Billionaire businessman Elon Musk. PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons.
By FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT
and Companies
newshub@eyewitness.africa
Elon Musk and the Trump administration are pitching cuts in probably the most politically harmful arenas in America — the Social Safety Administration.
In line with NBCnews Musk has solid the thought as one which’s primarily about immigration, falsely claiming that undocumented immigrants are fraudulently accessing a whole bunch of billions of {dollars}’ price of entitlements, together with Social Safety, Medicaid and incapacity packages, as a part of a Democratic scheme for votes.
“Through the use of entitlements fraud, the Democrats have been capable of entice and retain huge numbers of unlawful immigrants,” Musk, the billionaire tech CEO behind the Division of Authorities Effectivity, stated Monday on Sen. Ted Cruz’s podcast, with out proof. “And purchase voters. Mainly herald 10, 20 million people who find themselves beholden to the Democrats for presidency handouts and can vote overwhelmingly Democrat, as has been demonstrated in California.”
Musk instructed Cruz, R-Texas, that his efforts to finish the alleged fraud are why individuals on the left “hate my guts and need me to die.” He stated the fraud has value the federal government $100 billion to $200 billion.
It’s an argument Musk has been making repeatedly in latest weeks, as DOGE and the Trump administration announce and push for extra cuts to the SSA, together with eliminating 1000’s of staff from the already lean company, ending the power to make claims by telephone and shuttering dozens of area places of work that assist seniors entry their advantages.
The Trump administration has stated repeatedly it isn’t chopping advantages — simply fraud. And whereas it’s well-known that fraud exists in packages similar to Social Safety and incapacity packages, specialists say People and abroad crime rings are usually perpetrating fraud on entitlements.
Requested for touch upon Musk’s remarks and proof that immigrants residing in america with out authorized standing had been responsible for the fraud, the White Home didn’t supply any.
“If NBC desires to die on the hill of objecting to credible claims of fraud in our entitlements, particularly by the tens of millions of illegals Joe Biden let into this nation, have at it,” White Home deputy press secretary Harrison Fields stated in a press release. “Our federal authorities is riddled with fraud, and President Trump is placing an finish to that regardless of opposition from complacent Democrats and the mainstream media.”
President Donald Trump has voiced assist for privatizing Social Safety. IMAGE/UGC.
Social Safety sends retired individuals checks each month based mostly on their incomes as working individuals, and it additionally sends checks to disabled individuals. Medicaid insures low-income individuals, whereas Medicare supplies medical health insurance for individuals older than 65. Broadly, immigrants with out authorized standing don’t qualify for federal {dollars} by the packages.
Some states do fund well being look after undocumented immigrants like pregnant ladies, and Medicaid will reimburse hospitals for emergency well being care offered to low-income, undocumented immigrants, as hospitals aren’t allowed to show away individuals in search of emergency care. That quantities to lower than 1% of Medicaid’s annual spending.
Social Safety cuts have been a significant focus of tense city halls for Republican lawmakerswith constituents expressing concern that cuts on the SSA might make it tougher for them to entry their advantages. In line with a Might report from the Workplace of the Inspector Common, individuals had been already experiencing extended wait occasions working with the SSA.
The report famous that in-office appointments might be fully booked up for greater than 40 days sooner or later and that it might take months for promised companies to be delivered. The report stated 65% of Social Safety beneficiaries had been unaware that there have been on-line companies for the company.
However even with constituents struggling to interface with the SSA, Musk has portrayed pushback to his modifications as politically motivated.
“For this reason the Democrats are so upset concerning the scenario,” Musk stated on Fox Enterprise final week. “If we flip off this gigantic cash magnet for unlawful immigrants, then they are going to depart and they’re going to lose voters.”
“Entitlements fraud for unlawful aliens is what’s serving as a huge magnetic pressure to tug individuals in from all all over the world and preserve them right here,” he instructed Joe Rogan final month, with out offering proof. Musk has repeatedly posted a clip of that a part of his interview, too.
Musk’s argument crucially solid vital cuts to Social Safety as a vital a part of Trump’s agenda cracking down on unlawful immigration, his hottest main challenge, based on latest polling by NBC Information. It’s additionally basically inaccurate, specialists and former executives instructed NBC Information, warning that cuts made within the title of fraud will damage eligible recipients of presidency advantages.
Twitter proprietor Elon Musk. PHOTO/Wikimedia Commons.
“If you have a look at the numbers, it’s truly the alternative: Undocumented immigrants can not get SSI or Social Safety advantages, however in truth, the undocumented immigrants contribute rather a lot to the Social Safety system,” stated Kathleen Romig, director of Social Safety and incapacity coverage on the Heart on Finances and Coverage Priorities, a left-leaning suppose tank that research authorities spending.
In 2022, immigrants working in america with out authorized authorization paid $25.7 billion in Social Safety taxes and $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes, based on a latest evaluation from the Institute on Taxation and Financial Coverage.
It’s one of many issues bolstering this system regardless of difficult demographics because the child boomers retire with fewer youthful, working individuals paying into this system on the similar time.
It’s not clear how far Musk, who didn’t reply to requests for remark, would possibly wish to go in altering Social Safety, a program that dates to an act President Franklin Roosevelt signed in 1935 and at the moment supplies advantages to greater than 73 million retired and disabled individuals. As Musk has immersed himself in politics over the previous yr, he has posted about this system solely often.
However Musk, who has referred to as it “the largest Ponzi scheme of all time,” has expressed curiosity no less than as soon as within the concept of privatizing Social Safety. In December, he shared a social media thread concerning the subject by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. Lee had referred to as Social Safety a “nightmare” and wrote that folks can be higher off managing retirement financial savings no less than partly on their very own. Musk referred to as Lee’s views “attention-grabbing.”
Trump voiced assist for privatizing Social Safety again in 2004however as a candidate and as president, he has vowed to guard entitlements.
Musk’s newest statements haven’t included a point out of privatization, focusing as an alternative on the concept there’s widespread fraud or abuse by undocumented immigrants within the system — an allegation for which he hasn’t supplied proof and that specialists say is inaccurate.
Fraud exists inside each authorities program, however a former government on the SSA with information of the company’s anti-fraud program stated abroad prison rings’ stealing eligible individuals’s advantages and other people’s faking incapacity or not reporting kin’ deaths are the most typical kinds of Social Safety fraud, not fraud involving undocumented immigrants.
Social Safety sends retired individuals checks each month based mostly on their incomes. IMAGE/UGC.
Drawing on Social Safety requires individuals to confirm their eligibility and work histories, successfully stopping immigrants with out authorized standing from drawing advantages.
The previous government, who spoke on the situation of anonymity, stated that undocumented immigrants who pay into this system through the use of different individuals’s Social Safety numbers pose bureaucratic challenges when the precise house owners of the Social Safety numbers apply for advantages however that immigrants aren’t receiving any advantages.
Musk’s declare of a pipeline of undocumented immigrants to Democratic voters can be inaccurate. He’s mistaken to say undocumented immigrants are voting in statewide elections.
Washington, D.C., and a few municipalities in three states enable immigrants with authorized standing to vote in native elections, nevertheless it’s unlawful for noncitizens to vote in federal elections, and no state permits noncitizens to vote in its elections, both.
Some undocumented immigrants do ultimately get hold of citizenship — similar to by marriage — that may enable them to vote. That course of takes a minimal of three to 5 years.
