During the 2025 ACRD Conference in Chicago, IL, former President Joe Biden spoke about the first 100 days of the second Trump Administration.
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00:00to take over, by the way. But look what's happened now.
00:09Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much, done so much damage and so much
00:18destruction. It's kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon. They've taken a hatchet to the
00:24Social Security Administration, pushing an additional 7,000 employees, 7,000 out the
00:32door in that time, including the most seasoned career officials. Now they're getting ready
00:38to push thousands more out the door. Already we can see the effects. For example, thousands
00:46of people use the Social Security website every single day to check on their benefits and submit
00:50their claims. But now, the Technology Division of the Social Security Administration has been
00:57cut in half. And so the website's crashing. People can't sign on to their accounts. What
01:06do you think it does to that woman living alone, that 74-year check-in, just not able to even
01:14find out whether, she can't even find out what that disability claim is she has. She can't
01:20file a new disability claim. And a lot of these people are being told incorrectly that their
01:26benefits have ended. Folks, imagine the panic that causes. If you're a retiree living alone,
01:37the only Social Security to depend upon. So now people are overwhelming the phone lines. They're
01:46showing up at the local Social Security office, tearful and frantic, and told, do you have an
01:52appointment? In that tone, by the way. I can give you a personal example if I'm not going to, though.
01:59To cap it all off, serious people are now generally concerned for the first time in history, for the first
02:06and only time in history that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted. Folks,
02:13let's put this in perspective. In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security
02:21system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They've gotten them during wartime,
02:28during recessions, during a pandemic, no matter what they got them. But now, for the first time ever,
02:39that might change. It would be calamity for millions of families, millions of people. The current Secretary of
02:50Commerce doesn't seem to get it. Or based on his comments, he doesn't seem to even care. Many of you saw what he said
02:57the other day. By the way, he's a billionaire. God love him, as my mother would say. Paying 8.5% in taxes.
03:05But anyway. Billionaires, I don't know what he's paying. But when he talked about the possibility
03:12that Social Security checks not going out this month, he shrugged it off. Here's what he said. He said his
03:2294-year-old mother-in-law wouldn't complain, wouldn't bother her. She's probably a lovely
03:29woman. No kidding. Her son-in-law is a billionaire. What about that 94-year-old mother living all
03:39by herself? She doesn't have a billionaire in the family. All the retirees who depend on that monthly
03:47check to feed themselves. All those people with disabilities have no other source. What about
03:57all those people? That's who you fight for. So they should desperately need you.