Voters flood town halls with fears of Social Security cuts, putting heat on GOP over Musk and DOGE

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Voters flood town halls with fears of Social Security cuts, putting heat on GOP over Musk and DOGE

2025-03-15 22:48 Last Updated At：22:51

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — One after another, callers on a telephone town hall with U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga pressed the Michigan Republican about possible cuts to Social Security. Among them was a retired teacher and coach from West Michigan who said he and his wife, both with disabilities, have struggled to access their benefits.

The man, identified only as Michael from Allegan, said he feared that office closures and massive layoffs of federal workers — part of an effort by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to slash government spending — will make it even harder.

“We worked our entire life,” he said. “But we can’t get any help because we can’t get through to anybody.”

Huizenga pledged throughout the meeting: “Let me just reiterate, Social Security is not being touched."

Similar exchanges have played out across the political battleground of Michigan and elsewhere in the U.S. in recent days, as widespread cuts prompt fears among constituents about the popular program, which provides monthly benefits to retirees and some children. It's left Republicans scrambling to reassure voters and play down Musk's comments about Social Security and his ability to make cuts. The GOP also has accused Democrats of “fear-mongering" on the matter.

It's clear the issue has resonated. Of the 13 questions Huizenga took, nine were related to Social Security. In a nearby mid-Michigan district that was among the most competitive U.S. House races last year, a poll taken at the beginning of first-term GOP Rep. Tom Barrett's telephone town hall showed Social Security and Medicare as the top issue for attendees.

And at a fiery in-person town hall in Asheville, North Carolina, one of the first questions Rep. Chuck Edwards fielded was on how he would “ensure the protection of our Social Security benefits.” After the question was read, the room of about 300 people erupted in applause.

While Trump has repeatedly said he “will not cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid benefits,” the administration has begun layoffs affecting over 10% of the Social Security Administration workforce and the closure of dozens of offices nationwide.

Musk, the world's richest man and one of Trump's most influential advisers, has called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” He hinted that it could be a primary target in his broader effort to downsize the federal government, saying in an interview on Fox Business Network that “most of the federal spending is entitlements” and “that’s the big one to eliminate.”

The White House insisted Musk was only referring to fraud.

Democrats, struggling for a unified message against Trump, see an opportunity. Polling indicates that cuts to Social Security would be unpopular, including within Trump’s base. A solid majority of Republicans said the U.S. is spending “too little” on Social Security in a January AP-NORC poll, and only about 1 in 10 said “too much” is being spent on the program.

In her rebuttal to Trump’s joint congressional address earlier this month, Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin warned that the president “could very well come after your retirement.”

Potential cuts to critical government programs — such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — brought Leslie Boyd out to listen to Edwards’ town hall in North Carolina on Thursday. Those programs need to be improved instead of cut, Boyd said before the event, and she hoped Edwards had “the courage to stand up for that.”

Boyd, 72, said she has some savings, but depends on Social Security.

“I paid into that my entire career," Boyd said. “I worked from the time I was 16. I paid into that, it’s mine and I want it.”

Asked about the program inside the packed meeting, Edwards began by saying “President Trump has made it clear” before he was interrupted by jeers. He then shifted to discuss his own viewpoint on the program instead.

“I’m not going to vote to dissolve your Social Security. I’m not looking to,” Edwards started to say before being drowned out by shouting. He continued, “That’s a promise that’s been made to the American people. Those folks who have worked all their life and paid into that certainly deserve to reap the rewards.”

Several attendees continued to yell at Edwards, demanding he stand up to Musk.

Barrett opened a telephone town hall in his mid-Michigan district Monday night by addressing the flood of concerns over DOGE he said his office had been receiving. Barrett stressed that Musk is merely an adviser and said programs are “temporarily paused and under review.”

“I want to be very clear that this does not include Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid," he said. “Again, this does not include Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. It’s important to keep in mind that DOGE is only giving recommendations.”

Republican leaders have cautioned lawmakers against in-person town halls, contending without offering evidence that paid activists were disrupting events.

Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain, a staunch Trump ally, claimed Democratic donors had “organized” the disruptions.

Yet even in tightly controlled telephone town halls, where questions are often screened in advance by congressional staffers, Social Security was a top concern.

During McClain’s Monday call, a caller named Beverly, who said her handicapped son relies on Medicaid, expressed her fears: “I’m really concerned about that being cut, I guess.”

“Let me put your mind at ease. Do not listen to the Democrats that are fearmongering,” said McClain, who represents a heavily Republican district north of Detroit. “There are no cuts to Medicaid.”

During the town hall with Huizenga, a caller named Val from Berrien County, Michigan, voiced her frustration, warning that office closures could cause some beneficiaries to “slip through the cracks.”

“Suddenly they’re going to find themselves without the means to cover their housing, or the means to get the care they need or to be able to get food on the table,” she said.

Associated Press writer Makiya Seminera contributed from Asheville, N.C.

Trump invokes 18th century law to speed deportations, judge stalls it hours later

2025-03-16 10:46 Last Updated At：10:50

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge barred the Trump administration Saturday from carrying out deportations under a sweeping 18th century law that the president invoked hours earlier to speed removal of Venezuelan gang members from the United States.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg said he needed to issue his order immediately because the government already was flying migrants it claimed were newly deportable under President Donald Trump’s proclamation to be incarcerated in El Salvador and Honduras. El Salvador already agreed this week to take up to 300 migrants that the Trump administration designated as gang members.

“I do not believe I can wait any longer and am required to act,” Boasberg said during a Saturday evening hearing in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU and Democracy Forward. “A brief delay in their removal does not cause the government any harm,” he added, noting they remain in government custody but ordering that any planes in the air be turned around.

The ruling came hours after Trump claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua was invading the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations.

The act has only ever been used three times before, all during wars. Its most recent application was during World War II, when it was used to incarcerate Germans and Italians as well as for the mass internment of Japanese-American civilians.

In a proclamation released just over an hour before Boasberg's hearing, Trump contended that Tren de Aragua was effectively at war with the United States.

“Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA,” Trump’s statement reads. “The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”

The order could let the administration deport any migrant it identifies as a member of the gang without going through regular immigration proceedings, and also could remove other protections under criminal law for people the government targeted.

In a statement Saturday night, Attorney General Pam Bondi slammed Boasberg’s stay on deportations. “This order disregards well-established authority regarding President Trump’s power, and it puts the public and law enforcement at risk,” Bondi said.

The Tren de Aragua gang originated in a prison in the South American country and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone last decade. Trump and his allies have turned the gang into the face of the alleged threat posed by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally and formally designated it a “foreign terrorist organization” last month.

Authorities in several countries have reported arrests of Tren de Aragua members, even as Venezuela’s government claims to have eliminated the criminal organization.

The government said Trump actually signed the proclamation on Friday night. Immigration lawyers noticed the federal government suddenly moving to deport Venezuelans who they would not otherwise have the legal right to expel from the country, and scrambled to file lawsuits to block what they believed was a pending proclamation.

Boasberg issued an initial order at 9:20 a.m. Saturday blocking the Trump administration from deporting five Venezuelans named as plaintiffs in the ACLU suit who were being detained by the government and believed they were about to be deported. The Trump administration appealed that order, contending that halting a presidential act before it has been announced would cripple the executive branch.

If the order were allowed to stand, "district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action just upon receipt of a complaint,” the Justice Department wrote in its appeal.

Boasberg then scheduled the afternoon hearing on whether to expand his order to all people who could be targeted under Trump's declaration.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign contended that the president had broad latitude to identify threats to the country and act under the 1798 law. He noted the U.S. Supreme Court allowed President Harry Truman to continue to hold a German citizen in 1948, three years after World War II ended, under the measure.

“This would cut very deeply into the prerogatives of the president,” Ensign said of an injunction.

But Lee Gelernt of the ACLU contended that Trump didn't have the authority to use the law against a criminal gang rather than a recognized state. Boasberg said precedent on that question seemed tricky but that the ACLU had a reasonable chance of success on those arguments, and so the order was merited.

Boasberg halted deportations for those in custody for up to 14 days, and scheduled a Friday hearing in the case.

The flurry of litigation shows the significance of Trump's declaration, the latest step by the administration to expand presidential power. Ensign argued that, as part of its reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001 attack, Congress had given the president power to delegate “transnational” organizations threats on the level of recognized states. And Gelernt warned that the Trump administration could simply issue a new proclamation to use the Alien Enemies Act against another migrant gang, like MS-13, which has long been one of Trump's favorite targets.

Associated Press writer Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.