MEDIA ADVISORY: Sanders, Colleagues, Advocates to Hold Press Call to Demand Congress Protect Social Security

MEDIA ADVISORY: Sanders, Colleagues, Advocates to Hold Press Call to Demand Congress Protect Social Security

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 11 – Ahead of the 90th anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act into law, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will join Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.), former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley, policy experts and Social Security beneficiaries for a press call on Wednesday calling on Congress to protect benefits for working-class Americans amid congressional Republicans’ efforts to undermine, dismantle and privatize Social Security.

Social Security is the most successful government program in U.S. history. For almost 90 years, through good times and bad, Social Security has paid out every benefit owed to every eligible American on time and without delay. Before it was signed into law on August 14, 1935, about 50% of the nation’s seniors lived in poverty, as did countless Americans with disabilities and surviving dependents of deceased workers. In 2023 alone, Social Security lifted 27.6 million Americans out of poverty — including more than 19.5 million seniors.

Despite the program’s success, Republicans are closing Social Security field offices, working to lay off up to half its staff and attempting to take away Americans’ right to apply for benefits over the phone. In April, Sanders released a report showing that cutting half the staff at the Social Security Administration could result in 67,000 Americans dying while waiting for disability benefits. 

Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick claimed that seniors wouldn’t complain if they didn’t get their Social Security checks and that anyone who did complain was a fraudster; Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cheered provisions in the recent Republican reconciliation bill as a “back door for privatizing Social Security”; and Elon Musk called Social Security the “biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

Details

What: Virtual press conference calling on Congress to protect Social Security

When: Wednesday, August 13, 11:30 a.m.

Who: 

  • Sen. Bernie Sanders
  • Sen. Ron Wyden
  • Rep. John Larson
  • Martin O’Malley, former commissioner, Social Security Administration
  • Social Security beneficiaries and activists 
  • Leaders from the NAACP, Social Security Works, Center for American Progress Action Fund and Unrig Our Economy