Biden skewers Trump and Republicans over Social Security in first speech since leaving workplace | EUROtoday

Former president Joe Biden assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans for his or her assaults on Social Security in his first tackle since leaving the White House on Tuesday.

The former president spoke to the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled’s nationwide convention, his first since he left the White House in January after President Donald Trump took workplace.

“Social Security is more than just a government program,” he stated. “It’s a sacred promise.”

In current months, Biden has principally stayed away from the general public eye. He left workplace extremely unpopular having already needed to exit the 2024 presidential election early. But many proceed to attribute the lack of his former vice chairman Kamala Harris to Trump on Biden’s radioactive model.

Nevertheless, Biden’s first post-presidential tackle since leaving Pennsylvania Avenue targeted on a subject near his coronary heart: preserving Social Security from Republican assaults.

“They want to wreck it, so they can rob it,” he stated. Biden additionally criticized Republicans for making an attempt to chop not simply Social Security, however Medicaid. Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives handed a price range framework to start the method to enact huge spending cuts whereas additionally extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.

The laws instructs the committee that oversees Medicaid to search out $880 billion value of cuts. On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson opened the door to taking able-bodied employees and younger males off of Medicaid, the well being care program meant for low-income individuals, youngsters and other people with disabilities.

“What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid,” Biden stated. “These guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to the already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?”

Biden additionally assailed varied members of the Trump administration for his or her feedback on Social Security.

Specifically, he pointed to Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, for calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”

“What the hell are they talking about?” Biden stated. “People earned these benefits. They paid into that benefit. They rely on that benefit.”

Musk has additionally stated that lifeless individuals and people who find themselves as outdated as 300 years outdated obtain advantages, which has debunked repeatedly. Rather, recipients with incomplete beginning dates will default to a reference level of greater than 150 years in the past.

Biden, 82, used Musk’s claims to make a joke about his age, which grew to become a urgent subject throughout his 2024 presidential marketing campaign throughout his one debate with Trump the place Biden gave a generally hoarse and rambling supply.

“By the way, those 300-year-old folks on Social Security, I would like to meet them,” he joked. “Hell of thing, man. I’m looking for longevity. Because it is hell when you turn 40 years old.”

In current weeks, Musk has sought to have DOGE discover his supposed “fraud epidemic” inside the authorities program which offers direct funds to senior residents. But final month, a court docket issued a brief restraining order to forestall DOGE from happening a fraud “fishing expedition.”

The former president additionally criticized Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who stated that if his mother-in-law missed a Social Security fee, she wouldn’t complain.

“She’s probably a lovely woman,” he stated. “No kidding. Her son-in-law is a billionaire. What about that 94-year old-mother that’s living all by herself?”

Biden’s supply all through the tackle was just like his efficiency in his remaining years as president as he sometimes trailed off and whispered earlier than going louder. That supply that confirmed seen indicators of his age led many Democrats in 2024 – led by former president Barack Obama, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi – to say that he ought to step apart.

His tackle comes as Democrats try to recuperate after their brutal loss the place Republicans not solely regained the White House but in addition management of the Senate.

In current months, Democrats have sought to have newer voices, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hitting the highway with Sen. Bernie Sanders, an octagenerian himself, to Republican areas. Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a extra reasonable Democrat, delivered a marathon 25-hour tackle to oppose Republican insurance policies and present his personal stamina.