During his Senate floor filibuster, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) slammed President Trump and Elon Musk on the issue of Social Security.
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00:00:00need to stay in place. On another topic, this constituent is getting a lot into
00:00:06her first letter to a government official and I appreciate it. On another
00:00:10topic, inflation. Increasing prices and the overpriced housing market is a huge
00:00:16problem. Placing tariffs on our biggest trade partners is beyond unfair. This
00:00:21drives the cost of goods up and the consumer is the one who ends up
00:00:25paying the increase. A lot of families are food insecure, wondering where their
00:00:30next meal is coming from. A lot of parents go without so their children can
00:00:33eat. Food pantries and banks are scrambling to meet demand. Something
00:00:42needs to be done so families can survive. The housing market is also an issue.
00:00:45Owning your own home is now unreachable for most young people starting out.
00:00:50Interest rates are high and housing prices in New Jersey are unaffordable.
00:00:55Thank you for reading my letter. I'm asking you as our senator, please stand
00:01:04up for what is in the best interests of families, seniors, adults, and children in
00:01:09your district. Tariffs, dismantling departments like Social Security,
00:01:14Medicare, Medicaid, education, and other services that are important to the
00:01:20everyday person is not the answer. You are our voice in the Senate. Please do
00:01:27the right thing and speak up and continue to fight for everyday
00:01:31Americans. This is why I'm standing up. This is why I will stand here as long as
00:01:37I'm physically able. This is why I will continue to tell story after story. But
00:01:43first, a little important history. 90 years, our country has made a promise to
00:01:54people that if you pay into the Social Security program your whole life, that
00:01:57money will be there for you when you retire.
00:02:02Franklin Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law 84 years ago. And
00:02:09this is his quote. He called it a cornerstone in a structure which is
00:02:13being built, but it is by no means complete. Social Security is still a
00:02:18cornerstone. It's still the bedrock, according to FDR. It's the bedrock of an
00:02:26edifice being built in a nation where we belong to each other. We, the people
00:02:38building this, that's our cornerstone. He called it the Social Security. Today, 73
00:02:45million Americans count on Social Security. Millions more than that are
00:02:51planning on those benefits they earn being there for them. You heard from the
00:02:56first letters I read that people are really worried. President United States
00:03:01stood up in a State of the Union address and talked about rampant fraud because
00:03:05payments are going out. All that, from conservative papers to ones on the
00:03:13other side, have showed that what he was saying was not true. But they're sowing
00:03:18chaos. They're attacking, delegitimizing it, calling it a potency scheme. Doge,
00:03:23Leader, Musk, and the President. But 73 million Americans are counting on Social
00:03:32Security benefits, and 1.6 million in my state. Forty percent of people who ride
00:03:40on Social Security, forty percent, have no other source of income. They live paycheck
00:03:46to paycheck. Social Security checks, excuse me, Social Security chunk. And
00:03:53despite mocking Social Security, causing it a ponzi scheme that had communities
00:03:59like my parents, my group, my mom's, people beginning to worry, they actually
00:04:07took real actions to lay off thousands of Social Security employees, making it
00:04:10harder to process Social Security applications and troubleshoot questions
00:04:16for beneficiaries. They didn't roll out a plan to say, hey, this is how we are
00:04:21going to show that we can do the best customer service ever. We're going to
00:04:25bring some of the best private sector people in to advise on how we can use
00:04:28technology and innovation to give the best customer service. Hell, roll in AI, do
00:04:33all these things. We're going to make a model of responsiveness to our seniors
00:04:37because we're a society that respects our elders, values them, wants them to
00:04:41retire in dignity and security and peace of mind. That's the big ambition. No,
00:04:47that's not what was said. Social Security employees, like many employees, got
00:04:55letters that they didn't expect, saying they were laid off. It didn't matter how
00:05:00well they performed. It didn't matter what function they performed. And it put
00:05:07in jeopardy just trying to contact Social Security if you're retiring, just
00:05:13trying to contact Social Security if you need to apply for benefits. They tried to
00:05:20eliminate service by phone, saying that they wanted to require in-person visits,
00:05:26which is absurd for many seniors that don't have access to transportation or
00:05:33live in rural areas, because you know what they're doing also is that they're
00:05:37trying to close down many Social Security offices. I'm going to get to the
00:05:41specifics of that later. These actions are harmful enough, but they're just the
00:05:46beginning of what our president and Elon Musk are saying they want to do to
00:05:50a program that for millions of Americans, it's their only check a week.
00:05:54It's essential for them, and others it's how they make their retirement secure.
00:05:59You don't protect the future by punishing the people who built this
00:06:04country. You don't fix America by throwing seniors or veterans or
00:06:09Americans with disabilities under the bus. That's not how we do things. That's
00:06:12not how we should do things. There are so many hard-working families that believed
00:06:18in this idea, if I work hard all my life in America, I can make ends meet, I can
00:06:21raise my kids, and I can retire with dignity. Congress does have a
00:06:29responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. We should do more of
00:06:33that. I want to do more. I want to help lead in that fight, but none of us were
00:06:37invited to a table when it came to this. This congressionally established program,
00:06:42FDR I read, but it was Congress that established it, is now not being included
00:06:48in the planning or procedures to try to improve Social Security or make it more
00:06:51efficient or more effective. We haven't convened hearings or task forces in a
00:06:55bipartisan way to find out what we can do to better serve our seniors. Instead,
00:07:00lies are being proffered about Social Security making wrongful payments. Lies
00:07:06are being proffered by the highest office in the land. The most
00:07:13richest person in the land who does not need Social Security is calling it a
00:07:17Ponzi scheme, telling people who are relying on it they're part of a Ponzi
00:07:20scheme. But remember this, Social Security is not the government's money to spend.
00:07:27It's the hard-earned savings of working Americans and it belongs to Americans.
00:07:33The President and Elon Musk need to keep their hands off of it. It's not theirs to
00:07:38take and it's not theirs to break. Their scheme, they're the ones that have a
00:07:45scheme and it's not about efficiency. It's not visionary. It's what we need in
00:07:51America now is visionary leaders that have bold, exciting visions for where
00:07:56things like Social Security can be and what they're doing is not only wrong, it
00:08:04hurts people. It scares people and not just people, our elders. People who raised
00:08:16us, the people who built roads and highways, the people who served food, made
00:08:21food, who started small businesses, raised generations, that's who we're
00:08:25disrespecting. And so what happens in this context? Why am I standing here is
00:08:31because the people of New Jersey are saying, why aren't you doing more? This
00:08:36is unacceptable, Senator Booker. It's unacceptable. Here are voices and my
00:08:41phones have exploded with people that the President and Elon Musk have made
00:08:46terrified about what's happening to the Social Security Service and what's
00:08:50happening to their checks. My staff said that we were overwhelmed with phone
00:08:57calls and emails from people who are worried about the direction that the
00:09:03President is taking Social Security. They used words to me that people who called
00:09:07were angry and terrified. I want to share some of these calls from constituents.
00:09:15Here's someone from the great Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I'm very concerned that
00:09:20the President, along with his cruel and inept administration and DOJ, are working
00:09:24to privatize and ruin the Social Security program. I am a constituent,
00:09:28Senator Booker. I live in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and I am a senior who relies on
00:09:33Social Security income for my basic needs, food and housing. The mere idea of
00:09:37not having those funds has caused me sleepless nights and wondering if I will
00:09:43become homeless. I'm going to stop there for a second. I remember this President
00:09:48FDR growing up hearing that what he did was get on the radio not to stir up fear,
00:09:53not to stir up chaos, but to comfort people, to remind them that we are
00:09:58Americans. You have no need to fear. But this President, just with his rhetoric
00:10:03alone about Social Security, is driving my constituents to write me notes like
00:10:08this. I continue with the letter from my constituent from Cherry Hill. I hope you
00:10:16will convince both Democrats and Republican colleagues to prevent this
00:10:22from happening. Trump lied when he promised during his campaign he would
00:10:26not touch the Social Security administration, but now we see threats
00:10:31and already some actions towards making severe cuts and making the program less
00:10:36accessible. I urge you to continue to fight for us.
00:10:41Pennington, New Jersey. My sister and I are older Americans who are each disabled.
00:10:53One from a severe accident because of a drunk driver and the other from a
00:10:58life-changing illness. We are alone and take care of each other. For me, SSDI is
00:11:08my one and only income. I have a few years before I am at full retirement age.
00:11:15Even with my check, I'm splitting rent. Even with my check and splitting
00:11:21rent costs between us, it takes, it is taking right under 50% of my monthly
00:11:26check for rent alone. 50%. 50%. This does not leave much to cover even the bare
00:11:33necessities of health, vehicle insurance, utilities, foods, medicine, even a tight
00:11:38budget, especially with costs on everything continuing to rise. Senator,
00:11:42as seniors, we are petrified about what's happening to SSA. I must ask you, Senator,
00:11:51what do we do if our monthly SSA benefits are interrupted? How do we keep
00:11:57a roof over our heads as disabled seniors? With very limited savings, it
00:12:02would only take a few months before the roof over our heads would be in jeopardy.
00:12:06We just spent a small fortune for us to move into a smaller, lower-cost apartment
00:12:10because we could not afford significant ongoing rent increases. I realize we are
00:12:16far from alone in our fears, but that is of very little comfort as we spend our
00:12:22nights unable to sleep, fearful we do not lose our only income along
00:12:30with the roof over our heads. This is our elders. Here's a constituent from
00:12:37Egg Harbor Township. My husband and I live social security check to social
00:12:41security check. Without those checks we earned, without those checks we earned, we
00:12:47are dead. Please don't let this outrageous administration take our
00:12:53benefits away. This is a constituent from Runnymede, New Jersey. I am a 75-year-old
00:12:59New Jersey resident. I received my working papers in 1964 at the age of 14.
00:13:05I worked continuously until I reached the age of 70 in 2020. I enlisted in the
00:13:12United States Navy in 67 and retired in 99. I was on active duty from 1970 to 77.
00:13:20I finished my career in the Naval Reserve for 56 years. I paid my taxes and
00:13:29contributed to Social Security. I have collected my Social Security for four
00:13:33years and as you are no doubt aware the amount of money paid me monthly by
00:13:37Social Security Act was calculated by them based on my contribution. I am
00:13:44currently a full-time 24-7 caretaker for my invalid wife and do not have the
00:13:50luxury of earning a supplemental income. My sole income is from Social Security
00:13:55and a small Naval Reserve pension. My total health care comes from Medicare
00:14:02and TRICARE for life. The contract I made with the United States government was
00:14:09that they could use my money during my working life with the understanding that
00:14:13they would take care of me when I could no longer earn for myself. I have kept my
00:14:18part of this bargain for 56 years. Now after only four years the government is
00:14:26threatening to renege on our agreement. Please sir do not let this happen
00:14:32Senator Booker. That is my money. I earned it. I earned my Social Security by my
00:14:39contributions and I earned my pension by my service. Another constituent named
00:14:47Sarah. I have been a teacher in Atlantic County for 26 years. My husband is a 100%
00:14:54disabled veteran who receives VA disability payments as well as SSDI. We
00:15:01depend on the VA and SSDI for approximately half of our income for
00:15:06our family of five. We are currently preparing our oldest for his first year
00:15:10at college and awaiting financial aid packages from several schools. We are
00:15:15petrified that Trump and Musk's agenda is dangerous and will have life-altering
00:15:23consequences for families like ours. We are counting on you Senator Booker to do
00:15:30the hard work to protect the essential benefits. The destruction of the
00:15:35Department of Education is another completely horrifying situation. We
00:15:39need to protect our special needs students and federal financial aid for
00:15:43college-bound students. We need to protect the idea of education is for all.
00:15:47Education is for all. Education is for all instead of a few elites who could
00:15:52just afford it. Rosie is another constituent. She starts off proudly. I am
00:16:00a senior 84 years old. God bless you Rosie. My mom is 85. My only income is
00:16:11Social Security. She generously gives me confidential information. My only income
00:16:20is Social Security. $1,179 per month and I am terrified that the current gang of
00:16:28thieves in the White House will tamper with it under the guise of quote-unquote
00:16:32saving money. Social Security is cut off. I am on the streets. I can't
00:16:38keep harping enough on the traditions of our country where presidents, whether
00:16:48you agree with them or not, whether they're from your party or not, Ronald
00:16:51Reagan didn't whip up fear in bedrock commitments like Social Security or
00:16:58health. Barack Obama didn't shake people so that Republicans and Democrats in my
00:17:04state would write me letters using words like fear and terror. Wouldn't use
00:17:10worries about losing sleep when you have enough things to stress over. Here's
00:17:17Debra. I am a retired widow. I depend on Social Security to pay bills each month. I'm
00:17:23concerned about the reports that Elon Musk is to revamp and in my opinion
00:17:28ruin the Social Security administration. I'm worried that payments will be
00:17:31disrupted. There are many other things going on in the government today that
00:17:35I'm also concerned about. I hope that the seniors and congresspeople along with
00:17:39the judicial system can stand up to him and take back control of government. Look,
00:17:45it's going to revamp and ruin Social Security. This is just somebody simply
00:17:51saying is like be plain. Don't make up lies about false payments. Don't call it
00:17:57a Ponzi scheme. Give us a bold vision of how it's going to help more seniors. How
00:18:01are you going to serve more seniors? How are you going to improve the system? How
00:18:04are you going to make it better? How are you going to serve the dignity of our
00:18:07seniors? This is Holly. Holly is a constituent too. I am one of your
00:18:15constituents who's retired and relies 100% in order to live on my earned
00:18:21Social Security benefit in which I paid throughout my entire working career. I
00:18:25call on you to maintain Social Security program as it stood before the
00:18:30ascension of Trump and Musk. You must ensure that there are no missed earned
00:18:35benefit payments or late payments made to recipients, especially accessible
00:18:40accessible Social Security offices must remain open and fully staffed with
00:18:47trained, experienced Social Security employees in order to provide the kind
00:18:51of regular necessary customer service by phone, online and in person. And the
00:19:02Trump-Musk administration's endless terrorist threats of dismantling the
00:19:06Social Security administration, insidiously calling it a Ponzi scheme,
00:19:14working in order to privatize it and must cease and desist immediately.
00:19:17Moreover, you, Cory Booker, must reverse and or stop whatever draconian
00:19:24changes are being made to destroy the Social Security administration with
00:19:28thousands of cuts to needed employees with almost no notice and no public
00:19:34import. Social Security is being dismantled by an unelected billionaire,
00:19:39at least for now, Musk and his band of Doge boys, not a real government
00:19:43department, who have illegally and callously rifled through our most private
00:19:48personal information and done God knows what with it, with their ultimate goal to
00:19:53risk and or steal the retirement funds of older Americans by placing the Social
00:19:58Security trust fund in the hand of private corporate equity firms. Seniors
00:20:02do not agree to this. Seniors do not agree to this. And such action is a legal
00:20:07and completely unacceptable! This constituent continues. Furthermore, I'm
00:20:15deeply concerned that the ceaseless chaos will invite criminals to exploit
00:20:23confusion around identity verification. Ironically, while the administration
00:20:28claims these changes are meant to combat fraud, they may very well do the
00:20:32opposite, hastily introducing new unfamiliar technology and verification
00:20:37steps without any real public education campaign will create the perfect
00:20:42environment for criminals to deceive and defraud. This late and ill-conceived
00:20:48change also comes at a time when the Social Security administration is
00:20:51already struggling with a customer service crisis, long hold times, low
00:20:57staffing, delayed callback systems, confusing announcements about possible
00:21:02office closures. This chaos has to be stopped now, Senator Booker. I urgently
00:21:09ask you to please use your congressional power to reverse these changes, which are
00:21:13creating more confusion for older Americans. Senior Americans earn
00:21:18Social Security through a lifetime of hard, honest work. I know I did. The money
00:21:24is ours and we deserve a properly run Social Security administration, which
00:21:28continues to be administrated honestly through the federal government as
00:21:33established in 1935. In fact, the narrative of the Social Security Act
00:21:37running out of money could be easily fixed if Congress wrote laws that
00:21:41slightly increased the amount that high net worth individuals, the wealthiest of
00:21:44the wealthy, paid into the program.
00:21:50Holly, God bless you. My mother in her senior community is seeing this rise in
00:22:00scammers trying to steal people's money, and she's amazed at the technology
00:22:06they're using. Scams that involve the voices of their relatives asking them
00:22:12for help. They're in a crisis. All that technology and the wisdom of my mom,
00:22:15she's like, why aren't we using the technology and innovations to make
00:22:20Social Security easier to use, easier to engage with? Common-sense questions.
00:22:32Carly, a constituent from New Jersey, please include disabled people when you
00:22:36talk about Social Security and Medicare, Senator Booker. If you don't mention us
00:22:40every time. I paid into Social Security for 16 years. I work full-time. I was sick
00:22:46almost every day. I finally had to leave my job in 2015. I was granted SSDI and
00:22:52I'm on Medicare, and until I was injured last year, I had a part-time job where I
00:22:57continued paying into the system. I fear that the first people they will go after
00:23:03are the disabled. We are not as capable of fighting. People see us as lazy or
00:23:09fakers, and we're almost never included in the conversations about marginalized
00:23:14communities. Please don't let me be erased. Carly, you are not. I see you and
00:23:21I'm standing here for as long as I possibly physically can so that I can
00:23:26elevate your voice and others. Patricia, a constituent from New Jersey, I am 65
00:23:32years old, a senior. I've worked my whole life and paid into Social Security. Will
00:23:38you please work hard and push back to preserve these benefits? Without Social
00:23:42Security monies and Medicare as well, I will not survive. I am outraged, Patricia
00:23:48writes, to see what is happening recently. Help. If there's anything you request of
00:23:53me, if there's anything you... My constituent says if there's anything you
00:23:59need of me, please let me know. It's one of the most beautiful sentiments in
00:24:10America is that people in crisis or wrapped with fear and worry, they still
00:24:17are standing up to volunteer. Retired, seniors, I'm always moved when a
00:24:24constituent just not only tells me what's on their mind, how they're angry,
00:24:28how they're worried, what their concerns are, but they also say, let me help you.
00:24:35Let me help you. Patricia, it's late at night. You're probably sleeping, but you
00:24:43helped me tonight at 1241 a.m. The goodness and the decency of our seniors,
00:24:50the kindness and generosity of our communities, and what does our president
00:24:54do to these people? He spends time of the State of the Union address, not
00:25:00calling us together, not calling us to common cause, not reminding us that we
00:25:05share common values and common virtues. He spreads lies about Social Security
00:25:09and unleashes the wealthiest man in the world to cut before he even understands
00:25:20the agencies he's cutting. A guy who, with the same kind of cynical nature, who
00:25:27I can't even fathom being as wealthy as he is. It's not what I've seeked in my
00:25:32life. He tells a Ponzi scheme when constituent after constituent tell me
00:25:41that is their only source of income, that they paid into all of their lives, and
00:25:46now the most powerful person on the planet and the richest person on the
00:25:51planet are striking fear and worry into seniors, and yet all of that power, all of
00:25:59that money, a constituent from New Jersey tells me about what she's concerned with
00:26:03and then says, if there's anything you request of me, please let me know. I am
00:26:08here to help. I'm here to help. That's the country I know and love. Not the
00:26:18fear-mongerers and the demagogues and the spreaders of lies, but the good
00:26:24decency of Americans who, even in their time of crisis, ask the question, how can
00:26:28I help? How can I help? Helen from New Jersey, Senator Booker, please stand up to
00:26:36Musk and Trump to say protect Social Security and Medicare. My life and my
00:26:41husband's life depend on it. We are senior citizens who worked and paid our
00:26:45share of taxes for over 50 years. We now need those benefits to survive, and here
00:26:53is Janet, one of the hundreds, I'm sorry to my staff, thousands of
00:26:59people who've written, emailed, and called. One more. Janet, I oppose the
00:27:11closing of Social Security field offices. If anything, more field offices should be
00:27:16opened if phone support is cut back. In 2022, while living in Wyoming, I started
00:27:23on Social Security. There were issues, and thank God for the local field
00:27:28office in Cheyenne, because they were the only people who could physically look at
00:27:33my documentation, realize what was happening to me, submit corrections, and
00:27:40enter notes in the system that the Social Security phone support could see.
00:27:45It took four or five trips to my local field office to resolve it. I had
00:27:52previously gotten nowhere with Social Security phone support. Today, I read the
00:27:59list of field offices that are slated to be closed, and they appear to be in rural
00:28:06areas. The people who live there might have to drive a full day's drive several
00:28:13times to apply for and follow up on their benefits. It is not fair. It is not
00:28:23fair. It is not fair. It is not fair.
00:28:32Across the country, my office here is from, it's not just New Jersey. Across the
00:28:47country, people who are frustrated, who feel like nobody wants to listen to them, we get
00:28:54calls from across the country. My staff doesn't say, you're not from New Jersey, so
00:29:00we're not going to talk to you. My staff, just incredible people I have surrounding
00:29:05me in the office who remind me of the values I treasure. And so they wanted me to
00:29:14include tonight people not from New Jersey, because again, we hear from thousands of
00:29:22people in my state and so many around the country. Here's Maria Karachi from Springfield,
00:29:32Delaware County, Pennsylvania. My name is Maria Karachi, Karanchi. Forgive me, Maria,
00:29:40if I'm pronouncing your name wrong. I am 78 years old and live in Springfield, Delaware
00:29:45County, Pennsylvania. When I was 16, I received my first paycheck and saw money was taken
00:29:49from my earnings. I learned then about FICO, the special government savings account that
00:29:56I would be, that I would put part of my earnings into until I retired. This was how I could
00:30:01pay my bills in my old age. It was something I could always count on. My earnings history
00:30:06shows the good and bad times, including the gaps when I was, when I received unemployment.
00:30:11My chosen career was in mortgage banking, bank mergers, dramatic changes to interest
00:30:15rates and even bank lending regulations meant times of unemployment with few options or
00:30:20jobs or accepting temp employment, I had to make the choice. Every paycheck with that
00:30:26held FICA. I was almost 65 when I began my career at the bank offering decent pay with
00:30:32overtime. It was 2010 and I had two goals to meet for my retirement, a mortgage-free
00:30:39home and working until I was 70, earning the maximum benefit. Underwriters that I worked
00:30:46with had shown me what they felt added security to my personal finances. So I was diligent
00:30:52with setting up my emergency savings account. It would be there for any time my social security
00:30:57check didn't cover my expenses on my home or me getting older. So I often worked until
00:31:0210 p.m. at night, delayed taking days off, making my goals possible. The Social Security
00:31:09Administration sent information about my future benefit payments. So I made a budget and determined
00:31:14my escrow for taxes, insurance and home maintenance to be taken from my benefit. I knew how much
00:31:20I would have per week for my living expenses once my mortgage was paid. I used the overtime
00:31:25income from my emergency savings account. Everything relies on my receipt of my monthly
00:31:30check from Social Security. The recent assault on Social Security has me terrified. People
00:31:40who were not elected, vetted or made to swear an oath to protect our U.S. Constitution have
00:31:48taken our personal data saying that they are searching for fraud. Errors are being made
00:31:55with this new regime and no clear resolution in sight. Why do they need my personal information
00:32:00that includes my Social Security number, work history and bank information? In February,
00:32:06my identity was stolen. When thieves moved my mail using a postcard sent to USPS, my
00:32:13bank statement and copy of my paycheck were forwarded to the thieves before I got the
00:32:18USPS notice of the change. I froze my credit then and have done so later since TransUnion
00:32:25has the BOSE address listed as a fraudulent one on part of their report but also has it
00:32:32on another address for mail that has been returned to the sender. I have quit fighting
00:32:37the data entry mistake but I remain diligent and alert if mail is due and doesn't arrive.
00:32:44What can I do about this new group of identity thieves known as Doge? Until recently, I had
00:32:52confidence in my ability to provide for myself because I lived in the United States of America,
00:32:57a republic governed by the people for the people. My parents were children of the Great
00:33:01Depression so they instilled in me how to be financially solid and survive. Now at 78,
00:33:06I'm learning everything that I hold dear is to be attacked by the 47th president using
00:33:13a contributor to his reelection as his advisor and the leader of a group named Doge. I do
00:33:18not feel safe due to cuts in so many who have kept us safe, cuts in the CDC, cuts in the
00:33:26FBI, cuts in the EPA, cuts in the FAA and Social Security. I worry about losing our
00:33:35foreign allies and the release of convicted domestic terrorists pardoned by the president
00:33:41while suspected immigrants might be whisked away before anyone even knows they are. Everyone
00:33:50I know receiving Social Security benefits relies on those payments for their daily life
00:33:54as prices increase under President Trump's leadership. Many are not as fortunate as me
00:34:01who had a solid plan for increased expenses. We worked putting into FICA with every paycheck
00:34:08that we received the thought of delaying payments or making errors so that anyone must
00:34:13prove their right to receive their benefit is stealing from people. Are we still the
00:34:17land of the free and the home of the brave? I'm counting on our elected officials like
00:34:21you and the courts to preserve it. Lisa Bogacki, Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. Hello, my name is
00:34:38Lisa and I live in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. 15 years ago, my healthy 42-year-old husband
00:34:45was found deceased on our couch by our then 13-year-old son. Our 10-year-old and 3-year-old
00:34:51stood quietly crying on the stairs. Sudden cardiac death was the cause. The same day
00:35:01my daughter asked if we would need to move to another house. I promised her, I promised
00:35:06her that I would do everything I could to keep us in the home only, I would promise
00:35:12to keep them in the only home they'd ever known. Those early days remain blurred in
00:35:16my mind. I remember my father taking me to the social security office and shortly thereafter
00:35:22survivors benefits for my children began showing up in the bank account to assist with their
00:35:27care. If not for these benefits, I would not have been able to keep my promise to my children.
00:35:33It's not much money amounting to roughly the salary of a minimum wage job, yet it was
00:35:36a lifeline to some piece of normalcy for my family, not a Ponzi scheme. My kids have now
00:35:48aged out of the system. I'm about to begin widow's benefits as my body cannot continue
00:35:53to work multiple jobs as a physician therapist, which I needed to do to make ends meet for
00:35:59myself and my family. Social security benefits were essential to the care and being of raising
00:36:05my children. It was a promise from their father who had paid into the system his entire working
00:36:09life. We must work on continuing to expand these essential benefits and never consider
00:36:17dismantling or privatizing them. Thank you, Senator Booker. Here's Kayana Spooner from
00:36:27Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, who writes me. My name is Kayana Spooner, and I live in Chippewa
00:36:37Falls, Wisconsin. I'm 63 years old. My husband, Joe, and I have five children and three grandchildren
00:36:42and live a wonderful life as our family is growing. God bless you and your family. We
00:36:46owned businesses and work to contribute social security for ourselves and our employees. We
00:36:52did all the things we could do to secure our future and contribute to the larger community
00:36:56of those in need. We felt that we're living the American dream until one day in 2012.
00:37:02I know this personally with my dad. I feel for you, Ms. Spooner. Until one day in 2012,
00:37:15I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative brain
00:37:34disease that progresses over time. Sorry, I'm thinking about my dad. It is unrelenting
00:37:39and affects motor and nerve processes. Loss of benefits will have a direct and daily effect
00:37:44on me and my family as we navigate the medical needs we will be facing. I will need progressive
00:37:51and comprehensive care as I age. I will need medication every single day of my life, and
00:38:00I will need the security of a generous society to care for me. Millions of others join me
00:38:05there. Please, Senator Booker, please protect my social security. I just thank God that
00:38:16my mom had the resources to take care of my dad, and I watched that degenerative disease
00:38:22take from his life for 20 years and how much it cost, the thousands of dollars it cost
00:38:27my mom to take care of him. I know my friend, Andy Kim, who is in the Senate right now is
00:38:33facing health challenges with his father. I know so many people personally whose parents
00:38:38have Alzheimer's. I know so many Americans who are not powerful, they're not rich. I
00:38:44know so many Americans who live in fear every day that one little thing will happen to them
00:38:49that will destabilize their financial well-being, and now those millions of Americans, because
00:38:55of a president and a man named Musk, are driving fear into them, are whacking away
00:39:07the people that answer phones, are firing the people in an agency that already was struggling
00:39:12with wait times, that already was struggling with slow response times. These people who
00:39:17are hanging on by a thread in their lives are facing the people they love the most who
00:39:22are struggling with the diseases that so many of us in this body have been affected
00:39:26by. They are now worried. They're writing me letters with words like fear and terror.
00:39:34They're talking about staying up at night and not being able to sleep because they don't
00:39:38have a president that comforts them. They have a president that talks down to them,
00:39:41that lies about the services that they rely on. What is this? It is not normal. It is
00:39:50not normal. This is America. How can the most powerful people in our land not comfort others,
00:39:58not tell them they have nothing to fear but fear itself, not tell them to have malice
00:40:02towards none but have charity towards all? What kind of man is in our White House that
00:40:08makes fun of the disabled, who lies so much that the fact-checkers lose count, that minimizes
00:40:16the pain and the suffering? We have cabinet secretaries that say, that are billionaires
00:40:22themselves that say, if my mom misses a Social Security check, ah, but if somebody else complains
00:40:28about it, they're probably a fraudster. These people are not fraudsters. They're hurting.
00:40:33They're afraid. They're worried. For God's sake, this is America. Every one of our founders'
00:40:43documents is riddled with words that speak to our commitment to each other. Yeah, they
00:40:48were imperfect geniuses, but they were people that aspired to virtue. They read the greatest
00:40:54philosophers of their times. They said, what does it mean to be good to one another? What
00:40:58does it mean to create a society that is not run by despots and dictators who are so disconnected,
00:41:07who talk down, let them eat cake? They dreamed of a different country than this, folks. They
00:41:13dreamed of a different country than this. They dreamed of a country that stood for not
00:41:18just get all I can for me, the biggest tax cuts possible to the wealthiest people. They
00:41:24dreamed of a nation where any child born in any circumstance from any place could grow
00:41:30up and have their American dream. And God, it gut-wrenches me when I hear people not
00:41:36as privileged as me, and I'm not musk and doge, but my mom had the resources and the
00:41:42family to support her as she watched my dad die of Parkinson's disease. But this person's
00:41:48writing in, she herself has Parkinson's. She underlines and bolds the part of her letter.
00:41:56She says, and I'll read it again, because Spooner, I want you from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin,
00:42:02to know you are seen, to know you are heard, that know that maybe the president will talk
00:42:08down and cut and malign your only paycheck, your only hope, but I won't. I won't. I see
00:42:16you. I feel you. You can't lead the people if you can't love the people. And I'm sorry,
00:42:25our president is not showing that. He may be saying those words. She writes with Parkinson's,
00:42:35I still remember my dad telling me he had it. She writes that it is unrelenting Parkinson's
00:42:41and affects my motor and nerve processes. Loss of benefits will have a direct and daily
00:42:46effect on me and my family as we navigate the medical needs we are going to be facing.
00:42:50I will need progressive and comprehensive care as I age. I will need medication every
00:42:55single day of my life. I know this. I know you will. I know you will. I will need the
00:43:00security of a generous society to care for me. A generous society to do the basic for
00:43:07families in this kind of struggle. Millions of others join me there. Protect my social
00:43:14security, Senator Booker. I tell you I am going to fight for your social security. I'm
00:43:19going to fight to protect the agency. I'm going to fight against unnecessary cuts that
00:43:22hurt the service it gives. And today and tomorrow I'm going to stand as long as I can, as long
00:43:29as I can, I'm going to stand and read stories like this because you are seen. You are heard.
00:43:35Your voices are more important than any of the hundred of us. More of your stories should
00:43:40be told on this floor of people that are scared right now, terrified right now, people living
00:43:45in rural areas that see their local social security agency on a list that Elon Musk put
00:43:51of places he's going to sell away to the private sector and you're going to lose your agencies.
00:43:56Well, I will fight. I'm sorry.
00:44:10Margaret Hebring from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
00:44:16Chippewa Falls, two letters. My staff is keeping me on my toes. This is another person from
00:44:22Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. My name is Margaret Hebring and I live in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.
00:44:27I'm 77 years old and I am a member of the Lakota band of the Lake Superior Ojibwe.
00:44:36My husband is a veteran and currently I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. My husband is a veteran
00:44:43who currently has cancer and he's receiving chemotherapy at the VA hospital which we have
00:44:48to travel to which is over a hundred miles away and without our social security I'm not sure what
00:44:55would happen to us. We would for sure have to sell our home. I have savings that will last me one month.
00:45:09I have savings that would last me one month right now. We live paycheck to paycheck
00:45:13so please, please protect our social security. This is Judith Brown. We're moving away from the
00:45:19great state of Wisconsin. We're going to the great state of North Carolina where my dad is from up in
00:45:24Hendersonville, Asheville, but this person Judith Brown is from Charlotte, North Carolina. One of my
00:45:29top five favorite non-New Jersey states. I don't know if my friend Andy Kim has his top five favorite
00:45:35non-New Jersey states. New Jersey obviously is the best. Don't look at the senator from
00:45:39Connecticut and I hate to tell him that Connecticut is not on my top five
00:45:44non-New Jersey states even though I got educated there. I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about that.
00:45:50The presiding officer is such a good man. His state is not on my top five non-New Jersey states
00:45:55but North Carolina is and I'm going to read a letter from Judith Brown. My name is Judith Brown
00:46:00and I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. I was 17 when I started working and worked for another 20
00:46:05years as an administrator until I had to be declared disabled. Without disability I would
00:46:13not have been able to see my specialist, get an eye care, or any of the other needs that I had.
00:46:19I was also the mother of two young sons who are on the autism spectrum. Without disability I
00:46:26wouldn't have been able to take care of them and get the care they needed to be independent young
00:46:32men. God bless them. I hear that they want to close the field offices and change the customer
00:46:38service line. As a person with mobility and vision impairments this is outrageous. I need to be able
00:46:46to access it the best way I can on the times that I can't access it. Please senator fight to protect
00:46:52social security for a senior like me and for young people with disabilities like my sons. Thank you.
00:46:58Thank you Judith Brown. Thank you for writing a letter. Thank you for speaking up. Thank you for
00:47:03not being silent. Thank you for advocating not just for your family but for the millions
00:47:08and millions of other Americans who lean heavily not just on their social security checks but on
00:47:14the incredible public servants that keep that agency working and who wish to have a president
00:47:21that said I'm going to bring the best of business experience to my customer service. I'm going to
00:47:26bring the best of caring and technology and innovation. I'm going to call the best computer
00:47:33technologist scientists in the country. We're going to make this the best social security in
00:47:37the history of our country. And you know what my friends the billionaires I had on stage with me
00:47:42when I was inaugurated I'm just going to ask them to pay a little bit more .00001% more of their
00:47:48net worth to make sure that social security is safe forever. It's crazy. I'm sorry it's crazy.
00:47:55I'm going back to Pennsylvania. I mean it's almost like you can't make this up honestly.
00:48:04I just know my country. I know our character. I know how good of a people we are. I know how
00:48:09much we love one another. I know much how our faith in red states and blue states and
00:48:14right and left. I've sat next to people on planes who introduced themselves to me as Republicans
00:48:21from a red state and by the end we're laughing and talking and sharing stories. We are a good
00:48:26nation. Together we can be so great. We've shown that but how can we have a president
00:48:33that in 71 days drives this much fear
00:48:38into our country. It's absurd everybody. It's absurd. This is why I can't let this be normal
00:48:44anymore. Michelle from Lancaster Pennsylvania. My name is Michelle Groover. I love your last name
00:48:56Michelle. From Lancaster Pennsylvania and I would definitely be impacted if somebody would happen
00:49:01something would happen to my social security. Michelle also has Parkinson's and I'm on
00:49:05disability and the money that I have goes pretty much to the most of my medications and foods that
00:49:11I need to eat to keep myself going and strong. That's how it would impact my family. I wouldn't
00:49:17be able to afford also my insulin for my diabetes. Parkinson's and diabetes. So it's a challenge every
00:49:23month as it is even with the amount that we have because the cost of pharmaceuticals and things keep
00:49:31us going. Yes. So that's why social security is really important to us as a family. It helps us
00:49:36get by every day. Thank you. This is Patricia Harvey Porter from Johnstown Pennsylvania. Hello my
00:49:43name is Patricia Haney excuse me Miss Porter. Patricia Haney Porter. I reside in Johnstown
00:49:49Pennsylvania. My work is varied. I've been employed as a secretary in the private sector as a statistician
00:49:56for the government agency as a real estate agent and most recently as a legal secretary. This is my
00:50:01story as to how social security has affected my life. My mother passed away in 1956. My sisters and
00:50:07I, God bless you, were eight ten and eleven. My maternal grandparents stepped in and they raised
00:50:14us with the help of social security survivor benefits resulting in good educations and
00:50:18allowing other needs to be met. We had almost normal lives due to these benefits. While raising
00:50:24two children I worked as a real estate agent. My income was based on commissions rather than salary
00:50:29so I made the entire social security payments based on my income. We had a roof over our heads,
00:50:33healthy food on the table. One of my children had serious medical issues and I paid for her bills
00:50:41out of pocket never asking for a penny from any government agency. These expenses were paid for
00:50:48for my income and I paid taxes every year. I waited until I was 70 to collect my social security
00:50:54benefits. As I realized the latter you collect the better the benefits. I have no pension and I live
00:51:00almost entirely on social security benefits. I am always looking for part-time work but few people
00:51:05want to hire me as I will be 80 in June. God bless you. God bless you. Based on the benefits I receive
00:51:13I'm able to pay my mortgage and all monthly expenses I receive Medicare which help pay
00:51:18the medical bills. Should social security and Medicare be taken from me I will likely lose my
00:51:24home. I could no longer afford medical costs, groceries. I have a medical condition which
00:51:30requires regular visits with a specialist who is 70 miles away. Without social security and Medicare
00:51:36I would no longer be able to see him and my condition would result in death sooner rather
00:51:40than later. Thank you for all you are doing to see that the benefits received through social security,
00:51:45Medicare and Medicaid will continue. As Senator Murphy and I was talking it's all interrelated
00:51:50right this is somebody on social security but they have to drive just for medical attention.
00:51:54We are in a hospital crisis in America. There's so many rural areas where rural residents of our
00:52:00country have to drive so far just to get to a hospital and cuts in Medicaid we've heard it
00:52:06from the letters I wrote in the left section will endanger those hospital survival.
00:52:11Charlotte, North Carolina again. Kevin Woodson. I get a lot of letters my staff from Wisconsin and
00:52:16Charlotte, North Carolina. Okay. My name is Kevin Woodson. I'm a 69 year old retiree living in
00:52:24Charlotte, North Carolina. I worked 38 years for two fortune 500 companies, two fortune 50 companies.
00:52:29I'm sorry Kevin and I thought that I would have a fully funded pension plan to live off in my
00:52:34retirement. However, I never got to the 25 years in so only got partial pensions. This is why I need
00:52:41social security covers the holes that the pensions don't cover in terms of medical benefits.
00:52:45It allows me the freedom to enjoy my life, take care of activities that I need
00:52:49in order to keep myself healthy. Social security is dependable,
00:52:53something I rely on, not a Ponzi scheme. And I hope that we don't touch social security
00:52:59and I hope that we don't touch social security and that we don't have any issues
00:53:04trying to keep that money flowing. It's money I paid into.
00:53:09Margarita Silver from Surprise, Arizona. I love that name. Surprise, Arizona.
00:53:18Hello, my name is Margarita Silver. I live in Surprise, Arizona with my husband. I started
00:53:22working at the age of 15 doing volunteer work as a candy striper at the hospital where my mother
00:53:29worked. I did not get paid. After that, I started working as a waitress earning 50 cents an hour.
00:53:35After graduating from high school, I took various jobs earning a little more and then I started
00:53:39working at Mountain Bell and I retired after 30 years from Quest. So if they do social security
00:53:45cuts, I don't know what I'm going to do. I will be forced at the age of 74 to look for a job.
00:53:51So those are my hard-earned benefits. I worked for that more than 30 years. I worked for that.
00:53:57Thank you. Wayne Bank from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. I need to go to Chippewa Falls,
00:54:06Wisconsin. This is the third letter you guys are having me and that are included that people
00:54:10reaching out to me from Chippewa Falls. God bless you. I need to visit your community.
00:54:14Hello, I'm Wayne from Chippewa Falls, soon to be 69 years old. I've been on social security for a
00:54:21couple of years. My wife and I, I spent years in the service, Navy. And again, like I said,
00:54:29my wife and I are going to have been on social security saying that we would if we lost our
00:54:36social security tomorrow, we would lose our house, our cars, and pretty much our livelihood because
00:54:42this is what we've worked for and we don't need to lose it. Why do you work for 55 years and pay
00:54:50into social security and then lose it? Recently, I tried to get back online, get on my social
00:54:54security account. I wasn't able to. Because of that, I went down to the social security office
00:55:00in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and they said I couldn't do, they couldn't do anything for me,
00:55:08that I had to set up an appointment. So I come home later, call, set up an appointment,
00:55:12and it's still three days out before I can get my appointment. And they don't know if they can
00:55:16help me. So at this point in time, I really need to know what's going on with social security,
00:55:20Senator Booker, because if we lose it, everybody else that's on it loses it. We're going to be in
00:55:27a really sorry state. Those folks who answer phones and set appointments, they're sure important.
00:55:34And when somebody is in a crisis, they have to wait a few days, their check is missed, and
00:55:43it's real consequences for real people.
00:55:50Hello, my name is Manuel. My wife and I live, surprise, surprise, surprise, Arizona.
00:55:56We're both on social security, and that's what we depend on to live
00:56:00our lives in our retirement years. We have to pay our bills. We have to buy food. We
00:56:03basically have to live off that. So if you take our social security, what are we going to live
00:56:07off? Are you going to take care of us? You know we're American citizens, and we deserve,
00:56:13and we paid into it, and we've earned it. And it's not just something given to us.
00:56:19So leave our social security alone. Let us live our lives. Let us live our lives out the way
00:56:27they should be. And we're supposed to be in our golden years, so it's important to us,
00:56:32it's important to all Americans out there that are seniors. Let us live our lives.
00:56:38Thank you very much, Senator Booker.
00:56:42Patricia Naughton from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I lift your voice.
00:56:46My name is Patricia Naughton, and I'm from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm paying,
00:56:50I've been paying into social security since I was 16 years old. I am currently 70,
00:56:57and I've been collecting social security for the last five years. Without social security,
00:57:00I wouldn't be able to pay my mortgage, utilities, food, medicine, co-pays, and many other things.
00:57:08I would not be able to survive without social security. There's no reason that seniors should
00:57:13be held hostage over social security. This is our money, our money that we put into the social
00:57:19security system for many years. We deserve not to be threatened by the loss. Thank you.
00:57:24Kathleen Wolverding from Hanover, Pennsylvania. Hello, my name is Kathleen Wolverding,
00:57:29and I currently live in Hanover, Pennsylvania. I'm originally from New Jersey
00:57:35and taught in the public school system for 29 years as a school librarian. When I retired,
00:57:39I decided to move to Hanover, Pennsylvania. Kathleen, you're missed in Jersey. And at the
00:57:44age of 62, I started collecting social security because of COVID. I needed the extra stability
00:57:51that social security provides. I no longer have to work a full-time job because of social security,
00:57:55although I do work a part-time job and still pay into the system. Social security provides me with
00:58:00stability, financial stability. It helps pay the bills, and I really don't have to worry about my
00:58:05finances because it's social security. If social security is taken away, I'll lose everything I
00:58:09worked for over the past 60 years. I feel that social security is a godsend. Protect it, Senator
00:58:15Booker. Thank you. Cynthia Marino from Pennsylvania. My name is Cynthia Marino. I'm a retired registered
00:58:25nurse from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. My husband died in 1990, and two of my children received
00:58:31survivor's benefits for eight years, during which time I was able to get my bachelor's degree in
00:58:36nursing and work part-time. All three of my children went on to get college degrees. When I
00:58:42was 61 years old, I went on social security disability, having a hip replacement. I was
00:58:47switched to regular social security when I turned 65. I now deeply depend mostly on social security
00:58:53for my husband and myself, with small pensions from both of our jobs supplementing the social
00:58:57security. I'm now able to live independently in a handicapped mobile home, thanks to the money for
00:59:04social security in the past and present. Much cheaper than Medicaid funds to keep me in a
00:59:09nursing home. Thank you, Senator Booker. Protect it. Thank you, Cynthia, for your story. These are
00:59:16just some. These are just some. I read their voices. I lift their voices with mine.
00:59:28I want to go to the Detroit Free Press, but before I read this article, I know my senator
00:59:35from New Jersey is here, and I'm going to read this article, and if he is interested in our
00:59:43sixth hour, if he has a question, I will yield a question while retaining the floor, but I'm going
00:59:52to read this article, and then we'll go. This is from the Detroit Free Press. My mom was born in
00:59:57Detroit. I love the city. My family owes it a lot, so my grandfather went to find a job on the
01:00:04assembly lines in Detroit, building bombers during World War II.
01:00:13It says Kathleen Sherrill has been retired for ten years now and typically didn't think twice
01:00:17about whether she'd receive social security payments on time. For the first time ever,
01:00:21the 74-year-old Troy retiree went online in March on the very day that $2,800 was to hit her bank
01:00:28account through direct deposit. She suddenly felt compelled to make absolutely certain that
01:00:34her social security money was there when it was supposed to be. Sherrill and other retirees are
01:00:41on edge. Big time. Call it social security insecurity. I have never really worried about
01:00:50it much as I have this year, Sherrill said. The money, thankfully, was sitting in her account
01:00:54in March, and she knew her checks and payments for ongoing bills would not start bouncing.
01:00:59I think anybody, future or current people on social security are definitely targeted,
01:01:06she said. It's a worry that I'm sure everybody is having right now.
01:01:14I know it because I heard from my mom and her whole senior community.
01:01:18Seniors uncertain what to do next for social security. Since early February, AARP has seen
01:01:23nearly double the calls to its customer service care line as more people began being troubled
01:01:30about social security, and it has shown no signs of abating, according to the AARP spokesperson.
01:01:36Since February 1st, AARP said it has been receiving more than 2,000 calls into its call
01:01:43center per week on concerns relating to social security. Social security has never missed a
01:01:49payment, and AARP and our tens of millions of members are not going to stand by and let that
01:01:55happen now, said John Hishta, AARP senior vice president of campaigns, in a statement last week.
01:02:04While those words sound reassuring, it's frankly not comforting to realize that seniors need to
01:02:08hear that their monthly social security payments will arrive as usual. I don't imagine anyone had
01:02:13this one on their bingo cards for March 2025, this kind of worrisome stress. On social media,
01:02:19I spotted one comment that said, folks, the federal workers began advertising last month
01:02:24that all Americans remove all funds from the account where they normally receive any federal
01:02:29payments, social security, federal tax funds, and the like. Keep the account, but only use it as a
01:02:35place for feds to transfer money immediately. Move all transferred cash to a separate account.
01:02:39The concern, according to the Post, quote, Doge can declare you dead and force your bank
01:02:44to send back any funds paid to you. Whoa, a lot of retirement angst there, and yes,
01:02:49some wild notions and really bad advice. Moving social security money around to hide it in another
01:02:53account, different from where it's directly deposited, actually could put more of your money
01:02:57at risk when it comes to some debt collection. Anyone who's tracked retirement policy as I have
01:03:03knows that the potential unraveling of social security system has been discussed for decades.
01:03:07Many retirees just never imagined a convoluted scenario when someone would think social security
01:03:13possibly could implode. The health of social security, which marks its 90th anniversary this
01:03:19year, isn't all that makes many retirees and those about to retire nervous. Their anxiety can go into
01:03:25overdrive watching the stock market slide on Trump's tariffs news and seeing all the political
01:03:30ping pong with social security money that belongs in their pockets. The Trump administration has
01:03:35maintained that it wants to cut costs and fraud when it comes to the social security
01:03:40program, not benefits. But people remain skeptical and some commentary isn't helping. Acting social
01:03:46security commissioner Leland Dudek in interviews last week, including one with Bloomberg News last
01:03:51Thursday, actually threatened to temporarily shut down social security after a federal judge
01:03:57temporarily stopped members of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency from digging
01:04:01through personal data at the Social Security Administration. The DOJ operatives, according to
01:04:07the court, will first need to receive proper training on handling sensitive information,
01:04:12which some might say is the least they can do. The American Federation of State, County, and
01:04:17Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, Alliance for Retired Americans, and the American Federation
01:04:22of Teachers filed a motion for emergency relief on March 7th to halt DOJ's unprecedented, unlawful
01:04:29seizure of sensitive data regarding millions of Americans.
01:04:32No surprise, Dudek soon found it politically prudent to back off from his threat.
01:04:39I'm not shutting down the agency, Dudek said in a statement, indicating he had received
01:04:44clarifying guidance from the court about the temporary restraining order. President Trump
01:04:49supports keeping social security offices open and getting the right check to the right person
01:04:54on time, Dudek said. Financial Tech CEO Frank Bisignano, who was nominated by President Donald
01:05:03Trump to lead the Social Security Administration, ended up being grilled by Democrats about the
01:05:07bedlam during confirmation hearings before the Senate Committee on Finance on Tuesday.
01:05:12The angst isn't about to go away, particularly if people continue to face even longer waits
01:05:17on the phones or see social security offices closing in their community thanks to some key
01:05:22changes being made now by Trump's administration. Customer service is on the chopping block as the
01:05:30Social Security Administration reduces the number of employees, restricts what services can be
01:05:35handled by phone, and shutters some local offices where people could talk to someone face-to-face.
01:05:41On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration announced that it would initiate a two-week delay
01:05:45for implementing a highly criticized move to end phone services and require in-person visits for
01:05:51some services. In-person identity proofing for people unable to use their personal my
01:05:57social security account for certain services will be effective April 14th, according to the
01:06:01announcement. But individuals applying for Medicare disability and supplemental security income
01:06:08who cannot use a personal my social security account can complete their claim entirely over
01:06:14the telephone without the need to come to the office, according to the March 26th announcement.
01:06:19That's good news for many. Even so, merely delaying the change doesn't help others, and frankly,
01:06:26customer service could still suffer in the long term. And it will get very ugly if current social
01:06:31security recipients miss out on even one dime of the benefits. At one point last week, U.S.
01:06:36Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick suggested that his 94-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain
01:06:42about missing a social security check for a month or so. Only fraudsters would call, he said during
01:06:47an all-in podcast. My thought, have you ever watched an exchange where someone on the social
01:06:53security is being denied a coupon or a senior discount at a store restaurant? It's not pretty.
01:06:59Worse yet, has Lutnick ever talked with a friend or relative in his or her 70s or 80s who depends
01:07:07on social security to cover basic bills? Social security provides retirement, survivor, and
01:07:13disability payments to 73 million people each month. The number includes about 56 million people
01:07:22who are aged 65 or older. Some people, and even Cheryl includes herself in that group,
01:07:28are better off than others. They won't miss paying an electric bill or the rent because they
01:07:34can turn to retirement savings or money from a traditional pension. Even so, social security
01:07:39remains an integral source of income each month for all retirees and others who receive benefits.
01:07:46I'm concerned about my financial future, Cheryl told me. Social security
01:07:53now represents about half her monthly income. She never imagined that any social security fix
01:07:58would involve cutting benefits for existing retirees. Some GOP proposals have suggested
01:08:04increasing the age for full retirements from 67 to 69 over an eight-year period beginning in 26,
01:08:10but now she fears it's possible her benefits could get cut at some point down the road.
01:08:17Overall, Cheryl has had fun in retirement. She has nine grandchildren,
01:08:2112 great-grandchildren, and wants to spend more time with them, not less.
01:08:25Cheryl and her friends who are retired are cutting back on eating out and entertainment
01:08:30just in case something happens to social security. High prices for many things put pressures
01:08:38on fixed incomes as well. She wants to take less money out of her retirement savings now,
01:08:43so she has more money on the sidelines in case her social security benefits get cut.
01:08:49Even so, she's staring at an unexpected $600 new monthly car payment ahead
01:08:56because she needs to replace a car that was in an accident a few weeks ago.
01:09:01If social security payments are cut or stopped, I may be selling it.
01:09:08The wild swings for the stock market, 401k plans going down in America,
01:09:16has created more jitters for more people. The economy seems uncertain. Consumer confidence
01:09:22is in worse of a place. Leaders are threatening social security services.
01:09:28Offices are being cut. People are being laid off, so people are worrying.
01:09:34Taking a rough guess on just her 401k plan,
01:09:37she believes she's lost about $30,000 on her retirement savings as the stock market has tumbled.
01:09:44Over the years, she said cuts to social security were always a part of the political realm,
01:09:49but she felt that Congress provided a stopgap to any dramatic moves. She doesn't believe it's true
01:09:57anymore. I'm hoping Congress wakes up, looks in the mirror, and decides they don't like what they
01:10:03see, she told me. One big problem with fueling an atmosphere of chaos is that many people do
01:10:09start worrying about everything. One big problem with fueling an atmosphere of chaos
01:10:16means people stop believing that social security is a system they can depend on.
01:10:21Cheryl said she took a call from her college roommate, who mentioned that she was going to
01:10:25look at her bank account online to see whether her monthly social security payment was stopped
01:10:30or had arrived as usual. I said, you're going to be okay. I got mine this month.
01:10:40So many people afraid right now.