'Not helpful': Republicans want Musk to 'zip it' about Social Security

20 March

During his 2024 campaign, now-President Donald Trump insisted that Social Security and Medicare cuts were off the table for him. But Democrats question his sincerity, pointing to disparaging comments that billionaire Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk —one of Trump's top allies — is making about Social Security.

Musk was a major Trump campaign donor in 2024, and after Trump narrowly won the election, he picked Musk to head the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — an advisory group that is helping the Trump Administration with mass layoffs of federal workers, including employees of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA).

Musk is aggressively defending SSA cuts in interviews, telling podcast host Joe Rogan, "Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time." And Musk repeatedly claims, without evidence, that Social Security is full of fraud.

Musk told Fox Business' Larry Kudlow, "Most of the federal spending is entitlements. That's the big one to eliminate."

According to The Hill's Alexander Bolton, some Republicans worry that Musk's comments attacking Social Security are harmful to the GOP and the Trump Administration.

In an article published on March 20, Bolton explains, "Musk's statement that Social Security is a 'Ponzi scheme' and plans to cut up to 12 percent of the Social Security Administration's workforce is giving GOP lawmakers heartburn. They warn that Social Security reform is known as the 'third rail' of politics for a reason: Any party that touches it is likely to get zapped come Election Day."

One of the Republicans who is speaking out against Musk is Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Murkowski told The Hill, "It doesn't help the president when you have somebody who clearly is not worried about whether or not Social Security benefits are going to be there for him…. It worries Americans all over the country. This is why Social Security has been kind of viewed as the untouchable from a political perspective, and why the president made very clear we're not dealing with Social Security."

The GOP senator argued that Musk's "Ponzi scheme" comment "doesn’t do anything to calm the anxiety of people who are already anxious about what’s going on with some of the safety-net programs."

Another GOP senator, interviewed on condition of anonymity, sees Musk's anti-Social Security remarks as helpful to Democrats.

The senator told The Hill, "He should zip it on that. It's not helpful. It plays right into Democrats' hands; they want to talk about Social Security cuts, Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts. We don't. The president does not want to talk about that. He’s against all those things…. When you start making it sound like you’re questioning the foundation of the Social Security system, that’s not helpful."

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is among the prominent Democrats who is calling Musk out on Social Security.

Schumer, on the Senate floor, told fellow lawmakers, "Elon Musk is saying it plainly: Republicans' big goal is to "eliminate' —

his words — Social Security and Medicare benefits. Are Senate Republicans fine with the terrible things Elon Musk and DOGE are doing to Social Security? Do they agree with Mr. Musk that it's one giant scam?"

Read Alexander Bolton's full article for The Hill at this link.

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