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For Immediate Release
October, 01 2018, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Linda Benesch, 240-342-4301, lbenesch@socialsecurityworks.org
Andrew Saul is Unfit to Lead the Social Security Administration
The following is a statement from Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Secur
WASHINGTON
The following is a statement from Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works, in anticipation of tomorrow's Senate Finance Committee hearing on Donald Trump's nomination of Andrew M. Saul for Commissioner Of Social Security:
"Like so many of Donald Trump's nominees, Andrew Saul is utterly unqualified for the position to which he has been nominated. He has no background in Social Security whatsoever.
He did, however,serve on the boardof the right-wing Manhattan Institute which has consistently been extremely hostile to Social Security, including publishing articlesadvocating for drastic cuts to benefits.
Furthermore, Saul has a track record of deeply concerning personal conduct. In November 2007, Saul was forced to drop out of the race for a New York Congressional seat due to unethical campaign contributions. In April 2012, Saul tried to lie "his way out of a trespassing rap by falsely identifying himself as a police commissioner."
Saul graduated from The Wharton School in 1968, the same year as Donald Trump. Like Trump and many of Trump's appointees, including Brett Kavanaugh, Saul appears to believe that his wealth and privilege should make him above the law.
This is not a man who should be in charge of Social Security, a program that is an essential lifeline for over 60 million Americans and their families. A vote for Andrew Saul is a vote against Social Security. The Senate Finance Committee must reject this nomination."
Further Reading:
Letter from the Strengthen Social Security Coalition urging the Finance Committee to reject Saul
Social Security Works' mission is to: Protect and improve the economic security of disadvantaged and at-risk populations; Safeguard the economic security of those dependent, now or in the future, on Social Security; and Maintain Social Security as a vehicle of social justice.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that he intends to nominate Linda McMahon, the billionaire former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, to lead the Department of Education, a key agency that Republicans—including Trump and the authors of Project 2025—have said they want to abolish.
McMahon served as head of the Small Business Administration during Trump's first White House term and later chaired both America First Action—a pro-Trump super PAC—and the America First Policy Institute, a far-right think tank that has expressed support for cutting federal education funding and expanding school privatization.
Trump touted McMahon's work to expand school "choice"—a euphemism for taxpayer-funded private school vouchers—and said she would continue those efforts on a national scale as head of the Education Department.
"We will send Education BACK TO THE STATES, and Linda will spearhead that effort," Trump said in a statement posted to his social media platform, Truth Social. (McMahon is listed as an independent director of Trump Media & Technology Group, which runs Truth Social.)
The National Education Association (NEA), a union that represents millions of teachers across the U.S., said in response to the president-elect's announcement that McMahon is "grossly unqualified" to lead the Education Department, noting that she has "lied about having a degree in education," presided over an organization "with a history of shady labor practices," and "pushed for an extreme agenda that would harm students, defund public schools, and privatize public schools through voucher schemes."
"During his first term, Donald Trump appointed Betsy DeVos to undermine and ultimately privatize public schools through vouchers," NEA president Becky Pringle said in a statement. "Now, he and Linda McMahon are back at it with their extreme Project 2025 proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, steal resources for our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for disabled students, and put student civil rights protections at risk."
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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, took a more diplomatic approach, saying in a statement that "we look forward to learning more about" McMahon and that, if she's confirmed, "we will reach out to her as we did with Betsy DeVos at the beginning of her tenure."
"While we expect that we will disagree with Linda McMahon on many issues, our devotion to kids requires us to work together on policies that can improve the lives of students, their families, their educators, and their communities," Weingarten added.
McMahon is one of several billionaires Trump has selected for major posts in his incoming administration, which is teeming with conflicts of interest. During Trump's first term, McMahon and her husband, Vince McMahon, made at least $100 million from dividends, investment interest, and stock and bond sales.
The Guardiannoted Tuesday that "in October, [Linda] McMahon was named in a new lawsuit involving WWE."
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Emanuel's purchase took place one day before the Japanese government announced a $320 million subsidy to Micron Technology to manufacture storage components that are essential to the Nvidia chips which CoreWeave relies on for its AI computation services.
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As Common Dreamsreported last week, progressive critics of Emanuel have called his potential leadership of the DNC—after various devastating losses for the party on Election Day earlier this month—a "sick joke" and "the worst idea in the world."
Noting Emanuel's consideration of the job in an email to supporters on Tuesday, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that "there is a disease in Washington of Democrats who spend more time listening to the donor class than working people. If you want to know the seed of the party's political crisis—that's it."
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Martin O'Malley, a former Democratic presidential candidate and Maryland governor, and Ken Martin, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party chair and a DNC vice chair, have both formally launched their campaigns for the position.
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Sanders, who caucuses with Democrats, said after the elections earlier this month that "it should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them."
According toCBS News:
Rocha said he's still waiting to see how the field develops before jumping in, and "if there's a better candidate that really stands for what I want to see done with the party."
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Politicoreported Tuesday that another Sanders ally, James Zogby, "expects to formally launch his campaign in the coming days."
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Participants wore red T-shirts and unfurled banners—which footage on social media shows were snatched by police—urging Congress to fund climate action, education, healthcare, housing, and jobs, "not genocide." There were also messages pushing lawmakers to "stop arming Israel" and telling them it is "time to act."
Thakker reported that the protesters were calling on senators to support joint resolutions of disapproval (JRDs) that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced in September and plans to bring to the floor for a vote on Wednesday.
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So far just six other members of the chamber—Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.)—have signaled support for the resolutions.
Even if the JRDs were passed by the Senate, they would need to get through the Republican-held U.S. House of Representatives to reach President Joe Biden's desk—and if the Democrat vetoed them, an override requires two-thirds support in both chambers.
Citing Capitol Police, ABC News reporter Beatrice Peterson said Tuesday that "all 44 individuals arrested were charged with crowding, obstructing, and incommoding. Two of them were also charged with assault on a police officer."
Meanwhile, in Illinois, 13 members of Chicago's chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) were arrested for shutting down Caterpillar's Business and Analytics Hub by blocking escalators and elevators.
"Caterpillar builds armored D9 bulldozers that the Israeli military uses in its genocidal campaign in Gaza and to demolish homes in the occupied West Bank," JVP Chicago said in a statement. "This protest comes at a historic moment: This week Congress is set to vote on legislation to block U.S. weapons sales to the Israeli government."
As the Chicago protesters were arrested, they called on Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) to support Sanders' resolutions.
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