The foolers and fooled on Social Security updated to April 1, 2025. Putting together the pieces of why this has become such an issue:
Trump, on the 2024 campaign stump, promised not to touch Social Security. Musk has done what he could to yank the rug out from under that promise. Yes, the size of the benefit checks has not yet been touched. Still, the administration of the whole system is being threatened with plans that would make it moribund, kneecapping the administrative
ability to deliver the checks to those who need it the most and keeping down the numbers of future retirees and disabled with new administrative hurdles, limiting who qualify under the law from receiving them..
Oligarchs like Musk have shown little idea of how Social Security works and who it serves. Their ignorance and insensitivity have fueled the fire of outrage at proposals. Democrats are making political hay connecting this issue to oligarchs in the Trump administration, charging that by the numbers, millions must be cut from the budget to offset the tax relief the very wealthy are seeking that reduces income to the treasury. Cutting social security costs is one of the wealthy "pay fors" to at least partially cover their tax cuts. By cutting Social Security's ability to administer its services in order to pay for tax breaks to the rich is a powerful political argument against the Trump regime..Another suspicion is that if the administration is destroyed, Musk would like the contract to administer it, in addition to the $38 billion he already has in federal contracts. That the Social Security program needs to be saved from eventually going bankrupt is true, and it is the largest expense to the federal government, but this cruelty and destruction of its mission is no way to fix it.
As of April 1, 2025, the process to switch paper checks to electronic deposits, the elimination of phone service, or the closure of Social Security branch offices has not yet occurred. The outcry, however, is loud and clear, with the fury arising over Musk's proposed plans and the cuts in service to the very people they serve, making this a hot political issue.
Musk taking the chainsaw to the Social Security administration is a gift to Democrats in the 2026 midterms, who can now run on a platform of saving Social Security. It is a government service that affects an extremely large percentage of the US population. 73 million people received social security benefits, most of whom have paid into the system their entire working lives. They are entitled to those benefits because they paid into it with the promise that it would help them cope with retirement. Twenty percent of those over 65 receiving checks depend on them as their sole income.
From a prior post:
A Social Security administrator warned check recipients. "Save up because the next check may be late." Thanks to Chainsaw Musk, the continuing process of stopping the issuing of paper checks, even to the elderly who did not have electronic deposits, was angering. There would be no one there to fix the glitches or deal with old people's challenges with computer illiteracy.
The Social Security payment process was disrupted by the number of administrative personnel who took the offer to retire early under the threat that thousands would be fired. Anger and late payment arrival fears erupted. https://fortune.com/2025/03/29/social-security-benefits-payment-systems-doge-cuts-paper-checks/ When protests arose, there was a classic "let them eat cake" response from a billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who demonstrated he had no clue about how ordinary people live. Lutnick said his elderly mother-in-law would not complain about a late check, but those who complained were fraudsters. That comment should be a Democrat's attack ad looped and looped again as another classic example of why oligarchs should never be in control of human services because of their total disconnect from how ordinary people live. Both Musk and Lutnick get the Marie Antoinette award of the decade. (A queen of France, when told the people were out of bread and starving, said, "Let them eat cake". That queen lost her head in the French Revolution.) https://www.axios.com/2025/03/21/social-security-lutnick-doge-checks A late Social Security check will be a politically explosive wake-up call to older Americans. Most people on Social Security have no money to save and put aside for Musk's stupidity, or as some claim, a strategy for Musk to get the contract to privatize the Social Security administration..
To add insult to injury, the insensitive Musk proposal to eliminate service by telephone and instead force the elderly to use their computers to sign up (whose computer savvy is low to none), or go to in-person social security offices, was further angering. At the same time, a long list of social security offices were to be closed. https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/elon-musk-social-security-phones-b2714222.html
What motivated Musk to do this? It is, as the bank robber said when asked why he robbed banks? It's where the moneyis, claimed Trump, 125-year-olds are still on the books. Ah, only the unthinking should swallow that tale: Got any example of any of those 125 being mailed a check? Why? TRUMP: “Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years // And money is being paid to many of them, and we are searching right now.” Keep on searching, fools. And those who swallow this are being fooled. Remember, when your check does not arrive, who is to blame? Trump idiocracy. Here’s how many ‘dead people’ really collect Social Security PER AP fact checker: The databases may list those p iseople, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits. Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system based on the COBOL programming language, which doesn’t use a specific format for dates, per AP and any number of posts and reports. the COBOL code problem was already reported in 2023 in a audit, but there was no evidence found that checks had been sent to any of them.
Democrats are making political hay connecting this issue to oligarchs in the Trump administration:that by the numbers, millions must be cut from the budget to offset the tax relief the very is seeking that reduces income to the treasury. Another suspicion is that if the administration is destroyed, Musk would like the contract to administer it, in addition to the $38 billion he already has in federal contracts. That the Social Security program needs to be saved from eventually going bankrupt, is true, but this cruelty and destruction of its mission is no way to fix it.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/01/doge-actions-may-cause-social-security-benefit-interruption-ex-agency-head.html
https://fortune.com/2025/03/03/elon-musk-joe-rogan-podcast-doge-social-security-biggest-ponzi-scheme-of-all-time/
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