They’re coming for Social Security
“Before President Donald Trump started mass layoffs of federal workers, he demonized them, arguing, despite evidence to the contrary, that most never went into the office.
“As he moved to cut foreign aid, he and Elon Musk alleged widespread waste and abuse, although they offered little evidence to back up their claims and may simply disagree with how the money was being spent.
“With that in mind, consider what the Trump administration is now doing to Social Security, seeding the idea, which is not backed up by known facts, that millions of dead people are collecting payments.
“Add in the departure of Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration after a run-in with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency over the agency’s recipient information, and it’s worth paying attention to what’s going on.
“Trump promised throughout the presidential campaign that Social Security payments and Medicare coverage would not be cut.”
Of course the Trump/Musk Administration is lying and has SS in its sights.
“On X, Musk said he was “100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you’ve ever heard by FAR.”
Not an atom of evidence for this assertion. It’s just the big lie, and as Lenin and Goebbels showed, the bigger the lie, the more effective it is. Yet the rubes still believe. Sad,
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/18/politics/trump-musk-social-security-payments-what-matters/index.html
When it comes to Social Security (and Medicare), I don’t think the rubes believe the big lie. That’s the reason Trump denied targeting them before the election. If anything can cause a meaningful backlash to Trump, attacking those programs is it. Medicaid, not so much, but it has possibilities too. He certainly won’t attack any of them before the midterms unless he wants to lose them.
The usual argument against Social Security will be that “we can’t afford it.” Those proposing cuts will make their case by citing the national debt of 120% of GDP, rapidly rising budget deficits as a percent of GDP and rapidly rising debt service, all of which are true.
Always unmentioned is the fact that unaudited, uncontrolled “defense” spending amounts to half of discretionary spending.
The real question that begs asking is: why is it that Democrats, liberal media outlets, bloggers, and commentators let the budget cutters frame the argument by refusing to put wasteful “defense” spending on the table before cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? How can Americans prioritize DOD boondoggles over these bedrock social programs.
The silence of the lambs is deafening!
@John,
The reason nobody mentions defense spending in discussions of Social Security is that they are separate budget items. Social Security is funded by its own tax and is not part of the general fund. Defense spending is part of the discretionary budget and paid for from the general fund. Putting cuts in defense spending on the table will have zero effect on Social Security.
Guns are different than butter, but that point is moot when deciding where to cut your profligate spending.
You seem really eager to find excuses for NOT talking about the urgent need to audit and cut the bloated and wasteful defense budget.
In fact, I did a web search to see how often the profligate “defense” budget was discussed at all here at AngryBear. The result was fewer than the number of my fingers…
Ah, John,
So AB is your entire universe of budget discussion reading? Well, that’s flattering, but I suggest you click over to some other web sites.
I don’t take a back seat to you or anyone else in my enthusiasm for major cuts in defense spending. The fact that I point out that there is no connection between social security and defense spending doesn’t change that.
You seem really eager to find excuses to talk about cutting the defense budget. I suggest you start your own blog. That’s what I did several years ago when I got frustrated with Facebook blocking me. Blogspot is a good way to set one up–it’s cheap and reliable.
@John,
I made a post about defense spending. Add another finger.
I’m torn here. It would be nice to know SSA runs a tight ship and there is very little fraud. But if there is significant fraud, and if it gets stopped, I imagine the year the Trust Fund depletes gets pushed out.
@Eric,
So far, DOGE has published no evidence of significant fraud at the SSA. Just propaganda for the rubes. I’m not falling for it. YMMV.