Dear Friends, Join me Thursday, April 17th, at 7:00 PM for a virtual conversation with Attorney General William Tong. You can register for the event HERE.
In an interview last month, Elon Musk identified Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security as the Trump Administration’s ‘key targets’ for cuts. Since then, the Administration has closed the Regional Office that assists Connecticut residents on Medicare, supported a budget plan in Congress that could pave the way for cuts to Medicaid, and moved forward with cuts at the Social Security Administration, including office closures and lay offs of thousands of workers.I continue to speak out against these cuts in Congress and am committed to not just protecting but strengthening Americans’ earned benefits. At the state level, Connecticut has been a leader in the legal cases against many of these actions.
Attorney General Tong recently joined litigation to block the Administration’s cuts to public health funding, including mental health and addiction services here in Connecticut. Today, he filed a brief in court to block the layoffs and cuts taking place at the Social Security Administration.
As your representative, I want to hear from you. I look forward to discussing these issues and more with Attorney General Tong and answering some of your questions tomorrow night. You can submit a question in advance HERE.
On March 12, 2025, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee voted to block Social Security Subcommittee Ranking Member John B. Larson’s (CT-01) Resolution of Inquiry from coming before the full House for a vote.
Ranking Member Larson’s Resolution of Inquiry, cosponsored by every Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, would compel President Trump to disclose to Congress information about ‘DOGE’ activity at the Social Security Administration, including their plans to close field offices or cut staff.
John Larson’s full remarks:
Thank you, Mr. Neal, and thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I said earlier, it’s a sad day for America. When the Committee of cognizance has to have this issue of inquiry, so that we can actually produce before the committee, instead of an empty seat and empty chairs, the person who President Trump has designated to find $2 trillion worth of cuts, a person who has publicly said that he knows where to find those. They’re in what he calls entitlements — what everybody on this committee knows, with regard to Social Security, is an earned benefit that they pay.
And so the people in your districts are wondering whether or not — because the chairman just said that there’s no way that President Trump is going to touch Social Security — even though last weekend he called it a scam. And that Elon Musk was on television just last night again saying that yes, their goal is to privatize Social Security.
Given these statements, I don’t understand why there’s a problem with bringing forth Mr. Musk to testify before this committee. And if all these ideas of fraud, abuse, and waste are true, then yes, Mr. Chairman, we should join with you to make sure that that’s the case.
But even the acting [Social Security Commissioner] hand-picked by Trump has said: ‘well, what they said about people receiving checks older than 115 years old is false.’
That’s Trump’s appointment saying that.
And so, we continue to get the ‘Big Lie,’ including this weekend again. Where they said, oh yes, and the Democratic plan is to bring illegal immigrants into the country by offering to pay them Social Security. There’s not a thread of truth to any of that.
And yet, this unaccountable person, not a federal employee, not a volunteer, but a special person who’s not had to go through Senate approval, and who this committee is now saying ‘yes, we agree with the president. He should not be accountable. He should be able to have free reign and do whatever he wants. We will willingly follow him and do whatever he says because he’s the wealthiest man in the world, and surely, he must know how to save us from ourselves.’
This program of Social Security that oh just happens to be the number one anti-poverty program for the elderly and for the children of this country. Yeah, I agree, Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump aren’t going to lose a moment’s sleep thinking about the privatization and what it means to those individuals.
And yes, you can say that he’s not going to do this, but yet there’s no commissioner here, no person under oath raising their hand and saying, ‘yes, no, we have no intention of privatizing Social Security.’
He’s made it clear time and time again, and if not, well, by all means, we’ll be happy to have him here.
We’ve sent letters. Chairman Estes knows — three weeks ago, I sent a letter asking for him to come immediately before the subcommittee, and we’ll continue to do that because we want to hear, as does the American public, the truth.
