Social Security

 Ctr for Economic & Policy Research -   This is how we should understand Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s frequently repeated lie about millions of dead people getting Social Security. While neither may be geniuses, both have been frequently told by those who know the program that this claim is absurd.

There are a small number of payments that are made to people a month or two after they died. Most of this money is subsequently returned to the program. The idea that payments are being made to millions of people who died years or even decades ago is absurd on its face.

But Musk and Trump keep repeating this zombie Social Security lie for the same reason that JD Vance lied about pet-eating immigrants, they want to convince the public of something that is not true. In the case of Vance, the point was to scare people about immigrants who came to this country work. The overwhelming majority put in long days, at unpleasant jobs, that pay low wages. We can argue about the economic impact, but they do not pose a threat to our safety. Vance told his lie to convince people otherwise.

Social Security is an incredibly popular program which in fact is also incredibly efficient. The administrative costs of its retirement program are less than 0.4 percent of the benefits paid out each year. The instances of fraud are rare, although in a program that pays out $1,400,000,000,000 in benefits each year, it will not be zero.

Given its overwhelming popularity, Musk and Trump could never hope to be able to attack Social Security if they had to rely on actual evidence. Instead, their best hope is to convince people that the program faces financial problems because of massive fraud. They also are deliberately trying to screw up its operations with mass firings in an already understaffed agency. The Musk-Trump effort is designed to make a very efficient program, that provides essential income to tens of millions of people, a basket case that can’t process claims and get people’s checks right.

Behind it all, they will have the Big Lie, about million of dead people getting Social Security benefits. This will be yet another story of the government being unable to get things done. Trump will tell us that we have to turn Social Security over to the more efficient private sector, where people like Elon Musk (a.k.a. “Mr. Exploding Rockets) can sort things out.

There isn’t very much that’s subtle about the Musk-Trump crew. They openly lie about everything in the world and they even tell us they lie. And when they tell us they lie, we should believe them.