During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke about President Trump's nomination to lead the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano.
00:02Madam President, the Senate will soon vote on Frank Bisignano to serve as commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
00:10I came to the floor last week to lay out my concerns surrounding the confirmation process for Mr. Bisignano.
00:18This nominee lied multiple times to myself, my staff, and members of the Finance Committee.
00:27He directly contradicted a confidential whistleblower report that I received detailing his close ties to DOGE and its ongoing operations at Social Security.
00:41When pressed on it during his confirmation hearing, he lied to me and the committee saying he had no direct involvement with DOGE.
00:50He has made a very lucrative career out of being the guy who swoops in to failing businesses, guts them from the inside out, and moves on to the next target.
01:02This is not someone nominated because of his plans to bolster customer service and make it easier for seniors to access their hard-earned benefits or to strengthen the Social Security guarantee.
01:16He was nominated because Donald Trump hopes he'll apply the same approach to Social Security and upend life for millions of seniors and people with disabilities as we know it.
01:30The administration is already weaponizing Social Security to go after immigrants and other groups it wants to target, all under the guise of rooting out fraud and abuse.
01:41Social Security is a lifeline to millions of seniors and Americans with disabilities.
01:48A missed Social Security check can be the difference between seniors being able to afford rent, groceries, or medications.
01:58But Donald Trump and the inner circle are so out of touch, they think that most Americans won't even notice if they start missing their checks.
02:09In March, Commerce Secretary and billionaire Howard Lutnick news that his mother-in-law wouldn't complain if she missed a Social Security check.
02:19I wouldn't expect the mother-in-law of a billionaire to complain either.
02:24But for the rest of America's seniors who aren't lucky enough to have a billionaire son-in-law, a missed Social Security check will be the difference between being able to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, and get their prescriptions at the pharmacy.
02:39Mr. Lutnick went on to say that anybody who did complain of a missed Social Security payment is a fraudster.
02:48That is some top-tier gaslighting if I've ever heard it.
02:53Lay the groundwork for Americans to miss their checks, and when they do, immediately write off anybody that complains as a fraud.
03:02The Trump administration is doing its best to get people used to the idea of seniors missing checks.
03:11Their strategy here is death by a thousand cuts.
03:14First, they cut off customer service, then they close field offices and lay off staff.
03:20Then they farm out customer service operations to private equity firms that employ AI chatbots and foreign call centers in an effort to plunge Americans' elderly into a maze of red tape designed to keep them from getting what are earned benefits.
03:38Madam President, it is also a pathway to privatization.
03:43None of us have to look hard to see the damage private equity has brought to nearly every corner of industry and business.
03:49Take healthcare, for example.
03:51The firms are gobbling up medical practices and hospitals in hopes of turning a profit.
03:56They've turned the simplest task of scheduling a doctor's appointment into an Olympic sport, forcing patients to navigate phone trees or automated online systems that don't offer any real help.
04:10And if patients need to get life-saving treatment, health insurers like UnitedHealth deploy AI programs to deny claims left and right.
04:20But this is exactly what Trump is hoping Mr. Bisignano is going to do.
04:27You've got Social Security from the inside out.
04:30Then you can sell the parts off to the highest private equity bidder and make it harder for everybody to get their money.
04:37The goal is to break the system so thoroughly that Americans buy in and they can privatize the system entirely.
04:44Everything the Trump administration is doing is part of an agenda that's going to make families poorer, sicker and less safe than ever before.
04:54Madam President, it's not an exaggeration to say that the country is at a turning point.
05:00At no time during the history of Social Security have we come this close to the possibility of seniors and people with disabilities actually missing their Social Security checks.
05:13Social Security is money that Americans pay from each paycheck.
05:17So when seniors and people with disabilities start missing Social Security checks, that is Doge and Elon Musk stealing your hard-earned money.
05:28By confirming Mr. Bisignano, the Senate will be signing a death sentence to Social Security as we know it today.
05:38Republicans will be responsible when your grandma misses her Social Security check and can't pay her month's rent.
05:45Republicans will be responsible when your aunt living in rural Oregon can't get the help she needs because the phone lines have been shut off and her closest field office was shut down.
05:57Republicans will be responsible when an entire generation of seniors and disabled Americans are left unable to afford basic necessities.
06:09At a time when costs are rising, the federal government ought to be focused on cutting costs and helping families and seniors afford the cost of living.
06:19Instead, it sure looks to me like Republicans are poised to pass another bailout for billionaires and corporations while simultaneously working to dismantle the federal programs and resources that Americans rely on.
06:35That is the Republican agenda in a nutshell.
06:39And every single member of this body that votes to confirm this nominee is going to own the consequences.
06:47Mr. Bisignano is unfit to be the steward of Americans' hard-earned Social Security benefits.
06:55I strongly urge my colleagues to vote no on his nomination.
06:59Madam President, I yield the floor.
07:01Thank you, Mr. Bisignano is unfit to be the Westitudes.
07:03I will tell you, Mr. Bispert, let me ask você a cover.
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