Tag: billionaires
State Of The Big Lie: Why Trump Repeated Musk's Myth About Social Security

State Of The Big Lie: Why Trump Repeated Musk's Myth About Social Security

Headlining the long, droning, and absurdly false address spouted by Donald Trump before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was a litany of fantasy aimed at the Social Security system. A perennial target for Republicans since its creation, the nation’s most popular and effective government program has drawn malign attention from Elon Musk, world’s richest right-winger and the president’s designated hit man.

It was Musk who provided and inspired Trump with his latest fraudulent indictment of fraud – in this instance, the already-debunked claim that millions of Americans are still receiving Social Security payments long after death. Following a recitation of silly (and, knowing Musk, not necessarily accurate) federal spending items supposedly revealed by the billionaire’s Department of Government Efficiency, Trump first professed his usual warm concern for those who depend on those monthly checks.

“We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on.

“Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people who are rather elderly but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we are searching right now….” He continued until, with a flourish, he cited “1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229. One person between the age of 240 and 249 — and one person is listed at 360 years of age. More than 100 years — more than 100 years older than our country. But we’re going to find out where that money is going, and it’s not going to be pretty.”

The “discovery” of those moldering fraudsters appears to derive from a very basic and embarrassing error by Musk and his DOGEbags – namely their inability to correctly interpret the computer printouts of Social Security Administration records. AsWired magazine magazine and other outlets pointed out a few weeks ago, when Musk first promoted this enormous scandal, those anomalous entries actually represent “a weird quirk of the Social Security Administration’s benefits system, which was largely written in COBOL, a a 60 year-old programming language that undergirds SSA’s databases as well as systems from other U.S. government programs.”

Out of routine use for decades, COBOL is likely unfamiliar to Musk and his gang of adolescent engineers. It has a strange dating reference system that commonly uses a reference point of May 20, 1875 -- which can produce some strange and suspicious results for anyone who doesn’t understand the data they’re perusing.

But the “shock” talking points Trump so dramatically enumerated were disproved and debunked weeks ago. Yet he nevertheless featured them in his speech, plainly aiming to undermine confidence in the system that he has promised to protect on many occasions over the past ten years.

Trump didn’t disparage Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme,” the cliché slur that Musk and so many other far-right critics use when denouncing the program. But the president has allowed his billionaire wingman to begin dismantling it, by firing thousands of its staff, from the top down, which experts say will soon result in denials and delays of benefits.

Musk has seized on his bogus investigation of Social Security payments to declare that the system is insolvent, as Republicans invariably do when they are preparing to slash at its provisions. And it is true that unless Congress acts, payments going out will exceed revenue from Social Security taxes by 2035 – and by law, benefits then will have to be cut.

But what neither Musk nor Trump ever mention is the obvious and equitable solution to this looming crisis. They never mention that solution because Republicans so strongly prefer to resolve the problem on the backs of the elderly and disabled, so many of whom languished in poverty until Franklin Delano Roosevelt launched the program during the New Deal.

Few economists have studied Social Security with as much rigor or dedication as Stephanie Kelton, who recently published a powerful response to Musk in DCReport, the excellent publication edited by Trump biographer and critic David Cay Johnston. In its headline and text, Kelton explains why Musk himself, as a symbol of grotesque inequality, represents the real reason that Social Security is “running out of money.”

As national income has increasingly skewed to the top of the scale, less and less has been subject to the Social Security tax – which in 2024 exempted all income above $168,500! In other words, the astronomical levels of annual income enjoyed by Musk himself, Trump, and all their billionaire pals, go untaxed by the system. And they’d like to keep it that way forever.

But we have known for more than 20 years – according to one commission study after another – that the simplest and fairest way to eliminate the Social Security deficit for all time is to raise or eliminate the cap on taxable income. Conservatives would much rather reduce or eliminate benefits, even though their MAGA supporters would suffer terribly. The real fraud isn’t Social Security, but the promise by Trump and his Republican allies to protect those families.

Joe Conason is founder and editor-in-chief of The National Memo. He is also editor-at-large of Type Investigations, a nonprofit investigative reporting organization formerly known as The Investigative Fund. He is the author of several books, including The Raw Deal: How The Bush Republicans Plan To Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal. His latest book is The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism.

Donald Trump

Trump Complains About Remote Work While Taking Extended Florida Golf Jaunt

President Donald Trump took time away from golfing to speak to a group of billionaires at the Saudi Public Future Investment Initiative Institute summit in Miami, during which he complained about remote work.

“All federal employees must once again show up to work. It's a new phenomenon. You know, since COVID. Show up to work in person like the rest of us. You can't work at home. They're not working. They're playing tennis, they're playing golf, or they have other jobs, but they're not working or they're certainly not working hard. You could never build a company or a country with that,” he said.

One of Trump’s first edicts was to issue a memo demanding all federal workers to return to the office while he went … golfing.

Since then, Trump’s itinerary has included trips to the Super Bowl, a publicity stunt at the Daytona 500, and a lot more golfing—all at taxpayers' expense.

It isn’t surprising. While billionaire Elon Musk is busy dismantling U.S. administrative functions, Trump is picking up where his first administration left off: spending time at his many estates and playing a lot of golf.

During Trump’s first go-around, his golf habit set historic records in costs to the U.S. taxpayer, and it looks like he’s on track to break that record. So far, it has been estimated that Trump’s golf game has cost Americans around $10.7 million, with Trump heading to the golf course at least 10 times in his first 31 days in office.

As for the federal workers who haven’t been fired or placed on administrative leave, research shows that remote work benefits both workers and employers. There is also evidence that women and minority groups are negatively impacted the most by a lack of remote or hybrid work options.

But as long as Trump’s golf game isn’t affected, why would he care?

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Acting Social Security Chief Sacked After Clash With Musk Aides

Acting Social Security Chief Sacked After Clash With Musk Aides

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's representatives have reportedly clashed with the acting head of the Social Security Agency (SSA) over sensitive data she apparently refused to give over to the centabillionaire's team.

That's according to a Washington Post article published Monday night, which reported that acting Social Security commissioner Michelle King resigned after Musk — who leads the "Department of Government Efficiency," or DOGE (which is not yet a Congressionally authorized federal agency) —sought access to "sensitive government records." Leland Dudek, from the agency's anti-fraud office, has been named acting commissioner in King's place while commissioner-designate Frank Bisigano awaits his confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate.

"There is no way to overstate how serious a breach this is," said Nancy Altman, who is president of the advocacy group Social Security Works. Altman said that while details remain murky, she cited officials within the agency who told her that Musk's team "wanted access to SSA’s sensitive files — the same way they’re trying to do at Labor and Treasury — and the acting commissioner wouldn’t give it, and she was replaced."

"At this rate, they will break it. And they will break it fast, and there will be an interruption of benefits," former SSA Commissioner Martin O'Malley told the Post. He also grimly noted that Dudek — who had praised DOGE's efforts in the past – was elevated to the acting role over other more senior officials within the agency.

“It’s a shame the chilling effect it has to disregard 120 senior executive service people,” O’Malley continued. “To pick an acting commissioner that is not in the senior executive service sends a message that professional people should leave that beleaguered public agency.”

On Bluesky, Tufts University political science professor Daniel Drezner warned: "This will end badly for everyone." University of Michigan policy professor Don Moynihan also sounded the alarm, pointing out that Musk "has your social security and your banking information." Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall told his followers that "Elon's boys are in the house" and that "it might be time to think of Plan B if you're on Social Security."

"Good God. It's a coup," former journalist Ali Adair wrote.

While DOGE's mission is ostensibly to cut down on fraudulent spending within federal agencies, conservative columnist Bill Kristol wasn't buying it. He wrote on Bluesky that if anyone believes the South African billionaire "wants all this data in order to root out fraud and marginally improve government efficiency, I have several bridges to sell you." Democratic strategist David Goodman lamented Michelle King's resignation, and opined other government employees should instead seek to resist within the capacity of their official positions.

"Leaving and refusing to fight is just as bad as handing over the data," he wrote. "You don't beat the Nazis by leaving. You beat them by fighting."

The news of DOGE accessing Social Security information comes as the billionaire's employees are aiming to obtain similar access to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) systems. Some IRS agents expressed concern to the Post's Jacob Bogage that Musk and President Donald Trump could use taxpayers' sensitive personal data to carry out retribution against Trump's political opponents.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Make America Great Again MAGA

Trump Clearly Prefers Billionaires To His MAGA Followers

Will the MAGA base ever figure out they've been played?

Farm country provided Trump with some of his most fervent support. Farmers are now being tossed aside by Trump policies, none of which he seems interested in dialing back.

A trade war would be disastrous. Farm products are a major U.S. export. Last year, the U.S. exported more than $30 billion in farm products to Mexico, $29 billion to Canada and $25 billion to China.

When a country slaps big tariffs on products from another country, that country can be expected to hit back with its own punishing tariffs. Trump's insults also add focus to the revenge: Offended nations are targeting products coming from Trump country.

American farmers rightly worry that a trade war would incentivize other countries to find more reliable suppliers of corn, wheat and whatever else they grow. As a soybean grower in Iowa told the Financial Times, "Farmers understand that trading relationships go up on a stairway, where you work hard to build them up, but go down on an elevator — very, very fast."

Trump's mania for tariffs was no secret during the campaign, nor were his deportation plans that are going to ravage rural workforces. What were U.S. farmers thinking when they voted for Trump? That he really loved them?

Trump is working on a plan to take away added funding from the Internal Revenue Service and use it for securing the southern border — as if the U.S. can't afford two important government functions at the same time. If anything, weakening the IRS's ability to collect taxes owed would deprive government of the money that could be used to defend the border.

Eroding the IRS's ability to enforce the tax laws is a gift to rich tax cheats. They have all sorts of tricks to hide income. The working stiffs do not. Their taxes get taken right out of their paychecks.

Medicaid buys health care for Americans who typically make less than $50,000. These low earners gave most of their votes to Trump. Republicans are now circling Medicaid as a fat target for spending cuts.

Their Project 2025 blueprint clearly states, "The dramatic increase in Medicaid expenditures is due in large part to the ACA (Obamacare), which mandates that states must expand their Medicaid eligibility standards."

During the campaign, Trump insisted he was "not running to terminate" the Affordable Care Act. But that wouldn't preclude stripping it of so many benefits and slashing so many beneficiaries that a walking corpse would be all that's left. And Trump will call it Obamacare.

Trump has named the mastermind behind Project 2025, Russell Vought, his budget director. In addition to Medicaid, Vought has it in for Head Start, veterans benefits and medical research.

Republicans vow not to touch a hair on Medicare, which covers the elderly, but that too is not entirely off the table. "In essence, our deficit problem is a Medicare and Medicaid problem," Project 2025 laments. It calls these programs "runaway entitlements."

The Department of Health and Human Services is home to both Medicare and Medicaid. How do you all feel about the crackpot Bobby Kennedy Jr. being put in charge?

Don't expect Republicans in Washington to publicly oppose Trump, even at the expense of their voters' health care. But some are quietly worried.

"If you cut Medicaid, you're, like, pissing off the people who put you in office — who Trump resonates with, right?" one House Republican (who did not share his name) told The Wall Street Journal.

But It's pretty naive to think that Trump cares about the people who put him in office. All he wanted was their votes. He got them.

Now scoot.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

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