Smoldering Stump Gazette
At least in part...
Trump & friends are coming for your Social Security
One can use AI to verify news facts

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent official portrait via Wikipedia.
Another new and interesting way to check facts is to compose an artificial intelligence (AI) query such as the following. It lets one quickly find verification or denial that would take many individual searches using conventional search engines.

I submitted the following query to Perplexity.ai.

"Did US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent say to Breitbart News that the Trump era program for lifetime retirement accounts was really an opening wedge to eliminate or privatize social security?"

Perplexity responded:

"Yes, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did state—during a policy event hosted by Breitbart News—that the Trump administration’s lifetime retirement account program for newborns could serve as "a backdoor for privatizing Social Security." Bessent remarked: “In a way, it is a backdoor for privatizing Social Security,” clarifying that if these new accounts were to grow substantially and people had hundreds of thousands of dollars at retirement, that would fundamentally change the landscape[1][2][3][4][5].

However, after these statements drew sharp criticism from Democrats and advocates, Bessent and the administration issued clarifications, stating that the so-called "Trump Baby Accounts" are designed to supplement—not replace—Social Security and reaffirmed their public commitment to preserving the existing Social Security system[1][6][7][4].

In sum: Bessent did make the comment about the program possibly being an "opening wedge" or "backdoor" to Social Security privatization in a Breitbart forum, but subsequently clarified the administration's official policy as supporting Social Security alongside these new accounts[1][2][4][3].

You may be asking, So what?

Of course, the idea of "private retirement accounts" is an obvious pretext for destroying social security and replacing it with a "free market" plan in which each person manages a personal retirement fund. This would open the door to the funds now used for basic retirement to manipulation by agents and brokers.
Few of us have the acumen or training to go one-on-one with sophisticated securities traders. The essence of the scheme will INEVITABLY someday put a Bernie Madoff or other Ponzi schemer in charge of your finances and those of most other citizens. We are talking about trillions of dollars of "your" money up for grabs; the potential for abuse is essentially infinite.

And Mr. Bessent has acknowledged that that is exactly what he, Trump, and Project 2025 want to do.
Bessent includes the phrase "IF the private accounts were to grow substantially and people had hundreds of thousands of dollars" in retirement. Clearly, that is the biggest IF in global financial history.
Today under Social Security, a person with a middle class work history who has lived a normal working life receives around $2,000 per month. (Of course some who have worked less or at low-wage jobs get less.) Over a 30 year retirement, that's $720,000 in retirement income; for 20 years, $480,000. You may have noticed that's in fact "hundreds of thousands of dollars," but with none being taken out for commissions or junk fees.

For comparison, the administrative cost of managing the Social Security trust fund is approximately 0.5% per year. The fees charged by securities brokers for acounts under $500,000 range from 0.75% to 1.5%. (Figures from Perplexity.ai.) That means that on average, a retiree with that SS $2000 income would receive only $1,970 to $1,990. Such fees, if applied to the privatized SS trust fund of 2.7 trillion dollars, would yield fees of $40,500,000,000 annually, with benefits from those funds to retirees amounting to NOTHING! And that's assuming all the brokers were honest.

In short, it's a scam, invented by would-be parasites who want to suck your retirement blood. Of course, a few would "beat the system," but is that what SS is really about?

On the bright side, in old age, you'll be able to freely exchange racial and cultural epithets with your friends all day long, as you and your dying spouse sit outside the poorhouse. All the people who might have taken care of you will have been deported, and it won't matter, because you'll be unable to hire them anyway.

You'll really own the libs then!

Sources

[1] Social Security: Treasury secretary calls new Trump accounts ... - CNN https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/30/politics/social-security-privatization-scott-bessent
[2] Bessent hails new 'Trump accounts' as 'backdoor for privatizing ... https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/30/bessent-trump-accounts-backdoor-privatize-social-security-00484859
[3] Democrats blast Bessent over Trump baby accounts 'backdoor for ... https://neal.house.gov/2025/07/31/democrats-blast-bessent-over-trump-baby-accounts-backdoor-for-privatizing-social-security-remarks/
[4] Bessent calls Trump baby accounts 'backdoor for privatizing Social ... https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/bessent-calls-trump-baby-accounts-backdoor-privatizing-social-security-2025-07-30/
[5] Bessent Says Trump Accounts are “Backdoor” to Social Security ... https://retiredamericans.org/bessent-says-trump-accounts-are-backdoor-to-social-security-privatization/
[6] Bessent backpedals after blowback on 'privatizing Social Security ... https://www.investmentnews.com/retirement-planning/bessent-backpedals-after-blowback-on-privatizing-social-security-comments/261551
[7] Bessent Says 'Trump Baby Accounts' Will Supplement Social Security https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2025/07/30/scott-bessent-reiterates-trump-baby-accounts-will-supplement-social-security-payments/
[8] Bessent Admits Trump Tax Scam Offers 'Backdoor for Privatizing ... https://neal.house.gov/2025/07/30/bessent-admits-trump-tax-scam-offers-backdoor-for-privatizing-social-security/
[9] Bessent tries to walk back comments suggesting Social Security ... https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bessent-clarify-comments-suggesting-social-security-privatized/story?id=124248243
[10] Scott Bessent Articles - Breitbart https://www.breitbart.com/tag/scott-bessent/"