Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined the Trump administration’s sweeping plan to improve Social Security, emphasizing “accountability” and “efficiency” as key pillars in a plan aiming to deliver benefits faster and reduce fraud risk.
“The American people voted for President Trump and voted for accountability. Whether it’s DOGE, whether it is our efforts at [the] Treasury and the IRS, we are bringing accountability and efficiency in,” Bessent told “The Story” host Martha MacCallum on Wednesday.
“We want to make things better. They have for the American people. We want to ensure that they get everything that they have paid in, and their benefits are there when they need them, as they need them.”
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President Donald Trump issued an executive order Tuesday, calling on the federal government to shift to electronic payments from paper checks by the end of September to reduce fraud risks and “unnecessary costs.”
“If they are able to get into an electronic payment system, they [checks] are much more secure. They come earlier, and they are guaranteed,” Bessent added.
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His comments come on the heels of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., claiming during a Wednesday press conference that seniors are “not getting the help they need to get their checks.”
Schumer additionally alleged Republicans plan to “destroy” Social Security from within by making it “unworkable” and “inefficient” and create an excuse to privatize the program.
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Bessent criticized the remarks as “way off base.”
“[He] seems a little discombobulated these days. He did the right thing by passing the clean CR last week. He’s taken a lot of shrapnel from his party, and extreme statements like this are not helpful for anyone,” he said.
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