"Elon #Musk thinks he’s found a foolproof get-rich scheme...If they win this fight, the next shutdown will be of #SocialSecurity, achieving a dream of hard-core libertarians and movement conservatives for more than 90 years." MSNBC https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/musk-trump-johnson-social-security-cuts-rcna196087
#USPolitics
These Are the 10 #DOGE Operatives Inside the #SocialSecurity Administration
The team working at the #SocialSecurityAdministration appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any government agency.
#ssa #takeover #takedown #Musk #privacy #security
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-operatives-access-social-security-administration/
"At least 10 people associated with Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are now working at the Social Security Administration (SSA), according to government records reviewed by WIRED; this includes a number of young engineers whose presence at the SSA has not been reported. The ballooning of DOGE’s presence at the federal agency—which Bloomberg, citing sworn statements filed in federal court Wednesday, previously reported—comes as Musk and his cohorts are publicly threatening social security benefits, citing unsubstantiated claims of mass fraud.
The DOGE-affiliated personnel in question are currently listed in the agency’s internal organizational chart. Background checks for two are still pending, according to a filing by the SSA in federal court in Maryland opposing a motion for a temporary restraining order filed by unions that would prevent DOGE from accessing SSA records. (A sworn statement attached to the filing from the SSA’s deputy commissioner of human resources claims that six of the background checks are still pending.)
The operatives—whom the government did not name in its filing—are, according to internal documents, Akash Bobba, Scott Coulter, Marko Elez, Luke Farritor, Antonio Gracias, Gautier Cole Killian, Jon Koval, Nikhil Rajpal, Payton Rehling, and Ethan Shaotran. This team appears to be among the largest DOGE units deployed to any government agency."
https://www.wired.com/story/doge-operatives-access-social-security-administration/
And they should only be paid for the time they are actually working, not a second more!
Also every kind of income should be taxed like #WageWork and #BuyBorrowDie needs to be criminalized as illegal #TaxDodging and #SocialSecurityFraud!
Elon Musk's social insecurity
The billionaire's reckless claims seem intended to manufacture outrage to justify an end to what he refers to as an “entitlement program.”
https://contrarian.substack.com/p/elon-musks-social-insecurity
"Ronald Reagan called #SocialSecurity “a secure & stable base so that older #Americans may live in dignity.”
#ElonMusk calls it a “Ponzi scheme.”
...
differences of opinion between #Musk & #Trump, the White House... pledging not to cut Social Security, #Medicare or #Medicaid benefits"
In #Australia, we had a #Robodebt scandal, where the super-conservative government of Scott Morrison (/spit) enacted a program of clawing back the "overpayments" of Welfare to #socialSecurity recipients.
To add insult to injury, the "overpayments" targeted people who tried to eek out a living with casual work...
...the consequences was up to 4000 recipients committed suicide as a consequence.
The (millionaire) minister responsible was told the algorithm was incorrect on at least 3 occasions...
...no human was ever found responsible for this abuse.
I am willing to bet, this social security cut will result in rTump and Moskovitz literally killing people...
...but what do you expect from "...the undesirables ought to be converted into biodiesel"
Cruelty is the point.
Outrage & exposure halts Trump's plans for Social Security service cuts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mFpn8BJLV4
"Rep. John Larson channeling the outrage of his constituents at the anticipation that Donald Trump's top donor, #ElonMusk, is intending to destroy #SocialSecurity in order to privatize it... #Musk was planning cuts to Social Security's telephone customer service... Between the public outcry & the exposure in the #media, the pushback... appears to have worked."
#USpol
#ElonMusk in contempt of #Congress?
Ranking Member of the influential #House #WaysAndMeansCommittee, Congressman #JohnLarson from #Connecticut blasts #Musk for not appearing in the Social Security Subcommittee's hearing regarding his 
"plans to privatize #SocialSecurity, #Medicare, and #Medicaid."
In the #Putinesque #Patrimonialism 2) #Trump is establishing, this translates into feasting on the carcass of the decimated State.
1)
https://cdn.jwplayer.com/previews/tsTFJv58
2)
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/corruption-trump-administration/681794
#SocialSecurity Is Not a #Ponzi Scheme. Today’s attacks R just latest form of backlash to New Deal. Lawrence B. Glickman. When Musk called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” on Joe Rogan’s podcast on February 28, he was, wittingly or not, echoing a long line of conservative critics. Over the last 15 years alone, a long line of Republican politicians—Mick Mulvaney, Ron Johnson, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, and Rand Paul—have characterized it the same way. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/social-security-is-not-a-ponzi-scheme/
DOGE Is Pressuring Social Security to Make Another Massive Cut
#DonaldTrump & #ElonMusk want to make it harder for people to access their Social Security benefits.
https://newrepublic.com/post/192667/doge-pressures-social-security-cut-phones
"The #SocialSecurity Admn might slash the telephone service that millions of retired & disabled #Americans use to apply for & access their **earned** benefits...
#Doge is pressuring the agency... and in response, the #SSA is considering ending its #phone service"
This is Goebbels-level dishonesty and #ElonMusk is a fucking fascist. #SocialSecurity is entirely self-funding. It cannot contribute one dime to the #deficit & never does, and the #undocumented don't get to collect it. Billionaires just want to steal its ~3 trillion $ trust fund.
"DOGE Has 10 Staffers at Social Security in Hunt for Dead People."
Musk’s #DOGE looks for evidence at the Social Security Admin to support its claim that there could be millions of dead people receiving public benefits.
Two sworn statements filed in fed court late Wed show that the SSA has staffed up in recent weeks to include 4 special govt employees & 6 more DOGE staffers on loan from other departments.
#Sabotage #SocialSecurity #Purge #SSA #Coup #Musk #USPol
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-13/doge-has-10-staffers-at-social-security-in-hunt-for-dead-people
#socialsecurity #doge
The Social Security Administration late Wednesday abandoned plans it was considering to end phone service for millions of Americans filing retirement and disability claims after The Post reported that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service team was weighing the change to root out alleged fraud. WP
I'm not in John Larson's state, but I messaged his office anyway to thank him for getting loud, and calling out their bullshit. If you give a shit about Social Security, maybe drop him a positive message.
The website contact page won't let you use info from out of state in the first attempt - just give it 1 main st southington. It'll say it's a bad address, and that page let's you pick other states.
https://larson.house.gov/
On social security programmes in #SouthAsia and how #Pakistan 's can be modified to help not oonly poverty alleviation but also #ClimateAdaptation AND #ClimateMitigation
Brilliant insight by climate lawyer Ali Tauqeer Sheikh
Did not know India's and Bangladesh's programmes were so far ahead of the world
https://www.dawn.com/news/1897603/climate-smart-social-protection
“These payments are mandatory and must be remitted through payroll tax deposits, typically on a semi-weekly or monthly schedule. Late deposits can result in penalties ranging from 2% to 15% of the unpaid amount.”
If I was a business owner and had been paying into SSA for someone for 10-20 years and realized now that it all might evaporate into thin air, I’d be asking myself if I wanted to stay in business.
One thing I haven’t heard in the conversation about #socialsecurity (“I’ve paid into it my whole life!”) is that **employers** also pay into it.
“Businesses must contribute 6.2% of each employee’s wages to Social Security, up to the 2024 wage base of $168,600. If an employee earns $100,000, the employer pays $6,200. For those earning above the wage base, the maximum employer contribution is $10,453.20.”
