Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick raised alarm over “fraudsters” receiving Social Safety advantages, as Trump allies have ramped up rhetoric about potential waste in this system amid a significant restructuring effort on the company that oversees this system.
Throughout an look on the “All-In” podcast that was launched on Thursday, Lutnick stated the federal government doesn’t “have to take one penny from someone who deserves Social Security, not one penny for someone who deserves Medicaid, Medicare.”
“What we have to do is stop sending money to someone who’s not hurt, who’s on disability for 50 years,” he claimed. “It’s ridiculous, and they have another job.”
At one level within the wide-ranging, practically two-hour dialog, Lutnick additionally stated that if Social Safety “didn’t send out their checks this month,” his “mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t call and complain.”
“She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining,” the billionaire businessman stated.
“Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing,” he stated. “Because my mother-in-law’s not calling, come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”
“So, the people who are getting that free money, stealing the money, inappropriately, getting the money, have an inside person who’s routing the money,” he stated. “They are going to yell and scream.”
His feedback come after tech billionaire Elon Musk, whom President Trump tapped to move up the Division of Authorities Effectivity, known as Social Safety “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” earlier this month and advised there might be a whole bunch of billions of potential cuts concentrating on waste in entitlement packages.
The rhetoric has prompted pushback from specialists and advocates who’ve accused Trump allies of spreading false claims concerning the quantity of fraud really present in this system.
Since Trump’s inauguration, hundreds of federal staff have been axed because the administration appears to be like to considerably reshape the federal authorities. The administration has signaled extra firings are on the way in which, even after a latest court docket order that discovered some terminations had been illegal prompted officers to maneuver to reinstate upward of 20,000 staff.
Final month, the Social Safety Administration (SSA) notified staff that “significant workforce reductions” had been on the way in which amid stories that hundreds of staff might be let go. Dozens of SSA workplaces are additionally anticipated to shutter because the government-wide cost-cutting operation continues.
Moreover, the SSA stated on Monday that people can be required to return in individual to confirm their identification as an alternative of doing so through phone if unable to make use of online-authentication. The company stated the measure is aimed toward safeguarding “Social Security records and benefits against fraudulent activity.”
