April 15, 2025

In Fox News Op-Ed, Warren Hits Back at Trump and Musk Gutting Social Security

In Fox News Op-Ed, Warren Hits Back at Trump and Musk Gutting Social Security

“We shouldn’t be cutting Social Security services and threatening Americans’ benefits — we should be making the program stronger…[and] lifting the cap on the amount millionaires and billionaires pay into Social Security...”

“Social Security isn’t something we give away out of the goodness of our hearts. It’s something Americans earned over a lifetime of hard work — an ironclad contract that they can count on.” 

Warren Op-Ed in Fox News Digital 

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and member of the Senate Finance Committee, published an op-ed in Fox News hitting back at the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s attempts to gut the Social Security Administration (SSA) as a means of slashing benefits for Social Security recipients. 

Senator Warren is one of the Democrats leading the Social Security War Room, a coordinated effort launched this month to fight back against the Trump administration’s attack on Americans’ Social Security. The War Room coordinates messaging across the Senate Democratic Caucus and external stakeholders; encourages grassroots engagement by providing opportunities for Americans to share what Social Security means to them; and educates Senate staff, the American public, and stakeholders about Republicans’ agenda and their continued cuts to Americans’ Social Security services and benefits.

Last week, Senator Warren, along with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), proposed an emergency $200 a month expansion of Social Security benefits in response to the economic chaos resulting from President Trump’s tariffs. 

Read the full op-ed here and below. 

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Social Security is under attack. Gutting it is a broken promise

April 15, 2025

Gutting Social Security isn’t “efficient” — it’s a broken promise. Democrats and Republicans should stand up and fight back to protect it.

Social Security is not charity. Americans pay in, paycheck after paycheck, over a lifetime of hard work. When they get older, they get that money back to help them retire. That’s the iron-clad, take-it-to-the-bank promise that America makes to workers.

But right now, Social Security is under attack like it has never been before. Billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said seniors won’t complain if they miss a Social Security check. Elon Musk called Social Security the “world’s biggest Ponzi scheme.” Musk then sent his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to gut the agency by indiscriminately firing workers, closing down offices, and trying to cut phone services.

What does it mean to slash staff and services with no rhyme or reason? Two things: more mistakes in delivering checks to Americans, and fewer workers to fix those mistakes. And when people don’t get their checks, that’s a cut to the benefits they have earned.

Mistakes are already showing up. After DOGE got its hands on Social Security, Ned, a retiree from Washington state, was marked “dead” in the Social Security system — despite being very much alive. He had $5,000 in benefits snatched right out of his bank account (paid while he was “dead”) and his monthly checks ceased. Ned spent weeks trying to fix the mistake and still hasn’t gotten paid back for two months of missing checks.

Or take Tom and Chris from Westborough, Massachusetts, whose son has autism. For years, disability benefits through Social Security have helped pay for his care. And for years, those benefits have come through on time, without fail. But when they checked their son’s Social Security account recently, his benefits had been terminated. No explanation — just stopped. The money eventually came through, but it led to panic over how they would pay the bills.

And while people aren’t getting their checks, there are fewer Social Security workers to help fix problems. Slashing staff and shutting down regional offices means Americans are forced to drive hours to get help with their applications or missing benefits. Once they get to an office, the lines can be out the door. They wait hours before they can get help — if they get help at all.

Elon Musk and DOGE claim the reason they’re hacking away at people’s Social Security is to cut down on “extreme levels of fraud,” saying tens of millions of dead people over the age of 100 are getting payments. But even current Social Security Acting Administrator Leland Dudek — put in place by Donald Trump in February — contradicts that claim.

Here’s the thing: if Elon Musk and DOGE truly want to cut waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, there are easy ways to do it. I gave them 30 suggestions that would cut $2 trillion in government waste. Gutting the Social Security Administration so that it works worse for our seniors, veterans, and Americans with disabilities is not one of those ways.

But don’t just take it from me. President George W. Bush’s Social Security Administration Commissioner said that if Elon Musk and DOGE wanted to make changes to increase efficiency at the agency, they could, “but we're doing it the way that 22-year-old frat boys that have never seen the system think is a good idea, and that's a mistake.”

Musk himself said he’ll make mistakes, and it’s clear that coming for Social Security is a giant one. If he’s really honest enough to admit his own mistakes, why doesn’t he reverse course? Instead of recognizing that DOGE’s Social Security takeover is only hurting Americans, he’s doubling down, even encouraging President Trump to make the same false claims. President George W. Bush’s Social Security Commissioner called it “a real disservice to President Trump.” More importantly, it’s a deep disservice to the American people.

We shouldn’t be cutting Social Security services and threatening Americans’ benefits — we should be making the program stronger. People are struggling with sky-high prices while their retirement savings are evaporating. We need a temporary increase in benefits right now to give people some relief. We should also protect the long-term security of the system by lifting the cap on the amount millionaires and billionaires pay into Social Security, which would also yield enough money to permanently expand benefits.

Social Security shouldn’t be a partisan issue. It was first created by a nearly unanimous vote by members of Congress from both parties. Even now, as gutting the agency has become a key part of the administration’s agenda, Republicans know that DOGE’s “efficiency” mission isn’t working. They’re seeing reports of long lines at offices, long waits on the phone, and website crashes from their own constituents in places like Arizona, Indiana, and Pennsylvania. So where are they? Why are Democrats the only ones concerned about what happens with Social Security?

Social Security isn’t something we give away out of the goodness of our hearts. It’s something Americans earned over a lifetime of hard work — an ironclad contract that they can count on. Now, Trump, Musk, and DOGE are trying to skip out on that contract and calling it “efficient.” But it isn’t efficiency — it’s a broken promise to the American people, and Democrats and Republicans alike should stand up and fight back.

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