April 14, 2025 • 43 mins
If you’re over 55 – there is a lot to worry about when it comes to jeopardizing you Social Security and Medicare – as well as imminent danger to the 72 Million people on Medicaid!
Join Dr. Jim Polakof as he interviews Alex Lawson – Executive Director of the national organization – Social Security Works! (Just last week, Alex was a guest on the Rachel Maddow show discussing the perils facing these
programs).
With the severe cutbacks and sinister intentions of DOGE - Social Security – Medicare – and Medicaid are in serious jeopardy. Dr. Jim and Alex Lawson take a deep dive into the challenges that Boomers and other Americans face – and what we must do to prevent disaster!
Links from this episode:
Main Website: https://socialsecurityworks.org/
Take Action at: https://handsoffsocialsecurity.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialsecurityworks/
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/SSWorks
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/social_security_works/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Donald Trump thinks that he can place his hands
anywhere.
We're telling him hell, no,hands off our Social Security
hands off our Medicaid, handsoff Medicare.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
That was Congresswoman Sarah McBride
saying hands off.
Should baby boomers be worriedabout their social security,
medicare and Medicaid, you bet?
Welcome to another episode ofLive Healthy Longer.
As usual, our host is thewell-known author, health expert
and popular podcaster, dr JimPolakoff, and he addresses
(00:40):
important health issues thatface our country and directly
affect your well-being.
So let's get right to it.
Here's Dr Jim.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yes, this is Dr Jim Polikoff, with an episode that
should be of concern to anyoneover 55 years of age.
Of course, the issue of what'shappening to Social Security
should cause apprehension amongyounger generations as well,
whose money is withheld withless assurance that it's going
to be available to them when thetime comes.
(01:11):
Now, over 66 million Americansdepend on Social Security that's
one out of every five citizens,and if the powers that be had
their way, social Security wouldbe privatized tomorrow and
Medicare would just be anotherinsurance plan.
Historically, aside from aminority of caring wealthy
(01:33):
people, the rich and powerfulhave had little compassion for
the middle class and the poor.
Despite the Trumpadministration's promises that
Social Security benefits willnot be cut, the Department of
Government Efficiency, betterknown as DOGE, has set its
sights on this program.
While an appeals court recentlyupheld an order preventing DOGE
(01:55):
staffers to obtain access toyour Social Security numbers,
the Trump administration willappeal this all the way to the
Supreme Court if necessary.
And keep in mind that Elon Muskhas called Social Security
nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, and he's got Trump's backing,
(02:15):
so who knows how all of this isgoing to end, however, if your
aging destiny is wrapped up inSocial Security and Medicare, be
thankful that you're not aMedicaid recipient.
There is even less sympathy forthis group of American citizens
36 million people are now atrisk of having health coverage
(02:37):
taken away by Medicaid workrequirements.
Unfortunately, there is amisconception that Medicaid is
only for the poor.
For over 50 years, medicaid hasprovided vital health insurance
protections to seniors innursing homes as well as
low-income Americans of all ages.
Although the majority ofMedicaid beneficiaries are
(02:58):
children and working-age adults,medicaid spends more money on
long-term care for seniors andpeople with disabilities than
anything else.
Yes, there's much to beconcerned about regarding Social
Security, medicare and Medicaid, so let's get right into it.
My guest for this episode is aleading expert in the field.
(03:20):
Alex Lawson is the ExecutiveDirector of Social Security
Works, a coalition made up ofover 340 national and state
organizations that representover 50 million Americans.
On April 5th, social SecurityWorks took part in mobilizing
over 5 million people across thecountry to say hands off to
(03:44):
Donald Trump and congressionalRepublicans.
Welcome to my podcast, alex.
Thanks for having me.
Well, it's our pleasure.
You know I covered a bit in myintroduction, but perhaps you
can enlarge the spotlight onSocial Security Works.
I know your organization isabout safeguarding the economic
protection those Americans whoare dependent upon Social
(04:07):
Security rely upon, and I'mcurious about the 340 national
and state organizations that arerepresented.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, so Social Security Works.
That's the organization that Ilead and we're dedicated to
protecting and expanding SocialSecurity, medicare, medicaid,
lowering prescription drugprices.
Basically, we follow theoriginal vision of the Social
Security Act, the New Dealers,francis Perkins.
(04:38):
What they envisioned is anever-expanding system of
economic security in thiscountry.
When FDR signed the SocialSecurity Act into law, he said
this is a cornerstone that we'regoing to build on and each
generation does its partexpanding the system of economic
security.
Or they did up until the 1980sand then it sort of turned, and
(05:01):
then they've been trying to chipaway at.
It turned and then they've beentrying to chip away at it and
now, you know, in Trump 2.0 withElon Musk, they're really
taking a chainsaw to it.
So our organization, weunderstand that we can't do it
alone.
You know, alone our voice isnot loud enough.
(05:21):
So we pull together and work incoalition with hundreds of
organizations who come at SocialSecurity and Medicare, medicaid
from a few different angles.
For some of the groups, it'stheir main focus, like ours is
the core mission.
For others, it's part of theirwork.
(05:42):
And so what we're able to do is, you know, tee up the fights
that are most important, producematerials that are needed.
You know some of our ruralallies.
For example, social Security iscritical for rural communities.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
But they might not be getting you know like really
nice materials about the impactin rural communities.
So we work in partnership withallies around the country to
just ensure that together ourvoices are heard, stronger and
louder than if any of us standalone.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Right, so the noise can be louder because you've got
that sort of backup, which isgood.
Now, I had mentioned earlier inmy introduction that we have
over 66 million Americans whodepend on Social Security, and
half of them rely on thesemonthly checks for most of their
income.
Some can't get by without it.
What do you consider the mostimportant concern facing Social
(06:42):
Security today?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
most important concern facing Social Security
today.
Elon Musk really I mean it'sthis unelected billionaire and
the chainsaw that he's wieldingjust destroying the Social
Security administration, soactually sort of total reliant
on the system.
We're talking about 73 millionpeople and that's just so
(07:07):
enormous.
Social Security is not justretirement benefits.
It's also survivors benefits.
It's life insurance for thesurviving children and the death
of a breadwinner, disabilityinsurance.
So if a person faces a lifechanging illness or injury and
can no longer work, they havedisability insurance.
And that's what Social Securityis.
(07:29):
It's social insurance, so youpay into it when you're working
and then it's there for you whenyou need it.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And it should be there for you.
And that's, if you don't mind,I just want to get into a bit of
history, because you mentionedFDR and tying this into the
wealthy, because I think therecould be some correlation going
back to the early 1930s as towhat's happening today, falling
(08:01):
much like they have been on andoff with these tariff situations
.
Businesses failed, unemploymentrose dramatically.
In fact, 25%, I think, of theAmerica's workforce was
unemployed at that time.
So isn't it true that the GreatDepression, in your opinion,
was largely caused by theinequality between, or the
(08:24):
inequality of wealth, I shouldsay between, the rich and the
poor?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean our, you know finer point on it.
It was a Wall Street causedcollapse of the global economy,
which is really right where wefind ourselves again.
So I like to tell this part ofthe story a lot.
What happens if you allow WallStreet and the billionaires to
have everything and everyoneelse has nothing is scrambling
(08:53):
for the crumbs that fall off ofthe oligarch's table.
What happens is the systembreaks down.
That does not work, and youcan't ever think that these
billionaires are going to likestop of their own accord.
No, they will play the systemright into the dirt every time,
(09:13):
so they can't not do whatthey're doing, which is just
hoovering up all of the money.
So, yes, Wall Street causedcollapse of the global economy.
Now you have the new dealers,like Francis Perkins, who's sort
of the intellectual mastermindbehind the New Deal with FDR.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Going back to FDR right.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yep.
So Francis Perkins was FDR'sSecretary of Labor, the first
woman to serve in the cabinet,and she is just a genius.
And she also understood that infixing the acute problem, so
like in addressing the 25%unemployment and the acute
(09:57):
effects of the Great Depression,we also needed to build a
system that prevented the samething from happening again.
So it wasn't just to fix it onetime, but it was to
fundamentally reorder the systemso that the billionaires were
not able to crash the globaleconomy again.
And it worked, you know, for 90years it has worked.
(10:21):
And the way it's worked is itdoesn't include the billionaires
, it doesn't need Wall Street,it doesn't need politicians,
it's just workers.
We together create SocialSecurity, which is also why the
billionaires hate it so much,because there's no one profiting
from it.
That's the key.
(10:41):
No one's making any money fromSocial Security.
It's just there for us.
99 cents of every dollar thatwe pay in comes back to us in
the form of benefits.
Less than one penny of everydollar goes to administer the
entire system.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Which is amazing when you think of the red tape that
goes on in Washington.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Absolutely.
Or think of the red tape thatgoes on in Wall Street.
I mean, if anyone's ever dealtwith it, try to find fees of one
percent anywhere in the privatesector and you won't find them.
And you know the entire systemabout a trillion and a half
dollars every year in benefitsgoing out is administered for
less than a penny of everydollar that goes in.
(11:22):
It's amazing.
And there's infinitesimally lowlevels of fraud, waste and
abuse.
The reports come out every yearshowing that Now obviously any
amount you can do better.
But look, compare it to WallStreet.
There is no comparison.
(11:42):
This is just an efficientlymanaged, incredibly effective
program that works.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And now and they want to privatize it and obviously I
think you bring up a very goodpoint.
It costs less than 1% to run it.
If it went private, think ofwhat it's going to cost the
public at that point in time.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh yeah, they'll sock on a 20% just so they can buy a
golden yacht or whatever it isthe billionaires do with their
billions, you know, and that'sthe point.
This is the old.
So where we are now is it'sWall Street strikes back and
that's the billionaires have putone of their own, the richest
man in the world, elon Musk, anunelected South African
(12:26):
billionaire who's got a chainsawand he's just hacking away at
the administration that's right.
So he can't get his money, hishands on our money, so the money
is held in trust and by lawthey can't touch our benefits.
So what they've done isactually really we didn't
actually think that they'd everdo this, because it's so crazy,
(12:48):
but they're destroying theadministration, the ability of
to get our money to us.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
The infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Right, because it's hard to get checks out to tens
of millions of people on timeand in full every single month.
But you know, here's the factsFor 90 years, through war and
peace, through boom and bust,through health and pandemic,
social Security has never misseda single payment.
Now, all of a sudden, a coupleof months after this billionaire
(13:19):
you know gets in there with thegoal, the stated goal, of
destroying Social Security, andall of a sudden there's all
these problems happening.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well, exactly, Checks are coming out late.
In some cases You've also gotbecause it's not only Social
Security that's cut so many jobs, but also your regional offices
now where you depend upon IT,for example, where seniors, if
they need to get a hold ofsomeone at Social Security, it
could be a four or five hourwait.
I've heard of people whosecalls are disconnected after
(13:50):
that four or five hours.
I mean, this is all the junkthat they're throwing in there
to make it more difficult forrecipients.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's entirely correct, and so I spend.
You obviously know what's goingon.
I spend a lot of time trying to, you know, educate sort of the
corporate press, because theyhave a different starting point.
Like it's like Elon Musk istrying to do something good and
is failing at it.
Right, and I'm like no, none ofthe things that he's doing make
(14:20):
any sense under that rubric.
All of them make sense underthe rubric of he's trying to
destroy the program.
He's trying to cause a crisis.
As soon as you understand thatthat's his goal, everything
makes sense Firing all of theworkers who have the actual
knowledge needed to make thingshappen.
(14:43):
Hollowing out entire offices tocreate a bureaucratic morass so
people actually, you know theyhave to clear some hurdle, but
the office is gone so they can'tanymore.
Firing workers in the frontoffice, closing offices and then
pushing more people into thoseoffices.
(15:04):
All of it makes sense as soonas you understand what the goal
is.
This is an old con.
You kneecap the mailman, thenyou complain that the mail is
late and then you just so happento have a cousin who's in the
private mail delivery service,He'll cost four times as much
and he'll deliver a fifth of theservice.
(15:24):
But that's privatization, themiracle of the market as they
talk about.
It's just corruption that we'relooking square on corruption,
corruption and weaponization.
So now they're using SocialSecurity to punish their enemies
and they went after thegovernor of Maine and used
Social Security to try to punishthe governor of Maine.
(15:47):
They've gone after immigrantswho are legally here.
They're legally here andallowed to work, and they just
weaponized Social Security torip their Social Security
numbers that are only forworking.
They cannot claim benefits.
They took those away so thatthese people, who again are
legally here, are no longer ableto work.
(16:08):
I mean, that is not what SocialSecurity is for.
It's not for deciding how topunish your enemies.
And always remember I say thisyou know this is not a light
line, but if you're okay withthe boot on someone else's neck,
just know, at some point you'regoing to find it on your own,
(16:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That boot is going to crush your neck, that's exactly
right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's how it works Every time Now isn't there.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
You know, there's a talk about scare tactics.
There's this idea, of course,that by 2035, social security is
going to go broke.
I mean, that's kind of thepicture.
Obviously, it's not going to gobroke broke, but it's going to
start getting into a crucialstate of oh my God, are we going
to be able to afford this Now?
Isn't it true, talking aboutthe billionaires, that I picked
(16:58):
up an interview that you did,which I thought was very
interesting?
Isn't it true that thebillionaires at a certain point
not only the billionaires, themillionaires at a certain point,
they get cut off for having topay any more into Social
Security?
There's a chopping block where,okay, you paid so much into it,
(17:19):
now you don't need to pay anymore, and isn't that part of
what is crippling the system?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It is.
So you only pay in on the first$176,000 of wages.
After that you don't pay in anickel.
It's an artifact of history.
It made no sense then.
You know some scholars canargue about whether it made
sense then, but no scholarsargue about whether it makes
(17:45):
sense now.
Everyone agrees that the capmakes no sense now, especially
after the loss of traditionalpension benefits.
You know workers used to have a.
That's gone for the vastmajority of workers.
So tens of millions of peopleright now rely on Social
Security for the vast majorityof their retirement.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Exactly, and if the millionaires and the
billionaires basically just paidinto it like everyone else,
there would be more than enoughmoney to fund Social Security ad
infinitum.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Absolutely so.
People don't want to believehow simple it is.
It's either billionaires paythe same rate as all of us,
everyone else the vast majorityof people pay on all of their
income, right?
The vast majority of people arebelow $176,000 a year right now
.
So billionaires pay the samerate as everyone else, or
(18:41):
everyone's benefits get cut.
The average benefit right nowis around $2,000 a month, right?
So are you gonna take it out ofsomebody who is living on
$24,000-ish a year, or are yougonna take it on literally the
richest people the world hasever known, and all you're
asking is that they pay the sameas everyone else, not more.
(19:05):
Just the same.
So the choice is not really achoice, it's just super clear,
and that is why Elon Musk isdestroying Social Security.
Right?
He doesn't want to pay the samerate as the rest of us.
In fact, he wants to destroySocial Security and then give a
giant trillions of dollars intax handouts to himself and to
(19:28):
his fellow billionaires.
So it's all about justunderstanding that.
The only question and that's whyI liked starting with history
it's the same story Should thebillionaires have everything and
everyone else is leftscrambling for crumbs, knowing
that that inevitably leads toeconomic calamity?
(19:50):
Or should we just have somecommon sense deeply American
systems like social securityrewards hard work, delayed
gratification.
It represents the best ofAmerican values.
Should we just let SocialSecurity have a small break on
the greed of the billionaireclass and the vast majority of
(20:12):
Americans?
Over 90 percent, over 90%,republican Democrat Independents
say not one penny cut fromSocial Security, and the
majority of Americans, againacross partisan lines, say they
want to just have billionairespay the same rate as everyone
else, and then not only can wepay benefits forever, in time
(20:36):
and on time and in full, but wecan expand benefits for everyone
.
Now, just to circle it all theway back, I will say we have to
get through this danger thatwe're in right now, because
checks are not going to go outdue to the cuts that have
already been made and we can'tlook to politicians to save us
(20:59):
on this.
There's no cavalry coming.
It's up to us.
We are the cavalry.
We need to raise our voicestogether and when millions of
Americans stand together, that'show we're going to stop this
destruction of Social Security.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, and we're going to get to it at the end, but
that's why you're having thismobilization.
You know today where peopleneed to turn out and I'm going
to urge our listeners please, Imean, just take a few minutes
and obviously, if there's ademonstration, you can join,
join it.
And I know there are certainplaces where and we can get into
(21:36):
this a bit later where peoplecould get involved.
But we haven't discussedMedicare and Medicaid, which are
two other problems obviouslytied into Social Security.
What's your take on what'shappening with Medicare and
today with Medicaid?
Obviously, people are going tohave to prove they have a
certain amount of income, orit's going to be income related.
(21:57):
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah.
So you know, the thing thatFrancis Perkins would be deeply
disappointed in all of us isthat we still don't have
guaranteed health care foreveryone in this country.
It was part of the original NewDeal and part of the package a
national health program.
Because how can you actuallyhave security if you're just one
illness or injury away frombankruptcy?
(22:21):
Right, that's fake, that's notsecurity.
So in the 60s we were able toget Medicare, which is sort of
guaranteed health.
Traditional Medicare isguaranteed health care.
So four people 65 and over andsome certain other folks who are
(22:45):
dealing with disabilities orchronic illnesses, but generally
it's for people 65 and over.
And then Medicaid is a programthat has a lot of hats that it
wears and one of them is it'sthe largest provider of
(23:06):
long-term care in this country.
For the majority of people.
It's the only provider oflong-term care in this country
Between one and two andtwo-thirds of people, so between
half and two-thirds of peoplein nursing homes are covered by
Medicaid.
If that goes away, the wholenursing home system collapses.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Exactly the seniors are involved, the same people
that we're concerned about Inour particular podcast.
Those baby boomers are the onesthat are directly affected,
particularly if they're disabled.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And their family is silent generation and a lot of
baby boomers have actually gonethrough this with their parents
where they find that there is noAmerican long term care program
and you know they're dealingwith a family member who needs
24 hour skilled nursing say,memory care, alzheimer's,
dementia there's a host of theseare not illnesses and
(24:00):
situations that family couldjust step up and take care of,
right when people are working toget skilled nursing for loved
ones, this is one of the mostdifficult decisions that
families have to make and thento go through it, they have to
go through this ridiculousprocess where they're
(24:21):
transferring assets, basicallybecause Medicaid is a means
tested program.
They have to get their parentor loved one or themselves into
a situation where they qualifyfor Medicaid or they bankrupt
themselves and their family injust a few years or a year
(24:41):
because the costs of long-termcare are astronomical.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
And the worse this gets, the more people are going
to be on the streets ultimatelythat's my personal prediction if
this continues.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
There's nowhere else for people to go.
That's why, right, I mean, ifyou're destroying Social
Security or you're making peoplemiss checks, they're not going
to get their money.
And again, social Security isour money.
No one gives us anything.
You crush Medicaid, which iswhat the Republicans' budget
(25:12):
reconciliation package does.
It cuts $890 billion fromMedicaid.
They're hemming and hawing likeoh, you don't know that for
certain.
Yes, we do.
Yes, we do, we know that.
And they're going to have toput pen to paper soon, now that
they've passed the framework andthey're pushing to destroy
(25:36):
Medicaid.
Because that's what that cutwould do.
It would destroy Medicaid.
Medicaid's over if you cuteight hundred and ninety billion
dollars from it.
And then again, that means thenursing home system collapse,
that means more people on thestreet.
That is just, it's catastrophic.
And all of it is so that theycan give tax handouts to Elon
(25:57):
Musk and his billionaire buddies.
So again, just people want itto be more complicated than it
is.
It's not.
It's just a greedy band ofbillionaires who are trying to
take everything steal our money,steal our health, steal our
security, steal our democracyall because they'll never stop.
(26:18):
Their greed is boundless.
And so Medicaid is on thechopping block Medicare.
There are portions of it on thechopping block, but really,
with Medicare, their game planis slightly different.
Just to answer the three piecesOn Medicare, they put Dr Oz in
charge at CMS, which is whatoversees Medicare.
(26:41):
What he's doing is he'sprivatizing it as quickly as
possible.
He's handing it over to UnitedHealth so that they can delay
and deny care.
And if you want to talk aboutwaste, fraud and abuse, that's
where you look.
And so in privatized Medicare,every year there's a giant
bucket of money that the peoplewho look at this the inspector
(27:05):
generals and MedPAC.
Every year they put out areport between $89 billion and
$144 billion a year.
So in budget terms that's $890billion.
Because budgets are in 10-yearincrements between $890 billion
and $1.4 trillion.
(27:26):
That's labeled overpayments.
It's literally a bucket that'slabeled getting ripped off.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
So, if you want, if you're serious about, going
after and you're talking aboutthe Advantage plans that are
coming more and more into play.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Right these are.
They're so-called MedicareAdvantage, but it's just
privatized Medicare.
It's just private insurancethat's able to use the Medicare
label.
That's like the biggest, besttrick of UnitedHealth was
getting people to pretend thatit wasn't them.
But that's what the plan is onMedicare Just hand it over to
(28:03):
United as quickly as possible.
Where the corporate insurersdelay care, deny care All of
your listeners know about it.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Well, I have a feeling that they'll treat
everyone nice for a while, so wejust kind of get lulled to
sleep and then all of a suddenwe're going to see more and more
of our benefits denied.
I think it's just you know.
Obviously people at this pointare going to sleep thinking, oh,
I've got an advantage plan, I'min better shape.
But I think the future is goingto be very harsh on us.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I want to quote you.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I will just say one thing on that, just because it's
important, the point that youjust made.
But it's actually, it'shappening now.
So we don't have to wait forthe future, because it's you
know, rural hospitals arecollapsing now.
It's not about lulling peopleto sleep, it's that only 10% of
(28:55):
the population need health careat any one time.
So 90% of people in a risk pooldon't need health care.
And so what the corporateinsurers do is they treat the
90%.
If you don't need health care,you think you've got great
health insurance.
You're like, oh, I've goteverything.
What do you mean?
I love my Medicare Advantageprogram and then just ask have
(29:17):
you ever had to use it?
You know, and if it's anythingabove, you know the yearly
checkups then you're in that 10%.
You're going to get an entirelydifferent situation.
And if you're actually sick,you know.
If you're, I'm sorry if you'revery sick.
So the people who need it mostare the people who get denied
and delayed the most, becauseit's profitable to kill people
(29:40):
who need health care.
It's not profitable to providehealth care.
It's profitable to deny healthcare.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
It's not a sad, sad situation.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So that's the setup.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Yeah, alex, I want to quote you.
You spoke recently at a USSenate Aging Committee meeting
and you stated I believe correctme if I'm wrong Republicans,
democrats and Independents allagree that I'm talking about the
general population.
Republicans, democrats andindependents all agree that not
(30:14):
one single penny should be cutfrom Social Security, medicare
and Medicaid.
So there's absolutely abipartisan agreement everywhere
in this country except here inWashington DC.
I think that was part of yourquote.
So expound upon this a bit.
You know that.
What's it going to take tochange the minds of the
(30:34):
Republican politicians?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
They have to be more scared of their constituents
than they are of their donors,of not getting reelected.
And exactly so right now,they're scared of their donors.
And they're scared of theirdonors because, like, if you
cross their donors, you know,like Elon Musk, for example,
he's going to dump, you know,all this money into your race
and you're going to lose becausehe's going to to wreck your
(30:58):
career.
Now, at a point, they're goingto actually be more worried
about their constituents, right?
So, like Elon Musk, they'reafraid of his money, but it's
all comes down to they're afraidof losing their power.
Comes down to they're afraid oflosing their power.
So, you know, a wise persontold me there's really only one
(31:18):
election, that politicians careabout their own, and so that's
what they're focused on.
But right now, a lot of theirconstituents are under.
They just don't know who's onwhose side, which is because the
Republicans lie.
I mean, like right now, they'restill lying, like, oh, no,
we're not going to cut Medicaid.
Right, they're like, no, we'renot going to cut Social Security
(31:40):
.
They have plans to do both, butthey go and lie about it.
Fox News One America you knowall of them who are basically
painting this picture that theRepublicans are the ones who are
standing up for Social Security, for Medicaid, for Medicare,
and the Democrats are eitherlying about their plans or the
(32:03):
Democrats are actually the oneswho are bad on these issues, and
you know it is one of thosesituations.
I travel a lot and I talk torooms full of people and the
first part is really easy.
Everyone loves Social Security,everyone loves Medicare, people
love Medicaid, people hatepharmaceutical corporations and
(32:26):
high drug prices.
That's the easy part.
The next part is where there'sso much misinformation out there
.
It's who's actually doing what,and you know, I think the
Democrats need to do a betterjob of making it clear that they
are fighting for working people.
Exactly, that's very true Are onthe side of working people.
At the same time, the medianeeds to be honest that the
(32:48):
Republicans are literally neveron the side of working people.
It's just not true.
The whole faux populism thingis belied by their actions in
Washington DC.
But until that breaks throughand I do think you're starting
to see a breakthrough on SocialSecurity You're starting to see
(33:08):
a breakthrough because peopleare hearing through their own
personal networks, their friendgroups, maybe their church,
maybe a book group, whatever itis.
They're hearing from peoplethat their checks aren't getting
to them on time.
Their checks have been delayedor they're not in full, and
that's starting to bubble up.
And we're hearing that in DCthat offices are getting crushed
(33:30):
right now by their constituentsand they have fewer workers to
handle these complaints.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
And, in addition to all of that, you know, let's
face it you even you're gettingto the point where you have to
prove your identity and youcan't even get to an office or
you can't get somebody on thephone to go through that.
I mean, you're absolutely righton that.
So let's get to the event thatis happening today, which,
hopefully, and I would like totell our listeners even though
(33:58):
this event is happening today,we also want you to keep
involved, get involved beyondtoday.
So I'd like you to tell usabout hands-off social security,
what people can do about it,even if they don't happen to be
in an area where there's aprotest going on.
Is there something they can doabout it, even if they don't
happen to be in an area wherethere's a protest going on?
Is there something they can do,and what should they look
forward to doing with yourorganization in the future?
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, it's a great question, and so first I'd like
to just say if you go tohandsoffsocialsecurityorg,
you'll find a bunch of eventshappening today.
A bunch of events happeningtoday, but that's not all that
we are looking at.
It's not a one-day thing.
We've had over 70 eventsalready at social security
(34:41):
offices.
These are protests where peoplego to their local social
security office and the ask isjust to go to your office and
say hands off social security.
We will help you get a crowdthere.
We'll help you get pressSecurity.
We will help you get a crowdthere.
We'll help you get press there.
We'll help you get electedsthere.
Invite your member of Congress.
If they show up, that's thenews story.
(35:02):
If they don't show up, that'sthe news story.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Have their opponents show up.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
They're happy to these days, and so we've done
over 70 of them.
We've had some slight victories, we've had them roll back some
of their worst plans, but theyjust keep looking for dozens and
dozens of events at SocialSecurity offices and hundreds of
(35:37):
events of a variety.
So a lot of members of Congressare going to do, you know,
maybe they're not going to do aprotest at a Social Security
office, but they'll have a townhall or they'll show up at a
local office to tell the workersthat they're doing a good job.
We're going to see a variety ofactions taken today and we
encourage everyone like if youcan't make it to a protest, just
(36:00):
know this is the day to fightback on Social Security.
So make noise in whatever wayyou can Call your members of
Congress, post on social media.
The unifying message is handsoff social security.
But also, the most importantthing, as you noted, is this is
not over today.
Tomorrow, we're going to stillbe pushing for people to go to
(36:21):
their social security officesand say hands off social
security.
We'll still be working in thatgrand coalition that we have,
fighting against thebillionaires' destruction of
Social Security until we win,because that's what we do.
We understand, and I've beendoing this for 15 years.
I can tell you that we've neverfaced anything as bleak as this
(36:46):
.
But we've faced down somereally, some really incredible
odds.
But all we have to do is getAmerica to understand that
Social Security is under threat.
As soon as that understandingis reached, the backlash is
(37:08):
enormous, and it's not just fromone part of the country or one
partisan group, it's fromeverywhere.
It's every nook and cranny ofthis country.
Love Social Security and sohands off socialsecurityorg.
Today is our day of action.
Make noise, get loud, get inthe virtual faces of your
(37:30):
politicians.
Call them, post on their pages,just make as much noise as
possible, but also just plug in,because we're not done.
We're going to just keep goinguntil we win.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Right, and I think those are all great suggestions.
I like the idea, too, thatthere may be people in different
communities where nothing muchis going on, but they can
basically contact yourorganization.
You'll help them organize intheir own backyard, so that.
But they can basically contactyour organization.
You'll help them organize intheir own backyard, so that's
something they can do.
They can be proactive and again, as you say, obviously, talking
to the politicians, you knowhammering down, you know emails
(38:05):
to them, et cetera.
And also I just want to make itvery clear to people that they
can come to your website for allof this information.
If I'm correct, it'ssocialsecurityworksorg, am I
right?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, and socialsecurityworksorg is our
main website and alsohandsoffsocialsecurityorg is our
campaign website.
So on either of those, you canget in touch with me.
All my contact info is on there.
You can get in contact with myteam.
We will help you host an eventand we've done enormous mass
(38:42):
mobilization.
On April 5th we had millions ofpeople in the streets when we
brought together all the issues.
You know, a day of action liketoday but don't think that it
has to be enormous A small groupat your Social Security office
in the local press, that storyalone could be enough.
(39:04):
That changes that scale wherethe politicians realize.
You know what I'm now morescared of my constituents than I
am of my donors.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And that's exactly right.
Once the pressure is put onthem, obviously they're going to
start to say I've got to speakup on the behalf of my
constituents because they'regoing to see the majority, as
you have mentioned, are reallyin favor of preserving Social
Security, medicare and Medicaid.
Alex, you've been extremelyinformative and I'm going to
(39:35):
again.
Our website is going to promotehow they can get in touch with
you, as well as, obviously, whatyou've mentioned today.
But I do want to thank you forbeing so informative and I
really hope that this helpsnormalize and get people behind
your action.
We'll continue to push itbecause I believe in what you do
.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Thank you so much for having me, and hopefully our
conversation can continue aswell, because we're not going to
win this fight in one, butwe're never going to stop until
we win.
So I look forward to our futureconversation.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Well, I plan to if you don't mind, come back for
updates every so often to seewhat's going on.
Keep our people informed.
That's how we're going to getthem motivated.
That is Thank you so much.
Thank you, I appreciate it, andI'm going to be right back with
some updates on RFK Jr'smeasles saga, as well as the ban
on fluoride we've been talkingabout in our drinking water.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
As Dr Jim said, you can learn more about Social
Security Works atsocialsecurityworksorg.
That's socialsecurityworksorg,but you can also find more
information and links by comingto our website, jamespolakoffcom
Plus.
Here you can access other greatLive, healthy, longer podcasts,
(40:48):
along with terrific blogswritten by Dr Jim.
That's jamespolakoffcom.
James P-O-L-A-K-O-F dot com.
Now back to Dr Jim.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
You may recall, in our previous episode we
discussed RFK Jr's bungling ofthe growing measles crisis.
Well, here's the latest.
On four separate occasionsKennedy has said the measles
outbreak in Texas is beginningto subside.
I quote our strategy has beenvery successful.
(41:22):
Well, once again he's wrong.
The disease has grown to over500 cases of measles in West
Texas.
In 98% of these cases, thosecontracting the disease were
unvaccinated.
Dr Peter Marks, the FDA'sformer vaccine regulator, stated
A 26% increase.
(41:44):
That's not flattening.
The Texas outbreak has alsoseeded outbreaks in New Mexico,
has also seeded outbreaks in NewMexico, oklahoma and Kansas, so
it's far from over.
However, kennedy has biggerfish to fry.
As you've likely heard, utahhas become the first state to
(42:05):
ban fluoride in our drinkingwater.
Now RFK Jr is directing the CDCto stop recommending
fluoridation in our communitiesnationwide.
Talk about a growingcontroversy.
Well, both my Boomers ofAmerica and Live Healthy Longer
podcast will be covering thisimportant issue very soon.
This is Dr Jim Polakoff, andthanks for joining me.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves
of wind, for purple mountainmajesty above the fruited plain
to play.
(42:49):
America, america, america, godshed his grace on thee.
Any crown thy good withbrotherhood from sea to shining
(43:10):
sea.
Come on, cher Whoo, america,america, god shed his grace on
thee, oh, and he crowns my goodWith brotherhood From sea to
(43:40):
shining sea.
Donald Trump thinks that he can place his hands
anywhere.
We're telling him hell, no,hands off our Social Security
hands off our Medicaid, handsoff Medicare.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
That was Congresswoman Sarah McBride
saying hands off.
Should baby boomers be worriedabout their social security,
medicare and Medicaid, you bet?
Welcome to another episode ofLive Healthy Longer.
As usual, our host is thewell-known author, health expert
and popular podcaster, dr JimPolakoff, and he addresses
(00:40):
important health issues thatface our country and directly
affect your well-being.
So let's get right to it.
Here's Dr Jim.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Yes, this is Dr Jim Polikoff, with an episode that
should be of concern to anyoneover 55 years of age.
Of course, the issue of what'shappening to Social Security
should cause apprehension amongyounger generations as well,
whose money is withheld withless assurance that it's going
to be available to them when thetime comes.
(01:11):
Now, over 66 million Americansdepend on Social Security that's
one out of every five citizens,and if the powers that be had
their way, social Security wouldbe privatized tomorrow and
Medicare would just be anotherinsurance plan.
Historically, aside from aminority of caring wealthy
(01:33):
people, the rich and powerfulhave had little compassion for
the middle class and the poor.
Despite the Trumpadministration's promises that
Social Security benefits willnot be cut, the Department of
Government Efficiency, betterknown as DOGE, has set its
sights on this program.
While an appeals court recentlyupheld an order preventing DOGE
(01:55):
staffers to obtain access toyour Social Security numbers,
the Trump administration willappeal this all the way to the
Supreme Court if necessary.
And keep in mind that Elon Muskhas called Social Security
nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, and he's got Trump's backing,
(02:15):
so who knows how all of this isgoing to end, however, if your
aging destiny is wrapped up inSocial Security and Medicare, be
thankful that you're not aMedicaid recipient.
There is even less sympathy forthis group of American citizens
36 million people are now atrisk of having health coverage
(02:37):
taken away by Medicaid workrequirements.
Unfortunately, there is amisconception that Medicaid is
only for the poor.
For over 50 years, medicaid hasprovided vital health insurance
protections to seniors innursing homes as well as
low-income Americans of all ages.
Although the majority ofMedicaid beneficiaries are
(02:58):
children and working-age adults,medicaid spends more money on
long-term care for seniors andpeople with disabilities than
anything else.
Yes, there's much to beconcerned about regarding Social
Security, medicare and Medicaid, so let's get right into it.
My guest for this episode is aleading expert in the field.
(03:20):
Alex Lawson is the ExecutiveDirector of Social Security
Works, a coalition made up ofover 340 national and state
organizations that representover 50 million Americans.
On April 5th, social SecurityWorks took part in mobilizing
over 5 million people across thecountry to say hands off to
(03:44):
Donald Trump and congressionalRepublicans.
Welcome to my podcast, alex.
Thanks for having me.
Well, it's our pleasure.
You know I covered a bit in myintroduction, but perhaps you
can enlarge the spotlight onSocial Security Works.
I know your organization isabout safeguarding the economic
protection those Americans whoare dependent upon Social
(04:07):
Security rely upon, and I'mcurious about the 340 national
and state organizations that arerepresented.
Can you tell us a little bitabout that?
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yeah, so Social Security Works.
That's the organization that Ilead and we're dedicated to
protecting and expanding SocialSecurity, medicare, medicaid,
lowering prescription drugprices.
Basically, we follow theoriginal vision of the Social
Security Act, the New Dealers,francis Perkins.
(04:38):
What they envisioned is anever-expanding system of
economic security in thiscountry.
When FDR signed the SocialSecurity Act into law, he said
this is a cornerstone that we'regoing to build on and each
generation does its partexpanding the system of economic
security.
Or they did up until the 1980sand then it sort of turned, and
(05:01):
then they've been trying to chipaway at.
It turned and then they've beentrying to chip away at it and
now, you know, in Trump 2.0 withElon Musk, they're really
taking a chainsaw to it.
So our organization, weunderstand that we can't do it
alone.
You know, alone our voice isnot loud enough.
(05:21):
So we pull together and work incoalition with hundreds of
organizations who come at SocialSecurity and Medicare, medicaid
from a few different angles.
For some of the groups, it'stheir main focus, like ours is
the core mission.
For others, it's part of theirwork.
(05:42):
And so what we're able to do is, you know, tee up the fights
that are most important, producematerials that are needed.
You know some of our ruralallies.
For example, social Security iscritical for rural communities.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
But they might not be getting you know like really
nice materials about the impactin rural communities.
So we work in partnership withallies around the country to
just ensure that together ourvoices are heard, stronger and
louder than if any of us standalone.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Right, so the noise can be louder because you've got
that sort of backup, which isgood.
Now, I had mentioned earlier inmy introduction that we have
over 66 million Americans whodepend on Social Security, and
half of them rely on thesemonthly checks for most of their
income.
Some can't get by without it.
What do you consider the mostimportant concern facing Social
(06:42):
Security today?
Speaker 1 (06:45):
most important concern facing Social Security
today.
Elon Musk really I mean it'sthis unelected billionaire and
the chainsaw that he's wieldingjust destroying the Social
Security administration, soactually sort of total reliant
on the system.
We're talking about 73 millionpeople and that's just so
(07:07):
enormous.
Social Security is not justretirement benefits.
It's also survivors benefits.
It's life insurance for thesurviving children and the death
of a breadwinner, disabilityinsurance.
So if a person faces a lifechanging illness or injury and
can no longer work, they havedisability insurance.
And that's what Social Securityis.
(07:29):
It's social insurance, so youpay into it when you're working
and then it's there for you whenyou need it.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
And it should be there for you.
And that's, if you don't mind,I just want to get into a bit of
history, because you mentionedFDR and tying this into the
wealthy, because I think therecould be some correlation going
back to the early 1930s as towhat's happening today, falling
(08:01):
much like they have been on andoff with these tariff situations
.
Businesses failed, unemploymentrose dramatically.
In fact, 25%, I think, of theAmerica's workforce was
unemployed at that time.
So isn't it true that the GreatDepression, in your opinion,
was largely caused by theinequality between, or the
(08:24):
inequality of wealth, I shouldsay between, the rich and the
poor?
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Yeah, I mean our, you know finer point on it.
It was a Wall Street causedcollapse of the global economy,
which is really right where wefind ourselves again.
So I like to tell this part ofthe story a lot.
What happens if you allow WallStreet and the billionaires to
have everything and everyoneelse has nothing is scrambling
(08:53):
for the crumbs that fall off ofthe oligarch's table.
What happens is the systembreaks down.
That does not work, and youcan't ever think that these
billionaires are going to likestop of their own accord.
No, they will play the systemright into the dirt every time,
(09:13):
so they can't not do whatthey're doing, which is just
hoovering up all of the money.
So, yes, Wall Street causedcollapse of the global economy.
Now you have the new dealers,like Francis Perkins, who's sort
of the intellectual mastermindbehind the New Deal with FDR.
Speaker 4 (09:34):
Going back to FDR right.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yep.
So Francis Perkins was FDR'sSecretary of Labor, the first
woman to serve in the cabinet,and she is just a genius.
And she also understood that infixing the acute problem, so
like in addressing the 25%unemployment and the acute
(09:57):
effects of the Great Depression,we also needed to build a
system that prevented the samething from happening again.
So it wasn't just to fix it onetime, but it was to
fundamentally reorder the systemso that the billionaires were
not able to crash the globaleconomy again.
And it worked, you know, for 90years it has worked.
(10:21):
And the way it's worked is itdoesn't include the billionaires
, it doesn't need Wall Street,it doesn't need politicians,
it's just workers.
We together create SocialSecurity, which is also why the
billionaires hate it so much,because there's no one profiting
from it.
That's the key.
(10:41):
No one's making any money fromSocial Security.
It's just there for us.
99 cents of every dollar thatwe pay in comes back to us in
the form of benefits.
Less than one penny of everydollar goes to administer the
entire system.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Which is amazing when you think of the red tape that
goes on in Washington.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Absolutely.
Or think of the red tape thatgoes on in Wall Street.
I mean, if anyone's ever dealtwith it, try to find fees of one
percent anywhere in the privatesector and you won't find them.
And you know the entire systemabout a trillion and a half
dollars every year in benefitsgoing out is administered for
less than a penny of everydollar that goes in.
(11:22):
It's amazing.
And there's infinitesimally lowlevels of fraud, waste and
abuse.
The reports come out every yearshowing that Now obviously any
amount you can do better.
But look, compare it to WallStreet.
There is no comparison.
(11:42):
This is just an efficientlymanaged, incredibly effective
program that works.
Speaker 4 (11:49):
And now and they want to privatize it and obviously I
think you bring up a very goodpoint.
It costs less than 1% to run it.
If it went private, think ofwhat it's going to cost the
public at that point in time.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Oh yeah, they'll sock on a 20% just so they can buy a
golden yacht or whatever it isthe billionaires do with their
billions, you know, and that'sthe point.
This is the old.
So where we are now is it'sWall Street strikes back and
that's the billionaires have putone of their own, the richest
man in the world, elon Musk, anunelected South African
(12:26):
billionaire who's got a chainsawand he's just hacking away at
the administration that's right.
So he can't get his money, hishands on our money, so the money
is held in trust and by lawthey can't touch our benefits.
So what they've done isactually really we didn't
actually think that they'd everdo this, because it's so crazy,
(12:48):
but they're destroying theadministration, the ability of
to get our money to us.
Speaker 4 (12:55):
The infrastructure.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
Right, because it's hard to get checks out to tens
of millions of people on timeand in full every single month.
But you know, here's the factsFor 90 years, through war and
peace, through boom and bust,through health and pandemic,
social Security has never misseda single payment.
Now, all of a sudden, a coupleof months after this billionaire
(13:19):
you know gets in there with thegoal, the stated goal, of
destroying Social Security, andall of a sudden there's all
these problems happening.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
Well, exactly, Checks are coming out late.
In some cases You've also gotbecause it's not only Social
Security that's cut so many jobs, but also your regional offices
now where you depend upon IT,for example, where seniors, if
they need to get a hold ofsomeone at Social Security, it
could be a four or five hourwait.
I've heard of people whosecalls are disconnected after
(13:50):
that four or five hours.
I mean, this is all the junkthat they're throwing in there
to make it more difficult forrecipients.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's entirely correct, and so I spend.
You obviously know what's goingon.
I spend a lot of time trying to, you know, educate sort of the
corporate press, because theyhave a different starting point.
Like it's like Elon Musk istrying to do something good and
is failing at it.
Right, and I'm like no, none ofthe things that he's doing make
(14:20):
any sense under that rubric.
All of them make sense underthe rubric of he's trying to
destroy the program.
He's trying to cause a crisis.
As soon as you understand thatthat's his goal, everything
makes sense Firing all of theworkers who have the actual
knowledge needed to make thingshappen.
(14:43):
Hollowing out entire offices tocreate a bureaucratic morass so
people actually, you know theyhave to clear some hurdle, but
the office is gone so they can'tanymore.
Firing workers in the frontoffice, closing offices and then
pushing more people into thoseoffices.
(15:04):
All of it makes sense as soonas you understand what the goal
is.
This is an old con.
You kneecap the mailman, thenyou complain that the mail is
late and then you just so happento have a cousin who's in the
private mail delivery service,He'll cost four times as much
and he'll deliver a fifth of theservice.
(15:24):
But that's privatization, themiracle of the market as they
talk about.
It's just corruption that we'relooking square on corruption,
corruption and weaponization.
So now they're using SocialSecurity to punish their enemies
and they went after thegovernor of Maine and used
Social Security to try to punishthe governor of Maine.
(15:47):
They've gone after immigrantswho are legally here.
They're legally here andallowed to work, and they just
weaponized Social Security torip their Social Security
numbers that are only forworking.
They cannot claim benefits.
They took those away so thatthese people, who again are
legally here, are no longer ableto work.
(16:08):
I mean, that is not what SocialSecurity is for.
It's not for deciding how topunish your enemies.
And always remember I say thisyou know this is not a light
line, but if you're okay withthe boot on someone else's neck,
just know, at some point you'regoing to find it on your own,
(16:29):
Exactly.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
That boot is going to crush your neck, that's exactly
right.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's how it works Every time Now isn't there.
Speaker 4 (16:34):
You know, there's a talk about scare tactics.
There's this idea, of course,that by 2035, social security is
going to go broke.
I mean, that's kind of thepicture.
Obviously, it's not going to gobroke broke, but it's going to
start getting into a crucialstate of oh my God, are we going
to be able to afford this Now?
Isn't it true, talking aboutthe billionaires, that I picked
(16:58):
up an interview that you did,which I thought was very
interesting?
Isn't it true that thebillionaires at a certain point
not only the billionaires, themillionaires at a certain point,
they get cut off for having topay any more into Social
Security?
There's a chopping block where,okay, you paid so much into it,
(17:19):
now you don't need to pay anymore, and isn't that part of
what is crippling the system?
Speaker 1 (17:25):
It is.
So you only pay in on the first$176,000 of wages.
After that you don't pay in anickel.
It's an artifact of history.
It made no sense then.
You know some scholars canargue about whether it made
sense then, but no scholarsargue about whether it makes
(17:45):
sense now.
Everyone agrees that the capmakes no sense now, especially
after the loss of traditionalpension benefits.
You know workers used to have a.
That's gone for the vastmajority of workers.
So tens of millions of peopleright now rely on Social
Security for the vast majorityof their retirement.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Exactly, and if the millionaires and the
billionaires basically just paidinto it like everyone else,
there would be more than enoughmoney to fund Social Security ad
infinitum.
Speaker 1 (18:16):
Absolutely so.
People don't want to believehow simple it is.
It's either billionaires paythe same rate as all of us,
everyone else the vast majorityof people pay on all of their
income, right?
The vast majority of people arebelow $176,000 a year right now
.
So billionaires pay the samerate as everyone else, or
(18:41):
everyone's benefits get cut.
The average benefit right nowis around $2,000 a month, right?
So are you gonna take it out ofsomebody who is living on
$24,000-ish a year, or are yougonna take it on literally the
richest people the world hasever known, and all you're
asking is that they pay the sameas everyone else, not more.
(19:05):
Just the same.
So the choice is not really achoice, it's just super clear,
and that is why Elon Musk isdestroying Social Security.
Right?
He doesn't want to pay the samerate as the rest of us.
In fact, he wants to destroySocial Security and then give a
giant trillions of dollars intax handouts to himself and to
(19:28):
his fellow billionaires.
So it's all about justunderstanding that.
The only question and that's whyI liked starting with history
it's the same story Should thebillionaires have everything and
everyone else is leftscrambling for crumbs, knowing
that that inevitably leads toeconomic calamity?
(19:50):
Or should we just have somecommon sense deeply American
systems like social securityrewards hard work, delayed
gratification.
It represents the best ofAmerican values.
Should we just let SocialSecurity have a small break on
the greed of the billionaireclass and the vast majority of
(20:12):
Americans?
Over 90 percent, over 90%,republican Democrat Independents
say not one penny cut fromSocial Security, and the
majority of Americans, againacross partisan lines, say they
want to just have billionairespay the same rate as everyone
else, and then not only can wepay benefits forever, in time
(20:36):
and on time and in full, but wecan expand benefits for everyone
.
Now, just to circle it all theway back, I will say we have to
get through this danger thatwe're in right now, because
checks are not going to go outdue to the cuts that have
already been made and we can'tlook to politicians to save us
(20:59):
on this.
There's no cavalry coming.
It's up to us.
We are the cavalry.
We need to raise our voicestogether and when millions of
Americans stand together, that'show we're going to stop this
destruction of Social Security.
Speaker 4 (21:15):
Well, and we're going to get to it at the end, but
that's why you're having thismobilization.
You know today where peopleneed to turn out and I'm going
to urge our listeners please, Imean, just take a few minutes
and obviously, if there's ademonstration, you can join,
join it.
And I know there are certainplaces where and we can get into
(21:36):
this a bit later where peoplecould get involved.
But we haven't discussedMedicare and Medicaid, which are
two other problems obviouslytied into Social Security.
What's your take on what'shappening with Medicare and
today with Medicaid?
Obviously, people are going tohave to prove they have a
certain amount of income, orit's going to be income related.
(21:57):
Do you have any thoughts onthat?
Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah.
So you know, the thing thatFrancis Perkins would be deeply
disappointed in all of us isthat we still don't have
guaranteed health care foreveryone in this country.
It was part of the original NewDeal and part of the package a
national health program.
Because how can you actuallyhave security if you're just one
illness or injury away frombankruptcy?
(22:21):
Right, that's fake, that's notsecurity.
So in the 60s we were able toget Medicare, which is sort of
guaranteed health.
Traditional Medicare isguaranteed health care.
So four people 65 and over andsome certain other folks who are
(22:45):
dealing with disabilities orchronic illnesses, but generally
it's for people 65 and over.
And then Medicaid is a programthat has a lot of hats that it
wears and one of them is it'sthe largest provider of
(23:06):
long-term care in this country.
For the majority of people.
It's the only provider oflong-term care in this country
Between one and two andtwo-thirds of people, so between
half and two-thirds of peoplein nursing homes are covered by
Medicaid.
If that goes away, the wholenursing home system collapses.
Speaker 4 (23:24):
Exactly the seniors are involved, the same people
that we're concerned about Inour particular podcast.
Those baby boomers are the onesthat are directly affected,
particularly if they're disabled.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And their family is silent generation and a lot of
baby boomers have actually gonethrough this with their parents
where they find that there is noAmerican long term care program
and you know they're dealingwith a family member who needs
24 hour skilled nursing say,memory care, alzheimer's,
dementia there's a host of theseare not illnesses and
(24:00):
situations that family couldjust step up and take care of,
right when people are working toget skilled nursing for loved
ones, this is one of the mostdifficult decisions that
families have to make and thento go through it, they have to
go through this ridiculousprocess where they're
(24:21):
transferring assets, basicallybecause Medicaid is a means
tested program.
They have to get their parentor loved one or themselves into
a situation where they qualifyfor Medicaid or they bankrupt
themselves and their family injust a few years or a year
(24:41):
because the costs of long-termcare are astronomical.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
And the worse this gets, the more people are going
to be on the streets ultimatelythat's my personal prediction if
this continues.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
There's nowhere else for people to go.
That's why, right, I mean, ifyou're destroying Social
Security or you're making peoplemiss checks, they're not going
to get their money.
And again, social Security isour money.
No one gives us anything.
You crush Medicaid, which iswhat the Republicans' budget
(25:12):
reconciliation package does.
It cuts $890 billion fromMedicaid.
They're hemming and hawing likeoh, you don't know that for
certain.
Yes, we do.
Yes, we do, we know that.
And they're going to have toput pen to paper soon, now that
they've passed the framework andthey're pushing to destroy
(25:36):
Medicaid.
Because that's what that cutwould do.
It would destroy Medicaid.
Medicaid's over if you cuteight hundred and ninety billion
dollars from it.
And then again, that means thenursing home system collapse,
that means more people on thestreet.
That is just, it's catastrophic.
And all of it is so that theycan give tax handouts to Elon
(25:57):
Musk and his billionaire buddies.
So again, just people want itto be more complicated than it
is.
It's not.
It's just a greedy band ofbillionaires who are trying to
take everything steal our money,steal our health, steal our
security, steal our democracyall because they'll never stop.
(26:18):
Their greed is boundless.
And so Medicaid is on thechopping block Medicare.
There are portions of it on thechopping block, but really,
with Medicare, their game planis slightly different.
Just to answer the three piecesOn Medicare, they put Dr Oz in
charge at CMS, which is whatoversees Medicare.
(26:41):
What he's doing is he'sprivatizing it as quickly as
possible.
He's handing it over to UnitedHealth so that they can delay
and deny care.
And if you want to talk aboutwaste, fraud and abuse, that's
where you look.
And so in privatized Medicare,every year there's a giant
bucket of money that the peoplewho look at this the inspector
(27:05):
generals and MedPAC.
Every year they put out areport between $89 billion and
$144 billion a year.
So in budget terms that's $890billion.
Because budgets are in 10-yearincrements between $890 billion
and $1.4 trillion.
(27:26):
That's labeled overpayments.
It's literally a bucket that'slabeled getting ripped off.
Speaker 4 (27:35):
So, if you want, if you're serious about, going
after and you're talking aboutthe Advantage plans that are
coming more and more into play.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Right these are.
They're so-called MedicareAdvantage, but it's just
privatized Medicare.
It's just private insurancethat's able to use the Medicare
label.
That's like the biggest, besttrick of UnitedHealth was
getting people to pretend thatit wasn't them.
But that's what the plan is onMedicare Just hand it over to
(28:03):
United as quickly as possible.
Where the corporate insurersdelay care, deny care All of
your listeners know about it.
Speaker 4 (28:12):
Well, I have a feeling that they'll treat
everyone nice for a while, so wejust kind of get lulled to
sleep and then all of a suddenwe're going to see more and more
of our benefits denied.
I think it's just you know.
Obviously people at this pointare going to sleep thinking, oh,
I've got an advantage plan, I'min better shape.
But I think the future is goingto be very harsh on us.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Now.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I want to quote you.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
I will just say one thing on that, just because it's
important, the point that youjust made.
But it's actually, it'shappening now.
So we don't have to wait forthe future, because it's you
know, rural hospitals arecollapsing now.
It's not about lulling peopleto sleep, it's that only 10% of
(28:55):
the population need health careat any one time.
So 90% of people in a risk pooldon't need health care.
And so what the corporateinsurers do is they treat the
90%.
If you don't need health care,you think you've got great
health insurance.
You're like, oh, I've goteverything.
What do you mean?
I love my Medicare Advantageprogram and then just ask have
(29:17):
you ever had to use it?
You know, and if it's anythingabove, you know the yearly
checkups then you're in that 10%.
You're going to get an entirelydifferent situation.
And if you're actually sick,you know.
If you're, I'm sorry if you'revery sick.
So the people who need it mostare the people who get denied
and delayed the most, becauseit's profitable to kill people
(29:40):
who need health care.
It's not profitable to providehealth care.
It's profitable to deny healthcare.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
It's not a sad, sad situation.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
So that's the setup.
Speaker 4 (29:51):
Yeah, alex, I want to quote you.
You spoke recently at a USSenate Aging Committee meeting
and you stated I believe correctme if I'm wrong Republicans,
democrats and Independents allagree that I'm talking about the
general population.
Republicans, democrats andindependents all agree that not
(30:14):
one single penny should be cutfrom Social Security, medicare
and Medicaid.
So there's absolutely abipartisan agreement everywhere
in this country except here inWashington DC.
I think that was part of yourquote.
So expound upon this a bit.
You know that.
What's it going to take tochange the minds of the
(30:34):
Republican politicians?
Speaker 1 (30:36):
They have to be more scared of their constituents
than they are of their donors,of not getting reelected.
And exactly so right now,they're scared of their donors.
And they're scared of theirdonors because, like, if you
cross their donors, you know,like Elon Musk, for example,
he's going to dump, you know,all this money into your race
and you're going to lose becausehe's going to to wreck your
(30:58):
career.
Now, at a point, they're goingto actually be more worried
about their constituents, right?
So, like Elon Musk, they'reafraid of his money, but it's
all comes down to they're afraidof losing their power.
Comes down to they're afraid oflosing their power.
So, you know, a wise persontold me there's really only one
(31:18):
election, that politicians careabout their own, and so that's
what they're focused on.
But right now, a lot of theirconstituents are under.
They just don't know who's onwhose side, which is because the
Republicans lie.
I mean, like right now, they'restill lying, like, oh, no,
we're not going to cut Medicaid.
Right, they're like, no, we'renot going to cut Social Security
(31:40):
.
They have plans to do both, butthey go and lie about it.
Fox News One America you knowall of them who are basically
painting this picture that theRepublicans are the ones who are
standing up for Social Security, for Medicaid, for Medicare,
and the Democrats are eitherlying about their plans or the
(32:03):
Democrats are actually the oneswho are bad on these issues, and
you know it is one of thosesituations.
I travel a lot and I talk torooms full of people and the
first part is really easy.
Everyone loves Social Security,everyone loves Medicare, people
love Medicaid, people hatepharmaceutical corporations and
(32:26):
high drug prices.
That's the easy part.
The next part is where there'sso much misinformation out there
.
It's who's actually doing what,and you know, I think the
Democrats need to do a betterjob of making it clear that they
are fighting for working people.
Exactly, that's very true Are onthe side of working people.
At the same time, the medianeeds to be honest that the
(32:48):
Republicans are literally neveron the side of working people.
It's just not true.
The whole faux populism thingis belied by their actions in
Washington DC.
But until that breaks throughand I do think you're starting
to see a breakthrough on SocialSecurity You're starting to see
(33:08):
a breakthrough because peopleare hearing through their own
personal networks, their friendgroups, maybe their church,
maybe a book group, whatever itis.
They're hearing from peoplethat their checks aren't getting
to them on time.
Their checks have been delayedor they're not in full, and
that's starting to bubble up.
And we're hearing that in DCthat offices are getting crushed
(33:30):
right now by their constituentsand they have fewer workers to
handle these complaints.
Speaker 4 (33:36):
And, in addition to all of that, you know, let's
face it you even you're gettingto the point where you have to
prove your identity and youcan't even get to an office or
you can't get somebody on thephone to go through that.
I mean, you're absolutely righton that.
So let's get to the event thatis happening today, which,
hopefully, and I would like totell our listeners even though
(33:58):
this event is happening today,we also want you to keep
involved, get involved beyondtoday.
So I'd like you to tell usabout hands-off social security,
what people can do about it,even if they don't happen to be
in an area where there's aprotest going on.
Is there something they can doabout it, even if they don't
happen to be in an area wherethere's a protest going on?
Is there something they can do,and what should they look
forward to doing with yourorganization in the future?
Speaker 1 (34:21):
Yeah, it's a great question, and so first I'd like
to just say if you go tohandsoffsocialsecurityorg,
you'll find a bunch of eventshappening today.
A bunch of events happeningtoday, but that's not all that
we are looking at.
It's not a one-day thing.
We've had over 70 eventsalready at social security
(34:41):
offices.
These are protests where peoplego to their local social
security office and the ask isjust to go to your office and
say hands off social security.
We will help you get a crowdthere.
We'll help you get pressSecurity.
We will help you get a crowdthere.
We'll help you get press there.
We'll help you get electedsthere.
Invite your member of Congress.
If they show up, that's thenews story.
(35:02):
If they don't show up, that'sthe news story.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Have their opponents show up.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
They're happy to these days, and so we've done
over 70 of them.
We've had some slight victories, we've had them roll back some
of their worst plans, but theyjust keep looking for dozens and
dozens of events at SocialSecurity offices and hundreds of
(35:37):
events of a variety.
So a lot of members of Congressare going to do, you know,
maybe they're not going to do aprotest at a Social Security
office, but they'll have a townhall or they'll show up at a
local office to tell the workersthat they're doing a good job.
We're going to see a variety ofactions taken today and we
encourage everyone like if youcan't make it to a protest, just
(36:00):
know this is the day to fightback on Social Security.
So make noise in whatever wayyou can Call your members of
Congress, post on social media.
The unifying message is handsoff social security.
But also, the most importantthing, as you noted, is this is
not over today.
Tomorrow, we're going to stillbe pushing for people to go to
(36:21):
their social security officesand say hands off social
security.
We'll still be working in thatgrand coalition that we have,
fighting against thebillionaires' destruction of
Social Security until we win,because that's what we do.
We understand, and I've beendoing this for 15 years.
I can tell you that we've neverfaced anything as bleak as this
(36:46):
.
But we've faced down somereally, some really incredible
odds.
But all we have to do is getAmerica to understand that
Social Security is under threat.
As soon as that understandingis reached, the backlash is
(37:08):
enormous, and it's not just fromone part of the country or one
partisan group, it's fromeverywhere.
It's every nook and cranny ofthis country.
Love Social Security and sohands off socialsecurityorg.
Today is our day of action.
Make noise, get loud, get inthe virtual faces of your
(37:30):
politicians.
Call them, post on their pages,just make as much noise as
possible, but also just plug in,because we're not done.
We're going to just keep goinguntil we win.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
Right, and I think those are all great suggestions.
I like the idea, too, thatthere may be people in different
communities where nothing muchis going on, but they can
basically contact yourorganization.
You'll help them organize intheir own backyard, so that.
But they can basically contactyour organization.
You'll help them organize intheir own backyard, so that's
something they can do.
They can be proactive and again, as you say, obviously, talking
to the politicians, you knowhammering down, you know emails
(38:05):
to them, et cetera.
And also I just want to make itvery clear to people that they
can come to your website for allof this information.
If I'm correct, it'ssocialsecurityworksorg, am I
right?
Speaker 1 (38:19):
Yeah, and socialsecurityworksorg is our
main website and alsohandsoffsocialsecurityorg is our
campaign website.
So on either of those, you canget in touch with me.
All my contact info is on there.
You can get in contact with myteam.
We will help you host an eventand we've done enormous mass
(38:42):
mobilization.
On April 5th we had millions ofpeople in the streets when we
brought together all the issues.
You know, a day of action liketoday but don't think that it
has to be enormous A small groupat your Social Security office
in the local press, that storyalone could be enough.
(39:04):
That changes that scale wherethe politicians realize.
You know what I'm now morescared of my constituents than I
am of my donors.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
And that's exactly right.
Once the pressure is put onthem, obviously they're going to
start to say I've got to speakup on the behalf of my
constituents because they'regoing to see the majority, as
you have mentioned, are reallyin favor of preserving Social
Security, medicare and Medicaid.
Alex, you've been extremelyinformative and I'm going to
(39:35):
again.
Our website is going to promotehow they can get in touch with
you, as well as, obviously, whatyou've mentioned today.
But I do want to thank you forbeing so informative and I
really hope that this helpsnormalize and get people behind
your action.
We'll continue to push itbecause I believe in what you do
.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Thank you so much for having me, and hopefully our
conversation can continue aswell, because we're not going to
win this fight in one, butwe're never going to stop until
we win.
So I look forward to our futureconversation.
Speaker 4 (40:04):
Well, I plan to if you don't mind, come back for
updates every so often to seewhat's going on.
Keep our people informed.
That's how we're going to getthem motivated.
That is Thank you so much.
Thank you, I appreciate it, andI'm going to be right back with
some updates on RFK Jr'smeasles saga, as well as the ban
on fluoride we've been talkingabout in our drinking water.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
As Dr Jim said, you can learn more about Social
Security Works atsocialsecurityworksorg.
That's socialsecurityworksorg,but you can also find more
information and links by comingto our website, jamespolakoffcom
Plus.
Here you can access other greatLive, healthy, longer podcasts,
(40:48):
along with terrific blogswritten by Dr Jim.
That's jamespolakoffcom.
James P-O-L-A-K-O-F dot com.
Now back to Dr Jim.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
You may recall, in our previous episode we
discussed RFK Jr's bungling ofthe growing measles crisis.
Well, here's the latest.
On four separate occasionsKennedy has said the measles
outbreak in Texas is beginningto subside.
I quote our strategy has beenvery successful.
(41:22):
Well, once again he's wrong.
The disease has grown to over500 cases of measles in West
Texas.
In 98% of these cases, thosecontracting the disease were
unvaccinated.
Dr Peter Marks, the FDA'sformer vaccine regulator, stated
A 26% increase.
(41:44):
That's not flattening.
The Texas outbreak has alsoseeded outbreaks in New Mexico,
has also seeded outbreaks in NewMexico, oklahoma and Kansas, so
it's far from over.
However, kennedy has biggerfish to fry.
As you've likely heard, utahhas become the first state to
(42:05):
ban fluoride in our drinkingwater.
Now RFK Jr is directing the CDCto stop recommending
fluoridation in our communitiesnationwide.
Talk about a growingcontroversy.
Well, both my Boomers ofAmerica and Live Healthy Longer
podcast will be covering thisimportant issue very soon.
This is Dr Jim Polakoff, andthanks for joining me.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Oh, beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves
of wind, for purple mountainmajesty above the fruited plain
to play.
(42:49):
America, america, america, godshed his grace on thee.
Any crown thy good withbrotherhood from sea to shining
(43:10):
sea.
Come on, cher Whoo, america,america, god shed his grace on
thee, oh, and he crowns my goodWith brotherhood From sea to
(43:40):
shining sea.
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