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 

cost of living

Donald Trump

groceries

Inflation

Social Security

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

Politics

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

Illegal Immigation

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.

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

Chicago

Democrats

General

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated on Sunday that protecting Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid is a &#8220;top priority&#8221; for the White House and congressional Republicans.
In an interview on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;Sunday Morning Futures&#8221; with host Maria Bartiromo, Johnson discussed the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hold-trump-scores-big-beautiful-victory-house-budget-vote" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recently-passed</a> budget reconciliation framework, which sets the stage for President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed comprehensive bill to advance his domestic priorities.
&#8220;Well, here&#8217;s the key to all of it. The president has made absolutely clear many times, as we have as well, that we&#8217;re going to protect Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid for people who are legally beneficiaries of those programs,&#8221; Johnson replied. &#8220;There are a lot of Americans who rely upon those programs, and we have got to ensure that they&#8217;re safeguarded. That&#8217;s a big priority of the White House and the Republicans in Congress.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today, exclusively on <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SundayFutures</a> with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a>, House Speaker Mike Johnson <a href="https://twitter.com/SpeakerJohnson?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SpeakerJohnson</a> spoke about Congress advancing a blueprint of President Trump&#39;s agenda.<a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FoxNews</a> <a href="https://t.co/WbvVwgZwnz">pic.twitter.com/WbvVwgZwnz</a>
&mdash; SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) <a href="https://twitter.com/SundayFutures/status/1911442736827297914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
He continued: &#8220;At the same time, we have to root out fraud, waste, and abuse. We have to eliminate people on — for example, on Medicaid, who are not actually eligible to be there, able-bodied workers, for example, young men who are — who should never be on the program at all.&#8221;
Johnson was responding to Bartiromo asking the question: &#8220;So knowing that 76% of the spending goes toward mandatory spending, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, where are the offsets?&#8221;
Democrats have <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/news/press-releases/leader-schumer-floor-remarks-on-republican-attacks-on-social-security-and-elon-musks-call-to-eliminate-entitlement-programs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that Republicans, led by Trump and influenced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort overseen by Elon Musk, are working to dismantle the various programs in a move that would harm millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and other Americans who are reliant on the benefits they offer.
Johnson argued that preserving resources for those who truly need them — such as young single mothers, people with disabilities, and the elderly on Medicaid — requires preventing others from &#8220;draining&#8221; these programs.
&#8220;We have got to protect and preserve that program,&#8221; Johnson said. &#8220;So we&#8217;re going to preserve the integrity of it in this process. We have lots of categories of areas where the government is too large, it does too many things. And the DOGE efforts and others have highlighted that for the American people.&#8221;

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

Speaker Johnson Outlines Plan To Secure Benefits, ‘Root Out’ Fraud And Waste

Congress

Medicaid

Medicare

Mike Johnson

U.S.

U.S. House of Representatives

Here&#8217;s a headline that, if you&#8217;ve been making car insurance payments over the last few years, might seem pretty hard to believe. It turns out that average auto insurance premiums actually declined in March, month-over-month. Yes, for many people, premiums have gotten cheaper, even as car prices have remained high. Inflation has seemingly been defeated, at least in this particular industry. The declines were particularly steep in Florida, where insurers like Geico, Progressive and State Farm are cutting rates by as much as 10%. But there&#8217;s no question that this is a nationwide phenomenon. Insurance rates are down by roughly 1% across the board — which might not sound like a lot, but it&#8217;s a big difference from the typical double-digit increases that we&#8217;ve been seeing lately. When you go from 15-point average increases to a 1% decrease, you&#8217;re saving a lot of money, relatively speaking.
So why is this happening, exactly? Ask ten different people and you&#8217;ll probably get ten different answers. And all of them might be right, at least partially. But here&#8217;s one theory. It could be that insurance rates are going down because our roads are getting safer. And maybe our roads are getting safer because two grand Left-wing experiments — the BLM &#8220;de-policing&#8221; movement and the open borders agenda — have both finally come to an end.
Each of these movements clearly made driving significantly more dangerous, in their own way. Beginning in 2020, of course, BLM convinced police departments to stop enforcing laws — including traffic laws. And the effect was immediate. By one estimate, 35% more black people died in motor vehicle accidents in 2021, as compared with 2019. In other words, a lot of black motorists suddenly realized that they could drive however they wanted. They&#8217;d no longer be pulled over for supposedly &#8220;driving while black,&#8221; which was something they imagined was happening all the time. And they took full advantage of the situation. Insurance companies had to deal with the carnage that followed.
Along the same lines, as we&#8217;ve <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezo_P2uRNWY" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discussed</a> before, the flood of illegal aliens into this country under the Biden administration has led to a lot of drunk-driving collisions, which have wiped out entire families in some cases. Many of these illegal aliens don&#8217;t have driver&#8217;s licenses, and they refuse to obey the rules of the road. In the tiny town of Springfield, for example, one resident recently <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/09/12/us-news/influx-of-wild-driving-haitian-migrants-turning-streets-of-springfield-ohio-into-combat-zone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">estimated</a> that she sees 8 to 10 traffic accidents per day. Haitian migrants, which now make up around one-third of the population, routinely drive into buildings and onto sidewalks. They&#8217;ve mowed down children and elderly women, with total impunity. One of these Haitian migrants <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/09/12/us-news/influx-of-wild-driving-haitian-migrants-turning-streets-of-springfield-ohio-into-combat-zone/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ran over</a> Kathy Heaton, a 71-year-old grandmother, while she was collecting her garbage cans. She died in the street, after an impact that was so severe that her socks were literally removed from her feet. The driver wasn&#8217;t even prosecuted.
This era of impunity is now over. Police departments are no longer being overrun with BLM mobs. Border security is being enforced again. The result is that the prices that American citizens have to pay — both in terms of dollar amounts, and lives that are lost — are coming down. It turns out that, when you have a society that enforces laws, everyone benefits.
The White House seems to understand this. That&#8217;s why, every other day, we&#8217;re hearing about a new plan to reduce the cost of these kinds of externalities for Americans.
Here&#8217;s the latest example. The New York Times is now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/us/politics/migrants-deport-social-security-doge.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&amp;referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reporting</a> that the Trump administration is canceling the Social Security numbers of foreign nationals who, for one reason or another, were allowed into this country during Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency:
<blockquote>The Trump administration has moved aggressively to revoke the temporary legal status of hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were allowed into the country under President Biden. &#8230; Now, the administration is taking drastic steps to pressure some of those immigrants and others who had legal status to “self-deport” by effectively canceling the Social Security numbers they had lawfully obtained. &#8230; The goal is to cut those people off from using crucial financial services like bank accounts and credit cards, along with their access to government benefits.</blockquote>
According to the Times, thousands of &#8220;convicted criminals and suspected terrorists&#8221; are among the foreign nationals who just had their Social Security numbers revoked. Yes, apparently the Biden administration provided &#8220;convicted criminals and suspected terrorists&#8221; with Social Security numbers, so that they could obtain government benefits. The Biden administration determined that this course of action was preferable to just deporting these people, or throwing them in prison. Now the Trump administration is changing that policy.
Again, this will have the effect of reducing payments by taxpayers to people who shouldn&#8217;t even be here. It will also make our roads and our communities a lot safer, in all likelihood. More than anything else, this is what Americans voted for in the last election. If Republicans are going to remain in power in Washington, and avoid a Democrat takeover of Congress in the midterms next year, then this kind of thing has to continue. And more importantly, Congress has to start supporting it. That&#8217;s how we can ensure that the cost of living will continue dropping.
A large part of that equation is reducing government spending, which Congress controls. As we all know, when the government spends trillions of dollars every year, that money is either coming from taxpayers, or it&#8217;s being printed and borrowed (which reduces the value of the money we&#8217;re all holding). Either way, we&#8217;re losing a lot of money in the process. At the moment, it appears that a small contingent of Republican lawmakers in Congress recognizes that this arrangement needs to change, at least to some degree. They just held out for assurances that the next spending bill will slash one-point-five trillion dollars from the budget. And after a lot of hand-wringing, they apparently received those assurances. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="001 budget framework resolution" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/fnwMlNZgVZ8?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So there were two plans here, for a spending bill to fund the government. The Senate plan, which passed over the weekend, would only reduce the deficit by around four billion dollars. That&#8217;s basically nothing compared to the new House framework, which demands a minimum of one-point-five trillion dollars in deficit reduction.
But here&#8217;s the problem: Even this new framework isn&#8217;t binding. It just sets a broad outline for future negotiations between the House and Senate, which still need to finalize a budget. And several members of Congress — most notably Thomas Massie of Kentucky — believe that this deal is worth about as much as the paper it&#8217;s printed on. Thomas Massie has been in office for more than a decade, and he understands how Congress works. He knows that it&#8217;s one thing for lawmakers to promise spending cuts. But it&#8217;s a completely different matter for them to agree on a bill that actually cuts spending. Here&#8217;s what Massie told a reporter after the framework was announced:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Thomas Massie" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/C5z901MgYh0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
What&#8217;s surprising here isn&#8217;t anything Thomas Massie is saying. What&#8217;s surprising is that so few Republicans in Congress are agreeing with him. The reason voters elected Republicans to control both chambers of Congress, along with the White House, is that they want government spending and the cost of living to come down. That&#8217;s one of the top issues in every exit poll. And now that Donald Trump is doing that — or attempting to do it — Congress is refusing to codify any of his cuts into law. If a Democrat becomes president, he could override all these DOGE cuts in a day-one executive order.
And by the way, no matter what you think of Trump&#8217;s tariffs, Massie makes a good point. Why hasn&#8217;t Congress held a vote on them? Tariffs are a form of taxation. They have the potential to significantly raise the cost of goods in the United States, among other effects. Under the Constitution, Congress has the power to tax. Even if you approve of the tariffs, you should still want Congress to vote on them, for the simple reason that they&#8217;ll be harder to overturn in a future administration. On the other hand, if you&#8217;re skeptical of tariffs, a congressional vote would allow for a full debate on the issue. Instead of unilateral announcements from the White House, we&#8217;d be able to hear the arguments on each side.
But the GOP leadership in Congress hasn&#8217;t displayed any interest in holding a vote on tariffs. In fact they&#8217;ve blocked a vote on the topic. And they haven&#8217;t held votes on the DOGE cuts or any other significant spending cuts. In fact, they still haven&#8217;t reined in any of the trillion dollars&#8217; worth of spending in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which was full of giveaways to environmentalist groups and NGOs. Why exactly hasn&#8217;t any of that waste been rolled back? Why is no one bothered to even talk about it? Really congress has not codified any of Trump’s executive orders at all, which means they’re all susceptible to being overturned with the stroke of a pen by the next administration. Where is congress?
When it comes to spending, if you ask Missouri Congressman Eric Burlison, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, he&#8217;ll say that Republicans aren&#8217;t actually serious about cutting spending. Like Massie, he thinks the spending cuts will never actually happen. Here&#8217;s what he said:
<blockquote>I think that this town has got a lot of snakes in the grass who don&#8217;t want to accomplish it, and anyway that they can they&#8217;re going to stop it from happening. And I want to ensure we don&#8217;t end up in a place where we let the president down in that regard.</blockquote>
Whatever Donald Trump makes of the deal, at the moment, it looks like Republican voters might be let down. We&#8217;re talking about raising the debt ceiling by a historic amount, and potentially spending more than the Biden administration ever did. And we&#8217;re doing it at a time when we&#8217;re initiating a broader trade war, which means that we&#8217;ll have less access to money to borrow. This is not a recipe for a stable economic situation going forward. In separate interviews, Thomas Massie and Congressman Jodey Arrington of Texas outlined what&#8217;s at stake here. Watch:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Massie and Arrington" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NYky0gMHiCg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Even if you listen to that rhetoric and conclude that it&#8217;s overblown, or that there&#8217;s really no cause for concern, the fundamental point remains: Republicans ran on a platform that involved lowering the cost of living, which includes lowering taxes and government spending. If Republicans cannot deliver on that very simple promise, they will not be in power for very long. And they will be replaced by a party that&#8217;s even more committed to more taxes and government spending. 
This particular spending bill won&#8217;t be finalized for several weeks, in all likelihood. Between now and the moment this legislation is finalized, it&#8217;s hard to imagine that anything in Congress is more important than holding GOP leadership to their promise on these spending cuts — and pushing them further, for as many cuts as possible. If Republicans (and their voters) stay focused on that goal, they will have achieved something that the party has promised for decades, but failed to deliver. They will have permanently reduced the size of the American government, for the benefit of everyone living in this country. The White House is clearly committed to this goal. Now it&#8217;s time for every Republican in Congress — not just Thomas Massie and a few others — to follow suit.

House Tax Cut Fumble Shows Big Hurdles For GOP

Congress Needs To Act On This Very Important Issue Right Now

Biden Administration

DOGE

Federal Government

Matt Walsh

Opinion

President Trump

Republicans

Spending Bill

Thomas Massie

The Social Security Administration is literally killing thousands of numbers that were assigned to illegal aliens.
With a Social Security number, illegal aliens can work in the United States and receive a wide range of taxpayer-funded benefits. The Trump administration is trying to take away the incentive for illegal aliens to stay in the United States and swiftly remove them from the system, treating them the same as it would someone who had died.
The Trump administration is putting the Social Security numbers of more than 6,000 illegal aliens into the same database that dead people&#8217;s numbers go into, a novel maneuver that effectively strips the individuals of their numbers and makes them ineligible for benefits. Of those illegal aliens entered into the database for dead people, the White House said that nearly 1,000 were receiving Medicaid benefits, while others were given student loans or collecting unemployment insurance.
“President Trump promised mass deportations and by removing the monetary incentive for illegal aliens to come and stay, we will encourage them to self deport,” said White House spokeswoman Elizabeth Huston. “He is delivering on his promise he made to the American people.”
<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/04/10/self-deportation-immigrants-social-security-dead/">According</a> to the Washington Post, one anonymous White House official claimed that the Social Security numbers that were logged into the database had all been assigned to illegal aliens with criminal records or ties to terrorist activity. Another 92,000 illegal aliens with criminal convictions are expected to have their Social Security numbers entered into the database, the official went on to tell the outlet.
Some of those affected are aliens who received legitimate Social Security numbers under the Biden administration’s temporary work programs that have ended, meaning they have lost their legal status.
The move comes after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek authorized Social Security to place illegal alien numbers into the death file for national security reasons.
The Social Security Administration has seemingly had a lot of trouble reclassifying recipients who are actually dead. Elon Musk&#8217;s DOGE found that Social Security payments were being sent to people who were 115 years old or older. Social security numbers belonging to people between the ages of one and five years old and to people not even born were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/people-who-havent-been-born-yet-collected-millions-in-federal-unemployment-doge">found</a> by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project to be receiving Social Security benefits.
A DOGE official recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/doge-official-more-than-one-million-migrants-on-medicaid-thousands-on-voter-rolls?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=4&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=DOGE+Official%3A+More+Than+One+Million+Migrants+On+Medicaid%2C+Thousands+On+Voter+Rolls">warned</a> that more than a million illegal aliens are receiving Medicaid benefits and that thousands of them are on voter rolls.
Immigration experts have highlighted other ways to compel illegal aliens to self-deport, most notably by passing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-one-simple-trick-that-could-lead-illegal-immigrants-to-self-deport?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=9&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=The+One+Simple+Trick+That+Could+Lead+Illegal+Immigrants+To+Self-Deport">national E-Verify mandate </a>in an attempt to prevent them from obtaining employment. If implemented, experts say, the law would eliminate a major incentive for illegal immigration and hinder illegal aliens’ ability to remain in the United States.

Social Security Card

Why Trump Is Reclassifying Illegals Who Were Given Social Security Numbers As Dead

Border

Department of Homeland Security

deportation

Illegal Immigration

Immigration

Trump

President Donald Trump’s &#8220;big beautiful bill&#8221; takes a major step forward &#8212; upping the prospect of making his tax cuts permanent. The FBI is warning Americans about the alarming rise in the sexual exploitation and extortion of kids online. And, a new Daily Wire investigation raises questions about activist judges’ roles in padding the Social Security database with dubious disability claims.
It’s Friday, April 11, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/budget-bill-passes-house-rise-of-teen-sextortion-4-11-25/id1576594336?i=1000703130714" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
<h2>House Advances Trump-Backed Budget Bill</h2>
<div id="attachment_906413" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-906413" class="wp-image-906413 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-scaled.jpeg" alt="U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) (L) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speak at a press conference on the Republican budget bill at the U.S. Capitol on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC." width="2560" height="1440" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2209555558-1-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images</div>
Topline: The House passed a budget blueprint on Thursday in a critical step toward a permanent renewal of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
GOP leaders were able to overcome conservative holdouts to push the budget reconciliation process forward for Trump’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/hold-trump-scores-big-beautiful-victory-house-budget-vote">“Big, Beautiful Bill.”</a> The legislation makes the 2017 tax cuts permanent and includes funding for Trump’s priorities on defense, energy, and immigration. It also lifts the debt limit for two years.
However: The Senate resolution recently approved by the House outlines about $400 billion in budget cuts, whereas the original House blueprint called for at least $1.5 trillion. Calls for deeper spending cuts among House conservatives drove much of the opposition to the bill.
Reconciliation is a complicated process, but the short version is that with this House vote, lawmakers in both chambers can now haggle over the final version of a budget bill. The eventual bill to come out of those negotiations only needs 50 votes in the Senate instead of the usual 60 to overcome a filibuster, but there’s always the concern that the gripes from House conservatives over Thursday’s bill could threaten the final bill as well. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said he hopes to have a bill on Trump’s desk by Memorial Day.
Meanwhile: According to the Trump administration, as many as 75 nations have offered to renegotiate trade deals with the United States in the wake of the 90-day pause on Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff scheme &#8212; a baseline tariff rate of 10% remains in force, however, while China has been singled out for retaliatory tariffs of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-lays-out-exact-tariff-rate-on-china-going-forward">145%</a>.
Inflation has also slowed at a greater-than-expected rate, according to the March Consumer Price Index, which <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/10/inflation-rate-eases-to-2point4percent-in-march-lower-than-expected.html">recorded</a> year-over-year inflation of 2.4%, below the projected 2.6%.
<h2>FBI Raises Alarm About Online Exploitation Of Minors</h2>
<div id="attachment_906415" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-906415" class="wp-image-906415 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-scaled.jpeg" alt="Silhouette of 16 year old girl texting backlit at window." width="2560" height="1440" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-169816088-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Alan Oliver via Getty Images</div>
Topline: The <a href="https://www.ic3.gov/PSA/2025/PSA250306">FBI is warning</a> about the sharp rise in the sexual exploitation and extortion of minors online, leading to dozens of suicides of teens across the nation.
One form is called “sextortion” &#8212; sexual extortion is when a predator, usually an adult, either coerces or coaxes a minor into sending sexually explicit images or video footage, then extorts them over it. Predators will threaten to release that material unless the minor either produces additional explicit content or gives them cash. In some cases, the offenders are motivated by sexual gratification, but at other times, they are primarily after money.
The FBI posted a video last week about the sharp rise in sextortion, specifically citing a violent online network known as 7-6-4. Members in the U.S. and abroad are coercing minors and other vulnerable people to commit disturbing sex-related crimes or self-harm. “People have been asked to engage in cruelty to animals, self-mutilation of some sort,” FBI agent Ashley Johnson told <a href="https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/stl-fbi-warns-764-network-using-blackmail-to-exploit-minors-draft/">Fox 2</a> earlier this month. “In some cases we’ve had individuals ask children – if they knew they had a sibling – to film themselves sexually abusing their sibling.”
Another subtype of sexploitation primarily targets teen boys &#8212; offenders will pose as attractive women online and trick the minors into sending explicit content. They then threaten victims, telling them they will post the material publicly and send it to their friends and family if they don’t send payment. One report found that <a href="https://www.parents.com/more-teen-boys-being-threatened-with-sextortion-8623766?utm_source=chatgpt.com">90%</a> of all financially motivated sexual extortion victims were males between the ages of 14 and 17. These schemes have been linked to a string of suicides by young boys. A <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sacramento/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-preying-upon-our-nations-teens#:~:text=The%20sextortion%20involved%20at%20least,the%20activity%20to%20law%20enforcement">memo</a> from the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office says that these sextortion offenders are often foreigners, primarily from West African countries like Nigeria and Ivory Coast or Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines.
From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received more than 13,000 reports of this activity. There were about 12,600 victims, who were mostly boys, and at least 20 suicides have been connected to these schemes. But those numbers are likely even higher &#8212; <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/02/25/teenage-boys-mental-health-suicide-sextortion-scams/78258882007/">a more recent report from USA Today</a> found that sextortion cases have been tied to at least 30 suicides of teen boys since 2021.
And this trend is growing. In just a six-month period in 2023, for example, the FBI saw a <a href="https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/sacramento/news/sextortion-a-growing-threat-preying-upon-our-nations-teens#:~:text=The%20sextortion%20involved%20at%20least,the%20activity%20to%20law%20enforcement">20% increase</a> in reports of financially motivated sextortion. <a href="https://www.missingkids.org/cybertiplinedata">CyberTipline</a>, which is an organization run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, received nearly 190,000 reports of Online Enticement of Children for Sexual Acts. That number has quadrupled since 2021, when the Tipline received around 44,000 reports.
<a href="https://info.thorn.org/hubfs/Research/Thorn_TrendsInFinancialSextortion_June2024.pdf?sm_guid=NzcxOTIyfDc4MzA5NjAxfC0xfGNlc2VAbmNvc2UuY29tfDcyMDIwMTJ8fDB8MHwyMjU0MzA0NTd8MTEzMnwwfDB8fDc2NjM5Nnww0">Instagram and Snapchat</a> are the two most-used apps for these crimes. Messages can disappear on both apps, which might lead to victims putting their guard down before sending over explicit images used against them. If you or someone you know thinks they’re a victim of sextortion, please call law enforcement. You can report it to the FBI by calling 1-800-CALL-FBI or by visiting <a href="https://tips.fbi.gov/">tips.fbi.gov</a>.
<h2>Social Security Scheme</h2>
<div id="attachment_906417" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-906417" class="wp-image-906417 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-scaled.jpeg" alt="Judge's gavel." width="2560" height="1440" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-300x169.jpeg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-768x432.jpeg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-129310646-2048x1152.jpeg 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />Tetra Images via Getty Images</div>
Topline: A new investigation raises questions about activist judges’ roles in padding the Social Security database with dubious disability claims.
The Daily Wire’s Government Efficiency reporter, Luke Rosiak, found that dozens of judges overrule Social Security staff’s denials in almost every case they hear &#8212; granting what could amount to lifetime disability payments to people ruled ineligible to receive them.
About 1,200 administrative law judges are paid more than $200,000 a year to hear appeals from people who want to get disability benefits from Social Security despite having been ruled ineligible. They’re represented by a “union for judges,” the Association of Administrative Law Judges, that is suing to prevent the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project from accessing information about Social Security staff.
The president of that union, a Democratic donor named Som Ramrup, overturned the rulings of Social Security’s experts and approved payments in 94% of the cases she heard last year. Ronald Herman, who hears cases in the Detroit area, approved 95% of the nearly 1,300 cases he heard. Jan Leventer, hearing cases in Queens, approved 94% of 2,200 cases. Some, including one of the supervisory judges, actually approved payments in 100% of the cases they heard last year. You’d think judges would operate on the assumption that Social Security’s staff experts were right most of the time, but as a group, they’re much more deferential to the people asking for money. The data show that 85 judges overturned non-disabled determinations more than 80% of the time, while only 16 upheld them more than 80% of the time.
Some of these rates seem mathematically impossible, and it’s evidence that the process is broken. This is important because you’ll hear that it’s a fool’s errand to try to cut the federal deficit because much of it is so-called “non-discretionary” items like Medicare and Social Security. But this is an example of how the DOGE project might find waste in those areas, too.

Donald Trump Delivers Joint Address To Congress

Morning Brief: Trump’s Big Bill, ‘Sextortion,’ & Activist Judges

Morning Wire

Sexual Abuse

Suicide

According to the latest numbers reported by the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), nearly four million non-citizens were issued Social Security Numbers in the United States during former President Joe Biden&#8217;s time in the White House.
Stuart Varney broke down some of the details during Tuesday morning&#8217;s broadcast of his Fox Business show, &#8220;Varney &amp; Co.,&#8221; showing how the numbers exploded from 270,425 in Biden&#8217;s first year in office up to 2,095,247 in his last year as president.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨ASTONISHING NUMBERS🚨
NON-CITIZEN Social Security numbers issued over the past four years:
270,425 in 2021.
590,193 in 2022.
964,163 in 2023.
2,095,247 in 2024. 🤯
“DOGE found that immigration gave a work authorization document to illegals just five months after they… <a href="https://t.co/MXgU1sxRJ0">pic.twitter.com/MXgU1sxRJ0</a>
&mdash; Townhall.com (@townhallcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/townhallcom/status/1909631033881821185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 8, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;DOGE found that immigration gave a work authorization document to illegals just five months after they filed for asylum. That document allowed them to work while they waited to hear whether their asylum requests were being accepted or denied. So, they could work as an illegal, knowing it would take years before their case was heard,&#8221; Varney explained.
He went on to note that the Social Security documentation in question was simply sent to illegal aliens via the United States Postal Service with no added safeguards. &#8220;The immigration department mailed them a social security number. No interview. No proof of identity, just put it in the mail.&#8221;
But the numbers, Varney noted, especially toward the end of Biden&#8217;s term, were staggering. In 2021, DOGE reported that 270,425 non-citizens received Social Security Numbers in this fashion. By 2022, that number had more than doubled to 590,193 — and it jumped again to 964,163 in 2023. The number in 2024, however, was higher than the previous three years combined — with 2,095,247 non-citizens receiving Social Security Numbers — and brought the total for Biden&#8217;s presidency to 3,920,028.
&#8220;DOGE also discovered that 1.3 million aliens are now receiving Medicaid,&#8221; Varney continued, adding, &#8220;Millions received drivers licenses, some registered to vote, and DOGE said some actually did vote. Try and square that against Democrat claims that Musk is destroying Social Security and cutting Medicaid. He&#8217;s not destroying, he&#8217;s weeding out people who don&#8217;t qualify. Who is really guilty of misinformation in this case? It is not Elon Musk.&#8221;

G20 Leaders’ Summit in Rio De Janeiro

See The Staggering Number Of Illegals Who Got Social Security Numbers Under Joe Biden

Dozens of administrative law judges grant disability payments to almost everyone who appears before them, overriding Social Security staff who determined the people were not entitled to payments, a Daily Wire analysis found.
One of the Social Security Administration&#8217;s “regional chief administrative law judges,” <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/org/oho.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jennifer M. Horne</a>, who leads the San Francisco hearing office, ruled in every case she heard last year that the claimant should be granted disability payments, even though in each case, two previous examinations had found the claimant should be denied. Ronald Herman, hearing cases outside of Detroit, green lit payments in 95% of the 1,268 cases he heard. Jan Leventer, hearing cases in Queens and Detroit, approved 94% of 2,159 cases, potentially amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Such rulings have steered billions of dollars in payments to people who may not deserve them, adding to the impression that disability is sometimes abused as a shadow welfare program. Targeting abuse in Social Security’s disability program, which has a history of fraud, provides an opportunity for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to cut waste from the “non-discretionary” funding that comprises the bulk of the federal budget.
&#8220;It&#8217;s all a political bent,&#8221; a lawyer who represents disability-seekers at the hearings, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Wire. &#8220;If [the judge is] a person that says ‘this is a social contract that we make with people,’ if [the claimant says] they’re disabled, then they are. If they’re a person who believes everyone’s a liar and a cheat, then it’s single digits.&#8221;
“I don’t think there’s any real lawyering to it. The game is to get as many hearings as I can because 50% are getting approved no matter what if I just show up,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I’ve had people with cancer not get approved, and people with skin rashes get approved. I can&#8217;t predict it anymore.”
One Washington, D.C.-area administrative law judge, who is a white Bernie Sanders supporter, was overheard complaining that many of his peers viewed their job as a way to steer government checks to minorities, regardless of the facts.
Social Security staff determine whether someone is entitled to disability payments, and claimants can appeal to staff for a “redetermination” if they are rejected. If that panel also concludes that they are not disabled, they can appeal again to an administrative law judge.
Outcomes in those proceedings largely depend on which judge the applicant gets. Even though one might assume that they would defer to the judgement of Social Security experts, 85 judges overturned Social Security rulings that a person was not disabled more than 80% of the time.
Far fewer judges erred on the side of stinginess. Only 16 judges upheld the staff&#8217;s determination more than 80% of the time, according to 2024 data. In all, administrative law judges heard 2.2 million disability cases in 2024, and overturned the non-disabled ruling in 58% of them. In October, 26 administrative law judges, hearing 197 cases between them, ruled favorably to the disability-seeker in every single case.
Administrative law judges (ALJ) are not members of the judicial branch, but rather executive branch employees who are represented by a &#8220;union for judges,&#8221; the <a href="https://aalj.org/about-aalj" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Association of Administration Law Judges</a> (AALJ). The AALJ’s leaders were among the most activist judges. Its president, Sommattie Ramrup, approved 94% of the cases she heard in New York. Its secretary, Kimberly Schiro, ranked 49th among the 1,220 ALJs at 85%, and its treasurer, JoErin O’Leary, overrode staff to approve payments 74% of the time.
The AALJ, whose members make at least $185,000 a year, <a href="https://www.eff.org/document/afge-v-opm-declaration-sommattie-ramrup-iso-plaintiffs-motion-tro" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued DOGE</a> for accessing federal employee records, with Ramrup filing an affidavit that said, “Members of AALJ and I also fear that DOGE could use improperly disclosed records to retaliate against us.” She did not return a request for comment.
Social Security runs two disability programs: one, called Social Security Disability Insurance — for those who have worked in the past and now find themselves unable to — pays out roughly $150 billion a year in benefits). The other, called Supplemental Security Income, is for those who have never worked, and paid out about <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/statcomps/ssi_asr/2023/sect01.html#table2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$54 billion</a> in 2023.
Both programs, especially the latter, have been used as a shadow form of welfare for decades. In some Appalachian counties, <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/314617/exography-disability-has-become-a-way-of-life-in-many-american-counties/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">more than a quarter</a> of the population was on disability. In inner cities, unemployed individuals feign mental conditions like depression to get government checks that last a lot longer than welfare, which is limited to five years.
Disability judges with astronomically high approval ratings in 2024 include:
<ul>
<li>Jennifer M Horne (San Francisco regional chief): approved 100% of 9 cases.</li>
<li>Jose Perez-Gonzalez (Ft. Lauderdale): approved 100% of 9 cases</li>
<li>Michael L Brownfield (Chattanooga): approved 95% of 639 cases</li>
<li>Ronald Herman (Oak Park): approved 95% of 1,268 cases</li>
<li>Jan Leventer (Queens/Detroit): approved 94% of 2,159 cases</li>
<li>Sommattie Ramrup (New York): approved 94% of 65 cases</li>
<li>Margo Stone (Fayetteville, NC): approved 92% of 2,007 cases</li>
<li>Gloria W Green (FL/NC/SC): approved 92% of 1,971 cases</li>
<li>Jeffrey Hatfield (Honolulu): approved 91% of 2,173 cases</li>
<li>D.B. Stalley (Mobile): approved 91% of 1,277 cases</li>
<li>Matthew Malfa (Manchester): approved 91% of 1,608 cases</li>
<li>Randall D. Huggins (Charlotte/Tampa): approved 91% of 1,910 cases</li>
<li>William Wallis (St. Louis): approved 91% of 2,170 cases</li>
</ul>
The judges could not be reached for comment.
<div id="attachment_904257" style="width: 602px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-904257" class="size-large wp-image-904257" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart-592x576.jpg" alt="" width="592" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart-592x576.jpg 592w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart-300x292.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart-768x747.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart-1536x1495.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/disability-chart.jpg 1630w" sizes=" (max-width: 592px) 100vw, 592px" />Source: Daily Wire analysis of calendar year 2024 <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/appeals/DataSets/03_ALJ_Disposition_Data.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disability determinations.</a></div>
A ruling on whether someone is entitled to disability depends not just on medical facts, but also a judge&#8217;s view of the economy and an individual&#8217;s potential to adapt. If a construction worker develops a back problem, the judge must determine whether there are sedentary jobs available in the United States, and whether he&#8217;d be capable of getting hired into one. Social Security disability is a government program that is separate from workers&#8217; compensation, which covers injuries on the job.
In 2013, then-Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) noted that administrative law judge hearings were one-sided affairs where applicants pleaded their case without anyone representing the taxpayer.
&#8220;One simple reform that would make a big difference is including a professional from the SSA to represent the government (and ultimately, the American taxpayer) in decisions made by ALJs,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/2402592/exography-seven-steps-to-keep-disability-insurance-solvent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>. &#8220;Some claimant attorneys withhold evidence from the [judge].”
Although there is no suggestion that the unusual patterns by the judges are due to fraud, Coburn revealed that high patterns of disability in some rural areas were because of unscrupulous lawyers and medical professionals who, for a fee, would help anyone present as disabled —with at least one lawyer also paying off judges to secure disability determinations.
One criminal proceeding demonstrated how much money one judge with a high approval rate steers. In 2017, former administrative law judge David Black Daugherty, who heard cases in West Virginia, was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution of <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/former-social-security-administrative-law-judge-sentenced-four-years-prison-role-550-million" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$93 million</a> after he single-handedly doled out more than half a billion dollars in disability payments by giving favorable rulings in 3,149 cases in exchange for $609,000 in bribes.
The bribes came from lawyer Eric Conn, who worked with psychologist Alfred Adkins to construct a disability paper mill. Conn collected $7 million in legal fees from clients. He <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/fugitive-lawyer-involved-largest-social-security-fraud-scheme-sentenced-15-years-prison-his" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fled the country</a> after pleading guilty and, in 2018, was sentenced to prison after being apprehended in Honduras. A second administrative law judge, Charlie Paul Andrus, fired a whistleblower to conceal the scheme.
About 10% of an employee&#8217;s pay is diverted to Social Security&#8217;s retirement fund, and another 2% to its disability fund. According to the 2024 annual <a href="https://www.ssa.gov/oact/trsum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">trustee report</a>, Social Security is projected to be depleted of sufficient funding in eight years, and will be unable to pay full retirement benefits beginning in 2033 for many Americans. Terminating disability judges with abnormal records, or eliminating the 1,200-judge appeal layer entirely, could cut down on dubious disability and allow more resources to be shifted to the retirement side.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/almost-fired-for-working-with-doge-social-security-fraud-expert-now-leads-the-agency">Almost Fired For Working With DOGE, Social Security Fraud Expert Now Leads The Agency</a>

disability-judges

Activist Judges Rubber Stamped Billions In Suspect Social Security Disability Claims

Disability

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