Blitz Bureau
WASHINGTON: In first public remarks after leaving the White House, former US President Joe Biden accused the Donald Trump administration of “deliberate cruelty” in downsizing the federal agency that disburses post-retirement benefits to retirees, reported IANS.
“The last thing they need from their Government is deliberate cruelty,” Biden said of the efforts by the Trump administration to downsize the Social Security Administration, the agency that uses federal taxes collected from employees and employers to disburse post-retirement benefits to retirees. The scheme is somewhat comparable to India’s provident fund programme.
“Social Security is about more than retirement accounts,” he said, and added, “It’s about honouring a fundamental trust between Government and people.” The former president did not name President Donald Trump or his Cabinet Secretaries and advisers such as Elon Musk, the billionaire adviser, but made pointed references that left few doubts about the identity of his targets.
Musk was not named, but his description of the social security system as a Ponzi scheme (a scam played on investors by using their monies to keep up the illusion of returns non-existent to attract more investments) was.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s dismissal of delays as not a concern for his 94-year-old motherin-law was. Trump was not mentioned, but the deficits he ran up with his first-term tax cuts were. Biden is predictably not popular in the Trump world, but he also has few friends in his world of Democrats. Many in his party blame him for Trump’s return to the White House.
