Scott Bessent admits that Trump just created a ‘back door for privatizing Social Security’

·Social SecurityScott Bessent admits that Trump just created a ‘back door for privatizing Social Security’By Michelle L

PriceBy Lisa MascaroBy The Associated PressBy Michelle L

PriceBy Lisa MascaroBy The Associated Press Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.Magnus Lejhall/TT News Agency via APTreasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that the Trump administration was committed to tecting Social Security hours after he said in an interview that a new children’s savings gram President Donald Trump signed into law “is a back door for privatizing Social Security.” Bessent said Wednesday evening that the accounts created under Trump’s tax break-and-spending cut law “will supplement the sanctity of Social Security’s guaranteed payments.” “This is not an either-or question: our Administration is committed to tecting Social Security and to making sure seniors have more money,” Bessent said in a post on X

Bessent’s remarks privatizing Social Security, which he made at a forum hosted by Breitbart News, were striking after Trump’s repeated mises on the campaign trail and in office that he would not touch Social Security

It also reignited an issue that has dogged Republicans for years

The White House did not respond to a request for

Democrats quickly seized on the as a sign the GOP wants to revive a dormant but un push to privatize the long-running retirement gram. “A stunning admission,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a Senate speech. “Bessent actually slipped, told the truth: Donald Trump and government want to privatize Social Security.” The idea of privatizing Social Security has been raised by Republicans before, but quickly abandoned

Millions of Americans have come to rely on the certainty of the federal gram in which they pay into the system during their working years and then receive guaranteed monthly checks in their older age

Privatization posals would shift the responsibility for the retirement savings system away from the government and onto Americans themselves

Through personal savings accounts, people would need to manage their own funds, which may or may not be enough to on as they age

But Bessent on Wednesday allowed for another rationale for the accounts, suggesting they could eventually be the way Americans for retirement. “In a way, it is a back door for privatizing Social Security,” Bessent said while speaking the gram

The Treasury Department later issued a statement that said, “Trump Accounts are an additive government gram that work in conjunction with Social Security to broaden and increase the savings and wealth of Americans

Social Security is a critical safety net for Americans and always will be.” Ever since the George W

Bush administration considered posals to privatize Social Security more than 20 years ago, Republicans have publicly moved away from talking the issue that ved politically un and was swiftly abandoned

They won back control of both the House and the Senate in Congress

The Democrats warned Wednesday that Bessent’s s showed that Republicans want to shift the government-run gram to a private one and are again trying to dismantle the retirement gram that millions of Americans depend on. “Donald Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent just said the quiet part out loud: The administration is scheming to privatize Social Security,” Tim Hogan, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement. “It wasn’t enough to kick millions of people off their health care and take food away from hungry kids

Trump is now coming after American seniors with a ‘backdoor’ scam to take away the benefits they earned,” Hogan said

The Social Security gram has faced dire financial jections for decades, but changes have long been politically un

Social Security’s trust funds, which cover old age and disability recipients, will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2034, according to the most recent report from the gram’s trustees

Those officials have said those findings underline the urgency of making changes to grams

Trump, attuned to Social Security’s ity, has repeatedly said he would tect it

Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly said he would “always tect Social Security” and said his Democratic opponents, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, would destroy the gram

Trump said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” in December after he won the presidential election that “we’re not touching Social Security, other than we might make it more efficient.” His White House this year said Trump “will always tect Social Security.” Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano, a Wall Street veteran, was asked at his confirmation hearing in March whether Social Security should be privatized

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