Twenty years ago, President George W. Bush’s second term honeymoon was over, and Social Security took responsibility. Voters rebelled against his plan to partially privatize popular retirement programs, and the following year stripped the majority of Congress of GOPs. The events of 2005 solidified the reputation of social security as the “third railroad in American politics.” Over the next 20 years, Republicans didn’t mention it.
Perhaps Elon Musk wasn’t paying attention. At the time, he hadn’t yet voted for US elections (or launched a rocket). Now, as Doge’s leader, he has opened an unexpected crusade to social security.
Musk recently called the program “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” claiming it was full of waste and fraud. Doge staff have gained entry into the Social Security Agency and have sensitive taxpayer data, and the Trump administration has cut the agency’s workforce by thousands. Earlier this week, Social Security authorities announced changes that could make it difficult for retirees to access benefits. These moves, and masked rhetoric, have scared voters who have disrupted Congress’ telephone lines and town hall meetings and registered concerns. And they were surprised by the GOP lawmakers.
If Musk wants to achieve his goal of cutting $1 trillion in federal spending, he must do more than rule out USAID, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and even the Department of Education. He knows that real money lies in the three pillars of the American social safety net: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. “Most federal spending is qualifications,” he said earlier this month. “That’s a big thing to eliminate.”
Republicans have learned that chasing these programs involves significant election risks. Obviously, musk isn’t. “He doesn’t think about it politically,” told me Tom Davis, a former House Republican from Virginia who ran the party’s campaign committee in the early 2000s. Davis said his approach was “prepared, fire, purpose.”
Musk “is very successful in business, but he is clearly not very popular and his Doge’s actions don’t make him very popular,” the senior GOP strategist told me about the conditions of anonymity to avoid tempting him to fight against the president and his wealthy eu. “He’s got heavy weight around the necks of Republicans as well as President Trump.”
Most elected Republicans have been careful to avoid criticizing Trump and Musk. However, as Doge continues to attack Social Security, some are beginning to feel pressure from their constituents. The caller flooded Bill Huizenga in Michigan, with concerns about social security cuts at the Republicans’ telephone town hall earlier this month. He assures them that he will not be touched by the program. “I’ll admit that Elon Musk had the first tweet and thought of it as the second,” Huizenga told me, summarizing his message to its members.
Trump may be able to insist on a voter mandate to justify some of his early cost cuts. For example, he has long criticised foreign aid. However, during the 2024 presidential election, he repeatedly vowed to maintain his qualifications, even if some of his party wanted to sort them out. Republicans rely on their promises to reassure voters that their interests are safe. “I think President Trump has made it very clear that he doesn’t want to touch on social security,” Trump’s ally, Wisconsin leader Glenn Grossman, told Capitol reporters last week. “We’re not cutting social security.”
But mask attacks on social security make these claims difficult to maintain. And Trump himself amplified some of Musk’s most specific accusations about the program. In his speech to Congress earlier this month, he said his administration had identified “a shocking level of incompetence and fraud and the possibility of fraud” in Social Security. However, the example he cited – those who were still being checked in the 19th century were not scams, but data processing errors that reflected the program’s outdated computer systems.
The administration’s attempts to reduce fraud could put legitimate recipients at risk. Starting next month, people will no longer be able to call the Social Security Agency to submit benefits or update their banking information. Instead, they should visit the SSA office in person if they cannot verify their identity on the agency’s website or online. The new requirements can be extraordinary challenges for older beneficiaries living in rural areas. This is a district that invites Republicans.
“If they kill their ability to call Social Security with questions, it will cause real problems for the elderly,” the GOP strategist warned. “This will give the Democrats an opening.”
Pauling supports the strategist’s claims. In a survey released yesterday, the Democrat Blueprint asked respondents who were concerned about 20 different facts about masks and what he did with Doge. Four examples of respondents worried that everything involved would cut social security. “This is what Democrats need to get through their heads. It’s all social security for now,” Blueprint voter Evan Ross Smith told reporters during the briefing.
What Trump and Musk are doing now is very different from what Bush proposed 20 years ago. His plan called for structural changes in Social Security that allowed beneficiaries to put their profits into private investment accounts. Davis was serving at home when the public rejected Bush’s idea. He reminded me that Trump and Musk might remind me to think “when you move too far and too fast in politics,” Davis said, “voting people will pull you back.”
