17 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The more money he has amassed, the more ignorant and completely out of control the man has become. Trump will live to regret giving him this position, as Trump's own popularity will decline the more this man continues with his madness. It will take a while for Trump supporters to realize how bad a decision this was, and how little Musk is doing to improve the lives of the average American. 

 

1984 here we come. Orwell was right. Trump was the guy he spoke of. 

Trump has a positive approval rating

3 minutes ago, stevenl said:

Yes, a quote mostly attributed to Napoleon. The guy who sank the french republic and crowned himself emperor.

 

It also gives freedom to 'patriots ' to do what they like to save the country.

And for the usual responders on here that is just Trump-being-Trump (TM)

Thought you Pensioners would have welcomed this 

Quote

with blatant misinformation

 Talk about Pot/Kettle Black 555

Coming off 4 years of the most toxic misinformation USA has ever known

 

PS: Those of us actually living in the USA are Lovin’ Every Minute of  the new transparent Admin ...Thank You 😉

Is this some sort of 'joke'?

 

Disregarding feelings about Musk and about any other posters on AN,

I have a deep, sincere, heartfelt attachment to my Social Security Retirement payment.

 

I starting paying into the fund at age 14 and now I expect to get my benefits as promised.

 

Although I know that not everyone who joins in these discussion about US politics collects Social Security benefits (some of the most active are apparently old hens from New Zealand) in my opinion many would do well to put politics aside and focus on what is really important and significant in human life.

 

Money.

 

Don't let anyone muck with the benefit that I funded through payroll deductions for my whole working  life.

 

If Jesus, Buddha, and Jerry Garcia were on a committee that was trying to get at my Social Security I would still feel the same way.

This is not personal or political.

It's about the money.

 

 

30 minutes ago, frank83628 said:

Thought you Pensioners would have welcomed this 

 

Meh.

 

For most of those mentioned...

 

"middle class seniors"

 

the bulk of their benefit is already not taxable.

 

https://apps.irs.gov/app/vita/content/globalmedia/social_security_benefits_worksheet_1040i.pdf

55 minutes ago, 300sd said:

Yeh, he's ignorant for sure but he can catch rockets in mid air.

No. The engineers he hires do that.

2 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

 

 

 The easiest thing to do is to restrict or reduce social security benefits for non residents. Non residents are not spending their money in the USA  and should not  benefit from its generosity. Let the  beneficiaries collect only what they paid in and nothing more than that. 

Pensioners living in Thailand do it so they can have a reasonable standard of living.

 

Forcing them to join the homeless in the USA is as clear a case of dumbf***ery as I have seen posted.

A couple of troll posts making personal attacks have been removed.

 

@frank83628is you want to continue making homophobic comments, expect a time out, you are trying my patience, either discuss the topic, don’t comment on other posters.

 

 

1 hour ago, mania said:

 Talk about Pot/Kettle Black 555

Coming off 4 years of the most toxic misinformation USA has ever known

 

PS: Those of us actually living in the USA are Lovin’ Every Minute of  the new transparent Admin ...Thank You 😉

Transparent? None of Musk's actions are transparent.

DOGE and Musk's role in it should have been to conduct the audits and investigations, keep his mouth shut, and turn over his results to the decision makers in the Oval Office and/or cabinet. But, no. This man's narcissism dwarfs even Trump's. He must be center stage, dressed and acting out like a teenager. His qualifications to enact government cuts and reorganization are non-existent. Most of his ideas are half-baked and short-lived, because he can't focus and when he blunders, he runs away (remember six weeks ago he turned a good portion of Trump's supporters against him, Musk, because of his pro-H1B infinite Indians immigration desires). He moved the entire apparatus then to take aim at British immigration in order to distract and cover up his mess. I'm getting very tired of seeing Musk's fingerprints on everything and his ugly mug on every news story.

21 minutes ago, HappyExpat57 said:

No. The engineers he hires do that.

You've got a point but it seems like nobody else's engineers do as much as his.

 

Again, not to argue but to sincerely ask:

How did Tesla leapfrog over all the established carmakers to become competitive in electric cars?

Japanese and American car makers should have been old hands at the biz yet Tesla got in there.

 

Musk is certainly a bit of an oddball but he's also got a bit of the Midas Touch.

 

1 hour ago, Harrisfan said:

Trump has a positive approval rating

So far. That will change dramatically as his followers realize who he truly is, what his agenda is, and how he's not working for their welfare at all. 

1 minute ago, spidermike007 said:

So far. That will change dramatically as his followers realize who he truly is, what his agenda is, and how he's not working for their welfare at all. 

He has been around for years. His supporters choose him 4 years apart 

Elon Musk bombshell: 'This might be the biggest fraud in history'

https://www.wnd.com/2025/02/elon-musk-bombshell-this-might-be-the-biggest-fraud-in-history/

 

But the left wing socialist globalists do not want to stop the fraud and are targeting Musk instead of the fraud.

3 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

 

 

The article doesn't claim Musk will abolish social security. Rather it quotes Republican President Eisenhower. You know, the military  military veteran who was an integral part of the defeat of right wing extremism.

 

President Dwight Eisenhower, Republican and war hero, could have been talking about Musk when he warned in 1954 of a handful of “Texas oil millionaires” attempting to abolish Social Security. “Their number is negligible and they are stupid,” he wrote.

 

It is no secret that there is waste at the Social Security administration. The pressure to get money into the pockets of beneficiaries coupled with  personnel shortages and an obsolete data management system facilitates mispayments and fraud. It is also no secret that the funding for social security is inadequate. The qualifying age to collect retiree / old age benefits does not reflect the  longevity of the beneficiaries today. Medicare and Medicaid benefits are relatively generous for those who qualify, and are structured such that fraud in inevitable. This is what Musk is tasked with investigating and fixing.

 

I am one of those people who believes that the qualifying age for SS benefits should be raised and that the parameters to qualify for medicare and medicaid benefits should be tightened. As such, I support the DOGE initiative. What I do not support is the methodology and the wholesale disrespect of good management practice for the sake of expediency and  publicity. On the other hand, if  the Republicans were to come right out and say that SS benefits were to be  reduced and to be  changed, particularly in respect to increasing contributions and/or raising the qualifying age, much of its support in the  trailer park and age 50-60  group would disappear. The easiest thing to do is to restrict or reduce social security benefits for non residents. Non residents are not spending their money in the USA  and should not  benefit from its generosity. Let the  beneficiaries collect only what they paid in and nothing more than that. 

Thank you for your pontifications.

I would disagree with this one " The easiest thing to do is to restrict or reduce social security benefits for non residents".

There are a relatively small number of non-residents receiving benefits: " more than 760,000 people receive Social Security benefits while living abroad" each year out of about  51,772,000 receiving benefits. So you are advocating going after a minority who you probably see as vulnerable rather than looking to actually solve the funding problem.

 

The easiest and most effective would be to remove this limit:

"there is a limit on the amount of your earnings that is taxable by Social Security. This amount is known as the “maximum taxable earnings” and changes each year."

This limit, essentially a kickback to high income individuals, is unjustifiable and would actually result in a significant addition to the Social Security fund.

 

Your snobbish attitude is so apparent, referring to the " the  trailer park and age 50-60  group", one can't really take your opinions seriously.

2 minutes ago, Keep Right said:

Elon Musk bombshell: 'This might be the biggest fraud in history'

https://www.wnd.com/2025/02/elon-musk-bombshell-this-might-be-the-biggest-fraud-in-history/

 

But the left wing socialist globalists do not want to stop the fraud and are targeting Musk instead of the fraud.

Yes many Democrats are crooks, hence the noise.

5 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Third rail of American politics?

Musk eats third rails for breakfast.

You've heard his lies.

This article explains what's actually going on.

Also to note he's closing physical Social Security offices.

For expats needing to contact Social Security by phone, there are current reports of people being on hold for 8 hours.

That's BEFORE Musk gets his corrupt billionaire hands on staffing.

I realize many Magas love their social security too.

What's it going to take for Magas to wake up to what's going on -- an administrative coup.

An authoritarian hostile takeover.

Will Magas even change their tune when leopards eat their faces?

 

LINK to The Hill

Elon Musk's threat to Social Security benefits

 

 

Where's the misinformation?  All I see is scary propaganda put out by the Far-Left-Wing The Hill.  The Hill is part of the problem, not part of the solution. 

Musk is running an anti-corruption campaign for the Trump administration.  For example, if the spreadsheet below by Musk is true, than it either is exemplifying gross incompetence by SSA, or it is exemplifying gross corruption of the system - people older than the United States are marked as "Alive" in the SSA system?  For chrissake, get real!  Either way, funds are being misused.  Any funds being paid out to dead people or foreign nationals who obtained the benefits illegally all impacts the solvency of the Social Security system.
Corruption and inefficiency needs to be eliminated so that they SSA system can remain solvent and be able to pay out the Social Security benefits you paid into all of your life and now have earned in return to take care of you in your old age.

Corruption needs to end.  Paying out hundreds of billions of USD in fraudulent payments needs to end.  The US financial system need to be put into order.  Stopping fraudulent SSA paying in turn strengthens the SSA system and keeps it solvent in order to pay benefits to "elderly" people like you and I have paid into the system all of our lives and earned our benefits. 

Am I personally worried about "Musk and Trump ending Social Security."  No, not at all.  Social Security will always be a "third-rail" issue for American politics.  Want to lose an election?  Putting 60 million or so elderly US citizens on the street is a sure-fired path to losing the Presidency and Congress and creating a social backlash that would possibly destroy the US.  Unlike you OP, I want to see the SSA reformed, I want to see illegal and fraudulent payments ended, I want to see "Dead" people identified and taken out of the system, and I want to see the system put into working order - for the benefit of those of us who are legitimate US citizens and who worked all of our life's to earn those benefits.
 

 

Title of this post is actually misinformation itself. Mainstream media is basically propaganda program run by USA ID. Go to Elon Musk or Doge on X/Twitter to see the actual information instead of lies. Here is the link to story:

 

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/might-be-biggest-fraud-history

 

Biggest fraud, possibly tied to voting as well...

 

Amazing that people still believe MSM Propaganda.

 

 

4 hours ago, BKKKevin said:

If you read the entire linked article you will find the examples of misinformation…

One being that Musk said that he has found 150 year olds collecting Social Security…

Red meat for his easily fooled ilk… 

 

Not exactly.  He said a "cursory" examination of the data, they found 150-year-olds collecting benefits.

 

That is true.  A quick breakdown of age brackets receiving checks did indeed result in that result.

 

Obviously that's a problem, either fraud or processing error.  Either way, it needs to be fixed.

 

Thanks for watching out for us, Elon!

2 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

And for the usual responders on here that is just Trump-being-Trump (TM)

That is the basis of the problem with Trump! It is the idiotic Trump being the idiotic Trump!

He only does what comes into that pea brain of his and ignores all advice rom those in the know!

22 minutes ago, NoDisplayName said:

 

Not exactly.  He said a "cursory" examination of the data, they found 150-year-olds collecting benefits.

 

That is true.  A quick breakdown of age brackets receiving checks did indeed result in that result.

 

Obviously that's a problem, either fraud or processing error.  Either way, it needs to be fixed.

 

Thanks for watching out for us, Elon!

 

Under an international standard called ISO 8601, a missing value for a date is coded as May 20, 1875, because that was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the "Convention du Mètre."

 

For that reason, under some coding systems, a missing value for a date will default to 1875 — which in the year 2025 produces a round figure of 150.

 

https://youtu.be/E4MH2Dkf14k?si=5fm1H5uvFw5vvHrO

 

You would think these "cyber geniuses" would know this... 

2 minutes ago, scottiejohn said:

That is the basis of the problem with Trump! It is the idiotic Trump being the idiotic Trump!

He only does what comes into that pea brain of his and ignores all advice rom those in the know!

 

The problem is the tsunami of anti-Trump disinformation posts regurgitating media talking points from those whose cranium houses a wee, tiny Trump at no cost.

 

Thousands and thousands of posts that all boil down to

"git off'n muh brain!"

5 minutes ago, BKKKevin said:

 

Under an international standard called ISO 8601, a missing value for a date is coded as May 20, 1875, because that was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the "Convention du Mètre."

 

For that reason, under some coding systems, a missing value for a date will default to 1875 — which in the year 2025 produces a round figure of 150.

 

You would think these "cyber geniuses" would know this... 

 

Date of Birth is KEY in processing of SS benefits. How can this be missing? Also, there are brackets of age as per Elon Musk post, if date would be missing all would default to same, it is not Mr. Smart 🤓 

 

Glad Trump is draining swamp finally.

Just now, radiogeneris said:

 

Date of Birth is KEY in processing of SS benefits. How can this be missing? Also, there are brackets of age as per Elon Musk post, if date would be missing all would default to same, it is not Mr. Smart 🤓 

 

Glad Trump is draining swamp finally.

 

I guess next step for DOGE agency is to see WHERE the money is actually going... That is the key in uncovering crime... Elon said specifically it is fraud, means they already know it...

SS is too expensive way out of control all the COLA increases.  They will probably be making cuts forcing some people to get a job.

53 minutes ago, John Drake said:

keep his mouth shut

See, that IS the problem.  A total lack of transparency.  So what you advocate is for Musk to do his audit and keep silent.  That's been the modus operandi of the US government and what's it produced:  Massive waste, fraud, and abuse.  And a system which elicits whistle-blowers to come forward so that whistleblowers can be identified and punished.

Those days are over, thank god, and it's a new era. Corruption has been the name of the game for decades.  It's time to root it out, punish those involved, and reset the system to make it corruption-proof.  If it takes AI to accomplish that, then bring on Sky-Net.

.

3 hours ago, Keep Right said:

Elon Musk bombshell: 'This might be the biggest fraud in history'

https://www.wnd.com/2025/02/elon-musk-bombshell-this-might-be-the-biggest-fraud-in-history/

 

But the left wing socialist globalists do not want to stop the fraud and are targeting Musk instead of the fraud.

Wnd! 😆