{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-social-security-is-a-scam/", "Tuberville: Social Security Is A Scam", "2026-07-30", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 This week, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) delivered a speech exposing the federal government\u2019s failed Social Security program as a scam that will be bankrupt soon. In his speech, Sen. Tuberville suggested that the federal government should not be stealing hardworking American taxpayers\u2019 dollars to prop up a failed program. Instead, Americans should be allowed to keep their money to invest in other ways for retirement.\n\nRead excerpts from Sen. Tuberville\u2019s remarks below or watch on YouTube or Rumble.\n\n\u201cThank you, Mr. President. [\u2026] [I\u2019ve] come to the floor to talk about a big scam in our country. It\u2019s happening in broad daylight before our very eyes. Politicians here in Washington know what\u2019s going on, but they refuse to speak about it. They\u2019re too worried about getting re-elected in most cases. And they think telling the truth about [the] scam will hurt their chances of staying in power. Well, here\u2019s the sad truth. For decades now, the American people have paid into Social Security each month without having any idea if they will ever see a cent of the money that they put in. Since being signed in the law in 1935 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt [\u2026] Americans\u2019 money has been going in the front door of the federal government and then going right out the back door.\n\nYour dollar doesn\u2019t grow, and it doesn\u2019t come back to you or your children. It\u2019s a big, gigantic, blown-up Ponzi scheme. And the last time I looked, people who do Ponzi schemes usually go to jail. Every American is forced to participate in it. You got no choice. You don\u2019t have a say of the matter. Whether you\u2019re 17 or 67, more than 6 percent of your paycheck is taken out by the federal government to pay for Social Security. Your so-called \u2018retirement.\u2019 That might not seem like a lot, but to millions of Americans struggling to live paycheck to paycheck, that 6 percent is a huge sacrifice. Americans have been paying into this program for years, only to see a fraction of what they have been promised. It really makes you wonder how this government approved Ponzi scheme is legal. The truth is that this retirement savings, this savings program, is 100 percent broke. It\u2019s absolutely broke. Just like our federal government with $40 trillion dollars in debt.\n\nThe Social Security fund is projected to run out of its reserve money in 2032 just a few years from now. When these funds are depleted, senior citizens could see a cut in their monthly check up to 22 to 25 percent of their benefits. On average, that\u2019s $500 a month. If the federal government were to try and save the program, it would most likely mean that your taxes would skyrocket. 38 percent of mandatory spending within the federal budget, annually, goes towards [the] failing Social Security program. Yes. The money you send up here, 38 percent a year goes to Social Security. Not the money that you already sent because guess what? It\u2019s been sent. It\u2019s been spent and scammed out of our system. It\u2019s not there. In other words, almost $1.6 trillion every year of your taxpayer dollars is being spent on a program that is currently scheduled to go bankrupt in 6 years.\n\nSo basically, the money you send up here has been spent and now is nowhere to be found. The Social Security program is the single largest program we\u2019re wasting our tax dollars on. It\u2019s a mind-boggling program to say the least. But don\u2019t worry, it gets worse. After decades of having Social Security taken out, millions of Americans had to pay taxes when they go to collect their Social Security. [\u2026] After you pay taxes and you put it in there for savings for many years and you get it back, guess what? You gotta pay taxes on it. Because our former president and former senator, Mr. Joe Biden, when he was a senator in 1983, got the great idea of \u2018let\u2019s tax Social Security.\u2019 What a scam. Depending on which tax brackets you\u2019re in, between 50 percent to 85 percent of your benefits can be taxed by the federal government.\n\nLast year, I introduced the Senior Citizens Tax Limitation Act to stop the unjust double tax on Social Security benefits. Thankfully, the One Big Beautiful Bill included senior deductions that significantly reduced federal taxes for the majority of retirees. Thank goodness. In a day and age where the cost of living is skyrocketing, our seniors should not experience a second tax on their Social Security when they\u2019re already paid tax on that money. If we must keep this outdated program, the least we can do is to ensure that senior citizens don\u2019t get slapped with a double tax. Despite what means Americans have been tricked into believing, it turns out that paying into Social Security does not entitle you to a fixed pot of money. Everybody thinks we\u2019re gonna pay in, and we\u2019ll get a lot of money at the end. That sad reality is that many Americans won\u2019t see a cent of the money that they paid into Social Security.\n\nBasically, Social Security is just, folks, another tax on both employees and employers since most companies have to match the 6 percent that their employees are forced to pay out their paychecks. They double the tax. This is socialism. It\u2019s highway robbery. And for the last 60 years, we\u2019ve known this program was going under, but no one up here has been willing to fix it. In fact, Social Security is known as the \u2018third rail\u2019 of politics that no one up here is allowed to talk about. Don\u2019t talk about Social Security because we don\u2019t have a solution that we might lose our jobs. In fact, Social Security is known as that \u2018third rail\u2019 because nobody will touch it. It\u2019s taboo to talk about Social Security. But my question is why? Why is that? We work for the people. We work for the taxpayers. We\u2019ve known this program was going bankrupt for years. It\u2019s been a disaster since Day 1. When many Americans are going to reach retirement age soon, we better look out. They\u2019re expecting to get their money. They\u2019re expecting to get the money that they paid into Social Security for years. They\u2019re gonna get screwed over with nothing left, and this is going to be a serious problem.\n\n[The] Social Security scam doesn\u2019t stop there. As you know, Joe Biden welcomed tens of millions of illegals into this country with open arms. They said that our borders are closed after they let 20 million people in that shouldn\u2019t be here. These aren\u2019t nice people either. Most of them, many of them are rapists, murderers, drug lords, and gang members. Well, it turns out, the Biden administration and Alejandro Mayorkas, our great Homeland Security [Secretary], they weren\u2019t just letting these illegals into our country without vetting them. They were handing them Social Security and Medicaid benefits as they were coming into the door. Welcome to the United States of America. We\u2019re broke, but we\u2019re gonna give you money. We\u2019re gonna give you a Social Security number. It\u2019s no wonder we\u2019re broke. While many of Americans will never see Social Security benefits that they worked hard to pay into throughout their careers, illegals\u2014they\u2019re getting money, they\u2019re getting rich off the money that Joe Biden said that they could have. It\u2019s disgusting, but it\u2019s not surprising.\n\nThis is our federal government. So, why aren\u2019t we allowed to talk about it? It\u2019s almost like the system was set up to fail from the get-go. You know, I caught a lot of flak when I brought this up in a hearing just a few years ago. What\u2019s this guy talking about? We\u2019re gonna get Social Security. If you believe that, I got beach land I\u2019ll say out in Arizona. Every single American has invested the money that they\u2019re forced to pay Social Security each month into a stock. If they\u2019d have done that, they would have gotten 10 times the money that they\u2019d put in. If it would just [be] invest[ed] it in the stock market. But you know where it was invested in? Most people don\u2019t know this. Your money when it comes here is put into treasury bonds that have very low returns. Very, very low. Not even close to anything that you would ever invest in yourself. That\u2019s where your money goes. Don\u2019t be naive.\n\nThe reason Social Security is invested in bonds is because it is being used to basically prop up the federal government. We\u2019re broke. We don\u2019t have any money. Please send more. Can we raise the Social Security tax? And just tell them, they\u2019re gonna get more money at the end. Folks, it is a scam. If this money had been invested in the stock market again, you\u2019d have 10 to 15 times more money. It\u2019s embarrassing. But apparently, we\u2019re not supposed to bring that up. To his credit, President George [W.] Bush tried to save Social Security in 2000. He tried to privatize a lot of this money. [\u2026] If we\u2019d have just done that, if this body in here would have just said \u2018OK, we know we screwed it up for 40 years. Let\u2019s go ahead and do it. Let\u2019s get out of this jam.\u2019 They don\u2019t want any part of it because they wanted to steal the rest of the money. And that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s going on. He suggested that younger workers divert their portion to a money market account that would pay for theirs in the future and ours today, those of us that are close to Social Security. But of course, the DC swamp up here, they shut that down fast. Let\u2019s don\u2019t talk about Social Security. It is taboo.\n\nIt\u2019s a dang shame. The program might not be on the verge of bankruptcy today if they\u2019d just invest part of the young people\u2019s money into the market. But you have to remember, the government relies on your money for their slush fund. The federal government stopped working in your best interest a long a long time ago. The average taxpayer earning the median wage of paying approximately $3,500 to $4,500 annually into the Social Security program over a 40-year work period\u2014 that\u2019s around $140,000 to $180,000 that could have gone toward a 401(k) and you\u2019d have money to retire on. People would be seeing much greater returns. We\u2019d better start figuring this out, folks. We\u2019d better start figuring it out. This group up here, a lot of them going to say, I\u2019m gonna be gone. I\u2019m not gonna have to worry about it. Somebody\u2019s gonna pay the price.\n\nIt won\u2019t be long till people be coming right around this building going, where is my money? You remember January 6th? January the 6th was a pretty bad day. I was here. I sat right over there. My very first day here. I\u2019m thinking, what a disaster I\u2019ve gotten into? Well, you start telling people you\u2019re not getting your Social Security money, it\u2019s gonna get ugly. And I don\u2019t blame them. Not one bit. We\u2019re $40 trillion in debt. There\u2019s no sign of it slowing down. The bottom line is we need to get bureaucrats and politicians out of this mess. Stop this Social Security scam. Let people really know what\u2019s going on and give the money back to the people. We need to make sure Americans get what they were promised, or we need to come up with an alternative solution that will allow Americans to make their own retirement investments, give them their money or let\u2019s put it in a money market account.\n\n[The] stock market is booming. It\u2019s far past time Washington, D.C. starts working for the people that we\u2019re supposed to represent. What a thought. Mind boggling, isn\u2019t it? Why would we do that? We work for ourselves up here. We don\u2019t work for the people. It\u2019s ridiculous. It\u2019s a scam. Not for special interest, not for career politicians and entrenched bureaucracy, or for Washington Elite projects. Instead of spending money we don\u2019t have on things we don\u2019t need, why don\u2019t we put the money back into American people\u2019s pockets? Tell them the damn truth. We stole your money, but we\u2019re gonna try to get your money back. Not only is it in America\u2019s best interest to do this, it is the right thing to do. Thanks, Mr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-31T07:49:23Z", "2026-07-31T07:50:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-social-security-is-a-scam/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.808786928653717, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}