2 hours ago, connda said:

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.

Repeat after your master: fraud fraud! 😆

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.

This article is from WND.......... (formerly WorldNetDaily) is an American far-right^[1] news and opinion website. It is known for promoting fake news^[2] and conspiracy theories,^[3] including the false claim that former President Barack Obama was born outside the United States.^[4]

Apparently, improper SSA payment are nothing new, and the rate is not higher than in Insurance companies. One reason for this long-lasting phenomenon is that Congress (whatever the majority party was) never allocated money to improve the computer system (which makes sense if they are still using Cobol).

 

So the problem is known and remedies are also known. No reason for another clown show à la Musk!

 

"Between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, which includes Trump’s first presidency, the Social Security Administration sent almost $71.8 billion in improper payments, according to a July 2024 agency inspector general report. The inspector general’s office called improper payments "a longstanding challenge."

A November 2021 inspector general’s report found $298 million in payments after death to some 24,000 beneficiaries. (About $84 million was returned, the report said.)

The Social Security Advisory Board, a group of outside experts, has regularly issued bipartisan recommendations to improve the agency’s accuracy record for payments, such as shifting death data collection to the Treasury Department."

 

https://www.politifact.com/article/2025/feb/17/are-150-year-old-americans-receiving-social-securi/

 

A quite influent seem to be the budget rules, which are not inciting to solve this problem.

 

'To secure that first dollar to invest in technical fixes, the agency needs to lobby Congress, which is never easy and which could result in offsetting cuts to other parts of the agency. Then, if the agency does get that dollar and ends up saving $10 in payments, those proceeds would remain in the Social Security Trust Fund, which doesn’t help Congress’ own fiscal balance sheet, nor the agency’s own administrative budget."

7 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

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.

Actuially, the hugest fraud has already been identified. And it's not coming from the government, It's coming from insurance companies. 

 

Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated

Instead of saving taxpayers money, Medicare Advantage has added tens of billions of dollars in costs, researchers and some government officials have said. One reason is that insurers can add diagnoses to ones that patients’ own doctors submit. Medicare gave insurers that option so they could catch conditions that doctors neglected to record. The Journal’s analysis, however, found many diagnoses were added for which patients received no treatment, or that contradicted their doctors’ views.

https://archive.ph/HMi5l/again?url=https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-health-insurance-diagnosis-payments-b4d99a5d

 

‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions

 

The health system Kaiser Permanente called doctors in during lunch and after work and urged them to add additional illnesses to the medical records of patients they hadn’t seen in weeks. Doctors who found enough new diagnoses could earn bottles of Champagne, or a bonus in their paycheck.

Anthem, a large insurer now called Elevance Health, paid more to doctors who said their patients were sicker. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html

 

I should add that this is only a small piece of the corrupt practices deployed by insurance companies.

6 hours ago, Harrisfan said:

Msm is mostly lefty liars. Who reads that stuff?

Another victim of the law of the preservation of ignorance.

3 hours ago, connda said:

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.

 

Yes, draining the swamp 💕 

16 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Another victim of the law of the preservation of ignorance.

 

Ignorant are people who still believe MSM Propaganda after all this... 

4 hours 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!

 

Trump is greatest President of all time! Making America Great again! Now making peace with Russia... Observe what comes out of it! European Globalist controlled governments can fight Russia themselves, US has new leadership and will not put up with this. I suspect European people have enough of this as well.

24 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Actuially, the hugest fraud has already been identified. And it's not coming from the government, It's coming from insurance companies. 

 

Insurers Pocketed $50 Billion From Medicare for Diseases No Doctor Treated

Instead of saving taxpayers money, Medicare Advantage has added tens of billions of dollars in costs, researchers and some government officials have said. One reason is that insurers can add diagnoses to ones that patients’ own doctors submit. Medicare gave insurers that option so they could catch conditions that doctors neglected to record. The Journal’s analysis, however, found many diagnoses were added for which patients received no treatment, or that contradicted their doctors’ views.

https://archive.ph/HMi5l/again?url=https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/medicare-health-insurance-diagnosis-payments-b4d99a5d

 

‘The Cash Monster Was Insatiable’: How Insurers Exploited Medicare for Billions

 

The health system Kaiser Permanente called doctors in during lunch and after work and urged them to add additional illnesses to the medical records of patients they hadn’t seen in weeks. Doctors who found enough new diagnoses could earn bottles of Champagne, or a bonus in their paycheck.

Anthem, a large insurer now called Elevance Health, paid more to doctors who said their patients were sicker. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/08/upshot/medicare-advantage-fraud-allegations.html

 

I should add that this is only a small piece of the corrupt practices deployed by insurance companies.

 

How about USA ID?

35 minutes ago, radiogeneris said:

 

How about USA ID?

What about USAID? Musk has made a lot of claims about fraud, but provided precious little evidence. Whereas there's plenty of evidence that private insurers are bilking the  government out of 10s of billions of dollars at the least.

4 hours ago, connda said:

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.
 

 

"Paying out hundreds of billions of USD in fraudulent payments needs to end. "

 

No one would argue against your point.

The thing is there doesn't seem to be any evidence of this.

 

The problem with Musk with respect to the electoral third rail is that he doesn't care as he is not an elected official.

 

 

 

49 minutes ago, radiogeneris said:

 

Trump is greatest President of all time! Making America Great again! Now making peace with Russia... Observe what comes out of it! European Globalist controlled governments can fight Russia themselves, US has new leadership and will not put up with this. I suspect European people have enough of this as well.

Did you escape from your asylum or did you bribe a doctor!

9 hours ago, theshu25 said:

Morons Are Governing America

Yes, more Dems need to be run out of goverment. 

5 hours 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. 

Why not?

5 minutes ago, cdemundo said:

"Paying out hundreds of billions of USD in fraudulent payments needs to end. "

 

No one would argue against your point.

The thing is there doesn't seem to be any evidence of this.

 

The problem with Musk with respect to the electoral third rail is that he doesn't care as he is not an elected official.

 

If they keep making that claim over and over and over via the right wing media, it starts to be believed. This phenomenon was well understood by  Joseph Goebbels.

8 hours ago, Patong2021 said:

 

 

 

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. 

 

If the SS funding issue is not addressed, benefits will be mandatory cut in the future. 

Just now, placeholder said:

If they keep making that claim over and over and over via the right wing media, it starts to be believed. This phenomenon was well understood by  Joseph Goebbels.

 

 reductio ad Hitlerum

Just now, TedG said:

 

 reductio ad Hitlerum

The Big Lie was a very perceptive, if vile, insight of Goebbels. If the shoe fits...

Just now, placeholder said:

The Big Lie was a very perceptive, if vile, insight of Goebbels. If the shoe fits...

Name a Democat who does not lie all the time. 

6 minutes ago, TedG said:

 

If the SS funding issue is not addressed, benefits will be mandatory cut in the future. 

So glad you brought that up:

85% of Americans Willing to Raise Taxes to Save Social Security, Survey Shows

A new survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Greenwald Research, finds that most Americans are willing to accept tax increases to prevent benefit cuts.

The survey shows that 85% of respondents believe Social Security benefits should stay the same or even increase, even if that means raising taxes on some or all Americans. It also found that only 15% of respondents preferred keeping tax rates the same, even if that means reducing benefits.

https://www.aol.com/85-americans-willing-raise-taxes-153018526.html

32 minutes ago, TedG said:

Why not?

Why not what?

Another opinion piece passed as fact by the OP. Shocker

 

44 minutes ago, placeholder said:

So glad you brought that up:

85% of Americans Willing to Raise Taxes to Save Social Security, Survey Shows

A new survey from the National Academy of Social Insurance, AARP, the National Institute on Retirement Security, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Greenwald Research, finds that most Americans are willing to accept tax increases to prevent benefit cuts.

The survey shows that 85% of respondents believe Social Security benefits should stay the same or even increase, even if that means raising taxes on some or all Americans. It also found that only 15% of respondents preferred keeping tax rates the same, even if that means reducing benefits.

https://www.aol.com/85-americans-willing-raise-taxes-153018526.html

damn I was never contacted, but I am all for raising the ceiling for what you have to pay taxes on, this is one way to get the rich to pay more taxes

1 minute ago, flexomike said:

damn I was never contacted, but I am all for raising the ceiling for what you have to pay taxes on, this is one way to get the rich to pay more taxes

And there should be no limit on what income gets taxes. Right now it tops out at somewhere around  at $160,000 (I think).

1 hour ago, TedG said:

Name a Democat who does not lie all the time. 

JFK

11 hours ago, jerrymahoney said:

Trump: If it saves the country, it's not illegal

WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Echoing France's Napoleon Bonaparte, U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday took to social media to signal continued resistance to limits on his executive authority in the face of multiple legal challenges.

"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law," Trump, a Republican, proclaimed on his Truth Social network. The White House did not respond to a request for more details.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-if-it-saves-country-its-not-illegal-2025-02-16/

He's ruling as a God King. He's staged a self adminstrative coup with Musk and the Project 2025 fascists doing most of the work. American democracy is over. It's now a post constitutional oligarchy. It happened much quicker than most people imagined is possible, but it has happened. Is it too late for Americans to reclaim their democracy? There is no way of knowing yet but it's clear to me it would take massive national street actions at a minimum. 

9 hours ago, cdemundo said:

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.

 

 

Not very comforting. Musk and his big balls boy have all your data now. Nobody is checking them. What could possibly go wrong? 

 

8 hours 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. 

Yep. It's already started and dramatically among Gen Z.

Too bad they weren't paying attention BEFORE the election.

Now it's too  late. Massive damage has already been done. Some it will be irreversible.

 

Donald Trump's Gen Z Popularity Plunges - Newsweek

 

Quote

 

President Donald Trump's favorable rating among Generation Z voters has dramatically fallen since the 2024 election, according to a poll.

A survey from The Economist/YouGov released Wednesday revealed the president's net favorability rating among those aged 18-29 is minus 18 points. This is a drop from the plus 19 favorable rating he scored among this demographic in the days following November's race.

 

 

12 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Magas -- if it was George Soros who had access to all your most personal should be confidential data and he was allowed to copy it for personal profit

Where is any evidence that he is doing that?   

10 hours 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.

I've heard that the quote was actually from a MOVIE about Napoleon and that he never said it. But the idea is the same. Trump is ruling as a God King.