Alaska Republican Compared Social Security To 'Ponzi Scheme'

Nick Begich, the Alaska Republican challenging Rep. Mary Peltola (D) in a critical House race, compared Social Security to a “Ponzi scheme” in an appearance on a conservative talk radio show last year.

In a lengthy interview on “The Michael Dukes Show” in July 2023, Dukes, the host, prompted Begich to speak about what the candidate described as Peltola’s promise not to “touch” Social Security funding.

Begich ― the founder of a software company who lent his last campaign, in 2022, $650,000 — noted that the massive benefits program has a funding gap that will cause an automatic 20% benefit reduction in 2035, absent congressional action. Begich claimed Peltola’s supposed aversion to plugging that hole is “crazy.”

He then criticized the government for investing the trust fund it uses to pay out benefits in U.S. Treasury bonds, which provide a lower return on investment than other assets.

If a young person sought professional advice on how to invest money, “they would not tell you to invest in the lowest-yielding security available,” Begich said.

Social Security’s trust fund is invested in Treasury bonds because they’re widely seen as very low-risk. But Begich has a different, unsubstantiated theory: that Social Security’s Treasury investments are a way for the government to buy its own debt.

“Because we run these huge deficits, we need someone to buy all the debt that we’re producing,” he concluded. “And guess what? That’s you, through your Social Security. That trust fund has been invested in government debt from the get-go, and it’s a Ponzi scheme, and it’s used to prop the system up.”

Peltola is one of five House Democrats in seats that former President Donald Trump carried in 2020. Her reelection is an essential part