“Tonight’s speech by President Trump should be highly alarming to the 70 million Americans on Social Security and by anyone who is earning benefits by paying into the program. His speech was full of lies about Social Security, including false claims about ‘probable fraud’ at the Social Security Administration (SSA) that already have been thoroughly debunked. Trump made the absurd claim tonight that people up to 360 years old are on the Social Security rolls and many may be collecting benefits. Just because someone may be in SSA’s database, doesn’t mean that they are receiving benefits unless they are alive and eligible — something Elon Musk and his DOGE minions should have learned before propagating these claims.
The President boasted tonight about his campaign, executed by Elon Musk and DOGE, to reduce the size of the federal workforce and root out alleged ‘waste, fraud, and abuse.’ Under the banner of this sham campaign, Trump, Musk, and their minions are rapidly wrecking the Social Security Administration (SSA), the agency that delivers Americans’ earned benefits. (Musk and DOGE also have obtained deeply personal data on the nation’s Social Security beneficiaries.)
The firings, bullying of SSA workers to induce them to retire early, and the closing of field offices and divisions within SSA are ultimately intended to undermine the agency’s core function of delivering benefits – and public confidence in Social Security overall. As a result of mass layoffs at the agency, the former SSA Commissioner predicted the ‘collapse’ of the Social Security system ‘within the next 30 to 90 days.’
Just last week, Musk falsely labeled Social Security a ‘Ponzi Scheme,’ signaling his (and Trump’s) apparent intention to destroy the program by privatizing it.
Trump and Musk’s claims of ‘fraud’ in the Social Security program would be laughable if they weren’t so harmful, and have already been widely discredited. In fact, neither Trump nor Musk has any credibility when talking about Social Security.
The President also mentioned his proposal to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits, which we oppose because it is not paid for and would expedite the projected depletion of the Social Security trust fund. We support Rep. John Larson’s Social Security 2100 Act, which would reduce taxes on Social Security benefits — along with many other improvements — and is paid for by adjusting the Social Security payroll wage cap and including net investments in FICA taxes.
It was especially unsettling to see Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire who has been granted unprecedented access to crucial federal agencies and databases, in the U.S. House chamber tonight. Despite the President’s false re-assurances that his administration is working on behalf of all Americans, his and Musk’s scheme to create a government of billionaires, by billionaires, and for billionaires could not have been more obvious tonight.” – Max Richtman, President and CEO, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare