“This is how mad everyone should be.”

That’s how one social media user responded to a video clip in which Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) “goes off” Republican members of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, who on Wednesday voted down his resolution of inquiry requesting that President Donald Trump provide certain information relating to the administration’s attacks on the Social Security Administration since Inauguration Day.

Larson, ranking member of the Social Security Subcommittee, specifically wants materials involving the agency and Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk—whose recent remarks about cutting up to $700 billion in “waste and fraud” in “entitlement spending” have elevated warnings that the administration is working to privatize Social Security.

“Where’s Elon Musk? …If he’s so great, if these plans and all the fraud and abuse that he found are so eminent, why isn’t he here explaining it?”

It is “a sad morning, a very sad morning, when this committee, the oldest and most continuous in the Congress, neglects its responsibility and essentially holds this hearing today to block any further discussion,” Larson said with his arms crossed.

“The men and women on this committee are good people—they’re honest and caring people—and that’s why I do not understand why you would relegate this committee to no longer being of significance and resort to saying you will do whatever Elon Musk and Donald Trump tell you to do,” he continued, raising his voice. “Where’s the independence of the committee? Where’s the legislature? We’re an equal branch of government.”

Gesturing to empty seats, Larson asked: “Where’s Elon Musk? I’m sure he’s a genius, and is a very credible person because of the wealth he’s accumulated, but that does not put him above the law or the responsibility to come before this committee and this Congress. If he’s so great, if these plans and all the fraud and abuse that he found are so eminent, why isn’t he here explaining it?”

“You know why, ’cause he’s out to privatize Social Security,” charged Larson, a longtime defender of the program. “He’s been on television the last couple of days, talking exactly about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and what he intends to do.”

Clips of Larson’s tirade sparked enthusiastic responses on social media, including Musk-owned X. One user said: “Wow! Watch this.” Another declared, “THIS IS STRAIGHT FUCKING FIRE!!!”

Advocacy groups including Social Security Works and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security & Medicare also promoted Larson’s comments online.

Progressive podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen suggested that other critics of the Republican agenda should follow Larson’s lead, saying, “This is the energy we need.”

As CT Insiderreported Wednesday:

Bette Marafino, president of the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans, said Wednesday she is “horrified” by the Trump administration’s rhetoric around Social Security, including baseless claims about long-dead people collecting benefits.

Marafino, 86, recalled her grandmother telling of visits to decrepit poorhouses, where poor Americans, many of them elderly, used to live in the days before Social Security and other safety net programs.

“If they get rid of Social Security or privatize it, which is what I think they want to do, what’s going to happen?” Marafino said. “What’s going to happen to so many people who only rely on Social Security?”

Larson dressed down the panel’s Republicans after leading a letter—signed by over 150 House Democrats—to acting Social Security Administration Commissioner Leland Dudek last week arguing that office closures and layoffs “will devastate SSA’s ability to serve the public and deliver Social Security payments, inflicting backdoor benefit cuts on the American people.”

In addition to blocking Larson’s resolution regarding what the congressman called Trump and Musk’s “hostile takeover of Social Security,” Republicans on the committee opposed another directing the president and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to turn over documents about DOGE’s access to department payment systems and confidential taxpayer information.

Meanwhile, in the upper chamber, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) on Wednesday led a letter urging Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to immediately convene a hearing “to investigate alarming
developments” at the SSA, including Dudek giving DOGE “unfettered access to Americans’ most sensitive information.”