[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 62 (Monday, April 7, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S2451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SOCIAL SECURITY

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Social Security, while markets plunge 
and retirement accounts reel from Donald Trump's tariffs, Elon Musk and 
DOGE are taking a blowtorch to Social Security.
  This morning, the Washington Post reported that the Social Security 
website is facing widespread and repeated outages. People can't log on 
and see their benefits. Millions of low-income Americans even received 
messages saying they are ``not receiving payments'' at all, causing 
widespread panic.
  First, DOGE shut down local Social Security offices. Then it shut 
down phone services. Now seniors can't even go online. What the hell 
are they supposed to do?

  Anyone who thinks Elon Musk isn't trying to destroy Social Security 
should look at how they are crashing the website, how they are shutting 
down offices, how they are closing phone lines. Now they are even 
proposing another round of massive layoffs.
  Make no mistake--no mistake; it is clear as a bell--Elon Musk is 
cutting Social Security benefits. When he said that it was a Ponzi 
scheme--so ridiculous, so false, and so mean--he really meant it. He 
believes it. When offices close down, when websites crash, when phone 
lines shut off, that is no different than cutting benefits. So when 
Elon Musk says that Social Security should be eliminated, he is finding 
ways to make that happen. It is horrible, horrible for our seniors and 
for all Americans, including the millions who have been putting money 
in week after week, month after month so they might have a decent 
retirement.
  Last week, Senate Republicans voted against three amendments by 
Democrats to protect Social Security from DOGE, including an amendment 
by Senator Ossoff reversing the mass layoffs and office closures. What 
did Republicans do? They said no. Shameful.
  Social Security is the greatest crisis ever. Senate Republicans are 
now complicit. The longer Republicans allow Elon Musk to threaten 
people's benefits, the greater the political blowback is going to be.
  And with these issues--the tariffs, the Trump tariff tax--destroying 
so much of Social Security, the American people are learning that 
Donald Trump is betraying them. Everything he said in the campaign--so 
much he said in the campaign, he is just doing the opposite. It helps 
the billionaires and hurts the American people.

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