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Category: Social Security

Watch Out! The GOP Is Coming After Your Money!

Like thieves in the night, the Republicans have been hiding their intentions in the shadows lest anyone find out what they are actually up to. And just like those thieves, they won’t break into your house through the front. Instead, they’ll go around to the back door. It’s not so obvious that way.

This week, a prominent member of the administration, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, proudly revealed their subtle plot. On Wednesday, he stated that the so-called “Trump accounts” Republicans created for children in their tax and spending bill are “a back door for privatizing Social Security.”(1) Like the thieves, the Republicans can’t be up front about their plans, they have to sneak through a “back door.”

The Republicans ultimate goal, the destruction of Social Security (along with Medicare and Medicaid), has always been somewhat out in the open. We’ve all known it, but until Bessent’s statement, it was something that most Republicans would vigorously deny.

In fact, Republicans have stated over and over again that they were not planning to touch Social Security. Unfortunately, they said the same things about Medicare and Medicaid, and we have all seen what happened to those programs when they took power.

The GOP would object and say, “We’re not planning to destroy Social Security; we just want to ‘privatize’ it.” But what would that mean? It means that your money will be taken from the safe and secure government accounts and distributed to private investment firms and banks — you know those kinds of businesses in which the C-suite executives are paid tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Where do you think that money comes from?

And, while they’re at it, the Republicans also plan to eliminate all fiscal regulations on these firms such as fiduciary requirements. That will allow all manner of investor fraud to occur, not to mention abuse and waste.

The argument they make is that private firms can earn higher returns on investment than the government. This may be true in some cases, but it is also true that investment firms and banks have, at times, lost money through overly risky opportunities and sheer incompetence. Some of these firms have even gone bankrupt losing all of their clients’ capital (after paying out inordinate sums to their executives in salary and bonus packages). Remember the financial crisis of 2008? It included the collapses of Lehmann Brothers and Bear Stearns as well as the government bailouts (using taxpayer dollars) of JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley because they were “too big to fail.” Again, your money became their money without them having to go through the trouble of breaking the law.

Of course, once your funds are in the hands of these greedy people, you can expect to be charged all manner of “fees” in order to help pay for the exorbitant salaries and bonuses. There will be “maintenance fees,” “investment fees,” “administrative fees,” and so on. I anticipate that, under this scenario, the “fees” will steadily grow no matter what your return on investment is. Rather than receiving an annual letter from the Social Security Administration telling you about next year’s increase in your payments, you’re likely to get a bill from your investment banker for next year’s inflated fees.

But Social Security is going broke the Republicans argue. Yet they won’t take common-sense steps to save it like removing the arbitrary cap on Social Security taxes. It’s only there to keep the wealthy from having to pay more. Rather than save the program, the GOP would prefer to let it self-destruct even if it means that millions of Americans, some of whom are Republicans, will lose their only source of income.

Why are Republicans so adamant about privatizing Social Security? Because they see this HUGE pot of money in the government’s coffers that they and their billionaire backers can’t get their hands on. They lust after that money to the point of obsession. They aren’t really concerned about whose money it is, as long as they can get it somehow: like thieves in the night.

(1) https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/30/business/bessent-trump-social-security.html

Western State AG’s Hear Range of Fear

On April 16th, four Western state Attorney Generals (AGs) met in Denver, Colorado, to hear a range of fears concerning Trump’s disastrous Make America Great Again (MAGA) strategy. 

Colorado Attorney General Philip J. Weiser introduced his fellow AGs, including Nick Brown of Washington, Anne Lopez of Hawaii, and Aaron Ford of Nevada. He told a packed house of concerned citizens that “nobody is above the law” and that “we live under the rule of law, not the rule of whim.” [i]

AG Brown followed Weiser, telling those assembled that not one of Trump’s actions, including his orders, is the law. Things we worry about, he said, like education, transportation, and health, are under threat and require actions by federal, state, and local governments and the people to resist Trump’s drive towards oligarchy.

A speaker taking to the microphone expressed concerns about losing Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds in Denver. She told the crowd that, in addition, hiring freezes were reducing farm support, impacting families with children, people with disabilities, and transgender individuals.  

The four AGs heard about Trump’s reduction of housing eligibility. A speaker told the AGs that the historical focus on the needs of homeless adults meant providing “Housing First” across all elements of the homelessness response system.

However, Trump moved to criminalize homelessness by appointing Robert Marbut to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Marbut proposed the “Housing Fourth” approach to criminalize panhandling, banish homeless services to city outskirts, and treat food and shelter as privileges, thus following Trump’s agenda of criminalizing homelessness.

The AGs and those attending heard that Trump’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) approach denies life-saving programs to transgender individuals while forcing Businesses to drop DEI programs out of fear of Trump’s retaliatory nature.  

Ola Kukoyi, the Executive Director of the Good Shepherd Organization, expressed her concerns about the acts of Immigration Enforcement to hinder free speech and their illegal deportation actions, which are creating a Constitutional Crisis leading to the end of fundamental human rights not seen since the Holocaust crisis.

When asked what they [AGs] are doing, AG Brown expressed his fear and that of his family, but said that none of that can match those fearing ICE snatching them off the streets. He pointed to Trump, Vance, Steven Miller, Kristi Noem, and Marco Rubio as lying. Brown said, “We cannot get used to it, even though we know it is going to happen,” adding, “We will continue to tell the truth, bring actions, and support people and organizations without a voice.” [ii]

The AGs heard concerns about Small business owners who depend on international cooperation feeling defeated, people going without homes, and a mental health crisis in the short and long term. They heard about Trump’s strategy to undermine transgender health needs.

The crowd and the AGs heard that the current federal administration emboldens a white national agenda while pushing bills to undermine fundamental human rights for millions, all of which require people to hold our federal government accountable to the law and increase awareness of these power abuses.

A speaker told of his friend who lived in a car with his wife and small child. Then, the Speaker said his friend got a job working in construction, but when two men attacked him, those assaulting him blamed him for the altercation, and ICE intervened, took his phone, and put him into custody while being denied legal help. Now, the Speaker said,  the man’s wife and child are on the streets.

Continuing, the Speaker reminded the crowd that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to take people without due process under the guise of Christianity. The law is a social contract, the Speaker added, that when broken, fascism takes root. The Speaker said that’s where we are right now, then he asked, “Will anyone hold this administration accountable? The Speaker concluded by saying that we have no protection if we don’t do this right now.”

A Federal Firefighter Management Team member told those assembled that they had 44 teams last summer, reduced to 41 now, raising concerns about further drops. Trump has terminated 37% of the Forest Service firefighters, she said. 

Of course, speakers raised concerns about the Supreme Court’s decision to return the authority to regulate or ban abortion to individual states, resulting in criminal penalties in many of the states.

[i] President George W. Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2002. He formed the largest, most extensive spy and enforcement ring in our Nation’s history. Before its creation, intelligence gathering fell into two separate domains under the National Security Act of 1947, including 1: Defense Agencies and the CIA, and 2: Domestic (FBI). Under that umbrella, powerful national intelligence assets (for example, the National Security Agency) were, with rare and judicially approved exceptions, not available for use within the borders of the United States, primarily to ensure that Constitutional rights remained inviolable and enforceable.

With the formation of DHS came the consolidation and merging of data records (Including recently IRS records), helicopters, planes, drones, Predators, and, most importantly, fusion centers across the country, allowing local and federal law enforcement to collaborate on intelligence gathering and surveillance. The internet also provides a significant source of information for U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Federal agencies monitor social media platforms for investigations and threat identification. However, the internet can also be used for propaganda, misinformation, secret operations, and counterintelligence.

DHS has a workforce of 260,000 employees and 22 components, including the Transportation Security Agency (TSA, Customs and Border Protection, Cyber Security and Information Security Agency (CISA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Coast Guard, Secret Service, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers, and the Science and Technology Directorate.

With a Budget of $52.2 billion, Congress confirmed Trump’s pick of Kristi Noem, former Governor of South Dakota, with experience staging phony political stunts, to head HHS in January 2025

See Foley, Hoag, “State AG Insights”  for a list at: State AGs Take the Lead in First Month of Trump Opposition | State AG Insights | Foley Hoag LLP

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Governor Affirms Trump Targets Nevada

Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo’s March 24 statement to reporters affirms Trump’s efforts to lay off Nevadans’ federal jobs, eliminate the Department of Education (a nearly 50% reduction in its workforce), and Medicaid cuts.

 On February 25, Lisa Mascaro, Kevin Freking, and Mat Brown, reporting for the Associated Press (AP), noted that House Republicans voted to potentially eliminate $880 billion or more from Medicaid in their budget proposal. That move would be necessary for Trump-led Republicans to pay for wealthy tax breaks and border security.

On February 28, Lucia Starbuck, reporting for KUNR Public Radio, said that One in four Nevadans receive Medicaid, which covers about 42% of births and 60% of nursing home residents.

In the meantime, Elon Musk, for the so-called “Department of Government Efficiency (DODGE), in his first move to eliminate Social Security in Nevada, announced plans to destroy the Las Vegas Social Security Office to save $16,352.[1]

In addition, Musk’s cutting National Park Service employees across the state, including more than a dozen at Nevada’s Lake Mead National Recreation (the ninth most-visited site in the country), has an economic impact of $358 million on Nevada’s economy.
– Some of them were responsible for testing for toxicity levels in the water. 

Musk’s DOGE is cutting an Indian Health Service center and Bureau of Indian Affairs location in Elko that provides primary care to over 11,000 patients from four Native colonies and three reservations.

And, of course, Musk is firing Forest Service workers who work to prevent and manage forest fires, increasing the risk of deadly wildfires. 
 

In addition, Trump has moved to eliminate medical research funding going to Nevada universities. 


Democratic U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada have sent letters to federal departments seeking data.

[1] Elon Musk firing veterans and made cuts to the VA. Veterans account for about 34% of the nearly 14,000 civilian federal employees in the state.