Trump official makes nightmare public confession - Brian Tyler Cohen

[TexasTowelie]

Transcript:

I'm not sure that it would be physically
possible to come up with a worst public
statement if you tried here's what
Trump's Commerce Secretary Herod Lutnick
said on the all-in podcast let's say
social security didn't send out their
checks mhm this month my mother-in-law
who's
94 she wouldn't call and complain she
just wouldn't she'd thinks something got
messed up and she'll get it next month
yeah mhm a
fraudster
always makes the loudest noise screaming
yelling and complaining that seniors
shouldn't call and complain if they stop
getting their Social Security checks
because it's the quote frauders who
always make the loudest noise screaming
and complaining in other words if you
don't get your Social Security check
because the Trump Administration has
made the conscious decision to gut the
Social Security Administration then you
better just shut your mouth because if
you raise a stink about it then clearly
you're committing fraud let me ask
everyone in my audience right now who
receives Social Security benefits if you
stopped receiving your checks what would
you say if I told you that any
complaints mean that you're a fraudster
Elizabeth Warren made that exact point
as well posting Donald Trump's
billionaire Commerce Secretary has
Financial advice for Americans one
please buy Tesla stocks to help poor
Elon Musk two shut up and don't complain
when you don't get your Social Security
check and to that exact point it sure is
easy for someone like Howard Lutnick to
shame Social Security recipients when
that guy is worth north of $2 billion
don't you all see what's happening Trump
has assembled the cabinet with more
billionaires than any other
Administration in the history of the
United States of America and these
people instantly began attacking
lifelines that working class Americans
rely on it was this Administration that
passed a budget blueprint that cut $880
billion from Medicaid that cut $230
billion from Food Stamps and now which
is seeking to cut $7,000 jobs to stay in
compliance with Trump's executive order
as far as the Social Security
Administration is concerned and I want
to be clear about what the goal is it's
not to outright eliminate Social
Security at least not right away they're
trying to the agency from the
inside so that they can do to Social
Security what they do to every other
government agency that they want to
destroy which is to ensure that it can't
work and then use that dysfunction that
they created as a pretense to gut the
agency they're going to destroy the
Social Security Administration then say
look we told you that Social Security
doesn't work what choice do we have but
to privatize it meaning they don't even
have to eliminate the Social Security
Administration all they have to do is
hobble it enough to give Republicans an
excuse a pretense to go all the way
later on it is a plan as Insidious as it
is transparent and clearly this plan is
not working considering even Republican
voters in these Town Halls are showing
that the issue is becoming more and more
potent this is at Chuck Grassley's Town
Hall in that liberal Bastion of Iowa
we're now seeing that we don't want
people to call on the phone to change
their direct deposit go to a local
office try to get an appointment at a
local office right now you're waiting a
month and we're going to cut more staff
this is not right if any and we do not
want to see Social Security
privatized and I want to be clear about
something here the way that you know you
can't trust Republicans as far as Social
Security is concerned is because they
are already doing the thing that they
swore up and down they would never do
and that is to touch Medicaid again the
budget blueprint they all unanimously
voted for prescribed $880 billion in
cuts to the committee that funds that
program and of course they're all saying
that they didn't outright cut Medicaid
but that's actually a clever little Ploy
because while they didn't cut Medicaid
specifically while they didn't cut it
outright they did prescribe cuts to the
committee that funds Medicaid and the
only mathematical way to cut $880
billion to the Energy and Commerce
Committee is to cut Medicaid see how
they're perfectly content to play games
thinking that you're too stupid to know
any better if they'll do that to
Medicaid which is a crucial Lifeline for
over 70 million Americans do you really
think that they hold any earn benefit
program sacred clearly not and that's a
point that AOC drove home in our recent
interview what Republicans say is oh
these big budget cuts don't actually say
the word Medicaid in it so they aren't
Medicaid Cuts but if I tell you 10 minus
what's 10 - 4 and you say six I can just
tell you I didn't say six right but they
put the 10 minus four into the bill by
virtue of ascribing $880 billion and
cuts to Energy and Commerce and the only
mathematical way for them to cut $880
billion is to focus on Medicaid that's
right they're saying cut $880 billion
from the Energy and Commerce Committee I
sit on that committee and Energy and
Commerce almost the entire budget that
Energy and Commerce really explores is
Medicaid and Medicare there is no way
that they can make their math Square
without
enormous and devastate devastating cuts
to Medicaid the sad reality is that to
the GOP and to Trump's billionaire
cabinet this is all a game these
lifelines that Americans rely on whether
it's Medicaid food stamps Social
Security education funding veterans
programs cancer research funding and on
and on are dispensable to these
billionaires because they don't need
them they don't rely on Social Security
checks every month they don't rely on
Medicaid every month in fact the most
Insidious part is that they know full
well the people that they're targeting
are the folks with the least amount of
political power take Medicaid for
example the folks on Medicaid are
low-income and children those are people
who don't have a lot of political power
in other words they are the easiest
Target Republicans know that they want
to cut Healthcare but they want to do so
with minimal political consequences and
so in the same way that they target gay
people and trans people and minorities
and any other marginalized Community
here they've decided that their easiest
Target is Medicaid recipients and that's
a point that I made during an interview
on too and I think what's even more
depraved about this is they went after
they went after Medicaid but not
Medicare and that's because they made a
political calculation that because the
folks who are recipients of Medicare
those are seniors are are a more
powerful voting block that they wouldn't
touch that but that because Medicaid is
composed of of low income folks and
children that these are people who don't
have political power and so their goal
was to strip away healthcare from
Americans but they only wanted do it
when they can suffer the least amount of
political consequence for that and I
think that that's the most depraved part
because because they they pick and they
they they decided to cherry-pick where
it would hurt them the least while they
were purposefully searching out for the
people who would have the least
political power while they were looking
to take their health care away in this
country the truth is that these people
are already previewing what their
priorities are at best they just have a
fundamental disdain for working class
Americans but at worst they're acting in
a way that suggests that they AR even
vying for your votes at any point in the
future I mean think about it touching
earned benefits like Social Security is
the third rail of American politics you
don't do it unless you want to get
decimated at The Ballot Box in the
upcoming election the fact that
Republicans are barreling ahead with a
sense of full impunity right now suggest
that perhaps they're not worried at all
about the prospect of ever facing voters
again now I don't want to sound alarmist
but I really don't want to sound naive
we are in a constitutional crisis right
now and we ignore the risks that are
staring Us in the face at our own peril
I don't say this as a Democrat I say
this as an American I say this as
someone who has paid into earn benefit
programs my whole life and who fully
expects to take advantage of them when
I'm older I say this to someone whose
parents and grandma get Social Security
checks and certainly want to continue
getting them I say this is somebody who
has enough empathy and compassion that I
don't want to see anybody lose their
lifelines all because some billionaire
like Elon Musk or Howard Lutnick or
anybody else in Trump's cabinet has
decided that Federal money would be
better spent on their own businesses the
fight of our time is not leftwing versus
right-wing it is the Hales versus the
Have Nots I will spend every day on this
planet fighting not for the people who
already have everything they could ever
need but expressly for the people who
don't if that's a fight that you're
willing to have then I hope you all
subscribe to this Channel and fight
alongside me