SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
congressional progressive caucus
'This Guy Is a Leech on the Public': AOC Rips Musk Over Attack on Social Security
"No matter how many billions he gets in tax cuts and government contracts, it will never be enough for him," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "Now he's going after the elderly, the disabled, and orphaned children."
Mar 03, 2025
Progressive lawmakers and advocates hit back on Sunday after Elon Musk parroted the long-debunked right-wing claim that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, the billionaire's latest false attack on the nation's most effective anti-poverty program.
Musk made the comments during an appearance on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast over the weekend, and the episode has already racked up nearly 8 million views as of this writing.
"Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time," Musk said. "If you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds the tax revenue."
The advocacy group Social Security Works noted in response that Social Security—which is 90% funded for the next quarter-century—"hasn't missed a payment in 89 years" and accused Musk of "defaming" the program as part of an effort to "cut benefits and otherwise destroy Social Security."
BREAKING: Elon Musk called Social Security "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time" in an interview with Joe Rogan. pic.twitter.com/gCrDPLM15u
— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) March 1, 2025
Musk's comments came as the Trump administration, with the assistance of the billionaire Tesla CEO's lieutenants, is working to gut the already-understaffed Social Security Administration, an effort that could result in benefit delays and disruptions.
"This guy is a leech on the public," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media after a clip of Musk's remarks on Rogan's podcast circulated. "No matter how many billions he gets in tax cuts and government contracts, it will never be enough for him."
"Now he's going after the elderly, the disabled, and orphaned children so he can pocket it in tax cuts for himself," Ocasio-Cortez added. "It's disgusting."
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote that "a guy who makes $8 million a day off the government thinks seniors getting $65 a day they worked their whole lives to earn is a 'Ponzi scheme.'"
"Protect Social Security," Casar wrote. "Fire Elon Musk."
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also weighed in on Musk's comments during an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday morning, calling the billionaire's attack on Social Security "totally outrageous."
"That's a hell of a Ponzi scheme when for the last 80 years, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American. Quite a Ponzi scheme," said Sanders, who called on lawmakers to support his proposal to expand Social Security benefits by lifting the cap on income subject to payroll taxes.
"You lift that cap, we can extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years," the Vermont senator said. "And you can raise benefits."
Last week, as Common Dreamsreported, Sanders attempted to pass his Social Security expansion bill through the Senate via unanimous consent, but Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) objected, blocking the legislation.
A previous version of this story improperly identified "Meet the Press" as an MSNBC show.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Progressives Launch 'Tax the Greedy Billionaires' Coalition to Counter Trump-GOP Agenda
"Enough with the attacks on working people in order to fund billionaire tax cuts," said Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas). "Tax the billionaires instead of funding the billionaires."
Feb 25, 2025
As House Republicans prepared to vote Tuesday on a budget blueprint that calls for ravaging Medicaid and other programs to help fund trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the wealthy, progressive lawmakers joined community members and organizers outside of the U.S. Capitol to launch a new coalition demanding a radically different approach.
"Enough with the attacks on working people in order to fund billionaire tax cuts," Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said at a press conference. "Just tax the billionaires instead of funding the billionaires."
Speakers at Tuesday's event cast the "Tax the Greedy Billionaires" coalition—which includes People's Action, MoveOn, and other advocacy groups—as a direct challenge to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans' legislative agenda, particularly the push for $4.5 trillion tax cuts primarily for the wealthiest Americans, financed by deep cuts to Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, and other key programs.
"The Republican plan is about making government more efficient for big corporations and billionaires who are screwing us over," said Casar. "We don't need to cut Social Security; we can expand it. We don't need to cut people's healthcare; we can expand it. We can have a country that is better off for small businesses and workers alike."
LIVE: The Congressional Progressive Caucus Holds Tax the Greedy Billionaires Press Conference https://t.co/ZCKGk61r1a
— Congressman Greg Casar (@RepCasar) February 25, 2025
The press conference included remarks from organizers who warned the House GOP's proposed $880 billion Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years would have devastating—and potentially deadly—impacts on their communities.
"Medicaid afforded me the opportunity to get on life-saving medication," said Elissa Tierney, co-founder of an organization that helps people negatively impacted by substance addiction. "I am asking, begging: Please protect these programs."
"If your vote is going to result in someone dying or losing their home," Tierney added, "vote no."
A full House vote on the budget blueprint, which Trump has endorsed, could come as soon as Tuesday evening, though there could be delays caused by divisions in the narrow Republican majority as GOP lawmakers face mounting constituent backlash in their home districts.
Politiconoted Tuesday that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) "faces some bleak arithmetic: No Democrats are expected to back the budget plan, and if all members are present and voting, he can lose only one Republican and still approve it."
"Do not take your eye off the ball—and the ball is always the money."
In a letter to members of Congress on Tuesday, the new coalition urged lawmakers not to "slash programs that working families depend on."
"Tax the greedy billionaires now," the letter adds. "The American Dream is dying in a system where unlimited wealth for the few destroys opportunity for all."
Last month, according to an analysis unveiled Monday, the world's billionaires saw their collective wealth surge by $314 billion—roughly $10 billion per day.
The GOP's proposed extension of expiring provisions of their 2017 tax law would be a major boon to billionaires in the United States, who saw their wealth skyrocket in the years following the law's enactment.
"Republicans are not thinking about regular people ever," Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) said at Tuesday's press conference. "It's about who's at the top who we can give more money to while the rest of us are scrapping around for every little bit that we can get. It's not right."
"Do not take your eye off the ball—and the ball is always the money," Balint added. "Who has the money, who's getting the money, and how are the rest of us being screwed."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'I'm 100% Certain,' Says Top Dem, That Musk 'Looking for an Excuse to Cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid'
"We have one simple message," said another lawmaker: "Keep your hands off."
Feb 11, 2025
Amid fears that U.S. President Donald Trump's government-gutting billionaire adviser, Elon Musk, will target Social Security, elected officials, advocates, workers, and beneficiaries of the federal program for seniors and people with disabilities held a Monday rally in Maryland.
"We have one simple message, which is: Elon Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security!" declared U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.). He took aim at not only the chair of Trump's Department of Government Efficiency but also his "DOGE crew," warning of Musk and his minions "conducting illegal raids on federal agencies" in what other critics have called a "hostile corporate takeover of American democracy."
The senator pointed out that "they have accessed highly sensitive personal information on Americans at the Department of Treasury, including Social Security numbers, bank accounts, and other very sensitive information," and "worked to shut down a number of federal agencies," including the U.S. Agency for International Development and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
He also highlighted DOGE attacks on the U.S. Department of Education and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and reporting that "their next stop" is the Social Security Administration (SSA).
The rally at SSA headquarters was organized after Semaforreported Thursday that the agency "is an upcoming focus" of the Musk-led panel. As the outlet put it: "DOGE's interest in trying to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid, and perhaps soon in cutting at the Social Security Administration, suggests that government programs once seen as untouchable may be on the table."
Reporting on the rally, Newsweeknoted that "Trump has pushed back on the narrative that the popular benefits will be slashed, saying when asked if there are limits on what Musk can examine, 'Social Security will not be touched, it will only be strengthened.'"
"Trump has not made any official cuts to Social Security since taking office," the outlet added, "but amid his administration's attempted overhaul of government agencies and spending, the Social Security Administration could face personnel losses in terms of layoffs or administrative funding without cuts directly to Social Security payments."
Further fueling fears of DOGE-led attacks, Musk wrote on his social media platform X earlier Tuesday: "At this point, I am 100% certain that the magnitude of the fraud in federal entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare, Disability, etc) exceeds the combined sum of every private scam you've ever heard by FAR. It's not even close."
To this message, Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Texas), fired back: "At this point I'm 100% certain that Elon Musk is looking for an excuse to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. Fire Elon Musk."
In response to Semafor's reporting last week, Social Security Works, an advocacy group, warned that Trump was "empowering Elon Musk to play Russian roulette with our earned benefits."
The organization's communications director, Linda Benesch, told Common Dreams that "the Social Security Administration is already understaffed and underresourced. Musk and his gang of teenagers want to make this crisis worse, and make it harder for Americans to get the benefits they've earned."
"They may also intentionally or unintentionally break the technology SSA uses to calculate benefits," Benesch added. "We suggest that everyone go to SSA.gov and download a copy of their Social Security statement right away so that there's a record of what they've earned."
Speakers at the Monday rally slammed Trump and Musk's attempts to purge the federal workforce. U.S. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said that "we are standing in front of a building that represents thousands of Marylanders who have been coming to work in this building—civil servants for over 60 years now who have been coming to this building, doing the essential work of processing Social Security checks for nearly 72 million Americans."
"When we think about the servants who stand in this building and buildings all across our country, these are men and women who come to work every day—and these are not Democratic jobs or Republican jobs, these are American jobs," she continued. "It is also the case that those who have served in this building do so no matter who the president is. Many of them have served for decades, under Republican presidents, under Democratic presidents—again, because they serve the people."
"When you target civil servants, you also target the people they serve," Alsobrooks stressed. "They serve our grandmothers, our grandfathers, our mothers and fathers—like mine—our friends, our neighbors, and family members with disabilities who rely on Social Security."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular