Letters: People missing Social Security check are not 'fraudsters' for complaining
What do Trump administration officials think about the “average American” and programs like Social Security? Listen to the recent comments of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was raising alarm over “fraudsters” receiving Social Security benefits.
Lutnick said March 20 on a conservative podcast that if Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month, his mother-in-law, who’s 94, "wouldn’t call and complain. … She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining,” the billionaire businessman said. “Anybody who’s been in the payment system … knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing.”
Most Americans on Social Security don’t have the luxury to wait on a payment. Like many Americans who live paycheck to paycheck, many elderly depend on Social Security to prevent becoming destitute.
If your son-in-law is a billionaire, maybe you don’t have to depend on your Social Security payment. But, if he’s not and if you complain, no one should label you a “fraudster."
Many Republican politicians and their supporters don’t care about government social programs because they don’t need them. But raise taxes or regulate their businesses so that they can’t defraud consumers, and you’ll hear a whole lot of screaming and complaining. Are they “fraudsters,” too?
Joe Barmess, Pataskala
At the Newark City Council meeting on March 17, I stepped to the podium for my allotted "three-minutes" to speak. I practiced my statement several times to make sure it was in the allotted time. After two minutes and 47 seconds, I was abruptly cut off by Council President Jeff Harris, who said my time was up. A woman who followed me spoke for four minutes and was awarded a 30-second warning.
I suspect Harris received high fives from Council members Doug Marmie and Spencer Barker for my mistreatment.
Harris later accused me during the meeting of making false statements about city Public Service Director Dave Rhodes and City Council. So I sent Harris my prepared remarks, challenging him to point out the false statements — and I asked for a public apology if he can't.
Marmie displayed his ineptness by blaming part of the lack of advertising to pay for the $340,000 electronic scoreboard at the Don Edwards Park sports complex on the COVID pandemic. The park received its highest revenue ever in the COVID year. The plan contributed the maximum amount, per contract, to the Licking County Foundation — the same amount as the prior and following year.
Marmie went on to state that “ half of the information he (Froelich) presents in emails or anything he says is inaccurate or false — he exaggerates significanty.”
Subsequently, I sent Marmie an email offering to donate $10,000 to any 501(c)(3) charity in Licking County if he could substantiate that the numbers I presented on March 17 are false. If not, I said I expect a public apology.
The silence is deafening.
Dave Froelich, Newark
The Declaration of Independence says that Americans have the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” These rights cannot be sold, given, or taken away. It also says how these rights are protected: “Governments are instituted . . . deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Governments that we have elected exist to protect our right to a satisfying private life.
Yet, for the past 50 years, Republican politicians have been slowly tearing down the government that protects our rights. The new Trump/Musk regime now threatens our life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.
MAGA Republicans take away our lives when they gut organizations that do things like protect our health, our clean water and air, or provide help when disasters strike. It takes away our liberty when it censors what teachers can teach or what the press can publish. Or when it tells individuals what they must do with their bodies. It takes away the pursuit of happiness when it attacks education, the most important pathway to a fulfilling life. It takes away life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness when it takes away from seniors the Social Security that they paid into all their working lives so that those lives can continue after they stop working.
But the Declaration of Independence also tells us what we must do to stop these attacks on our rights. We go back to basics: “Whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.”
We can act to protect our safety and happiness by protecting our government. The private depends on the public.
Laurie Finke, Gambier, Ohio
This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Letters: Someone calling about missing SS check not a 'fraudster'
