We live in a world right now which asks us to hold in our minds *alternative facts.* Literally. This manifested itself during the election when Donald Trump announced that he was eliminating the Department of Education and “returning it [education] to the states where it belongs.” That was rather a stunning statement but then Trump makes a lot of them. Then he named Linda McMahon to be Secretary of the DOE. Both cannot be true. Since it appears that McMahon is in line to be confirmed by the Senate at some point, it appears that the DOE still exists. And his promises to dismantle it and give the states the burden of education on their own? Your guess is as good as mine. Or anybody else’s.
Now we have a similar situation going on: Trump was on Meet The Press Sunday. It was a bona fide shitshow, with softball questions and no pushback — the only circumstances under which His Orangeness will sit for an interview these days. Kristen Welker asked him about Social Security and Medicare. Won’t be touched, we are assured. Great. Then how in the world are Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy going to cut 30% of the federal budget, or $2 Trillion, which Robert Reich says is impossible without cutting Medicare and Social Security?
On Thursday, Musk and his “DOGE” co-chair, Vivek Ramaswamy, went to Capitol Hill to discuss their plans. Republican lawmakers immediately announced that “everything is on the table,” including cutting Social Security and Medicare.
During the campaign, Musk said his goal was to cut $2 trillion — or about 30 percent — of the entire federal budget.
There’s no way to do this without cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Social Security alone accounts for almost a quarter of the total federal budget.
Ramaswamy has been even more explicit about their plan, saying in a CNBC interview that “there are hundreds of billions of dollars of savings to extract” from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Elon Musk spent $277 million of his fortune to elect Trump. He bought the power to gut Social Security and give himself more tax cuts and tens of billions in government contracts.
Just to remind you: Neither Musk nor Ramaswamy was elected to his position. Which means they’re utterly unaccountable. (Musk and Ramaswamy will work in concert with budget-cutters in the Trump White House, with the support of a congressional DOGE caucus that’s now forming.)
They’re both multi-billionaires who couldn’t care less about Social Security. Meanwhile, you’ve probably been paying into Social Security your entire working life.
Republicans have been out to kill Social Security since its founding in 1935 because it’s one of the most popular and successful government programs ever created. It doesn’t only help retirees. It also keeps 26 million people out of poverty.
Republicans have used public concern about Social Security’s future solvency as a cynical excuse to demand cuts in benefits.
True, the trustees of Social Security — of which yours truly was once a member — say the program will be able to pay full benefits only until 2033. After that, Social Security will be able to dole out only about 77 percent of benefits.
This scares the living bejesus out of me, personally, because I don’t have a huge government check. I have a very small one, in fact, because I was malpracticed and put on disability years before I would have retired. A lot of people I know are in this boat. So to get 77% of something already marginal is not a good thing to contemplate.
But here’s the kicker. Reich explains that if the rich would pay their fair share, we could have Medicare fully funded.
That cap is set at $168,600 this year (it rises with inflation). That means that anyone who earns more than $168,600 this year pays nothing in Social Security taxes on the excess.
Elon Musk finished paying his 2024 Social Security taxes 14 seconds past midnight on January 1 of 2024.
Even a run-of-the-mill CEO earning $20 million per year pays Social Security taxes on less than 1 percent of their income.
Meanwhile, a typical American worker pays Social Security taxes on 100 percent of their income.
So there you have it. As it is, the tax code is set to favor people like Ramaswamy and Musk but it’s not enough. It’s never enough, apparently. If Musk owned the planet and we changed the name of this world to Elon, that wouldn’t be enough. He’d need to own the solar system.
So, like the Department of Education, WHICH IS IT? Because we keep getting Trumpian double-speak, one day it’s one thing, the next day it’s something else.
Personally, I cannot see a scenario where Social Security is either shrunk or eliminated for people currently on it. Same for Medicare. There will be uprisings in the streets. And with justification. And without Medicaid there will be people dying in the streets. We who are the recipients of Social Security and Medicare have paid into them our entire lives. I filed my first income tax return in 1968. I’m still paying taxes.
I don’t think Trump is stupid enough to eliminate the biggest part of the social safety net. At least, that’s what he said yesterday. But Musk and Ramaswamy are singing a different tune. Who’s right? Or maybe we should ask it a different way: Who’s in charge?
Trump will have veto power because Congress has to vote on gutting these programs.
I don’t argue that. I still want to know what this Pushmi Pullyou policy is. Trump says no way, but as Robert Reich points out, “everything’s on the table.” It’s like the Department of Education. One day it’s history the next it’s got a new head.
McMahon is a completely incompetent person with no background in education or non-profit administration and who has a nasty scandal involving underage “ring boys” and an announcer for the WWE. Completely unfit for for that job, even without the lawsuit. Are there no Republicans who confine their relationships to their marrital.partner or at least only date legal adults?
I just commented to a friend about what a 5h1t5how it is going to be. trump has nominated people to head up these departments and has advisors who are going to go all out trying to dismantle them. I am pretty confident that these appointees are not going to want to go along with Musk and Ramasmarmy’s plans and put themselves out of a job and no longer in close proximity to POSOTUS. Seems as if we will need some popcorn to watch all the infighting in the upcoming administration.
I worked since I was a preteen. I worked hard. My husband also. We built a house BY OURSELVES. I can swing a hammer with the best of them. But we both broke our bodies from over 50 years of hard, physical work. We JUST retired. Yes, we have pension, savings, investments but they were supposed to last us until we were gone. But that included social security, medicare, VA disability. My husband signs up TODAY with telephone interview. The gqp is hoping to let the government shut down until that felon is installed rather than doing the budget as required. So, does he get his benefits? Who knows. We will both lose them. As will my mother, my MIL in nursing home WITH DEMENTIA, and my leech of a sister, all of whom will look to us to care for them because I have saved money since I was a child and got my first Christmas Club. It was a family joke but they won’t be laughing. My mother and sister voted for the felon. I tried to explain tariffs to my mother and she wouldn’t listen. So, everything I did my entire life is for naught. Because STUPID people are allowed to vote. And because greedy millionaires/billionaires are satisfied until they get ALL the money. I need to leave the country but cannot because my mother and MIL are both 90. WTF Amerikkka??? They will do whatever they want. The felon has been made king by the court. THANK YOU FU@KING MAGATS. I will survive as long as possible but it won’t be long. Shorter for my husband who has many health problems. Please do one thing: boycott the BS “new”. CNN, MSNBC, all of them. They just helped that felon into office. Spent the last four years ensuring it happened. All for clicks. I hope the leopards are going to eat their faces first. Angry, why, yes, I am. And if you all aren’t, well, I feel bad that you cannot see what is coming, what is right there in front of your faces. Thank you.
What I can’t figure out is how stupid these trumpies are. Have we all forgotten 2005, Hurricane Katrina? How that friggin’ idiot Bush put another idiot (Brown something) in charge of FEMA? And the disaster that befell New Orleans? And now we’re gonna put another bunch of idiots in charge? These Maggots are gonna get what they deserve, problem is, the rest of us are gonna suffer too.
Reich is right. Raise the limit to $50,000. They still won’t miss it, but it will allow the people who worked so hard that the billionaires got so rich and allow those workers to have a decent retirement.
Do you mean $500,000? Instead of $50,000?
Silly question, they’re all lying!