(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Musk's Outrageous Social Security Lies Heap Shame on Complicit Republicans [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-14
Mr. Musk continues to spew new outrageous lies about Social Security intended to discredit it and provide him and Donald Trump a cover story while they destroy the Social Security system. He surely knows these new allegations, in addition to prior false narratives about fraud and illegal immigrants’ access to Social Security, are not true. In persisting with them, he reveals that he has other, ulterior motives that are disreputable, unpalatable, and must remain hidden. Republican members of Congress are being complicit in this destruction of an institution that benefits Republican and Democrat working people alike by turning a blind eye. Democrats who do too little to oppose it are incompetent. Together they are potentially robbing 200 million working and retired Americans of a substantial part of their life’s savings. Where is the outrage? It is meager.
The lies Musk is spewing are that there is astronomical fraud taking place in Social Security, and that illegal aliens have access to Social Security by the hundreds of thousands, abetted by Democrats in their lust for fraudulent votes.
Let’s get straight on two points before we proceed further. The first is that Social Security fraud can only be against legitimate Social Security account holders, not against the General Fund of the United States.
The second is that a real working illegal alien can only put money into a Social Security account. Then, at worst, if that illegal alien retired undiscovered they would only be able to withdraw benefits they had accrued working and contributed. Even then, much as you might not like it, it would be their money that they put in and would not affect anyone else. Sure, there are other minor types of fraud, like bogus unemployment claims that were abundant during Covid 19. But now, true estimates of Social Security issuing payment to a fraudster amounts to about 0.003 percent of all payments. Its not chicken feed, but far, far away from massive fraud that Musk claims to justify his take over of critical Social Security systems.
Any Social Security fraud on an individual’s account does not increase government spending one cent. It only harms real individual account holders. In this case, money is paid to fraudster A instead of being paid to legit SS account hold B. This begs the question, what legitimate reason could the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, possibly have to be obsessed with this? If he misunderstands this issue, as evidenced by his claims, then he is dumber than a post. If he does not misunderstand but spews this nonsense anyway he is a liar of the worst sort, one who lies for his own financial gain. You decide which it is.
So, there are no general fund monies in the Social Security coffers. Any money in the Social Security trust fund was put there by working men and women and their employers in proportion to the amount they earned for their work. Those men and women only own that money. They are entitled to it just as Elon Musk is entitled to money in his personal bank account and the interest it accrued.
The Social Security Administration has, and long has had, robust methods in place for detecting and eliminating fraud by claiming another person’s account. It is well known and well understood and involves a small fraction of one percent of transactions. These cases are typically resolved in favor of the true account holders.
In conclusion, Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and their cohort are not truly trying to protect American taxpayers as they say, far from it. Rather, they are about far more insidious business. None beside themselves may know their true motives. But, combined with their attacks on America’s long term trading partners, tax cuts for the ultra wealthy, attacks on freedom of speech at American universities, disregard for the Supreme Court, and the dismantling of the CDC, the NIH, the FDIC, and the SEC they have created a toxic cocktail that amounts to a date rape drug they are administering to the nation. You can likely guess what may happen after that.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316335/-Musk-s-Outrageous-Social-Security-Lies-Heap-Shame-on-Complicit-Republicans?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/