Howard Lutnick is Absolutely Correct
The ones that complain the loudest are, in fact, the fraudsters. Who's been doing the loudest complaining for the past decade?
Recently, the Trump Administration’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, was quoted saying a remarkably true statement. Actually, an astonishingly true statement.
The video and/or audio of this quote can be found anywhere online, and I encourage you to find it.
Here’s what he said:
"A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining."
"easiest way to find a fraudster is to…..listen" for "whoever screams."
“the people who are getting that free money, stealing the money, inappropriately getting the money, have an inside person getting the money, they are going to yell and scream.”
Oh, I’m sorry, did I leave out context?
Well, before we look at context. Let’s focus on these quotes. Could truer statements ever have been uttered by a person in power?
Hmm, let’s see. Who’s been complaining the loudest for the past decade?
Who complains about everything and anything that thwarts their plan to grift and benefit from their position of power?
Who drones on and on at loud volumes about how unfair their life is and how the system is rigged against them?
Who posts on social media in all caps—presumably to indicate “screaming and yelling”—about how wrongly they are constantly treated?
This person surely would be the beneficiary of fraud and grift, Lutnick would say.
And I would say I agree with him wholeheartedly!
Is Grandma a fraudster?
But Lutnick wasn’t talking about the same sorts of people I am. He was talking about your grandma and grandpa, mother and father.
Those quotes were regarding Social Security payments potentially being disrupted, which is literally a thing no one ever worried about until the last couple weeks.
Here are the full quotes as reported by Newsweek:
"Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law is 94, she wouldn't call up and complain. She just wouldn't. She would think something got messed up and she'd get it next month," he said. "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining."
Lutnick said the "easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen" for "whoever screams." Most recipients trust the government and would understand if they didn't receive the check, he said.
"So what happens is you need to get to, so the people who are getting that free money, stealing the money, inappropriately getting the money, have an inside person getting the money, they are going to yell and scream. But real America is going to be rewarded," he said.
There are a lot of problems with his logic in the context of Social Security.
First and foremost, yes, the 94-year-old mother-in-law of a billionaire will probably not call and complain if a social security check is missed. In fact, she probably wouldn’t even notice it was missed, seeing as how her billionaire daughter and son-in-law have likely taken care of her every want and need.
Second, millions and millions of people would call, and possibly complain. I mean, they might call to inquire about the missed check and not necessarily “complain” right off the bat. There could be an escalation of this inquiry that results in a “complaint”, but perhaps it would get resolved and no complaint would be necessary.
I certainly don’t think that people would be “screaming and yelling” as a result of one missed check, provided it got resolved without much problem. And yes, the people that immediately scream and yell are perhaps questionable people with mental health issues, possibly even “fraudsters”.
But at the same time, it’s hard to blame people for being upset that a government check that they’ve reliably received every single month of their retirement years just suddenly didn’t come in. I mean, it would be very surprising if you think about it.
And most people wouldn’t just forgive and forget once the check was missed. They’d want it to be made right. And they would also expect the next check too. In the end they would rightfully expect no “missed” check when it’s all said and done. The “missed” check would have to be resolved for most people to be satisfied and not scream and yell.
Third, this isn’t “free money”. This is literally money they’ve paid into a government program, money they have missed throughout their lives, only to be promised to get it back during their retirement years.
Why do these militant spending hawks not get this? This isn’t just a government hand out that someone else subsidizes. It’s literally subsidized by the people that pay into it. They are getting their own money back.
Election Fodder
Lutnick may be the best thing to happen to Democrats this side of Elon Musk and Donald Trump himself. He is the embodiment of the mediocre billionaire oligarch that talks too much. Statements like these show how out of touch the people currently in power are, and how little they think or care about average citizens.
The question is: will the average people that rely on Social Security that voted them in power realize this?
It’s Democrats’ jobs to make sure they do.
Howard Nutlick is certifiably insane. I’m an almost 76 year old guy who depends on SSI for luxuries like food, gas, and electricity. Were I a bazillionaire, I’d probably have a more la-de-da attitude, but I’m not. But lest he forget, it’s MY FUCKING MONEY, entrusted to a government I used to trust till nutlickers like him attacked its every intent that they might purchase rubies and pearls for their mistresses!
It’s telling that under the federal rules of civil procedure fraud, unlike other claims, has enhanced pleading standards requiring it to be alleged with particularity. The con artists claiming that they have uncovered “fraud” can’t even provide a single factual detail about what it is exactly that they have found.