EJ Antoni Real America's Voice 3/14/25

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Trump’s BLS commissioner nominee EJ Antoni calls Social Security a “Ponzi scheme”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces the inflation statistic used for Social Security cost-of-living adjustments for seniors

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Frequent right-wing media guest and Project 2025 contributor E.J. Antoni — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics after he fired its previous commissioner following a bad jobs report — has on multiple occasions called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.” 

Antoni, widely regarded as a “partisan,” has repeatedly suggested changing the way BLS collects and reports on data, and even called for suspending some of the bureau's data reporting.

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  • Antoni has repeatedly called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” and said it needs to be ended

  • In November 2023, Antoni responded to a post about extending the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund by writing: “You can elongate a Ponzi scheme, but you can never make it permanent."

  • Notice the sleight of hand here: she says “extend” solvency, not fix it. You can elongate a Ponzi scheme, but you can never make it permanent. The law of supply and demand will not be conned…

    @RealAJAntoni, 11/19/23

  • On KTRH’s Houston’s Morning News in December, Antoni went on at length about Social Security being a “Ponzi scheme” that we “need to sunset.”

  • E.J. Antoni calls Social Security a "Ponzi scheme" that we "need to sunset"

    From the December 26, 2024, edition of KTRH's Houston's Morning News

    E.J. ANTONI (HERITAGE FOUNDATION ECONOMIST): Social Security is rapidly becoming insolvent because it was basically set up as a Ponzi scheme, so it can't go on forever.

    ...

    ANTONI: You're going to have to transition to a system where people are paying in money and it is kept in a private account for just them. You know, that's how a lot of people think Social Security works today. That I work my whole life, I put in money, it goes into my own account, and when I retire, I get those benefits. That's not true at all. Instead, you work today and that money goes immediately to pay today's retirees, today's beneficiaries.

    And so that's why I say it was set up like a Ponzi scheme that was just like FTX or Bernie Madoff, where today's investors are — their funds are being used to pay yesterday's investors. And unless you are going to grow the number of investors at an exponential rate, that system is eventually going to collapse. Well, since we can't grow the workforce at an exponential rate, especially today when our population is actually in a state of decline, you're not going to be able to sustain a Ponzi scheme like Social Security. Eventually you need to sunset the program.

    Now, that doesn't mean you need to touch benefits for people who are retired today. That's not true. There's plenty of money available to pay for folks who are already retired. But the people who are going to retire 10, 20, even 30, or certainly 40 years from now; I'm sorry, but the program is not going to be viable at that time.

    …

    ANTONI: The idea that Social Security can go on forever is just a mathematical fiction. It simply can't. Again, what you need to do is have some kind of transition program where, unfortunately, you'll need a generation of people who pay Social Security taxes but never actually receive any of those benefits. And that sounds harsh, but unfortunately that's the price to pay for unwinding a Ponzi scheme that was foisted on the American people by the Democrats in the 1930s.

  • In March on an episode of Real America’s Voice’s Just the News, Antoni called Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid “Ponzi schemes” and said “we’re going to have to deal with them.”

  • From the March 14, 2025, edition of Just The News, full appearance available here.

    E.J. ANTONI (HERITAGE FOUNDATION ECONOMIST): People forget that it's not things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid — it's not entitlement programs that are causing the blowout deficits today. Now, in 10 years, you know, those different Ponzi schemes — it's effectively what they are — those different Ponzi schemes are going to be incredibly problematic and we're going to have to deal with them.

  • The BLS produces the inflation rate used by Social Security to calculate cost-of-living adjustments, which prevents the devaluation of benefits

  • The Social Security Administration explains that the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) is, by law, calculated from the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, which is determined by BLS. (Emphasis added.)

  • The purpose of the COLA is to ensure that the purchasing power of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is not eroded by inflation. It is based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year a COLA was determined to the third quarter of the current year. If there is no increase, there can be no COLA.

    The CPI-W is determined by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the Department of Labor. By law, it is the official measure used by the Social Security Administration to calculate COLAs.

  • Antoni has repeatedly claimed that the BLS produces faulty data – even though much of the data produced by the agency “is widely considered the gold standard by economists.” Prior to his nomination, he wrote that “the task for the next BLS commissioner” is to implement “better ways to collect, process, and disseminate data.” Several days before he was nominated, Antoni told Fox News Digital that the bureau’s monthly jobs reports should be suspended.

    Antoni is widely considered by economists across the political spectrum to be an unqualified “partisan hack."