WASHINGTON – The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works:
“Elon Musk slandered Social Security over the weekend by calling the vital and beloved program a criminal Ponzi scheme, the same lie Donald Trump used before he decided to run for president. Musk’s comment is no surprise, given his recent actions to begin the wholesale dismantling of our Social Security system. Social Security is overwhelmingly popularamong all Americans, including those who consider themselves die-hard Trump supporters.
Trump knows that. Last year, he blanketed swing states with flyers promising that he would protect Social Security – despite the fact that he proposed Social Security cuts in every one of his first-term budgets. Musk and Trump want to undermine support for our Social Security system by convincing the American people that this extremely efficiently run program is rife with fraud, waste, and abuse. Even worse, they want to make it impossible for America’s working families to access their earned benefits. At Musk’s direction, the Trump administration is planning to lay off a substantial part of the already understaffed and overworked Social Security Administration workforce.
A large number of senior staff have already been pushed out, taking with them essential institutional knowledge. Moreover, Trump and Musk have announced their intention to close every Social Security field office, so that no one can claim their earned benefits in person. That will increase fraud, since historically it has been caught by those who meet with the public face to face. It will also make it impossible for many Americans to get the support they need to access their benefits. These layoffs are so destabilizing that it is even possible that Americans may see a disruption in their monthly payments.
Reinforcing Musk’s lies, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) recently said that Musk’s algorithms are crawling through our personal Social Security data and finding ‘enormous amounts of waste, fraud, and abuse.’ That is yet another lie. Musk is the one creating waste, fraud, and abuse. He is stealing our data and firing the public servants who make Social Security work. If Congress does not act soon to stop him, our Social Security system may never recover.”
This article was originally published on Common Dreams and republished here, with permission, under a Creative Commons license. See our third-party content disclaimer.
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