On March 1st, I attended the Mayor’s Pancake Breakfast at VFW Post 2138, in Rocky Hill. It was a fundraiser for a very worthy cause, the Blue Star Memorial Project. That project – creating a network of memorial markers for our armed service members – was launched in 1945 to honor veterans of World War II. It now pays tribute to all our veterans.
As I ate my pancakes, mindful of the setting and the cause, I reflected sadly about an incident from just the day before. That incident was the spectacle of our President and Vice President publicly berating the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
President Zelenskyy is a profile in courage who embodies the very ideals that America’s fallen World War II veterans died for: protecting democracy and freedom from the forces of tyranny and oppression. The current Administration’s philosophy of “might makes right” desecrates those values and mocks the sacrifices of America’s service members – those who came home and those who didn’t.
Meanwhile, the Administration is applying a sledgehammer to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This will harm not only the veterans who rely upon the Department’s services – it will also put many veterans who work for the Department out of work.
The President loves to say that he “loves our veterans.” Coming from him, the words could hardly be emptier.
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.
