Rep. Mike Levin’s Statement on President Trump’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress
Washington, D.C.—Tonight, Rep. Mike Levin (CA-49) released the following statement on President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.
“Tonight, I had hoped to hear real ideas to lower costs. I had hoped for commonsense policy. That is what the American people deserve.
“Instead, we got a blizzard of lies.
“During his first term alone, Donald Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims, according to The Washington Post—21 lies a day. By his final year, it was 39 lies a day. Tonight, he took it to a whole new level.
“Some of the biggest lies are Trump’s claims about Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency—or as I call it, the Destruction of Government by Elon. Trump claims Musk is saving money. The truth? Musk is trying to slash Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ care, disaster response, and more. His ‘savings’ are fake—double-counted, exaggerated, or credit for money already spent. DOGE is designed to gut agencies from the inside out, not actually improve government.
“When Trump talks about cutting government, remember who pays the price. Seniors waiting months for Social Security. Veterans waiting longer for care. Families left without help after disasters. Slashing the federal workforce does not save money—it sabotages services people rely on.
“And it gets worse. Musk is demanding access to private Social Security, Medicare, and health data. Why? Probably to feed his growing AI business. That is a massive conflict of interest—and a direct threat to every American’s privacy.
“Now Trump and his allies are lying about Social Security itself. They claim 150-year-olds are collecting benefits. That is false.
“The truth is, Social Security has strict controls to stop improper payments. Benefits automatically stop at age 115 unless someone can prove they are alive. The Social Security Administration constantly checks its records using Medicare and other tools. There is zero evidence anyone even close to 150 is getting benefits. This is just another Trump lie to make people doubt Social Security—a program millions of Americans paid into and depend on.
“The lies do not stop there. Trump said tariffs would bring in trillions and create jobs. Here is the truth: Tariffs increase prices on American families. Prices go up on cars, food, and everyday items—and American families pay. Trump’s last tariffs crushed farmers, slowed job growth, and hurt small businesses. More tariffs will just raise prices even higher.
“No matter what Trump does—tariffs, firing federal workers, spreading lies about Social Security—the real questions never change: How does this lower the cost of eggs? How does this help you afford a home? It does not—and Trump hopes you will not notice.
“On immigration, I am ready to work with the president to secure the border and fix our broken system. Real border security means smarter technology, more asylum officers to clear the backlog, and cracking down on fentanyl at the ports—where most of it comes in. Trump offers none of that. Just chaos and cruelty.
“Mass deportations will not secure the border either. They will gut the workforce, further drive up prices, and harm local economies. That is not leadership. That is just a cruel political stunt.
“Perhaps Trump’s most absurd claims are that he cares about balancing the budget. His 2017 tax cuts already added nearly $2 trillion to the debt, almost all of it to help billionaires and big corporations. He added nearly $8 trillion to the debt in his first four years. Now, Trump and House Republicans want to add $4 trillion more to the debt to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy—while also slashing Medicaid, harming health care for at-risk seniors, families, and children.
“You cannot call yourself a fiscal conservative and support Trump’s budget. Blowing up the debt to reward billionaires while gutting programs working families depend on is not responsible—it is a heist.
“The American people deserve honest leadership—not this blizzard of lies.”
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