House Republicans held a hearing this week aimed at building support for a commission to cut Social Security and Medicare. They didn't hold it in Washington, D.C., but at a business campus in Dallas, Texas, owned by a Republican megadonor.

According to Alex Lawson of the advocacy group Social Security Works, writing for Common Dreams, the so-called "field hearing" took place at Old Parkland, a property owned by GOP donor Harlan Crow. Lawson writes that Crow has infamously treated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to lavish vacations, while also donating millions of dollars to Republican candidates and causes. Lawson describes the hearing as staged for "an audience of one: billionaire donor Harlan Crow."

Michelle Davis, author of Lone Star Left, who also attended the hearing, described several problems, including members of the public being turned away, being told different times to return, and being met with limited seating, with only three people allowed inside.

Field hearings are typically meant to gather testimony from ordinary members of the public, but when Lawson arrived with Texas seniors and people with disabilities hoping to be heard, they were refused entry. Davis also noted that none of the members of Congress present represent Dallas, and that Progress Texas, the only outlet there, was not let in.

Republicans are pushing these cuts, even though the public overwhelmingly opposes cutting the program. If lawmakers intend to cut earned Social Security benefits, the American people deserve for them to "tell us that to our faces, rather than weaseling around the job they were elected to do, and for which they earn a handsome salary," Lawson wrote.

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Harlan Crown owns Clarence Thomas lock, stock, barrell, and his soul.