Entitlement spending was the largest driver of America’s debt and the Social Security time bomb had been counting down for decades. Over the weekend, CBS News Sunday Morning stirred at the sound only to promote raising taxes as the most viable solution, dismissed investing the money, and completely ignored President Trump’s baby bonds which were already signed into law last month. Of course, they also decried Trump’s cuts to the Social Security Administration.
Kicking the stories off with the report by David Pogue, the first thing viewers were met with was a soundbite of former Biden Press Secretary turned MSNBC host Jen Psaki proclaiming: “Social Security recipients are dealing with an unbelievable amount of chaos.”
“Social Security has been getting a lot of attention lately -- and not the good kind. The Social Security Administration was already at its smallest size in 50 years, when earlier this year, Elon Musk`s DOGE team cut another 14 percent of its employees -- 7,000 people,” Pogue lamented.
Noting that Social Security was the primary source of income for 40 percent of seniors, Pogue touted: “For years, this all worked pretty well. Social Security became America`s biggest government program.” But he warned that things were coming to a head as baby boomers taking money out of the system were increasingly outnumbering young folks paying in.
Pogue spoke to a former SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue who dismissed the idea that the program would be nonexistent after it went bankrupt. “[I]f Congress does nothing, they`ll get about 80 percent of what they get now. And that will be a significant hit for a lot of Americans,” Astrue cautioned.
“We`ve seen this moment coming for years. All kinds of solutions have been kicked around,” Pogue said. Of course, the solutions Pogue suggested were the most viable involved just raising taxes:
We could increase the tax a little. We could shrink the payments a little. We could delay the retirement age, which is now defined as 62. Or, if you`re a high earner, today you`re taxed on only the first portion of your income. So, we could tax more of your income by raising that cap or eliminating it altogether.
Finally, we could invest your Social Security contributions in the stock market instead of Treasury bills, but that`s really risky. A market crash could wipe the whole thing out overnight.
Astrue expects it`ll be some combination of those ideas.
Pogue failed to mention the efforts already undertaken by the Trump administration in the Big Beautiful Bill to create savings accounts or baby bonds.
“Economic experts have long advocated for this concept, variably known as baby bonds, child development accounts or child trust funds,” PBS reported back in July. “The idea is to introduce more Americans to investing and to build small amounts of wealth with little cost for the children or their families.” The left leaning outlet even admitted that “the accounts would be a financial boon for everyone who gets one.”
Additionally, Astrue made some factually questionable comments when trying to dismiss claims made by Musk that illegal immigrants were getting payouts from Social Security they weren’t entitled to. “He`s just lying. That`s one of the most ridiculous things I`ve heard anyone say in Washington. He`s got it exactly backwards. So, they pay in, but they don`t collect,” Astrue bitterly declared.
What he didn’t explain was how those illegals were able to pay into Social Security when they didn’t (or weren’t supposed to) have Social Security numbers, which were required to pay in.
Of course, Pogue also failed to call out Social Security for being a government-run Ponzi scheme as he was describing how it worked: “The idea was that the government would take a small piece out of every worker`s paycheck and pay it to people reaching retirement age. Today, those checks average about $2,000 a month…”
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
CBS News Sunday Morning
August 3, 2025
9:07:08 a.m. EasternJANE PAULEY: However the economic winds are blowing. For some 90 years, Social Security has been a vital financial safety net for older Americans. Now, as David Pogue tells us, many people are wondering, just how safe that safety net is.
[Cuts to video]
JEN PSAKI: Social Security recipients are dealing with an unbelievable amount of chaos.
DAVID POGUE: Social Security has been getting a lot of attention lately -- and not the good kind.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: We paid it in and now we want to take it out and live with dignity.
POGUE: The Social Security Administration was already at its smallest size in 50 years, when earlier this year, Elon Musk`s DOGE team cut another 14 percent of its employees -- 7,000 people.
ELON MUSK: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.
POGUE: Frank Bisignano is President Trump`s new Social Security Commissioner. In an interview with CBS Evening News last spring, he insisted that the cuts won`t affect people`s ability collect their benefits.
FRANK BISIGNANO (May 2025) : We`re bringing in a massive technology effort to transform the servicing agenda. We`re going to bring A.I. into the phone system. I intend it to be completed this year.
MICHAEL ASTRUE: I`m getting calls now all the time, from people that can`t get through on the telephone, from people that can`t get appointments in the field offices. And it will, in some cases, delay benefits. This is a very tough thing for millions of Americans.
POGUE: Michael Astrue was the commissioner of the Social Security Administration under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He takes particular issue with something Musk often said about Social Security before he left the government in May.
Elon Musk keeps saying that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to illegal immigrants.
ASTRUE: He`s just lying. That`s one of the most ridiculous things I`ve heard anyone say in Washington. He`s got it exactly backwards. So, they pay in, but they don`t collect.
POGUE: In fact, what experts worry about is not fraud, which the agency itself estimates is below one one-hundredth of one percent of payouts. It`s the Social Security time bomb.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (Former President of the United States): This Social Security measure gives at least some protection to 30 millions of our citizens.
POGUE: President Franklin Roosevelt created the program in 1935, during the Great Depression, as a safety net to help keep Americans out of poverty.
The idea was that the government would take a small piece out of every worker`s paycheck and pay it to people reaching retirement age. Today, those checks average about $2,000 a month, and they`re the primary source of income for 40 percent of older Americans.
ASTRUE: If Social Security were not here, you`d have about 22 million Americans who would be considered poor under the federal standards.
POGUE: For years, this all worked pretty well. Social Security became America`s biggest government program. Today, it pays $1.6 trillion in retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 73 million Americans. But, when World War II ended, there was a shock to the system.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Post-war America, with a building boom and a baby boom.
POGUE: And all those baby boomer babies got older. Now, there are a lot more people getting money from the system -- and a lot fewer people paying in. And we started living longer. In FDR`s day, the average age of death in America was 63 years old. Today, it`s 77. That`s 14 years more payments per person.
ASTRUE: You will hear a lot of people saying, there will be no Social Security for you. And that`s, in all likelihood, not true. So, if Congress does nothing, they`ll get about 80 percent of what they get now. And that will be a significant hit for a lot of Americans.
POGUE: That hit is expected to arrive in 2033. That`s eight years from now.
We`ve seen this moment coming for years. All kinds of solutions have been kicked around. We could increase the tax a little. We could shrink the payments a little. We could delay the retirement age, which is now defined as 62. Or, if you`re a high earner, today you`re taxed on only the first portion of your income. So, we could tax more of your income by raising that cap or eliminating it altogether.
Finally, we could invest your Social Security contributions in the stock market instead of Treasury bills, but that`s really risky. A market crash could wipe the whole thing out overnight.
Astrue expects it`ll be some combination of those ideas.
ASTRUE: The likelihood is that Congress will panic right toward the deadline. There will be some cuts in benefits, and there`ll be some increase in taxation.
POGUE: In the meantime, Astrue worries about the more immediate problem, the indiscriminate cuts.
ASTRUE: The way they`re doing it, which is just, meat axe cuts that are fairly random, is not the way. It`s actually going to impair the agency`s ability to make productive changes.
POGUE: And to be clear, you are a Republican?
ASTRUE: I am. I voted for President Trump. So, I`m all for change, but I`m all for intelligent change. And the people who are trying to drive this change don`t understand the system. I don’t think they care.
