The inhumanity of these people is staggering.

Last Thursday, Donald Trump’s Commerce Secretary — a Wall Street billionaire
named Howard Lutnick, who got the job after raising millions for Trump’s 2020
and 2024 campaigns — said the following things:

“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My
mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain.”

“The easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because
whoever screams is the one stealing.”

“A fraudster always makes the loudest noise — screaming, yelling, and
complaining.”

“My mother-in-law’s not calling. Come on, your mother, 80-year-olds,
90-year-olds — they trust the government.”

By that “logic,” if you’re having a heart attack, crying out in pain or calling
911 only proves you’re faking it. Funny, we don’t remember Lutnick and the rest
of the billionaire class keeping their mouths shut whenever some “radical” in
Congress has proposed making them pay their fair share in taxes. Apparently
“trust the government” is just for us little people.

(And nevermind that for decades, right-wing politicians have been actively
sowing distrust in the federal government while simultaneously corrupting it for
the benefit of billionaires and Big Business. They have created a vicious cycle
that leaves the government less and less able to help everyday Americans but
more and more susceptible to manipulation. It has culminated in the disaster we
are all now living through, as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their MAGA
sycophants rush to essentially dismantle the federal government and turn our
country into a dictatorship.)

Lutnick said these insane, out-of-touch things on a podcast hosted by a gang of
rich Silicon Valley venture capitalists.

Some pesky facts about Social Security:

* Currently, around 70 million Americans depend on Social Security every month.

* At the risk of stating the obvious, they have earned those benefits. Social
Security is not a government handout. (Unlike the numerous tax breaks and
subsidies that billionaires like Howard Lutnick and giant corporations get
courtesy of American taxpayers.)

* People pay into the system throughout their working lives, then get money
back once they reach a certain age.

* If the Trump regime fails to fulfill its obligation to send Social Security
payments, the American people will have every right to complain, no matter
what Howard Lutnick thinks.

A message for Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick:
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As a billionaire, it may be hard for you to imagine what it would be like not to
get the meager Social Security payment that millions and millions of Americans
rely on each month — which, as you should know, they have earned — to pay for
basic necessities, like housing, food, and medicines. But are you really so out
of touch that you think the American people should just shut up and take it if
the administration that you are a senior member of fails to fulfill its Social
Security obligations? You owe the American people an apology.
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- Robert Weissman & Lisa Gilbert, Co-Presidents of Public Citizen


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