During remarks at the 2025 ACRD Conference in Chicago, IL, former President Joe Biden spoke about the GOP push to cut Social Security.
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00:00These nights, my friend Governor O'Malley knows what they're really up to. He says,
00:05and I love his quote, they want to wreck it so they can rob it. They want to wreck it so they
00:13can rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big
00:21corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly
00:27benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That's going to cost
00:34$5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for it rather than continue
00:42to run the deficit up? What will they always do? By winning, by running up the national debt,
00:48number one, and then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of
00:55money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid? Well, from other programs people
01:04rely on and have paid into. Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and
01:10the working class in order to deliver significant greater wealth to their already very wealthy.
01:15who in the hell do they think they are? I really think they. I mean, just basic decency. Who
01:25do they think they are? I think anybody should go out, they can make a billion dollars a year,
01:33they can. Fine. Pay your fair share. You know what the average, we have a thousand billionaires
01:41in America. You know the average federal tax they pay? 8.2 percent. Anybody want to trade
01:49that number? That's your pay? Folks, look. Let me close. I'm sorry to go on so long, but
01:57it's just, anyway. I grew up in Scrant, Pennsylvania as a kid, and then Claymont, Delaware. Middle-class
02:06middle-class towns, working-class towns. Places where people worked hard all their lives
02:12with the promise that they'd be able to retire someday with a little bit of dignity. Because
02:19they've been paying in a thing called Social Security since the very paycheck they've earned.
02:25These people get knocked down every day, learn to get up. My dad's one experience when you get
02:32knocked down, just get up. Get up. They get up every day. The last thing they need from
02:41their government is deliberate cruelty. It's about people in neighborhoods across the country
02:49who look out for each other. You don't see empathy. They don't see it as a sign of weakness.
02:57They see empathy as a decent instinct. They don't see cruelty as a sign of strength.
03:09Social Security is about more than retirement accounts. It's about honoring a fundamental trust
03:15between government and people. It's about peace of mind for those who work their whole lives.