GREEN, AL "Now, before I conclude, I want to associate myself with the statements of the ranking member and also Mr. Vargas. I heard his statements, and I conclude with this. Charles, I want to call him Swindler, but he was a predatory person who engaged in a Ponzi scheme. He's the first person that originated this whole concept of a Ponzi scheme, Charles Ponzi. The President, dear sir, appears to be a person who has somehow legitimized a Ponzi scheme The President, dear sir, appears to be a person who has somehow legitimized a Ponzi scheme I can but only conclude that the President of the United..."

GREEN, AL "a person who sells, and the seller sells to the buyer at a higher price than the seller paid? And this scheme goes on. How does that differ from a Ponzi scheme, Mr. Cassandra? Mr."

JOHNSON, RON "give you $1,000, and you spent that $1,000, but in emplacement you put on a piece of paper, I owe myself $1,000, that would be called a Ponzi scheme, that would be illegal, correct? Right. So what we have, what we've created here is a legal Ponzi scheme. Right. So what we have, what we've created here is a legal Ponzi"

JOHNSON, RON "facts that we have to grapple with is benefits already exceed revenue. But again, we're honoring those benefits, right? When the trust fund runs out, it shouldn't be a calamity. We're just going to have to plus up those benefits, and we'll probably do that. One fact we ought to recognize is the U.S. government bond held in the hands of a government agency has no value. The trust fund's a fiction. Another thing we ought to grapple with is Social Security is a legal Ponzi scheme. I get criticized for saying it, but that's exactly what it is. We extracted money from taxpayers, investors. We..."

MURRAY, PATTY "Elon Musk, who had free reign over the federal government, has called Social Security a, quote, Ponzi scheme. So it's kind of no surprise that Trump's latest budget request did not include any solvency proposal for Social"

HERN, KEVIN "The Chairman yields. Mr. Thompson, you're recognized. I want to thank the witnesses for being here today, and this is a very important topic, as the chairman said. As we work towards solutions here, I think we have to figure out a consensus on the tax rules for the digital asset industry. And some members of this committee might view the digital asset industry and the blockchain as the next technological breakthrough for the financial services industry, and some might view it as a complete Ponzi scheme, and maybe there are opinions somewhere in between. But regardless of opinion about the..."

WARREN, ELIZABETH "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. So when he ran for president in 2024, Donald Trump repeatedly promised that he, quote, wouldn't touch Social Security, and as soon as he took office, he immediately directed Elon Musk, who thinks that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, to doge his way through the Social Security Administration. He slashed"

BLUMENTHAL, RICHARD "In May of 2025, David Gentile was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in an almost $1.8 billion Ponzi-like scheme that defrauded over 10,000 investors, many of them middle-class retirees, of their hard-earned savings, and he was in prison. He boasted to fellow inmates and others that he was going to be released because he paid $2.5 million for"