“They Earned It”: Beatty Blasts Musk, GOP Over Social Security Chaos
Beatty brought her fight home to Columbus on Friday during a Social Security protection town hall.
COLUMBUS, OH — At Jenkins Terrace Senior Apartments, there was no stage. No podium. Congresswoman Joyce Beatty was seated among the people she serves — shoulder to shoulder with the seniors who made this country run. She listened closely, took notes, and spoke plainly.
In that room, Social Security wasn’t a line item or a talking point. It was rent. It was medicine. It was dignity.
And according to Beatty, it's under attack.
The chaos began after Elon Musk, appointed by Donald Trump to head the new so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), pushed a wave of sudden “cost-cutting” changes through the Social Security Administration. One of the first moves: banning seniors from updating their direct deposit bank information over the phone — a lifeline many rely on. The result? Panic, confusion, and unnecessary hardship.
Across the country, elderly and disabled Americans lined up for hours at SSA offices, forced to prove their identity in person. Others sat on hold for over an hour — if they could even get through. SSA’s website repeatedly crashed after Musk’s DOGE team rolled out untested software. Many were left wondering whether their checks would come at all.
“This isn’t efficiency — it’s erasure,” Beatty said. “Elon Musk doesn’t understand what it means to be 80 years old and trying to keep your lights on. What he did was reckless. Dangerous. Cruel.”
Beatty brought her fight home to Columbus on Friday during a Social Security protection town hall. Her message was blunt: federal benefits are not a luxury, they are a promise. And billionaires don’t get to rewrite that promise just to balance the books on the backs of working people.
“These dollars put food on the table and keep a roof over people’s heads,” Beatty said. “And they want to cut that so the wealthiest people on Earth can pay even less? Not on my watch.”
In Beatty’s district alone, more than 100,000 people receive Social Security benefits — pumping over $182 million a month into the local economy. “Those numbers are not abstract,” she said. “They are survival.”
The event was part of a coordinated effort by House Democrats to fight back against what Beatty called a dangerous assault on programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. She made it clear: the consequences of these cuts are deadly real, especially for Black, Brown, and low-income communities who often face higher barriers to navigating federal systems.
Then came the fire.
Senator Tommy Tuberville appeared on Fox News claiming that Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are “going to go broke” without drastic reform. Beatty didn’t hesitate to call that out for what it is — “a lie.” She pointed directly to the GOP’s consistent track record of voting against healthcare, food assistance, and Social Security protections while backing billionaire tax cuts. “They’ve lied before. They’re lying again,” she said. “And I refuse to let those lies dictate policy that hurts the very people who built this country.”
“They continue to cut services,” she added. “And what happens? Billionaires get more benefits, and our communities get left behind.”
Beatty says she’s not just sounding the alarm — she’s taking the fight straight into Republican districts. “I took an oath to serve people — not parties,” she said. “Whether you're rich or poor, Black, white or Brown, Democrat or Republican — you deserve to be heard. And I’m not going to stop fighting.”
As she stood to leave, there was no thunderous applause — just a powerful stillness. Seniors rose to greet her with quiet nods, misty eyes, and hands that held hers just a little longer. In that moment, politics faded. The struggle was human. And Beatty is fighting like she knows exactly what’s at stake.
