Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Condemning Secretary Bessent’s Comments Admitting The Trump Administration’s Plans To Privatize Social Security

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor after the Trump administration admitted to their backdoor plans to privatize Social Security through the creation of “Trump accounts” that Republicans passed in their “Big, Ugly Betrayal,” and Democrats’ continued fight to protect the vital program for the American people. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Yesterday, the Trump administration did something they rarely do – they told the truth. It wasn't Donald Trump, but it was one of his minions. They told the truth.

The Trump administration, in this case, was talking about wanting to privatize Social Security.

In the middle of an interview, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent said that the so-called “Trump accounts” that Republicans passed in their “Big, Ugly Betrayal” could one day be used by Americans as a replacement for Social Security. Specifically, he admitted that they view these accounts as “a backdoor for privatizing Social Security.”

Listen to what Secretary Bessent said: the accounts that they put into this horrible “Big, Ugly Betrayal” bill are a backdoor for privatizing Social Security. That's what Secretary Bessent said – the highest ranking economic official in the administration.

He said they put in their “Big, Beautiful Bill” a backdoor to privatize Social Security. I don't think our senior citizens think that’s a “Big, Beautiful Bill,” when it could privatize their Social Security.

Has America heard it? They're hearing it.

This is what Donald Trump and his cronies think about your benefits, America – they want to privatize them, they want to give it over to Wall Street. They want eliminate a bedrock of this country – Social Security, probably the most popular government program ever created – and something that has done so much good for so long.

Why are they doing it? Why do they want to think of privatizing Social Security? Just to line the pockets of the wealthy elite.

Now, of course, Secretary Bessent had to rush to X later to do a little cleanup, but the truth came out, the real truth.

Actions speak louder than words. And the actions Donald Trump and his gang are taking against Social Security speaks volumes.

For months, the Social Security Administration has suffered from the laceration of the DOGE chainsaw, laying off thousands of staffers, closing local offices, and beneficiaries hanging in limbo.

Now, SSA is forcing the field office workers who are left to shift from work with the local beneficiaries who come in with appointments to instead answering the phone lines because they don’t have enough staff. You call up, you have to wait and wait and wait, if you get service at all. This means more delays in answering questions and more delays in processing benefits.

And perhaps that is the point. I'm pretty certain it is. Donald Trump and Republicans know they can’t come right out and say they want to end Social Security outright. So what does he do? What does Trump do? He and his cronies sabotage Social Security from within. Instead of one lethal blow, the Trump administration is engaged in an act of strangulation, making Social Security so unworkable, so problematic, and so inefficient that they create the pretext for privatizing it.

And Secretary Bessent’s comments yesterday more or less gave up the game: in their view, Social Security is not part of America’s future. But in the views of overwhelming majority of Americans, it sure is. Trump and his people want to end these guaranteed benefits and tie the dignity and survival of seniors to the whims of Wall Street.

Democrats will fight this every step of the way. We believe in Social Security.

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