Apparently leaving your house costs $100 now.
Go to the grocery store? $100. Fill up the car and grab a few things on the way home? There goes another $100. Try to buy an actual house? Maybe don&#8217;t look at Zillow unless you&#8217;re emotionally prepared.
Americans don&#8217;t need another politician to tell them things are expensive. They have receipts.
But a new report from the Plymouth Institute for Free Enterprise at Advancing American Freedom (AAF) says there are ways to make life cheaper and, shockingly, none of them involve another trillion-dollar government spending package.
The report, “<a href="https://advancingamericanfreedom.com/memos/10-ways-to-improve-affordability-now">10 Ways to Improve Affordability Now</a>,” calls affordability the “#1 issue facing the American people” and has a pretty simple solution: Get government out of the way.
“The Left’s solution is redistribution — taking money from some to subsidize others,” the report says. “AAF’s solution is unleashing Americans by removing legal barriers to prosperity at every level of the economy.”
Translation: Stop trying to spend your way out of problems government helped create.
First up? Energy.
AAF wants America drilling by expanding oil and gas access, guaranteeing recurring federal lease sales offshore and in Alaska, and fighting state-level fracking bans.
Then there&#8217;s housing.
If you&#8217;ve looked at home prices lately and wondered whether your starter home is supposed to come with a starter trust fund, AAF has an idea: Build more of them.
The group wants to cut zoning red tape, make it easier to get certain projects approved, and tie federal housing aid to states actually doing something about restrictive zoning.
More houses. More supply. Hopefully, lower prices.
The report also wants Washington to stop making life harder for franchise owners and small businesses and make it easier for companies to invest in new factories and development.
And then there&#8217;s AI.
States are already fighting over massive new data centers and the energy needed to power them. AAF&#8217;s answer isn&#8217;t another government program. It&#8217;s fewer roadblocks. The group wants states to reject data-center moratoriums and loosen up energy markets so America can actually power the AI boom.
Not every recommendation is going to get automatic applause from conservatives though.
You know, tariffs.
AAF wants Congress to take that power back from the president, arguing that requiring lawmakers to approve tariffs would give businesses and consumers more predictable prices.
And then there&#8217;s Social Security.
The report warns that if Washington keeps kicking the can down the road, Americans could eventually be looking at an extra 5% payroll tax or a 22% benefit cut for every retiree.
AAF says start fixing it now instead of waiting until there are no good options left.
The group also wants to close a welfare loophole it says could save more than $100 billion through 2035, keep the government from capping credit card interest rates, and get rid of regulations that push Americans toward electric vehicles they may not even want.
Taken together, the 10 recommendations amount to a very different approach to the affordability problem than simply spending more money to offset higher costs.
AAF&#8217;s argument is that Washington can make life more affordable by removing government barriers that it says are helping drive up costs in the first place.

Little piggy banks on ascending stacks of coins

10 Ways To Fix America’s Out-Of-Control Cost Of Living

cost of living

energy policy

housing affordability

politics

social security

tariff

For many Americans, paid family leave sounds like one of those rare issues with an obvious answer. Who wouldn&#8217;t want new parents to have more time with their baby, or workers to be able to care for a sick family member without worrying about their paycheck?
But just because we all recognize that people need paid time off from work, doesn’t mean that Washington lawmakers should create another government program to provide it. The reality is that government paid-leave programs create as many problems as they solve.
Consider the states that have adopted government paid-leave programs. California workers, for example, lose 1.3% of their wages to a payroll tax to support the leave program. Washington state workers pay 1.13%. That may not sound like much, but for families living paycheck to paycheck, every deduction matters, and those taxes hit every single paycheck, every single year, regardless of whether you take leave. That&#8217;s money that can&#8217;t go toward groceries, rent, child care, or building the emergency savings that help families weather life&#8217;s biggest transitions.
Government paid-leave programs can also result in workers having less generous benefit programs and less true flexibility than before. That&#8217;s an important point to remember: when it comes to paid leave benefits, Americans aren’t starting from scratch. More than 80% of private-sector workers already receive paid sick leave, paid holidays, or paid vacation through their employers. Nearly 30% have specific family leave benefits.
While these numbers confirm that a large segment of workers could use more paid time off, particularly for family events like the birth of a child, they should caution against disrupting the benefits already in place. If the federal government were to create a payroll tax-funded leave program, companies would have an incentive to opt into it and stop providing the leave packages they currently offer. For many employers — including the nonprofit I work for — this would mean a less generous benefit at least for the first several weeks. Moreover, rather than working with your own company&#8217;s HR department, the leave-taking employee would face a government bureaucracy, which would likely mean unpleasant delays and paperwork burdens, and a lack of ability to stagger a return to employment or customize benefits.
Recognizing the problems with a one-size-fits-all government entitlement program doesn’t mean that nothing can or should be done to help workers who lack sufficient paid leave benefits.
Congress can start by reforming outdated labor laws, specifically the Fair Labor Standards Act, so that hourly workers can opt to receive paid time off, rather than collecting overtime pay. Government workers have long enjoyed this option: Rather than getting paid time-and-a-half for every hour worked overtime, they can earn an extra hour-and-a-half of paid leave. Proposed legislation — the Working Families Flexibility Act — would extend this voluntary option to private-sector employees, allowing workers to choose compensatory time off in place of overtime pay. This would cost the government nothing but would be an important way to help some of the most vulnerable workers in our country have access to paid time off.
Policy leaders should also find ways to make existing safety net programs more flexible rather than larger. All workers pay into the Social Security program from their very first day on the job. Policymakers could allow workers to access a small share of the retirement benefits they have already earned to provide financial support following the birth of a child. Workers who take this family leave option would then have to wait a few months longer to be eligible for full retirement benefits. That way, this new benefit option would be budget-neutral, not require any new taxes or new government mandate, and would limit its impact on existing leave programs. You can learn more about this and other approaches to expanding paid leave in this <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IW_Flourishing-Families-Report.pdf">report</a> from Independent Women.
It’s important to find ways to help families that need to take time off from work. Yet it’s also important to remember that the best way to help families is a robust job market — with plentiful, diverse employment opportunities. That means policymakers should preserve independent contracting and part-time work, and embrace policies, such as tax cuts, that let workers keep more of what they earn and that preserve true workplace flexibility.
The goal shouldn&#8217;t simply be more paid leave. It should be more choices for the people who know their own needs better than Washington ever will.
***
This is part of a series of op-eds based on Independent Women’s new report, “Flourishing Families: An Agenda to Help Families Thrive.” The report, found <a href="https://www.independentwomen.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/IW_Flourishing-Families-Report.pdf">here</a>, details ways to support families without direct government subsidies or radically distorting the tax code to redistribute resources to families.
Carrie Lukas is the president of Independent Women. Follow her on X at @carrielukas.

Young independent mother with a baby.

Paid Leave Policies Must Provide More Choices — Not More Bureaucracy

fair labor standards act

independent women

opinion

paid family leave

&#8220;The Ramsey Show&#8221; co-host and financial literacy personality George Kamel blasted news agencies and influencers for urging Americans to withdraw Social Security early.
Recently, the Social Security Administration <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/">announced</a> in the 2026 Trustees Report that the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund reserves “will become depleted” in 2032, and afterwards, “the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing program income will be sufficient to pay 78 percent of total scheduled benefits.”
The Congressional Budget Office also previously warned that this would result in a direct cut in retirement benefits, stating, “because the government would not have the legal authority to make payments in excess of receipts, it would no longer be able to pay the full amounts scheduled or projected under current law.”
News organizations took on the story about Social Security reaching its end, with Fox Business <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/social-security-has-less-than-10-years-before-reserves-exhausted-new-trustees-report-warns">reporting</a> that “Social Security has less than 10 years before reserves are exhausted.” Online financial influencers then started to call on their followers to take out their benefits early at 62 before Social Security goes ‘bankrupt.’
In an interview with Fox News, Kamel <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/why-ramsey-financial-expert-says-no-magic-age-claim-social-security">called</a> the Fox Business headline and similar headlines in other outlets “classic fearmongering” that are not “based in reality.”
“There’s a lot of context left out,” Kamel added. “But when you see ‘depletion 2032 Social Security,’ it’s like the toilet paper rush during COVID — everyone’s like ‘I gotta go to the store. Let’s clear the shelves. There’s not going to be any left for me.’”
Kamel debunked the idea that Social Security is going to go bankrupt by noting that the last time Social Security reserves were expected to dry out in 1983, Congress and the Reagan administration did “several small tweaks” to fix the system.
“A worst-case scenario is a 22% cut in monthly benefits,” Kamel said. “That’s a far cry from it going to 0, to bankruptcy. There is a lot of emotion here, and fear is a bad reason to grab it at 62.”
“I don’t see a world where, in 2032, we’re all going, ‘Where’s our money? We’re all going to retire broke.’” Kamel added. 
Kamel also mentioned that taking Social Security at 62 gives a 30% deduction in benefits, whereas waiting until 70 gives a 24% bonus. But he then noted that there is no “magic age” for taking Social Security.
“There [are] a lot of factors that come into play when you decide to take Social Security, and it really depends on your life, your health, your income, your family situation,” Kamel said.
Kamel advised listeners to take control of their finances rather than relying on the government.
“I call it Social insecurity, because if you’re relying on it, you don’t have that security, you don’t have that control,” Kamel said. “So I want to let people know that you are your best shot at great retirement. It’s not the government’s job, it’s not Washington’s job, it’s not a headline, it’s not a trust fund aid, you control the controllables.”

Social security card is teetering on side of cliff

Finance Guru Rips Viral Social Security Trend

Dave Ramsey

finance

Personal finances

Babies born in the second half of 2026 will receive a special Social Security card commemorating America’s 250th anniversary, the Social Security Administration (SSA) <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/news/en/press/releases/2026-07-01.html">announced</a> on Wednesday.
Children born in the United States between July 2 and December 31, 2026, will receive this one-of-a-kind card featuring the Freedom 250 logo in black ink, which still functions as a standard Social Security card.
The cards will serve as the first official federal documents issued to millions of American children.
“Freedom 250 is a celebration of America’s storied history and the monumental moments that have shaped our nation, including the creation of Social Security over 90 years ago,” Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano said. 
The cards are part of the Enumeration at Birth program and will be issued at hospitals, birthing centers, or requested by licensed midwives during the birth registration process. Parents do not need to apply for the card, pay extra fees, or complete additional paperwork, according to Fox News.
Babies born before or after the July 2 to December 31 window will receive a standard Social Security card without the Freedom 250 logo.
The SSA also warned Americans about scammers attempting to duplicate the limited-edition cards. The agency said it would “never call, text, or email you requesting payment to obtain a commemorative card.”
“Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, we are strengthening Social Security, improving service, and building an SSA to serve Americans today and in the future,” Bisignano said.

Father holding her newborn baby

Newborns To Receive Special Social Security Cards Honoring America’s 250th

America 250

Entitlement reform is about to become a hot-button issue, again, due to imminent fiscal shortfalls.
And right now the politics don’t look great for Americans under 40. According to recent <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/social-securitys-finances-are-getting-worse-americans-dont-know-how-hard-choices-will-be">polling</a> by the Cato Institute, 89% of senior citizens would support raising taxes on younger workers in order to maintain their Social Security benefits. Now consider that the <a href="https://voteathome.org/new-report-on-primary-voting-highlights-path-to-increase-voter-participation/">median</a> primary voter is 65 years old.
Gen Z <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2025/2024-presidential-election-voting-registration-tables.html">votes</a> at much lower rates than older Americans, especially in <a href="https://theharvardpoliticalreview.com/gen-z-voter-barriers-2024-election/">midterms</a>. Worse, many Zoomers don’t even know how Social Security works. Half think their payroll taxes are either saved for them in a personal account or invested in a trust fund on their behalf.
In reality, Social Security is a <a href="https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/social-security-trust-fund-myth">pay-as-you-go program</a>. That means today’s beneficiaries are funded through taxes paid by younger workers, today. While retirees say they “paid in,” those dollars were spent long ago. Social Security’s mythology has obscured the economic trade-offs it requires: between the incomes of younger workers and the retirement lifestyles of seniors.
For decades, Social Security spending has gone in one direction: up, up, and up, on <a href="https://epicforamerica.org/federal-budget/epic-explainer-discretionary-v-autopilot-spending/">autopilot</a>. As a result, it now accounts for <a href="https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-does-the-us-spend-on-social-security-is-it-sustainable/">over</a> 22% of the federal budget, costing nearly $1.6 trillion per year. That makes it the single biggest item in America’s federal budget, and it’s <a href="https://www.pgpf.org/article/top-10-largest-budget-functions/">not close.</a> If you add up all spending on seniors in the federal budget, it’s about <a href="https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/p/2026-04-01-how-federal-spending-is-distributed-by-age-group-in-fy2025/">$2.7 trillion</a> annually. We spend six times as much on senior citizens, the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/over-65-congratulations-you-own-the-economy-5acea4c4">wealthiest demographic,</a> as we do on children and young adults.
Congress has made no major changes to Social Security since 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed a bipartisan bill that saved it from imminent collapse. Contrary to today’s facile notion that entitlement reform is “a third rail,” Reagan signed bipartisan legislation that cut Social Security and Medicare spending in 1983, in addition to raising taxes. He won 49 states the very next year (when the economy jumps 7% in a single year, they let you do it).
Since Reagan, no president has been able to change the course of Social Security. Bush and Obama both talked about it. Neither got it done.
Something must change. The Social Security Trust Fund (technically it’s the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund) is projected to run out in late 2032. That’s just six years from now. It means senators elected or re-elected in the November 2026 midterms will confront this crisis within their upcoming terms.
And that’s not the only crisis on the horizon. Medicare Hospital Insurance is <a href="https://www.cms.gov/oact/tr/2026">projected</a> to run out in 2033. Chinese President Xi Jinping has directed the Chinese military to be able to strike Taiwan by 2027, though this does <a href="https://news.usni.org/2026/03/19/china-not-committed-to-2027-taiwan-invasion-u-s-intel-report-says">not</a> necessarily mean China will attack then. And the United States has been so occupied with <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">transferring</a> wealth to senior citizens that it forgot to match its defense production to its national security strategy. And that means significant production shortages of <a href="https://www.heritage.org/defense/commentary/chinas-naval-buildup-exposes-us-shipbuilding-gaps-and-fleet-weakness">ships</a>, <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/rebuilding-us-missile-inventory-multiyear-project">missiles</a>, and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/national-security/the-u-s-wants-to-break-chinas-drone-dominance-heres-where-it-will-struggle-39e69e18">drones</a>. America faces a rapidly complicated geopolitical situation, yet is maintaining <a href="https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and-international-context">historically</a> low defense spending.
Making this all more intractable is America’s demographic collapse. We have fewer and fewer younger Americans <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/history/ratios.html">supporting</a> more and more older Americans. And this will get worse, impacting America’s ability to fund its entitlement programs — the fertility rate is falling <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/low-falling-fertility-means-social-securitys-funding-problems-are-worse-expected-0">faster</a> than the Social Security Trustees seem to think.
This will all come to a head, and soon. The U.S. must either significantly cut the growth trajectory of Social Security and Medicare spending or dramatically raise taxes. (Or some combination of benefit cuts and tax hikes).
There is no way to finesse our way out of this. It’s far too late to “privatize” Social Security, and any such plan would <a href="https://debtdispatch.substack.com/p/debt-digest-the-cassidy-kaine-social">dramatically</a> raise the national debt, making America’s fiscal problem worse, not better. And while AI promises to accelerate economic growth, excessive government regulation, grassroots backlash, and early demands for Universal Basic Income all cast doubt on the notion that AI will save us from the consequences of our own government spending.
By law, when the Social Security and Medicare trust funds run out, the programs’ spending will be cut significantly (by over 20% for Social Security and over 10% for Medicare Part A). But Congress is unlikely to allow these cuts to happen, given the political realities we have discussed.
American senior citizens know what they want: retirement benefits that keep going up forever, paid for by younger workers. Meanwhile, younger people don’t even know their own interests. Or what threatens them. Even among Americans under 30, 47% would protect current retirees’ benefits even if that means higher taxes on younger workers like them.
Expect more of the same. At least until America’s fundamental imbalance, between elderly power and youthful ignorance, changes.
America did not begin as a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Gerontocracy-America-Hoarding-Power-Wealth_and/dp/0374607648">gerontocracy</a>. Thomas Jefferson was just 33 years old when he drafted the Declaration of Independence. Alexander Hamilton was around 20 in July 1776, but he was up north <a href="https://armyhistory.org/major-general-alexander-hamilton/">serving</a> as a captain in a New York artillery company.
With respect to America’s founders, however, if taxation without genuine political representation was a <a href="https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/colonial-life-today/early-american-economics-facts">problem</a> back in 1776, it is a much larger problem now.
***
Russ Greene is Executive Director of the Prime Mover Institute and the <a href="https://americanmind.org/salvo/what-is-total-boomer-luxury-communism/">coiner</a> of the term “Total Boomer Luxury Communism.”

Senior woman’s hands counting cash us dollars at home

The Boomer Ponzi Scheme Robbing Americans Of Future Prosperity

Boomers

DW Opinion

gen z

medicare

Young Americans aren’t just drifting toward socialism. They’re running toward it, convinced that the American dream skipped their generation. Candidates openly embracing socialist labels are winning elections in major cities, and rhetoric that was once confined to radicals is becoming mainstream. The irony is that the very policies they think will save them are the ones that pushed them to the edge in the first place.
At first glance, none of this makes sense. Socialism has produced disaster everywhere it has been tried. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any system in human history. So why are the children of its success so eager to abandon it?
The easy explanation blames TikTok, activist professors, and influencers who distrust Western civilization and condemn capitalism. There is some truth in that, but it misses a deeper and far more important cause. It confuses the spark with the fuel.
Beneath the slogans is a generation that feels economically cheated. Many young Americans no longer believe they will achieve the stability their parents took for granted. They face higher tuition, heavier debt, steeper housing costs, and a stagnant job market. Upward mobility feels elusive. The milestones of adulthood feel delayed or impossible.
A whole generation was raised to believe they deserved certain outcomes, and now those outcomes aren’t materializing. They look at the system around them and see barriers, not opportunities. And when people believe a system is rigged against them, they don’t try to fix it. They try to tear it down.
Capitalism becomes the obvious villain. If America runs on capitalism, and America feels broken, then capitalism must be the cause. And if capitalism is the cause, socialism must be the solution.
But what if their diagnosis is wrong? What if the system crushing young Americans isn’t capitalism at all, but the layers of socialist-style policies woven into the economy over the past century, policies that subtly push wealth upward and shift long-term obligations downward?
America has built an economy where one generation’s comfort is paid for by the next generation’s sacrifice. Over the last century, the United States has added an expanding array of redistribution programs to its market system. These programs were often passed in the name of compassion and fairness, but their structure consistently produces unintended consequences. Chief among them is a subtle, ongoing transfer of wealth and opportunity away from the young. That intergenerational transfer, not capitalism, is the real source of the resentment so many young people feel.
To be clear, we’re talking about generational systems and policies, not the moral character of individuals. No generation is monolithic. But the economic structures we’ve built have produced consistent patterns that burden the young generations far more than prior ones. 
Here are three examples.
<h3>1. Student Loans: A Program Intended to Help that Ended Up Doing the Opposite</h3>
Federal student loans were created to help lower-income students attend college. In practice, they allowed universities to raise tuition year after year with impunity. If students can always borrow more, colleges can always charge more. The result has been runaway tuition, bloated bureaucracies, and an entire ecosystem built on the assumption that young people will take on enormous debt to obtain a degree whose value steadily erodes as more people have one.
Universities prospered. Administrators prospered. Students did not. Many began adulthood burdened by debt so large that it delayed every milestone from homeownership to marriage to starting a family.
This isn’t capitalism. It’s a government-engineered system that transfers wealth upward and locks the young into financial servitude through a student-debt burden that is nearly impossible to escape.
<h3>2. Social Security: A Safety Net That Became a Generational Burden</h3>
Social Security began as a modest safety net. It has become a demographic time bomb. With declining birth rates and rising life expectancy, fewer workers now support a growing number of retirees. Younger Americans pay heavily into a system they know won’t give them the same benefits.
The trust fund they’re told exists is filled with IOUs, because previous generations already spent the money. Today’s young workers aren’t contributing to their own retirement. They’re funding someone else’s.
Again, this isn’t capitalism. It’s the socialization of what was once the personal responsibility to save for your own retirement, now transformed into a compulsory system whose costs fall increasingly on the younger generation.
<h3>3. Government Debt: One Generation Enjoys the Benefits, the Next Pays the Bill</h3>
Government debt isn’t like personal debt. Individuals repay their own loans. Governments create social debt that hands the bill to future taxpayers. Jefferson warned that one generation has no moral right to bind another with debt. Yet that is precisely what we’ve done.
When borrowing finances bridges or innovation, future generations share in the benefit. But when it finances entitlements or political consumption, future generations inherit only the cost, through higher taxes, inflation, and a rising cost of living.
Now put the pieces together.
Student loans transfer prosperity upward. 
Social Security transfers income upward. 
And government debt transfers obligations downward.
The younger generation isn’t imagining things. They’re up against a system that limits their progress while shielding older generations from the consequences of past decisions. It’s no surprise they’re angry. It’s no surprise they want dramatic change.
What is surprising is the conclusions they’re drawing and where they’ve aimed their anger. Socialism now looks appealing, and capitalism gets blamed for problems created by socialist-style policies. Young Americans aren’t wrong to feel betrayed. But they are wrong about who betrayed them.
Capitalism isn’t the culprit. Intergenerational redistribution is. Policies designed to protect the vulnerable have, in practice, stacked the deck against the young. Intentional or not, socialist-style programs have loaded a massive financial burden onto the rising generation.
Unless we acknowledge the real source of this injustice, we won’t have any chance of correcting it. And if we don&#8217;t correct it, the crisis simmering beneath the surface will eventually erupt.
We’re approaching a turning point. A society cannot survive if its young are convinced their future has been taken from them. While their frustration may be misdirected, it isn’t baseless. And until we confront this generational injustice, the revolt against capitalism won’t fade. It will intensify, fueled by a volatile mix of youthful anger and misguided ignorance.
There’s still time to chart a different course. If society can finally acknowledge the injustice, and the young can understand how socialist-style policies have undermined their economic future, we can avoid the tragic outcome of a generation that destroys the very system that remains its best chance for a prosperous future.
* * *
Rabbi Elie Feder, PhD, and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer host the “<a href="https://www.physicstogod.com/">Physics to God</a>” podcast.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Harvard Holds 374th Commencement

Young Americans Aren’t Wrong To Feel Betrayed But Capitalism Isn’t The Culprit

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capitalism

economy

national debt

socialism

Student Loans

wealth

It’s Friday, and we finally have inflation numbers.
The <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_10242025.htm">report</a> showed that inflation came in cooler than expected at 0.3% versus a forecast of 0.4%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) completed the report nine days past the due date and five days before the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) decision.
In a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/10/inflation-remains-low-as-democrat-shutdown-threatens-progress/">statement</a> released today, Karoline Leavitt said, “Under President Trump, America is back &#8211; but inflation is not.” 
Normally, the BLS releases the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report around the middle of the month, typically in the middle of the week. But America’s not in a normal situation, as today is the 24th day of the government shutdown.
To get the inflation numbers from the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/cpi_10242025.htm">Social Security Administration</a> (SSA), the Department of Labor brought back furloughed employees to complete September’s CPI report. The Social Security Administration uses CPI as a benchmark for cost-of-living adjustments when issuing benefit checks. The SSA needed September’s numbers.
The FOMC decision will be based on the analysis of September&#8217;s CPI report. However, the looming FOMC decision wasn’t enough on its own to bring back the furloughed employees. And the Social Security Administration’s need for the numbers most likely won’t be enough to get a report generated for October. 
Every month, the BLS dispatches staff to collect price data for everyday goods. Before the shutdown, they had already done their “field work” for September, allowing the Bureau of Labor Statistics to finalize the report. Since the lapse in appropriations, employees were not dispatched to gather data for October.    
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This month, the main driver of inflation was gasoline, which rose 4.1%. In times of high global tensions and uncertainty, this index typically increases. Wars and sanctions, or even the fear of them, can drive up gas demand, often raising prices. Sanctions and international conflict have the potential to cause shortages and supply shocks, sending the price of gasoline skyward. 
On Thursday, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0290">expanded sanctions</a> on Russia’s two largest oil companies. The effects of those sanctions will appear in the next report that the Bureau of Labor Statistics provides. 
Energy also rose 1.5%. In most years, energy typically falls as the cooler months approach. However, America is not in a normal year for energy. AI demands energy. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright stated in a letter to Congress this week that the “United States is experiencing an unprecedented surge in electricity demand.” AI Infrastructure and Data Centers require vast amounts of energy, and that demand is only expected to increase as the technology expands.
Based on information provided by the U.S. Inflation Calculator, since Trump took office, inflation has averaged 2.65% each month.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated, “The inflation report today is just the latest warning sign that Donald Trump continues to squeeze the life out of working people in our economy.” 
The Biden Administration had an inflation average of 4.9%. The Federal Reserve has a goal of keeping inflation at 2%.

Safeway Aisles

The Nation Finally Gets Its Inflation Report — And It’s Better Than The Experts Told Us It Would Be

Nine days past the due date, America gets CPI Report 

donald trump

groceries

inflation

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus and bestselling author Ben Shapiro ripped into leftist talking points during viral exchanges on multiple shows over the past week. 
Shapiro was interviewed on shows that are known for criticizing the conservative viewpoint, such as CNN’s “News Night With Abby Phillip,” “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” and “The Breakfast Club,” hosted by Charlamagne tha God. While Shapiro spent some time talking about his new book, “<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/pages/lions-scavengers-by-ben-shapiro-available-september-2-2025?srsltid=AfmBOopBsREVpdysJqEC0X-XIA7sZncCOwG9LjkcX4PpVqrJXnVl1TVH">Lions &amp; Scavengers</a>,” most of his discussions on the shows focused on pushing back against leftism. 
<h3>Pro-Life Masterclass</h3>
Shapiro joined the “Breakfast Club” to talk about a range of issues, but one topic gained a lot of attention: abortion. The Daily Wire editor emeritus defended an unborn baby’s right to life against pro-abortion arguments from co-hosts, Jess Hilarious and DJ Envy. 
“I don’t think that the subjective definition of life is how we define life,” Shapiro said. “We all agree, for example, that a one-month-old baby should not be drowned. Right, we all agree on that. And that’s not up to the personal … and the question is, well, why? Because we now understand that the one-month-old baby, everyone agrees with this, right, that — except for Peter Singer at Princeton — that a one-month-old baby has an independent interest in life.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
&#8220;You&#8217;re talking about what a woman should be allowed to do. I&#8217;m talking about the definition of personhood of the separate person inside the woman.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>&#8216;s argument against abortion on <a href="https://twitter.com/breakfastclubam?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@breakfastclubam</a> is a must watch ⬇️ <a href="https://t.co/3imJE2K9hI">pic.twitter.com/3imJE2K9hI</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1965046952141435332?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“The argument I don’t like is that it’s up to every single person to define when life begins,” he added.
Charlamagne then weighed in then, saying he would argue that life began when there was a heartbeat.
“If life begins at the heartbeat … you’re talking about abortion restrictions very early on,” Shapiro said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: The argument I don&#8217;t like is that it&#8217;s up to every single person to define when life begins.<a href="https://twitter.com/cthagod?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cthagod</a>: I think it begins when there&#8217;s a heartbeat.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: If life begins at the heartbeat &#8230; you&#8217;re talking about abortion restrictions very early on. <a href="https://t.co/nM4IYeQGeO">pic.twitter.com/nM4IYeQGeO</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1965050577844625723?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Shapiro also shot down the argument that rape and incest are a reason to keep abortion legal. 
“People choose that argument because it&#8217;s the hardest one to make emotionally from the pro-life side … but the vast majority of abortions have nothing to do with rape or incest,” he said. 
<h3>Major Mamdani Burn</h3>
Shapiro ripped NYC socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s record and his rapping ability during his appearance on “The Breakfast Club.” 
“The guy has not held a job and he&#8217;s going to be the mayor of New York&#8230; after being a failed rapper&#8230; I&#8217;m a more successful rapper for God&#8217;s sake than Zohran Mamdani,” Shapiro said, referring to his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ben-shapiros-facts-tops-billboard-charts-as-best-selling-rap-single">chart-topping single</a> with Tom MacDonald. 
“You had one record, dude,” Charlamagne said. 
“And let me tell you, it was a banger,” Shapiro replied. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: &#8220;The guy has not held a job and he&#8217;s going to be the mayor of New York&#8230; after being a failed rapper&#8230; I&#8217;m a more successful rapper for God&#8217;s sake than Zohran Mamdani.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/cthagod?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cthagod</a>: &#8220;You had one record, dude.&#8221;<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: &#8220;And let me tell you, it was a banger.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/gTgEoSsEQQ">pic.twitter.com/gTgEoSsEQQ</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1965054387761668497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<h3>Social Security Smackdown</h3>
During a debate on Social Security on CNN, Shapiro explained to the panelists how the entitlement program works and how it’s on a path to bankruptcy. 
First, Shapiro shot down the idea pushed by Phillip that Social Security is just a system in which Americans “pay into” to receive that money back at retirement.
“Well no,” Shapiro shot back, adding, “I promise you the amount that people are taking out is not the amount that is going in, which is why we are going bankrupt.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a> teaching <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> panelists how Social Security works is the video you didn&#8217;t know you needed😂 <a href="https://t.co/W54BsyPYKp">pic.twitter.com/W54BsyPYKp</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1963081890799264170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Later in the panel discussion, Ana Kasparian, host of the leftist show, “The Young Turks,” argued that spending on defense and foreign aid was a bigger problem pushing the country toward bankruptcy than Social Security. 
“You don’t think the trillions of dollars we’ve spent on wars in the Middle East might have something to do with that?” she asked. 
“That is not even remotely a percentage of what we spend on Social Security,” Shapiro replied. And, of course, he was correct. In 2024, Social Security accounted for 21% of the federal budget, totaling $1.5 trillion. Defense spending, meanwhile, made up 13% of the budget, or $872 billion.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AnaKasparian</a> suggests military spending drives debt more than Social Security:<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: That&#8217;s not even REMOTELY a percentage of what we spend on Social Security.<a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottJenningsKY</a>: You think Israel is a bigger portion of our budget than Social Security? <a href="https://t.co/FbD18tnGnP">pic.twitter.com/FbD18tnGnP</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1963087926188740635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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<h3>Western Civilization History Lesson</h3>
During his interview with sports and radio host Stephen A. Smith, Shapiro said that Western Civilization must be “upheld,” pushing back against the scavenger mindset that wants to tear down the traditions and values that came before us. 
Shapiro argued that Western Civilization is built upon biblical values combined with reason, which have given the world the renaissance, the enlightenment, balanced powers in government, free speech, private property, and free markets. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/stephenasmith?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@stephenasmith</a>: Does Western Civilization need to be torn down? Define Western Civilization. <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: &#8220;Western Civilization needs to be upheld&#8230;Biblical living combined with the application of reason&#8230;leads to the great prosperity and freedom we have today.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/qwVvQa9Px3">pic.twitter.com/qwVvQa9Px3</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1963775080158409045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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***
Shapiro’s defense of conservative values make for great viral clips, but it’s even better to read from his new book, “<a href="https://store.dailywire.com/pages/lions-scavengers-by-ben-shapiro-available-september-2-2025?srsltid=AfmBOopBsREVpdysJqEC0X-XIA7sZncCOwG9LjkcX4PpVqrJXnVl1TVH">Lions &amp; Scavengers</a>.” The book is a gripping exploration of the ongoing war between those who cherish our nation and those who seek to undermine it.

Lions & Scavengers

WATCH: Ben Shapiro Destroys Leftist Narratives During ‘Lions & Scavengers’ Media Blitz

abortion

Ben Shapiro

Charlamagne Tha God

Lions and Scavengers

Stephen A. Smith

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro debated retirement and Social Security on CNN on Tuesday night, explaining to his fellow panelists how Social Security is on a path to bankruptcy.
During a roundtable discussion on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWUNpmUU7a8&amp;list=PL6XRrncXkMaWWFyjMtzWWSeOocFr-N_3s&amp;index=1">News Night with Abby Phillip</a>,&#8221; Shapiro defended his stance that the government should not hand out Social Security checks for people to retire at 65 years old. The Daily Wire host warned that if the government does not raise the retirement age, &#8220;We will go bankrupt.&#8221;
&#8220;Women are living to 85 if they make it to 65, men are living to 83 if they make it to 65 — that&#8217;s 20 years on the public dime,&#8221; Shapiro added.
Phillip argued that Social Security is a system in which Americans &#8220;pay into&#8221; to receive that money back at retirement.
&#8220;Well no,&#8221; Shapiro replied, adding, &#8220;I promise you the amount that people are taking out is not the amount that is going in, which is why we are going bankrupt.&#8221;
&#8220;Okay, but it&#8217;s not the government just handing out a blank check,&#8221; Phillip said. &#8220;People pay into the Social Security system.&#8221;
&#8220;No, it&#8217;s the government borrowing money &#8230; you pay in X dollars and then you get multiple times X dollars when you retire,&#8221; Shapiro replied. &#8220;That is how the system works. It is not a <a href="https://www.cato.org/commentary/al-gores-social-security-confusion">lockbox</a>. This is what Al Gore was arguing about in 2000.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a> teaching <a href="https://twitter.com/CNN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CNN</a> panelists how Social Security works is the video you didn&#8217;t know you needed😂 <a href="https://t.co/W54BsyPYKp">pic.twitter.com/W54BsyPYKp</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1963081890799264170?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Ana Kasparian, host of the leftist show, &#8220;The Young Turks,&#8221; shot back at Shapiro, saying, &#8220;I completely reject what you just said about how we&#8217;re going bankrupt through Social Security. Really? You don&#8217;t think the trillions of dollars we&#8217;ve spent on wars in the Middle East might have something to do with that?&#8221;
&#8220;That is not even remotely a percentage of what we spend on Social Security,&#8221; Shapiro replied.
&#8220;We&#8217;re spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Israel, on Ukraine. I mean, honestly, these foreign conflicts have a lot more to do with our national debt as opposed to us paying into [Social Security],&#8221; Kasparian added.
&#8220;That is just untrue,&#8221; Shapiro fired back.
In 2024, Social Security <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go#:~:text=Social%20Security:%20In%202024%2C%2021,workers%20and%20their%20eligible%20dependents." target="_blank" rel="noopener">accounted for 21%</a> of the federal budget, totaling $1.5 trillion. Defense spending, meanwhile, made up 13% of the budget, or $872 billion. Less than 1% of the budget was allocated to international programs, including humanitarian aid. By far, the most significant portion of the federal budget in 2024 was allocated to health insurance (24%) and Social Security.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/AnaKasparian?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@AnaKasparian</a> suggests military spending drives debt more than Social Security:<a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@benshapiro</a>: That&#8217;s not even REMOTELY a percentage of what we spend on Social Security.<a href="https://twitter.com/ScottJenningsKY?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ScottJenningsKY</a>: You think Israel is a bigger portion of our budget than Social Security? <a href="https://t.co/FbD18tnGnP">pic.twitter.com/FbD18tnGnP</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1963087926188740635?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Ben Shapiro/Abby Phillip

Ben Shapiro Educates CNN Panelists On Social Security: ‘We Will Go Bankrupt’

Budget

media

Retirement

the daily wire

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum aimed at blocking illegal immigrants from receiving Social Security benefits, arguing that only legal American citizens should be eligible for benefits.
The move aims to remove monetary incentives for illegal aliens to come to the United States, the White House explained in a fact sheet released Tuesday, noting that Trump has repeatedly promised to take illegal immigrants off Social Security, and that the president signed an executive order in February ordering taxpayer resources not be used to incentivize or support illegal immigration.
Under President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration, more than 2 million illegal immigrants were assigned Social Security numbers in just the 2024 fiscal year, the White House said. The White House argues that the Biden administration&#8217;s actions continue to steal money and important services from American citizens.
The president&#8217;s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/04/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-prevents-illegal-aliens-from-obtaining-social-security-act-benefits/">memorandum</a> directs his administration to make sure that illegal aliens are not receiving funds from any Social Security programs, prioritizing enforcement actions against any grantees or sub-grantees that fail to verify eligibility or stop payments to deceased or ineligible people who are receiving these benefits.
<div id="attachment_908685" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-blocks-illegals-from-receiving-social-security-after-biden-let-2-million-enroll/trump-white-house-8" rel="attachment wp-att-908685"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-908685" class="wp-image-908685 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2208995288-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>(Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)</div>
The Social Security Administration’s Inspector General must investigate the earnings reports for individuals who are 100 or older and have mismatched records, in order to combat identity theft, the memorandum says. Additionally, Trump&#8217;s action expands the Social Security Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to 50 or more U.S. Attorney&#8217;s offices across the United States, and establishes a Medicaid fraud-prosecution program in 15 U.S. Attorney&#8217;s offices.
The administration has already stopped over 1,000 immigrants with ties to terrorist activity or criminal records from receiving Social Security benefits, the White House said. As part of its efforts to remove illegal immigrants from the country, the Trump administration has also launched the CBP Home app, which offers illegals an opportunity to &#8220;self-deport.&#8221;
According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, the Biden border agenda cost federal and state taxpayers over $16.2 billion. The Federation for American Immigration Reform has calculated that American taxpayers spent at least $182 billion annually covering the costs of 20 million immigrants and their children who entered the country illegally, the White House said. That figure includes $66.4 billion in federal expenses, and $115.6 billion in state and local expenses.

US-President-Donald-Trump-Presents-Commander-in-Chief-Trophy

Trump Blocks Illegals From Receiving Social Security After Biden Let 2 Million Enroll

Border Crisis

Former President Joe Biden broke his three-month silence Tuesday evening, addressing Social Security in his first public speech since President Trump took office.
Biden <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcqOgFBM7Q">addressed</a> a gathering of advocates for disabled people in Chicago, accusing Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency of trying to “dismantle” Social Security.
Biden, already 30 minutes late, was off to a rough start as the former president appeared to begin <a href="https://x.com/theblaze/status/1912269480887017978">reading</a> off the teleprompter while the walkout music was still playing, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he was inaudible to the audience.
The former president began the speech with a bizarre boast about his bona fides as a pro-civil rights senator, rambling, “I remember pulling in, pulling into the parking lot. And I had never seen, I had never seen hardly any black people in Scranton at the time. And I was only going in fourth grade. And I remember seeing the kids going by at the time, colored kids on a bus going by.”
“They never turned right to go to Claremont High School. I wondered why. I asked my mom, ‘Why?’ ‘So in Delaware, I&#8217;m not allowed to go to school, public school with white kids, honey.’ That sparked my sense of outrage as a kid, just like it does [sic].”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
President Biden randomly starts screaming in his first speech since leaving office. He tells a story about seeing black kids on buses:
&quot;I remember watching a bus go by. It was full of colored kids…I had never seen those.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/LdcpiLKSXV">pic.twitter.com/LdcpiLKSXV</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1912279115111247946?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Transitioning back to the teleprompter, Biden launched into an assault on Trump’s pullback of the bureaucracy, listing off a number of “achievements” under his administration that the current president is supposedly destroying.
“In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has [caused] so much damage and so much destruction. It&#8217;s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon. They’ve taken a hatchet to the Social Security Administration.”
In a bizarre claim, Biden said, “We strengthened the anti-fraud measures to protect people&#8217;s identities and to make sure benefits are going to people who actually they belong to. By the way, those 300-year-old folks getting that Social Security, I want to meet them because I like to figure out how to live that.”
This is despite Elon Musk’s DOGE uncovering countless cases of fraud and abuse since Biden’s departure.
Throughout the speech, Biden frequently shifted from either a barely audible whisper or practically shouting at the audience, mirroring many speeches from the end of his presidency.
Fox News had to briefly cut Biden’s speech short to fact-check a multitude of false statements, with Brett Baier cutting the president during his remarks.
“President Biden in Chicago talking about Social Security there, saying the administration has ‘dismantled’ Social Security. They have fired and gotten rid of a number of employees, but in that interview with ElonMusk and his DOGE team, they said they&#8217;re going after waste, fraud, and abuse in Social Security.”
“And also President Trump has said that he will not touch benefits. In fact, Elon Musk is pledging that benefits will be protected more by what they&#8217;re doing.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH: Fox News cuts away from Joe Biden’s speech for a fact check on his Social Security claims from <a href="https://twitter.com/BretBaier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BretBaier</a>:
“President Biden in Chicago talking about Social Security there, saying the administration has ‘dismantled’ Social Security. They have fired and gotten rid of a… <a href="https://t.co/SWcbksxEwC">pic.twitter.com/SWcbksxEwC</a>
&mdash; TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TVNewsNow/status/1912277205607923767?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Musk did raise eyebrows several weeks ago during an appearance on the &#8220;Joe Rogan Experience&#8221; podcast when he called Social Security &#8220;the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,&#8221; arguing that the amount being paid into the system is dwarfed by future obligations.
Trump addressed the program during his March speech to Congress, citing &#8220;shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.&#8221;
The Social Security Administration has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/15/biden-social-security-speech-trump/">lost</a> 7,000 employees under the streamlining efforts of Trump and Musk, with thousands more cuts planned.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt <a href="https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1912251020648018017">joked</a> about Biden’s appearance at a Monday conference. “My first reaction when seeing former President Biden was speaking tonight was — I’m shocked he is speaking at nighttime,” she said. “I thought his bedtime was much earlier than his speech tonight.”

Former President Biden Speaks at ACRD Conference in Chicago

Late, Rambling, And Off-Key: Biden Stumbles Through First Post-Trump Speech

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

elon musk

joe biden

trump administration

Former President Joe Biden is set to deliver his first public speech since leaving the White House on Tuesday, focusing on Social Security, a topic Democrats have zeroed in on as the Trump administration takes a sledgehammer to federal agencies and programs.
Biden will address attendees of the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago, where he will join other political figures, such as former Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), former Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO), and former Maryland Democratic Governor and Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O&#8217;Malley, NBC 5 Chicago <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-politics/biden-to-give-first-speech-since-leaving-office-with-chicago-address-tuesday/3722572/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Whether Biden mentions President Donald Trump by name during his speech will be a main point of interest as the focus on Social Security makes it likely that the former president will take some jabs at his predecessor and successor. Biden will deliver the speech as Democrats search for new leaders who can revive a party suffering from a &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">record low</a>&#8221; approval rating.
&#8220;We are deeply honored President Biden is making his first public appearance at ACRD’s sold-out conference. As bipartisan leaders have long agreed, Americans who retire after paying into Social Security their whole lives deserve the vital support and caring services they receive,&#8221; ACRD Executive Director Rachel Buck said. &#8220;As a result, we are thrilled the President will be joining us to discuss how we can work together for a stable and successful future for Social Security.&#8221;
O&#8217;Malley added, “Social Security is a sacred promise between generations. We are deeply grateful to the President for joining us at ACRD to discuss how we can keep that promise for all Americans.”
While vowing to protect Social Security, the Trump administration is looking to cut back on the Social Security Administration staff. The SSA <a href="https://blog.ssa.gov/social-security-announces-workforce-and-organization-plans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in February that it has &#8220;set a staffing target of 50,000, down from the current level of approximately 57,000 employees.&#8221; The staff reduction comes as Trump&#8217;s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project identifies where the federal government can cut spending. The SSA is also planning on closing six regional offices that provide support and services for SSA employees, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/28/business/social-security-administration-job-cuts.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Democrats have slammed the SSA cuts, arguing that the move threatens Social Security beneficiaries who rely on their monthly payments. Some Social Security beneficiaries have also complained about longer wait times on the phone and multiple outages on the “My Social Security” benefits portal since Trump made the cuts.
Trump&#8217;s senior adviser, Elon Musk, has been a primary target of Democrats&#8217; criticisms over Social Security. Musk has focused on finding fraud and waste within government programs, including entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/fact-check-president-trump-will-always-protect-social-security-medicare/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defended</a> Musk last month amid controversy over comments he made about eliminating &#8220;waste and fraud&#8221; in entitlement spending.
&#8220;The Social Security Administration made an estimated $72 billion in improper payments between 2015 and 2022,&#8221; the White House said in a statement, citing a 2024 Inspector General report.

Joe Biden

As Dems Look For New Leaders, Biden Reemerges To Deliver First Speech Since Leaving White House

chicago

Democrats

General

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