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John,
The Washington Post dropped a bombshell last night: 
According to the article, Musk’s cronies are attempting to seize control of the mechanisms that control outgoing payments by the government―including Social Security. A former Treasury staffer said:1
This is a mechanical job — they pay Social Security benefits, they pay vendors, whatever. It’s not one where there’s a role for nonmechanical things, at least from the career standpoint. Your whole job is to pay the bills as they’re due. It’s never been used in a way to execute a partisan agenda. … You have to really put bad intentions in place for that to be the case.
The richest man on earth is tightening his grip on the government, and if he succeeds, he’ll be able to unilaterally cut off Social Security payments to people he views as undeserving―exactly what Musk’s former commission co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy said they would do.2
This is a five-alarm fire―and our job is to make sure everyone knows it. Can you rush a donation to make sure every office on Capitol Hill knows that Elon Musk’s MAGA movement is making moves to destroy our Social Security system?
Since the election, Musk’s anti-Social Security agenda has become clear―despite Donald Trump’s repeated insistence during the campaign that he would protect our Social Security system.
Musk and then-co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy told Republicans on Capitol Hill that no federal program is safe from cuts,3 "and that includes Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid."
Vice President JD Vance confirmed that Elon is looking at Social Security:4
And the thing that’s complicated about this, man, is it’s going to look much different in, say, the Department of Defense versus Social Security.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told NBC News:5
Perhaps mandatory programs are areas that they're looking to make cuts in, like Social Security, for example.
At the very first meeting of the Congressional caucus supporting Elon’s effort, a Republican congressman told Social Security Works’ Alex Lawson that "there will be some cuts" to Social Security and Medicare.6
Ramaswamy told CNBC that they were looking for hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and that they believe Trump can cut them without Congressional approval:7
You look at the way in which that money is being spent through Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security…There are hundreds of billions of dollars of savings to extract just from basic program integrity measures.
The executive branch has no obligation to send out a payment if it is wasteful or if it is known to be fraudulent or has a reason to believe that there is error associated with that payment.
And Musk himself boosted a thread from Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, calling Social Security a "nightmare" and saying that "America’s century-long era of progressive government must be brought to a close."8
There’s no denying this pattern: Elon Musk is laying the groundwork to unilaterally cut off Social Security benefits to retirees today. He’s doing this while continuing to funnel billions of taxpayer dollars into his own companies, and supporting Trump’s plans to cut his own taxes even further. We have to stop them.
Raise the alarm! Together, we will save Social Security from Elon Musk! Rush a donation today!
Thank you,
Michael Phelan
Social Security Works
1 https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/01/31/elon-musk-treasury-department-payment-systems/
2 https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/cnbc-transcript-exclusive-doge-co-lead-author-and-former-us-presidential-candidate-vivek-ramaswamy-speaks-with-cnbcs-eamon-javers-and-morgan-brennan-live-from-the-cnbc-cfo-council-summit-in-washington-dc-today.html
3 https://www.commondreams.org/news/social-security-elon-musk
4 https://newrepublic.com/post/186059/jd-vance-reveals-trump-will-use-musk-target-social-security
5 https://www.commondreams.org/news/social-security-elon-musk
6 https://www.commondreams.org/news/doge-caucus-social-security
7 https://www.cnbc.com/2024/12/04/cnbc-transcript-exclusive-doge-co-lead-author-and-former-us-presidential-candidate-vivek-ramaswamy-speaks-with-cnbcs-eamon-javers-and-morgan-brennan-live-from-the-cnbc-cfo-council-summit-in-washington-dc-today.html
8 https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1863777030766022779
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