‘Don't Touch Social Security:’ Courtney Fights for CT-02 Seniors Amidst Attacks from President Trump and Elon Musk

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today on the House Floor, Rep. Joe Courtney (CT-02) defended Social Security from President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s relentless and ongoing attacks on the Social Security Administration (SSA).

Just recently, the Trump Administration directed the SSA to cut some phone services for beneficiaries, slash thousands of staff members responsible for administering benefits and services, and close 47 Social Security field offices.

One of the offices at risk of closure is in White Plains, New York– forcing seniors to travel up to nearly three hours using at least two train lines to visit a Social Security office in New Haven, Connecticut. The effects of these radical cuts — all done while the number of seniors collecting Social Security benefits is at an all-time-high— have been so egregious that even center-right news outlets like the Wall Street Journal have described the crisis as “heading from bad to worse.”

“Last year candidate Trump, then President-elect Trump, and now President Trump has repeatedly told the American people that he won't touch Social Security. Well, we're now two months into his administration and we're finding that, of course, the opposite is true,” Rep. Courtney said this morning.

Courtney went on to call out Elon Musk’s threatening comments despite President Trump’s empty promises of protecting Social Security.

“Elon Musk in an interview with Fox News made it crystal clear, his goal is to eliminate Social Security and get $800 billion to $900 billion of savings out of the Social Security system, which we know today is probably one of the most efficient agencies in the federal government,” Courtney continued.

Download the video here. Read the full transcript below. 

Full Transcript:

“Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last year candidate Trump, President-Elect Trump, and now President Trump has repeatedly told the American people that he won't touch Social Security. Well, we're now two months into his administration and we're finding that, of course, the opposite is true.

“Headlines yesterday in The Washington Post read, long waits, waves of calls, website crashes, social security is breaking down. Next to me is a poster board from the Wall Street Journal. Some people may say, well, The Washington Post, they're always critical of President Trump but this is the Wall Street Journal, an impeccable center-right newspaper whose headline states: ‘Dealing With Social Security is Heading from Bad to Worse: The agency that administers benefits is cutting staff and restricting benefits as part of the Department of Government Efficiency Review,’ DOGE, the Trump initiative.

“And let's be more specific. What are some of those intentional policies that are being put into place? Well, we know that there was a wave of those fork-in-the-road retirements that hit Social Security and reduced staff. We know that Social Security has already announced [and] that the workforce is going to be reduced from 57,000 all across America to 50,000.

“Now, some of you may say, well, you know, what's wrong with that? We should sort of downsize our workforce, make them more efficient. But the fact of the matter is if you look at how many beneficiaries today, with the Baby Boomer retirements that are swelling the ranks of Social Security beneficiaries, it's 73 million Americans now are receiving Social Security benefits. People with retirement benefits, children who have lost a parent, and people on disability. So, we're now having a bigger-than-ever population of people collecting Social Security benefits, and a reduced staff.

“To put this in perspective, in 2010, not that long ago, the size of the Social Security workforce was 68,000, 18,000 more than what the Trump administration is targeting for today. The number of beneficiaries in 2010 was 54 million Americans as opposed to 73 million Americans today. So, we have more people who need help with the Social Security system and fewer staff to help them navigate it. In a week, just one week from today, they are pretty much going to shut off a phone service for Social Security beneficiaries who are trying to sign up with their bank information, getting on Social Security. This is something that has been normal practice, using very precise identifiers to make sure that waste, fraud, and abuse does not occur.

“By the way, Social Security's accuracy is 99.7%. That has been verified by outside audits, by the Social Security Trustees, and yet, despite that track record, what they're going to tell Social Security beneficiaries who sometimes struggle with online enrollment in terms of other areas of their lives, that they're not going to have the opportunity to use phone service, which again has been in practice for decades in the past.

“They're also closing 47 Social Security offices across the country. Again, at a time when the number of people who need to interact and interface with the Social Security system is bigger than ever, they're shutting down offices and laying off staff and shutting off phone service. The wait times in terms of people trying to get appointments in-person are going to get longer. Just in the Northeast we've already been told that the White Plains office in New York is going to be closed and they're telling people to go to New Haven, Connecticut, my state. That's about a two-hour drive. For people if they want to have an in-person appointment that are now going to basically have a shuttered building — shut-down building in a very densely populated area outside of New York.

“So, the notion that the Social Security system by this administration is not being — the opposite is true. Look, DOGE is behind this as the "Wall Street Journal" reported. Elon Musk in an interview with Fox News made it crystal clear, his goal is to eliminate Social Security and get $800 billion to $900 billion of saving out of the Social Security system which we know today is probably one of the most efficient agencies in the federal government in terms of the accuracy of their payouts.

“The pathway ahead of us as a result is crystal clear. Congress needs to stand up as a co-equal branch of government. … [Social Security] is not an entitlement, it is not welfare, it's an earned benefit that people pay into, and they should get that benefit when it's their turn to get the help from the Social Security that we promised as Congress. Defend Social Security. Stand up for Social Security. Don't touch Social Security.”

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