At today's Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) questioned Frank Bisignano, President Trump's nominee to be Commissioner of Social Security Administration.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Senator Sanders. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Welcome, Mr. Bisognano.
00:06Mr. Bisognano, in your opening remarks, you mentioned that last year the Inspector General reported
00:13that the error rate in Social Security was less than 1%,
00:17and it was an error rate that you wanted to improve upon. Am I right?
00:21Yes.
00:22Okay. But in his State of the Union Address, listened to by millions and millions of Americans,
00:29President Trump suggested that, quote,
00:32millions and millions, end of quote, of Social Security checks are going out to people
00:38who are between the ages of 140 and 360 years old.
00:44Millions and millions of checks.
00:47You've just acknowledged what is true, is that the error rate in Social Security is less than 1%.
00:5399 point whatever of the people who get their checks paid into the system and deserve those checks.
01:00So what I want to ask you is, do you think that President Trump was just expressing an outrageous lie,
01:09which I happen to believe, trying to undermine Social Security,
01:13or was he just grossly uninformed about the reality?
01:17I think what the President was representing, which further was represented again and proven to be accurate,
01:25is that there were millions of Social Security records that did not have people deceased.
01:39Let's not play with words.
01:43What you have just acknowledged is that in 2024,
01:47the Social Security Administration paid out over 99 point whatever percent to people eligible.
01:56The error rate was less than 1%.
01:59Millions and millions and millions of people 200 or 300 years of age did not get checks.
02:06Is that true?
02:08What I represented was that a 1% error rate in a mission-critical function like Social Security is way too high.
02:21I agree. Excuse me, I don't have much time.
02:24Sorry.
02:25President said millions and millions of people.
02:28You're saying, and you're right, less than 1%.
02:30You want to improve it? You're right. Let's do it.
02:33President was lying.
02:34And what he was trying to do was undermine the foundations of Social Security by saying the system is out of control.
02:40All right, my next question is, Senator Daines made a good point.
02:45You call it Social Security today, it's a disaster.
02:47Why, if right now, it is hard for people to get through in Vermont and all over this country,
02:56why do you think the Social Security Administration is now closing down offices and laying off 7,000 employees?
03:04And we have heard from Mr. Dudek that he wants to cut up to half of Social Security's workforce.
03:10When the department is now understaffed, people can't get through.
03:15Do you think it makes sense to lay off half the staff?
03:21First and foremost, I'm not there, sir.
03:23Just answer the question, please.
03:25Do you think it makes sense, I know you're not there,
03:27do you think it makes sense to lay off half of the staff when right now it is a 50-year low in terms of staffing?
03:34Well, I don't know where Mr. Dudek gets his information from, and I don't communicate with Mr. Dudek.
03:43I'll just ask you, I mean, I think what Senator Daines said was right.
03:46Tough to get through right now.
03:48I think common sense would suggest that when it's bad now, you don't lay off half your staff.
03:53Would you agree with me?
03:55I believe that we can drive efficiency for the rest of our life.
04:01I also understand that it takes 20-plus minutes to answer the phone.
04:07On a good day.
04:08Right. Well, that's the average published, right?
04:11It's not how I would report the numbers because I think...
04:13All right, but all I'm asking, when you have a system that is not working now,
04:17do you think it's a great idea to lay off half of the employees?
04:20I don't know. Do I think it's a great idea to lay off half of the employees when a system doesn't work?
04:25I think the answer is probably no.
04:27Okay.
04:28All right, now I want to ask you another question, a more philosophical if you like.
04:32I understand, correct me if I'm wrong, you made $100 million recently in compensation in a given year?
04:40All right, my question is not to deal with that per se,
04:42but right now we have 22% of seniors trying to survive on less than $15,000 a year.
04:48A lot of people, older people, are living in desperation in America.
04:51Some of us want to expand Social Security benefits
04:55because we think people should not be living on $15,000 a year.
04:59We're concerned about the solvency of Social Security.
05:01We want to extend it beyond where it is right now.
05:04Do you agree with me that it does not make sense for somebody like yourself
05:08who makes $100 million a year in compensation
05:11to be paying the same amount into Social Security as somebody who makes $176,000?
05:16Or would you work with me to raise that cap so more money can come into the system?
05:21I know there's an actuarial function in the area.
05:24I know it's analytics.
05:26I'm a fact-based, rule-based person.
05:28I'm happy to study anything and work side-by-side with you, sir.
05:32All right, all I ask in general right now, the system is stressed financially.
05:37I'm sorry?
05:38The system is stressed now financially.
05:40We want to increase the solvency and increase the benefits.
05:42Is it a good idea to remove the cap, which is now, I think, $174,000,
05:47so that wealthy people contribute more into the system?
05:50I don't think that's the commissioner's job at all, sir.
05:53I think the commissioner's job is to run the agency right.
05:56I'm happy to provide all the information you want,
05:59and I'm happy to be a partner in solving every problem.
06:02Okay, thank you very much.