Musk’s Social Security nonsense is not going over well
Elon Musk appeared on Joe Rogan’s almost unlistenable podcast Friday to do some damage control for his illegal attacks on U.S. government agencies, and he didn’t miss the opportunity to also push lies about the GOP’s planned cuts to Social Security, which he described as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
Rogan’s podcast ratings have been tanking as the platform has been taken over by billionaires looking to launder self-serving propaganda, and Musk’s appearance was no different. Like his previous appearance on the show, the conversation was a conspiracy-laden echo chamber of disinformation.
“We found just with a basic search of the Social Security database that there were 20 million dead people marked as alive,” Musk claimed without providing a shred of evidence.
But his lies were quickly countered by Democrats.
“This guy is a leech on the public. 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. It’s disgusting,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York wrote on X.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders called out Musk for pushing his own pro-billionaire agenda.
“Wrong, Elon. Social Security has paid every benefit owed to every eligible American for 86 years. We can make it solvent for the next 75 years and expand benefits by scrapping the cap that allows billionaires like you to pay the same amount into Social Security as a truck driver,” he wrote on X.
As of 2025, the maximum taxable earnings subject to Social Security is $176,100. Sanders and others have called for an end to the cap on taxable earnings, arguing that the burden falls unfairly on middle- and working-class Americans.
The Congressional Budget Office took a similar stance in 2022, calling the tax “regressive” because of the disparity between what average Americans pay into Social Security and what the wealthy pay.
Democratic Rep. John Larson of Connecticut detailed how little people like Musk and other billionaires pay into the Social Security system.
“According to public data on Musk’s income, 15 minutes past midnight on New Year’s Eve, he likely has paid all of his Social Security tax on earnings from Tesla. If all of Musk’s income was taxed, he would have been able to pay all his Social Security tax in about 60 seconds,” he wrote. “In contrast, over 164 million workers (about 94% of us) pay Social Security taxes all year long. The point is a lot of income escapes the Social Security system; and the escaping income is that from the wealthiest Americans.”
Along with the Department of Government Efficiency cabal and the GOP’s attacks on Social Security, Musk has been seeking opportunities to downsize popular and successful government programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and food stamps to make room for billionaire tax breaks.
President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to not touch Social Security was always a lie, which he is likely to reiterate during Tuesday night’s congressional address. But whether he will be able to assuage the growing fears among Americans—including his own voters—remains to be seen.
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