Musk Calls Social Security ‘the Greatest Ponzi Scheme’ — Musk’s Call for $700 Billion in Cuts Is a ‘Prelude’ to Social Security Privatization
“Why do you lie so much about Social Security? To get people to lose faith in the system, and then you can give it over to Wall Street,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams / Mar 11, 2025
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders warned late Monday that billionaire Elon Musk’s new call for up to $700 billion in cuts to mandatory federal spending is an alarming step in the direction of Social Security privatization, a longstanding—and deeply unpopular—goal of right-wing politicians and corporate-funded think tanks.
Musk, who is spearheading a large-scale assault on federal agencies and workers, told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on Monday that “waste and fraud” in “entitlement spending”—a category that includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid—is “the big one to eliminate,” estimating that up to $700 billion could be cut from such programs.
It’s not clear where Musk, who has lied repeatedly about Social Security in recent weeks, got the $700 billion figure. As Rolling Stone’s Andrew Perez noted, “There is no expert on the planet who thinks there is $700 billion worth of annual fraud in America’s safety net programs.”
“Musk at one point in the interview cited a Government Accountability Office report which estimated that the government may lose between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud, but that report covered the whole of the federal government—not just those programs,” Perez wrote.
A 2024 report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general found that of the $8.6 trillion in Social Security benefits paid out between 2015 and 2022, roughly $71.8 billion was dispensed improperly—0.84% of the total.
“I think this is a prelude not only to cutting benefits, but to privatizing Social Security itself. I think that’s in the back of their mind.”
Musk also baselessly claimed that mandatory federal spending on programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is a “mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants, by essentially paying them to come here and then turning them into voters.” (In reality, undocumented immigrants pay taxes that help finance Social Security and Medicare but cannot receive benefits from the programs.)
Sanders (I-Vt.) couldn’t hide his disgust when he was asked during a CNN appearance to respond to Musk’s remarks.
“Well, he has called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. They have already laid off 2,500 employees of the Social Security Administration,” said Sanders. “If you ask me, I think this is a prelude not only to cutting benefits, but to privatizing Social Security itself. I think that’s in the back of their mind.”
“Why do you lie so much about Social Security? Why do you make it look like it’s a broken, dysfunctional system?” Sanders asked. “The reason is to get people to lose faith in the system, and then you can give it over to Wall Street. That’s my view.”
Musk’s latest attack on Social Security, a remarkably efficient program that has never missed a payment, came as his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has effectively taken over the Social Security Administration (SSA) and is pushing for massive cuts to the agency’s staff and budget based on egregious lies.
“Appearing to misread a chart, for example, Musk said on social media in February that DOGE had identified payments to ‘tens of millions’ of deceased Americans—an incorrect assertion repeated by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt,” The Washington Postreported last week.
Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees—a union engaged in a legal fight against the Trump administration’s purge of the federal workforce—wrote Monday that Musk’s latest comments show that he “doesn’t just want to cut the SSA workforce.”
“He wants to eliminate Social Security entirely,” Kelley added.
Joel Payne, chief communications officer at MoveOn Civic Action, said in a statement Tuesday that “Elon Musk and the Trump-led Republican Party are promising exactly what they have been trying to do for years: gut Social Security.”
“Republicans want to illegally fire tens of thousands of workers responsible for making sure American seniors get their Social Security and then let Musk take his chainsaw to our benefits,” said Payne. “We won’t let them do it. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Republicans need to keep their hands off our Social Security.”
The progressive advocacy group Social Security Works sounded a similarly defiant note.
“Elon Musk is a conman and a criminal, born with an emerald mine instead of a moral compass,” the group wrote on social media. “Of course he wants to destroy Social Security, because he can’t get his tiny greedy fingers on it any other way. HELL NO!”
A birthright Canadian is looking to destroy my right to Social Security. I worked my time, paid my money, and as I wait for my full retirement age benefit, these clowns want to destroy that promise. Boycott anything attached to Musk. He will never get a penny knowingly from me. Tough to say because it affects real people, but lines are being crossed.
Birthright South African.
Really? Are we going to do this? He was born on June 28, 1971, in Pretoria, South Africa. His mother, Maye Musk, is Canadian, which allowed him to obtain Canadian citizenship in 1989. He moved to Canada at age 17 to study at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, before transferring to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992 on an Exchange Visitor Visa. The Canadian citizenship was due to his mother being Canadian.
I’m fully aware of his Canadian citizenship and how he got it. You said “birthright Canadian”, which he is not. Obviously you are aware of it.
Musk gained Canadian citizenship at birth, when he was born in Pretoria, South Africa. Musk’s mother, Maye Musk, was born a Canadian citizen in Regina, Saskatchewan, so Musk automatically inherited Canadian citizenship by descent.
Under Canada’s current laws, children born outside Canada can inherit Canadian citizenship from their parents, but only for one generation. This means that if a parent is a Canadian citizen before their child is born, either by birth or through naturalization, the child receives citizenship even if they are born outside Canada.
Birthright is the concept of things being due to a person upon or by fact of their birth, or due to the order of their birth. These may include rights of citizenship based on the place where the person was born or the citizenship of their parents
Will Colin Parent’s love child please stop riding in bike lanes during the rain.
OR….. maybe he can cut the waste of sending SS, Medicare, etc to non existent people. That would be most helpful, for those who are legit. Or maybe there is gross inefficiencies within the Dept. and they will re-hire those that were hard workers, and not those who have a history of hanging out at the water dispenser. No one knows what the big picture plan is, so far all we know is the opinions of some. We all wait and see. I do HOPE he/they do cut the waste of those abusing/cheating the system, that’s been going on for decades.
Okay Pats, your comment was approved to show others how far you’ve fallen into the the whole trump-musk nest of lies. You’ve lost your privileges here because you believe this shit – so despite your decent views of local politics, your views otherwise have become indecent — and you’ve also proven that the old adage that “all politics is local” is bullshit. I wish you would reconsider all of this. Let me know when you’ve come around to being a decent American.
I’d love to cut the waste, the waste of time, from the Destruction Of Government by Elon. Hope the toddlers catch allll the 150+ year olds cheating the system. LMAO
And are you a computer programmer? Do you know how these things work? I might try to explain to you, but I do not think that would work. Oh, but you read it on FOX News? Or perhaps X? From, what’s his name? Big Balls? I am sure he knows.
I don’t think anybody would disagree with you Pats. The issue is, you don’t take metaphoric bulldozer to elaborate machine to fix a squeaky bearing. There is a far, far better way to find this “fraud and waste” and eliminate it. And I would venture a bet that, if done more methodically, many of the “center” voters and independents would actually approve.
I would disagree with Pats, at least on the thoroughly debunked matter of there being all this fraud and waste and non-existent people getting payments. This is utter nonsense this administration has made up so they can give our social security money to their billionaire buddies.
Pat’s, like all other supporters of Trump/Musk don’t’ care squat about waste or fraud or abuse. Not one stitch. What they really want is for the fraud to work in a way that they think will benefit them.
Pats, not to dig too far, but can you at least agree that Joe Biden won the 2020 election?
This is the real ponzi scheme.
Hours after Donald Trump announced that he was planning to purchase a Tesla, reports emerged that Elon Musk was considering a $100 million donation to a super PAC associated with the president.
Federal filings show that the MAGA megadonor-turned-White House advisor spent more than $290 million supporting the president and his Republican allies during the 2024 election cycle. Musk gave over a quarter of a billion dollars through his super political action committee, America PAC.
I only wish all the money I put into social security over 54 working years was in my own IRA instead of being used to run the day to day government.
I wonder how many people understand that social security taxes aren’t put into an investment account, that your money is spent by the government and there is nothing there but promises???
Social Security is one the safest and surest government programs in existence. It’s a Republican myth that it is in trouble or consumed with fraud and waste. It’s (normally) a lot more than just “promises”!
Haha. OK guys. Frank, yes, I totally agree Biden was elected as our Prez. Did you ever hear me slam him? Nope, because I didn’t. I don’t vote by party, I vote by who I think is the best candidate. It’s common knowledge since it’s been in the news for years and years, there is a lot of fraud in the SS System. Do I want it blown up?? Heck no. I worked over 10yrs. in private sector, so I want my SS retirement check every month, just like everyone else does. But I don’t like to think about all the folks qualified to receive SS now or in the future get axed out of it because the folks collecting fraudulently, are allowed to do so, and have for decades. Do I think there’s fraud and waste in the Welfare, and Medicare systems? Absolutely, I personally know of 3 recent cases. Do I think that’s OK, absolutely not. Chris, I don’t think Musk should be the right hand person of any Prez. He was NOT elected to that seat by, “we the people”, and should not have an inside line to the Prez. nor speak with any authority as if he’s entitled to do so. I think some of you have read way more into what I said, than what I meant. Holy cow, to assume I believe in everything I read and hear, is not how I live my life. Actually, I am a US flag flying, American, so were my parents, and grandparents on both sides of the house. I’ve rented bedrooms in my house, for $500 a month including utilities, kitchen and laundry privileges, to military people off and on for decades. It was my small way of giving thanks to the people who have lousy living quarters to protect this country. All the men in my family have been in the military. I’ve raised my kids to not believe everything they hear, and the only way they can judge people is 1) do we like them and 2) do they treat us nice. I, kids, and grandkids do not judge people based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, culture, bank accounts, opinion or anything else. For me, it makes life a lot easier than to be full of hate and angers. Hopefully, I’ve enlightened those who think I’m a lot of things, I’m not and never have been.
Well at least I get to agree/ disagree vs. the thought police who jump to interpret. You can’t bridge a divide if everyone thought the same way. Not that it has to get out of hand either. I can agree there is likely a degree of fraud, in various forms most places. But to the extent, DOGE places things, I’d say not. DOGE is just shooting from the hip without just cause. To me it’s a smokescreen to what they really want. You place great acceptance into DOGE SS assumptions without proof. There’s a public discrepancy over what DOGE may have interpreted, that may or may not be true, to what actually goes on in SS. I think we all need clarity to subjects like this. But then, can we trust who’s in charge to fairly not manipulate a political answer?
Golly Pats,
“I’ve raised my kids to not believe everything they hear, and the only way they can judge people is 1) do we like them and 2) do they treat us nice.”
Is that what Jesus would do? “Verily I say unto thee, only get along with people who get along with you, and only befriend people who treat you nicely.”
If that is your idea of Christian charity, count me out!
Everyone- at least a mention of the billionaires and whore president looking for $4B in cuts everywhere to enable even more tax cuts for the richest. Invest $200M in a campaign, reap 10X that in tax cuts and the real fraud, government contracts.
Pats- Give here a visit or two… https://freespeech.org/ (‘Democracy Now!’ if time limited)
FrankF- When the program collects more revenue than it pays out — which happened during the 1990s and 2000s — the money goes into the trust funds. When it operates at a deficit, as it has in recent years, it redeems asset reserves held in the trust funds.
Section 201 of the Social Security Act requires that the money in the trust funds be invested in interest-bearing debt securities issued and guaranteed by the federal government known as U.S. government obligations. As of May 2023, the trust funds held about $2.83 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities.
When the trust fund invests in these government bonds, the money goes into the general fund of the U.S. Treasury and can be used to fund other programs. But the debt will have to be repaid and the investments generate interest. In 2022, the trust fund’s investments generated approximately $66.4 billion in interest in 2022, representing 5.4% of Social Security’s total income.
John Shaw: Wow, there’s a huge difference between knowing or working with someone, and inviting them into my house as a “friend”. I have worked with, can and do get along with all people, famous, super wealthy, gang members, religious folks. I don’t let radical people try to change the way I live my life. There’s a very fine line between radical and those that need mental health services. If someone on the street is having a mental health issue, I don’t want to get involved in their world, but anyone else to talk with if fine with me. I don’t have many “hard stops”. I like all people, until they try to manipulate and get over on me, and then I draw a line on interaction with them. I refuse to carry angers and burdens with me for days/hours/weeks/constantly. Serves no purpose except to keep a person angry about something/anything/everything. I was taught by my parents to never go to bed angry, resolve it. It’s not healthy mentally or physically. To even think of bringing Jesus or God into your conversation on my beliefs and way I live, is beyond me. Try as you might, that’s totally off base. I hope you calm down and strive for a more peaceful life.
Pats, the fact that you have to label people as famous, super wealthy, gang members, religious folks, etc., tells me that you value people not as who they are, but as how you label them. Every person is human, as such, each will try to “manipulate and get over” on you. Does that give you license to ignore them or worse, treat them poorly?
I too am a US flag flying, American. As my dear departed mother used to say, “what has that got to do with the price of pickles in China?” Are you trying to place yourself above those who are American’s who choose not to fly the flag? I do not understand your value system, judging others the way you do. Try to remove the plank in your own eye first, huh?
LOL!!! Sorry, John but you missed my point completely and totally. Why are you so negative thinking? I am glad I don’t see the world as you do. I treasure peace, harmony, friendships with all people, and positive thinking on a daily basis and I like it that way. Try being happy, it’s more pleasant for you and others around you. Bye John.
Can anybody else see Trump squealing with excitement as his political ‘enemies’ are dropped out of helicopters at 500 feet as the USA’s 1973 buddy General Pinochet of Chile liked to do? I’m sorry but I sure can. How big a step is it from him screaming at his crowd of MAGATS that ‘I want to punch them in the face’ to helicopters?
How is that much different than what he said to his HAND-PICKED prosecutors about exactly WHO he wants them to go after…without exactly telling them to?
‘This should scare you’: Trump attacks political enemies in DOJ speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki6KLt_UVwI
And now Trump invokes the ‘Alien Enemies Act’ that put my stepmom and her family in US concentration camps in 1942…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZToIk1_jPs
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Are government-sponsored Pogroms in our future?
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As for the used a**wipe Musk, this congressman really opens up: starts at 33 seconds:
Elon Musk RIPPED APART By Congressman Over Crushing Social Security Demise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGW6xMvEGsY
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sealintheSelkirks
More on Musk:
The US Is Undergoing a Corporate Coup. Sudan Shows How Dangerous It Can Become.
Musk’s DOGE takeover is the first step in shaping government to his whims. The next steps could be even more terrifying.
https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-is-undergoing-a-corporate-coup-sudan-shows-how-dangerous-it-can-become/
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sealintheSelkirks
Alaska’s extremely right-wing Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski just threw a brick into Fascist Saluting Musk’s face and at the rest of the MAGA Fascist politicians that are frantically licking his feet in fear along with so many of the other billionaires involved in this Fascist Coup…
Lisa Murkowski Just BLINDSIDED Musk With A DEFIANT Bombshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_pxvZ9LNSc
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Will it make any difference or will it just get her ‘primary-ed’ as she pointed out? She may join the ranks of Liz Cheney and other Republicans that …
sealintheSelkirks
Murkowski is not that extreme right-wing, dude; she’s more of an independent and won’t forget how her state GOP threw her under the bus a few years ago.
Okay Frank, I’ll go with the not THAT extreme designation but, like Liz Cheney, she never was anywhere close to even being a ‘moderate’ Republican. I mean, Alaska is more like Idaho (well, almost!) according to people I know here who’ve lived there. Many young people from this area of Washington go north to fish for a couple of seasons, make a stake, and I’ve heard the stories from a number of them over the years about the ‘culture’ there. It’s extremely conservative and racist.
And remember, my next door state IS Idaho which has a rightful nickname of being ‘Mississippi on the Canadian Border.’
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sealintheSelkirks
Gee, not too judgmental of others, are we? God knows you are the poster child for civil rights and Justice for all, even for those Mississippian’s on the Canadian border huh? Some room to talk, you have.
Oh, here you are again, little buddy, throwing out more seriously ignorant comments at the wall to see what sticks. Unfortunately the RAG doesn’t directly notify if one forgets to check the box below (which I often don’t do), so I’m 6 days late to this part-AA.
As for being judgemental…I’m guessing that you’d do just fine living in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana though probably not Utah as the mormons were quite tough to live around…the cult’s prejudice were quite extreme still in the late 1980s even after god came down and said he changed his mind to allow the curse of the dark-skinned Lamanites to rise in the church hierarchy in the 1970s (right before the US gov was going to suspend their tax-exempt status, surprise!).
And they were much more judgemental than you are or I am. I was there and experienced it.
I was actually going to put up this ‘About San Diego by a Trumpie’ link elsewhere, but I think just maybe putting it here will subject you to a ‘teachable moment’ about the ignorance that I have lived around for decades, since I traded my hometown of OB for mountain surf.
So I’m going to let somebody else answer for me who was born and raised in northern Idaho to see if he can improve your grasp of parts of the country you have never experienced.
And I do agree with his take on what MAGA Liz Cheney truly is all about regardless of her Jan6 committee role…which is why this ignorant woman beat her in the election.
MAGA (WY) Congresswoman Testifies That San Diego is on the Gulf of Mexico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1aXqjrrcw
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sealintheSelkirks
This is interesting.
Reality from the mouth of an IRS employee then a DOGE employee who then quit the Dodgy Musk team:
DOGE Insider EXPOSES Musk’s SECRET PLANS Before QUITTING!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7CxMbbHc6g
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Musk CUT the free IRS direct file for taxpayers that people just LOVED to use… Everything that has happened seems to be about getting information to steal and sell…and killing off any trust in government but then that’s not what Trump wants.
sealintheSelkirks