4mo ago

Elon Musk finally admits Social Security is on the chopping block

newrepublic.com /post/192579/elon-musk-social-security-medicare-entitlements

Summary

Elon Musk suggested cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in a Fox News interview, citing debunked claims about fraud and linking benefits to illegal immigration.

He falsely claimed millions of deceased individuals remain in the Social Security system, a statement previously refuted by officials.

While Trump has promised not to cut entitlement programs, Musk’s remarks indicate they are under threat, potentially impacting millions of Americans.

His rhetoric echoes far-right conspiracy theories, raising concerns about his influence on policy discussions regarding social safety nets.

111 comments

You know, Elon Musk is a person with a neck.
- You, and all your ancestors, offspring, and reincarnations, have just been permabanned from Reddit.
  
  Hooray!
  
  Dubvee.org is going to have a field day of automated ban syncs with this thread.
- This is a great point.
- A neck that's awfully long. Maybe we could help him out and shorten it a bit.
- I know some folks that can fashion a guillotine!
  
  Many people are saying...
- And he thinks empathy is a flaw in humans, so....
Touch that shit, I fucken dare you.
- If it gets out of hand Elmo will be left holding the bag and likely forced out. The Trump admin will continue on like nothing happened, they won't lose an ounce of support, and DOGE will just be a short footnote on our decline to fascism.
  
  I like your optimism
  
  I 100% expect him to throw Elmo under the bus like he has with every other person that’s been on his side. He won’t really even need to try, his supporters will do it for him because they can’t handle a reality where they were wrong about the Orange One
- They’ll just cut it for anybody under 60 or whatever, and their base will cheer them on.
  
  They’ll just cut it for anybody under 60 or whatever, and their base will cheer them on.
  Not if they have been paying into it. At least not unless they get a refund for what they paid into it.
  _This _comment _is _licensed _under _CC _BY-NC-SA _4.0
- Yessss, anger the old people. Do it. They are the most reliable voting group.
- What exactly are you going to do? Cry?
  
  Dude, we are talking about 12.4% of folks taxable earnings since the day they all joined the workforce. You think tears are the only things gonna happen if that got stolen?
  
  Yes, a lot.
  
  It ain't what the left is going to do that is reason for concern.
  https://www.ssa.gov/deposit/T2StateSum_a.htm
  https://www.adl.org/resources/report/right-wing-extremist-terrorism-united-states
- Money back plus interest. Decades and decades of interest.
- Don't ask, take!
  
  So storm the federal reserve like area 51?
- ask for your taxes back.
  Sorry Elon fired all the help desk.
- Social Security's "trust fund" is an empty pit of debt obligations. Benefits to current recipients are paid with incoming payroll taxes. Any difference is made up with additional taxes or monetary inflation, by way of Treasury bonds. They "reinvest it in the economy" if there's ever a surplus, e.g., through military contractors. It finances the national debt.
  Putting aside the quirks of that setup, the basic function is that the taxes you pay in now are not an investment in your own future, you're basically just paying for the retirement of older people now. The expectation is that someone down the road will then pay taxes to finance your retirement. Hence, how SS was able to start paying benefits almost immediately (3 years) after payroll taxes started being collected.
- Fwiw the website is still up and it still says I’ll get my tree fiddy
We should use the chopping block on him, and repurpose his wealth to fund government programs. Especially for repaying federal employees for this shitshow.
- A kawaii guillotine. I have truly seen it all now.
  
  I've had this saved as a reaction image for a while now
  
  I'm gonna be honest, I kinda want my tattoo artist to make me a kawaii guillotine tattoo now
  
  You should see my Hello Kitty bandsaw.
Where do I get a refund on my social security payments I've put in my entire adult life?
- I know you’re joking but for those that don’t understand:
  When you pay in your Social Security each paycheck. That money is immediately handed out to another person. When you go to collect Social Security in reality, you’re justliving on somebody else’s money. You never see your money again. It really is just social welfare.
- (not so) fun fact: The average black male American never sees a penny from social security because the program is biased toward those who live long enough to reap the benefits of the program. So, despite paying in an entire working life, dying too young rewards you with a big fat nothing.
  
  The average life expectancy of a black male in the US is 72 years. Are you saying they're just choosing not to pull SS? Something doesn't seem right with your stat.
  
  What the fuck have you been smoking? Do you seriously believe that the average black male American will die before retirement age?
  
  Also fun fact: I've been pulling made up statistics (also without any corroborating numbers) out of my butt since the last ice age!
I sincerely hope these cuts do not happen, but if they do, I hope we see a massive "grey wave" of large scale protests from older folks who rely on these programs. They worked and paid into Social Security their whole lives and deserve that money.
- The thing is, the elders have all bought in to this idea that there's no money for social security and medicare not because it's been whittled away and underfunded and means tested to death for forty years, but rather there's just massive, massive fraud, and everybody's stealing from social security before it gets to them. So, they're probably all cheering this push to cut entitlements because they think that all these fraudsters will be kicked off, and surely they won't be kicked off, surely their social security benefits will actually be a good amount once all those mooches are kicked off. When it does happen to them, and it will, they won't realize that it was by design, they'll all be stunned that Trump and Musk made this "mistake" and swept them up in the cuts.
  
  And if we have elections again, they’ll thumb a ride from outside of their tent by the highway to catch a ride to the polling booths where they will vote for Trump’s third term? I’m thinking some of them will have to figure it out by then.
- I already told my Trump-voting mom that if there's anyone that deserves to lose it, it's her. She doesn't care. Trumpers are irrevocably anti-human even if they get hurt in the process. Fuck the future, fuck everyone but them, and fuck them too as long as everyone else is getting fucked harder.
No way, a horrible person admits they probably might do something horrible after establishing a strong track record of doing horrible things?! I am SHOCKED. Who could have seen this horrible administration known for doing horrible things doing something horrible like this?
Seriously…. Why the fuck is this clown allowed to cut ANYTHING?
The moment he cuts a single service someone depends on, he should be sued into submission. How is this happening?
- Because the President and the Republican majority in the House and Senate are onboard with it, and that's the authority driving it (mostly the President, but the reason that Congress isn't objecting to or trying to block stuff is because they're okay with it). Musk may be the face of the cuts --- he doesn't have to worry about re-election, unlike politicians --- he has no authority of his own. His organization is just saying "this is what we should cut", and the cuts happen under the President's authority. Musk isn't independently going out and cutting things.
  
  Musk isn’t independently going out and cutting things.
  It's weird seeing this complete and utter bullshit being unironically spewed still. It wasn't Trump that cut the air traffic controllers, or nuclear watchdogs, or infections disease investigators. It was Musk, and spreading this propaganda just helps protect Trump from allowing it.
- We also all know how much in charge of the White House he is too.
So, do I get back everything I paid into it for the past 40 years? Is that part of the plan? If not, who gets that money, let me guess.
- I just retired after 40 years at over company, plus some college jobs. I'm 62, and social security was one of the things in my plan that made me decide I could retire My company was laying people off; I was secure, but my leaving allowed one more person to keep their job.
  Now Trump is tanking my 401k and Elon is taking about cutting SS. I've never been more stressed about money.
  
  Welcome to the financial life of a millennial who are experts at living in poverty thanks to the economy boomers like you benefited from. I wish we had an economy where a milkman salary could pay for a house and family like it was when you were growing up.
But but they said they would never do this. Stupid fools.
- The people threatening the cuts, or the people who believed them when they said they wouldn’t do that?
  
  Yes.
"Admits".
Haven't demons like Paul Ryan had their entire political career motivated by ending Social Security? It's not like the Republicans' desire to kill old people is any secret...
- You work until you die
  Either the work kills you (no OSHA) or You work until you die from old age
  There will be no retirement for the poors
- Yup, they'll cheer him on as they go into bankruptcy, end up living on the streets, and begging for enough change to get a meal.
- "Biden should have warned us harder! Harris tricked us! Fuckin leftists(lol) used reverse psychology! Imma MAGA even harder just to get revenge!"
This is going to disproportionately affect MAGA voters.
- My mom when the CoL bump to her SSDI survivors benefit bumped her over the poverty line and out of Medicaid eligibility:
  "Because I got an extra $50 a month, I now have to pay $100 a month for insurance, plus copays! This is ridiculous!"
  My mom when I pointed out that those thresholds haven't been touched in decades because that would be helping people and helping people is bad:
  "Well, I guess I can't really complain, I've been treated well."
  Do not underestimate the vast amounts of copium reserves harbored by the brainwashed.
  
  It’s best to just never, ever give magats the benefit of the doubt and just assume they’re trash people who deserve to be treated like the trash that they are
Musk's head is gonna be on the chopping block if he manages to make 20+ million Americans instantly homeless.
- You'd think, Americans are more likely to turn on eachother in an attempt to feed themselves. Look how much billionaires have been screwing them for decades and they'd rather cry about culture war issues and get distracted by drones over NJ. Everything's getting worse but "haha Jon Stewart made funny voices and pulled funny faces he should be president!" There would be organized mass suicides before an #OccupyBillionaires movement, wouldn't be the first time either. Americans are literally hopeless.
Elon Musk suggested cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in a Fox News interview
February 11, 4 weeks ago:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-administration-collapse-james-carville-2035164
Trump Administration Will 'Collapse' in 30 Days, Says James Carville
Carville advised Democrats to "play opossum" for now.
"This whole thing is collapsing. It doesn't need Elizabeth Warren in somebody screaming to pacify some progressive advocacy groups in Washington," the former top adviser to President Bill Clinton said. "Hold your fire. It's going to be easy pickings here in six weeks, just lay back."
I would have said that Carville was wrong, but if they do start taking big whacks at entitlement programs, this might actually manage it.
Lets see how the Trumpists react when they notice that their social security checks no longer come and the medicaid no longer pays for their vital medications.
- It'll still be the fault of Democrats and the Trans/DEI agenda for burning all the money.
  If their supporters were capable of logical thought they wouldn't be their supporters (not saying they'd be Dems, but they definitely wouldn't be supporting these fucks).
  
  Can't logic someone out of something they didn't logic themselves into, and they deffo didn't logic themselves into thinking that trans dei woke liberals were turning the frogs gay.
Then no social security tax? Oh I still have to pay that. Great.
He should be on the chopping block
Finally admits what we knew all along. I'm shocked...absolutely shocked...wow...if I could get anymore shocked I'd be like 5 steps down from a single eyebrow lift.
Oh okay. So where's my fucking money???
Isn't ~~the~~ a point of Musk/Doge so that Trump can say, I didn't cut them, Doge did.
Assuming he ever cares that much to deflect.
linking [...] to immigration
Ah, so:
Gotta cut SS because of immigrants
Uh oh people really want SS
Look I saved SS by deporting immigrants
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5188082-white-house-donald-trump-social-security-medicare-cuts/
White House says Trump won’t cut Social Security, Medicare after Musk remarks
The White House on Tuesday asserted President Trump would not cut Social Security or Medicare after tech billionaire Elon Musk’s comments about the need to examine entitlement spending gained traction.
Musk, a top Trump adviser leading the effort to overhaul the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency, appeared on Fox Business Network on Monday for a rare television interview, where he noted that most government spending is on entitlements.
“So, the waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is all of the — which is most of the federal spending is entitlements. So, that’s, like, the big one to eliminate,” Musk told former Trump official Larry Kudlow, suggesting it could amount to more than $500 billion in annual savings.
Sounds like some legislators got upset calls.
If you're 70, don't worry this will all be over soon....unless you're doing an 18 year old right now. I would find me a nice person who might be coughing some freedom up. You'll find then at the public transit and the urgent care unit at your local hospital. There are quicker ways. Thanks for voting trump!
It'll bite him in the arse, when he's old and unemployed and with no bladder because of the ket

111 comments