2d ago

White House in damage control mode after Musk talks Social Security cuts

www.thedailybeast.com WH Does Damage Control After Musk Talks Social Security Cuts

Musk had seemed to suggest he was planning to take the DOGE chainsaw to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Summary

The White House scrambled to clarify comments from Elon Musk suggesting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, insisting no such plans exist.

Musk, speaking on Fox Business, criticized entitlement spending, sparking viral backlash. Trump’s administration defended Musk and attacked journalist Jake Sherman for misrepresenting his remarks.

Officials cited reports on fraud and waste but claimed benefits would remain intact. Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized Social Security, labeling it a “Ponzi scheme.”

Critics fear Trump could use fraud reduction efforts as a pretext for cuts despite his assurances otherwise.

64 comments

His followers don't care. They still believe there are 150 year olds on the parole. No proof needed for these "people". They don't care about reality.

OK but then pay me back so I can put it into my IRA and retire ten years sooner.

I need to keep that Samuel L Jackson clip on hand for when I hear retirees that voted for little d saying they didn't vote for this.
YES YOU DID!

It’s not damage control. Trump just use musk to test the water and push the boundaries. When the red line is crossed enough time, people will be numb about it.
- Yep, it's been the same pattern for a decade now.
  
  Thafuq have you been, "a decade", pfft. Strap in, kid.

And of course Elmo has no idea what a ponzi scheme really is...

Dammit, Daily Beast, these are not "entitlements". They are programs Americans were forced to pay into with the guarantee that they would receive proportional benefits.
- Entitlement is literally the term for social security and Medicare because those who've paid into them their whole lives are 100% entitled to receive payments from those programs.
- Pretty sure that is the literal definition of a government entitlement, I know the profligates have smeared the term for the last 40 years and all but this is one of their stupider ones.
- Doesn't that just mean that we're entitled to, or owed a return, on that money?
  Is it just an issue with connotation of that word? Or is it actually not an entitlement?
- Exactly. If they cut Social Security, I’m signing a class action lawsuit against the federal government for every penny I’ve put in.
- Gotta keep the right wing framing!
  
  yeah and ugh. but tbh we see this wording even from outlets surprisingly far to the left. (of a depressingly right-shifted so-called center, but anyway.)

insisting no such plans exist.
Like how all those other plans to cut departments didn't exist?
The White House has lost credibility, expect Social Security and Medicare to be cut.
- To be fair, nothing about how they've been shutting things down appears to be planned at all
- You’d be better off asking if any concepts of such a plan exists.

Oh the irony of a paper billionaire, rich off the labor of the people that depend on programs like Social Security, calling it a ponzi scheme is wild.
And it's no more a ponzi scheme than say insurance, 401Ks, or Medicare that people pay into because the government has left them no alternative way of affording to stay alive once they stop providing labor to the machine.
And these rich assholes that have no need for these social services because they have billions, or pensions, or government insurance need to STFU.
- Oh the irony of a paper billionaire, rich off the labor of the people that depend on programs like Social Security, calling it a ponzi scheme is wild.
  He's just mad there's money he hasn't yet figured out how to steal.
- These are the people that tend to push cryptocurrencies too. Apparently their scam-o-vision only kicks in when the "scam" helps the poor.

My republican parents are like "no way he'll cut social security" Man I hate this
- Did you ask them what they would do if he did?
  
  I asked my maga father that, the only answer he could come with is the "Trump promised he wouldn't touch it". These people are pathetically brainwashed into believing that Trump is looking out for their interests and not his own self indulgent bullshit.

We Gotta pay for those trillions in tax rebates for billionaires and corporations. How else are they going to buy what’s left of America after they purposely crash the economy. Americans will be tapped out at that point but the working class in Greenland and Canada still has assets so we’ll invade them so the oligarchs can steal their working classes wealth too.

This may be good in the end, it will force a revolution attempt at least
- not enough organized socialists for that.
  if people arent up to date with their political theory and history, always assume its gonna be for the worse.
  
  Them being read up on political theory and history wouldn't have done jack shit.
  
  I'm afraid there won't even be an attempt to fight back and that's incredibly depressing

It's really sad - my in-laws are in their mid-to-late 70s and are currently applying to jobs because they're convinced that Social Security will go away. I hate to see older folks so scared by this lunacy.
- Yeah, my dad finally retired this year at 70… And now he’s looking for a new job, because he’s concerned his social security is going to vanish overnight.
  
  The rich and right wing will say these groups should have invested better, worked harder, or taken better opportunities…people did all those things and are still struggling. It’s wank, and so unfair.
- Were they also Trump voters by any chance?
  I'm assuming no if they think they'll actually be impacted.
  
  No, they both voted for Harris.

Critics fear Trump could use fraud reduction efforts as a pretext for cuts despite his assurances otherwise.
That is their entire intent. Whatever they don't like, just brand it as something you don't like, make it a problem and then deal with the problem. Regardless of what anyone thinks, you only make yourself look good.

We're not taking away your Social Security benefit. We're upgrading it to a huge Trumpcial Muskurity benefit. We're going to cut loose all the freeloaders and give hard-working Americans a one-time payment of $5,000.
- They’re gonna invest your SS money into memecoins
  
  Oh, God. That's exactly what they're going to do, isn't it? And everyone on benefits is going to cheer for it imagining themselves as the newly rich.

I mean… they’re going to do it anyway.
- Yeah, they are just slightly concerned about him openly saying it.

Says won't do it, does it anyway. Do you think the idiots will learn?
- Nope!

I wonder who is manipulating whom here…is Trump really in control of Musk? Or is the dog walking the man here?
- I just see two dogs.
  
  Leash is coming out of the Kremlin.
  
  Yeah, I’m checking the news frequently to see if one dog turns on the other. If musk Turns on trump the way Trump turned on Cohen(Who was his lawyer through the Storm Daniel’s affair) then I’m sure Musk will destroy Trump financially; but maybe in the process Trump will reveal some dirt on Musk?

Musk = POS Nazi wannabe!
- Wannabe?

64 comments