Biden Admin Defends Trump Policy Of Denying Benefits To Elderly Puerto Ricans

The Trump administration had put a law in place that excluded low income elderly, blind, or otherwise disabled Puerto Ricans from receiving benefits from the federal government, and now the Biden administration says that they will defend this law in court. Even though Biden claims that he is against it and wants Congress to pass a new law to undo it, he claims that his administration has an obligation to defend it in court. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains what's happening.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

The Trump administration put a new rule in place that excluded low income, elderly, blind, or otherwise disabled Puerto Rican's from receiving supplemental social security benefits based on their disabilities, their age, their income, all of that. Regular Americans here on the mainland, we can get that, but sorry, Puerto Rico, even though you're US citizens, even though you pay tax taxes, um, you don't get that. And this provision from the Trump administration has been challenged in court and this week the Biden administration came out and said, we are going to defend this decision by the Trump administration in court. The DOJ will be handling that case and they will be arguing that we should not have to pay the supplemental social security benefits to those individuals down in Puerto Rico.

Now Biden came out and said afterwards, that listen, he wants Congress to pass a law that allows these folks in Puerto Rico, to get this benefit. He disagrees with the Trump bill. But then he explained that his hands are essentially tied in this matter. The US government is in fact, the defendant in this case and as such, they do have an obligation to go to court and defend it. And then that's the problem I don't think a lot of people understand. Okay. When I set out to do this story today, when I'm going through the news each morning and I see headlines that grab my attention, this one grabbed my attention because it me off and it should you off. But the truth is a lot deeper than what the headlines tell us. It was a good click baity story. In fact, this is actually from Reuters. You know, the headline is, Biden follows Trump in defending Puerto Rico benefits exclusion. Sounds like, oh wow, we're about to get off at Joe Biden.

But then you actually read the story and you realize one, Biden doesn't support this thing. But two, he is right. His hands are in fact tied in this particular matter, at least in terms of the court case, the government has to go and defend them. This isn't the Biden administration coming out there and saying, you know what, what if we go and defense, no, they have to, as they are the defendants. And they have to legally make a good faith effort to defend this rule. And it sucks that they have to do it. But folks, we have to make sure that we always read beyond those headlines. Okay. And that is a big problem with today and social media and the sharing of news is that people don't read the actual article. People don't go through. I've seen this article now floating around social media, people getting furious at Biden for doing this, without understanding that yes, even though it sucks, even though it's crappy, they actually have to do this.

We may disagree with this all day long. You know, we don't like this. I think 100%, those, those, those citizens should be entitled to those benefits. They are entitled to those benefits. But in the eyes of the law, the department of justice has to legally go and defend this. That's just the way things work sometimes. They don't have to go and defend Trump in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit. That's a decision they made and it's a terrible one at that. This one, they didn't have much of a choice. But if Biden is serious, that he wants these individuals to have these expanded benefits, he needs to get Congress working on this immediately.