Joe Biden has left his lethargy. The former president of the United States has reappeared this Tuesday in which it has been his first great political speech since in January he left the White House. He has done it in Chicago, in front of about 200 people gathered at a conference on disability, and with a clear message: defend the Social Security of the ax that is applying the new administration. And although he has loaded hard against the new government, he has not pronounced the name of Donald Trump or once.
“In less than 100 days, this new administration has caused a lot of damage and destruction. It is impressive,” said Joe Biden. “They have taken an ax,” he finished, without half inks, according to the agency Reuters. During his speech at the defenders, advisers and representatives of the disabled (ACRD), Biden has stressed that the social security system in the United States is more than a matter of state: “It is a sacred promise. We know how much it means in the lives of people.”
The former Democratic President, counts with He has taken on stage and, from the lectern, has given a speech in which he has recovered his usual style: a close language, a truffled text of colloquial expressions and full of personal anecdotes with which he has managed to connect with the public. Although he has also taken advantage of his passage through the Capitol, insisting that Social Security has always been one of its flag issues. “Social Security has been there even during wars, recessions and pandemics. Whatever happens, the checks came. But now, for the first time, that could change. It would be a calamity for millions of families, millions of people,” he warned.
Biden’s speech, which lasted about half an hour, has coincided with the celebration of Social Security Action Day in the United States, a day organized by citizen groups to protest against what they consider a frontal attack on the entire system. Biden wanted to focus on the technical failures that already affect many of the beneficiaries. “People cannot enter their accounts. But who the pussy is believed to be?” The former Democratic President has exploded in one of the most commented phrases, who has accused the Trump administration of acting without measuring the consequences of their decisions: “They shoot first and point later. The result is an unnecessary pain between the population and nightless nights,” Joe Biden empathized.
Although some voices of the Democratic party fear that this reappearance of Joe Biden diverts the focus of the problems that Donald Trump creates from the White House, the former president has made it clear that he wants to continue involved in key issues, although he does not plan to develop an intense public agenda, although in recent weeks he has visited students, participated in union acts and is writing a new book.
Elon Musk takes Social Security control
The offensive against social security is not symbolic, nor a future threat: it is already underway. Donald Trump has delivered the command of the system to the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), Agency for New Wedge under the tutelage of Elon Musk and that, since February, are responsible for losing weight the administration to the fullest.
The Trump administration plan contemplates the dismissal of at least 7,000 public employees and closing offices throughout the country. The Social Security Administration (SSA), which manages 1.4 billion dollars in benefits for more than 70 million citizens, already shows saturation signs: computer systems that fall, endless queues and stuck procedures. The situation has aggravated since Doge assumed control of the agency. According to Politicolayoffs are especially affecting technology equipment, responsible for the maintenance of digital platforms.
To this internal chaos is added a legal front: in March, a federal judge ruled that the SSA probably violated the privacy laws by allowing Elon Musk’s teams to access the data of millions of citizens without restrictions. The Court ordered to immediately suspend that flow of information. The investigation is still open.
Trump against the “payments to illegal”
While Biden pronounced his speech in Chicago, Trump signed in Washington a new order with more restrictions to prevent papers without papers from accessing public benefits. The text disseminated by the White House defends that “the benefits financed by taxpayers must go only to eligible people” so it orders the work departments, health and the administration of Social Security so that they strive to verify the eligibility of the beneficiaries and use “all measures” to avoid undue payments to unauthorized foreigners. It also provides fines to states, cities or other organisms that do not adequately control who charges the aid.
The order active, in addition, a judicial offensive. The Attorney General, PAM Bondi, will coordinate with the SSA the creation of at least 50 federal prosecutors specialized in fraud before October. The units responsible for investigating abuse in Medicare and Medicaid will also be expanded, with new delegations planned until 2025.
Another outstanding measure of the Trump Plan puts the focus on possible fraud linked to false identities. The Memorandum orders the SSA to send to the Inspector General all the income reports associated with people of one hundred years or more when the data of the supposed salaried one does not coincide with the official archives. According to the White House, this review seeks to detect cases of identity theft, illegal employment or tax evasion.
The Social Security Administration has come out in defense of the measures package and has responded to Biden from its official account in X, accusing him of “lying to the Americans.” According to SSA herself, only in 2024 social security numbers have been assigned to more than two million migrants without documentation. He has also recovered an audit prepared during the Biden mandate that estimated at $ 72,000 million the undue payments made between 2015 and 2022.
Trump, on the other hand, has defended the package as a way of protecting social security for “the elderly who have worked their entire life.” In addition, he recalled that his government allocated in March 16.5 million dollars to modernize the telephone services of the system.
