‘That’s The Big One To Eliminate’: Dem Leader Speaks Out On Musk’s Social Security Plans
Trump’s billionaire advisor is talking about the need to end entitlement programs
Donald Trump’s billionaire advisor, Elon Musk, is planning to gut Social Security and Medicare, the leader of Senate Democrats is warning.
Musk, who is leading a team known as “DOGE,” and has been disrupting and dismantling federal programs across the government since Trump came back to office, has made it clear that he wants to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
Musk and DOGE recently took over the Social Security Administration headquarters in Baltimore, Md, and began firing 7,000 workers.
Musk recently called Social Security — which hasn’t missed a payment to an eligible American in its nearly century-long history — a “ponzi scheme.”
“Yesterday afternoon, Elon Musk confirmed what many of us have warning about for a long time – Republicans are getting ready to gut Social Security and Medicare,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said this week on the Senate floor. “Let me repeat that: Elon Musk confirmed what many of us have warned about – Republicans are getting ready to gut Social Security and gut Medicare.”
More than 70 million retired, disabled and otherwise eligible Americans receive Social Security benefits. Without Social Security, 22 million more adults and children would be below the poverty line.
Meanwhile, Medicare provides healthcare coverage for 65 million retired, disabled and otherwise eligible Americans.
Schumer called out Musk for other remarks he’s made against Social Security and Medicare in the media.
“Here's what he said during an interview with Fox Business: the richest man on Earth repeated again a bevy of lies that entitlement programs tens of millions of people rely on are riddled with fraud and abuse. That’s a pretext to slashing them, but it’s false,” Schumer said. “He added, ‘most of the federal spending is entitlements.’ That’s true.
“‘So that’s the big one to eliminate,’ meaning Social Security,” Schumer said of Musk’s remarks. “Let me quote Elon Musk again: ‘That’s the big one to eliminate.’
“It’s rare to hear Republicans tell the truth about their plans so directly. What Elon Musk is saying is that sooner or later, Republicans are going to target people’s Social Security and Medicare benefits,” Schumer said. “The outrage that the richest man in the world would tell millions of seniors who depend on those checks each month that it's fraud – that it's waste – is outrageous. He doesn't have any idea the harm it would do, and it isn't fraud.”
The reason Musk and Republicans are aiming at Social Security and Medicare is by cutting them they will make room in the budget for further tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. (Full disclosure: The author of this article relies on Social Security income.)
“Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans know that the math on their billionaire tax cuts will not work without going after these benefits. And all they care about is cutting their taxes further. It’s outrageous,” Schumer said. “As America begins to hear this, America is going to realize what a bad bargain Donald Trump was in the election. It’s another awful reminder that under Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Republicans, billionaires win, American families lose.”
Despite Musk’s falsehoods, the Social Security Administration goes through an annual audit, and it’s happened during Trump’s previous presidency as well as Democrat Joe Biden’s, Schumer noted.
“And what did it find? That less than 1 percent of all payments from 2015 to 2022 were made in error. That, Mr. Musk, is not what fraud looks like,” Schumer said. “He cherry-picks data to suggest that tens of millions of dead people are getting checks. This is a lie.”
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