at the mouth.” This time members of Congress aren’t dragging their feet or feeling any reluctance. House Financial Service Committee Chair French Hill (R-AR) and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced legislation to repeal the rule,” wrote Ramirez, “which eliminated junk fees associated with account overdrafting— capping the penalty at $5— and gave banks several options to manage overdraft costs without placing an excess burden on consumers.  The Trump administration endorsed the legislation on Monday, with Office of Management and Budget Director and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau  Interim Director Russ Vought writing on Twitter that he was ‘grateful’ that the representatives had introduced legislation overturning the rule. ‘Passing this important legislation will immediately further President Trump’s deregulatory agenda,’ he wrote.”

At the time the rule was passed, former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra wrote that the directive was expected to “add up to $5 billion in annual overdraft fee savings to consumers, or $225 per household that pays overdraft fees.” 

“Over the past few decades, these highly profitable overdraft loans have increased consumer costs by billions of dollars,” Chopra argued. “The loans have also led to tens of millions of consumers losing access to banking services, as well as facing negative credit reporting that has prevented them from opening another account in the future.”

The rule angered major banking organizations. In December, the The American Bankers Association sued the Biden administration alongside a coalition of banking groups, accusing the CFPB of exceeding its authority and claiming that the regulations would harm consumers. On Monday, several banking associations once again called on the CFPB to withdraw the rule. In their announcement, Reps. Scott and Hill wrote that they have the “support of key stakeholders, including the Consumer Bankers Association, Independent Community Bankers of America, American Bankers Association, and America’s Credit Unions.” 

Under the auspices of Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the CFPB has become a target of the Trump administration’s gutting of the federal workforce, which has included regulatory agencies providing oversight to major corporations. In a statement released earlier this month, the White House accused the CFPB of functioning “as another woke, weaponized arm of the bureaucracy that leverages its power against certain industries and individuals disfavored by so-called ‘elites.’”

Musk added “CFPB RIP” on Twitter, writing that while the organization did “above zero good things,” they “still need to go.” Last week, Vought ordered all work at the bureau to cease, pending layoffs at the organization amid efforts to shut it down entirely. Over the weekend, a federal judge blocked the mass firings of CFPB staffers following a union challenge. 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) torched the administration’s actions in a recent interview with Rolling Stone. “Donald Trump campaigned on lowering costs for working families ‘on day one,’ she said. “He is now sidelining the agency that over the last dozen years, has returned $21 billion directly to people who got cheated by giant financial institutions. In other words, his plan is to do nothing on reducing costs, but sure enough, put in place a plan to raise costs for people who are working hardest in our economy.”

And, now, reported CNN late yesterday, Musk and Trump are setting their sights on opening the gates to wrecking Social Security— exactly what Trump vowed during the campaign he wouldn’t do. Musk pressured Social Security Administration commissioner Michelle King out of her job and now they are spreading false conspiracy theories about Social Security to prepare the ground for doing what Republicans have been hoping to do since FDR signed Social Security into law.

“Trump promised throughout the presidential campaign,” wrote Zach Wolf, “that Social Security payments and Medicare coverage would not be cut. But as Musk looks to slash across the government, he can’t help but look at the money Americans spend on the social safety net, just like a long line of fiscally minded lawmakers worried about the national debt. On Twitter, Musk said he was ‘100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.’ Musk also posted a photo of a chart— it’s not clear where it comes from— that appears to show that people hundreds of years old are drawing Social Security benefits. Trump later seemed to read from that chart during an appearance at Mar-a-Lago on Tuesday. Appearing on Fox News Monday night, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt picked up the baton to suggest massive fraud that Trump has directed Musk to investigate. ‘They haven’t dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments,’ she said.”

I don’t want to bore you, but it’s a familiar playbook: Trump makes a promise, Musk provides the pseudo-intellectual cover, and the Republican Party— terrified of crossing their new patron saint of austerity— falls in line… fast. The idea that there’s some vast, shadowy conspiracy of dead centenarians draining Social Security is absurd on its face, but absurdity has never stopped the MAGA machine before. The goal here isn’t to “reform” Social Security; it’s to destabilize it, to create enough manufactured scandal that gutting the program starts to feel like a necessity rather than a choice. The playbook is as old as Reagan’s “welfare queen” myth— demonize the system, stoke resentment, and hand the spoils to Wall Street.

And let’s be clear: Wall Street is salivating. Trump’s financiers are already eyeing Social Security as the next big cash grab, a multi-trillion-dollar trough for the financial sector to feast on. Musk and Trump’s rhetoric about “fraud” is just the opening salvo in a campaign to do what the GOP has always dreamed of— dismantling the last vestiges of FDR’s New Deal and replacing them with a privatized, means-tested, stock market-dependent nightmare. The only fraud here is the idea that Trump ever had any intention of keeping his promises to working Americans. The scam isn’t in the Social Security books; it’s in Mar-a-Lago’s backrooms, where billionaires plot how much more they can squeeze out of a country they already own.

I asked two political leaders from Wisconsin, Rep. Mark Pocan and hopefully future Rep. Randy Bryce. Pocan told me that “Donald Trump and Elon Musk have never proven themselves to be trustworthy. The fact that they’re openly attacking Social Security is a set up to steal money away for a tax break for themselves. They’ve lied about the staff there. They’ve lied about the program. And they’ve lied about who’s getting funding from it. The only thing that’s true is that Donald Trump and Elon Musk don’t care about you. Social Security doesn’t mean much to the wealthiest, but it means a lot to the average American. Don’t let these grifters steal your money.”

And Bryce added that when he “ran for Congress in 2018 against Paul Ryan he was known as being THEE guy responsible for wanting to gut Social Security. We repealed him but we came up short of replacing him. His former driver— Bryan Steil— replaced him but he’s just as bad as Ryan was when it comes to Social Security. Steil used his grandmother in an ad that ran for his recent 2024 campaign promising her that he would protect Social Security. She warmly responded ‘I know you will Bryan.’ Apparently ‘Lyin’ Ryan’ was replaced by ‘Lyin Bryan.’ What a shame and a kick to push grannies all over the US over the cliff. Wisconsin’s 1st CD has a lot of people who are depending on SS being there when it’s needed. It’s NOT an entitlement— it’s OUR money that we paid into throughout our entire working careers. This country needs leadership that will stand up to special interests that hurt working people— not representatives who genuflect to entities that have bought and paid for them. We definitely don’t need anyone who will let Trump do as he wills to pay back the billionaires who got him elected. Bryan Steil— you and others like you need to be replaced.”

The one “good” thing about this is that if Trump/Musk seriously try to gut Social Security, even the bumbling DCCC could win 2-3 dozen red seats. I’d see it as the end of the road for:

• Dave Schweikert (AZ-01)

• Juan Ciscomani (AZ-06)

• Kevin Kiley (CA-03)

• David Valadao (CA-22)

• Young Kim (CA-40)

• Ken Calvert (CA-41)

• Gabe Evans (CO-08)

• Aaron Bean (FL-04)

• Cory Mills (FL-07)

• Anna Paulina Luna (FL-13)

• Laurel Lee (FL-15)

• Maria Salazar (FL-27)

• Carlos Gimenez (FL-28)

• Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01)

• Ashley Hinson (IA-02)

• Zach Nunn (IA-03)

• Bill Huizenga (MI-04)

• Tom Barrett (MI-07)

• John James (MI-10)

• Ann Wagner (MO-02)

• Ryan Zinke (MT-01)

• Don Bacon (NE-02)

• Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02)

• Tom Kean (NJ-07)

• Nick LaLota (NY-01)

• Andrew Garbarino (NY-02)

• Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11)

• Mike Lawler (NY-17)

• Max Miller (OH-07)

• Mike Turner (OH-10)

• Mike Carey (OH-15)

• Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01)

• Ryan Mackenzie (PA-07)

• Rob Bresnahan (PA-08)

• Scott Perry (PA-10)

• Nancy Mace (SC-01)

• Andy Ogles (TN-05)

• Monica De La Cruz (TX-10)

• Tony Gonzales (TX-23)

• Rob Wittman (VA-01)

• Jen Kiggans (VA-02)

• Bryan Steil (WI-01)

• Derrick Van Orden (WI-03)