Shadow President Musk & Republican ‘DOGE’ Gang Targets Social Security

MADISON, Wis. — Over the weekend, signs continued to emerge that billionaire Elon Musk and the Republican ‘DOGE” gang was zeroing in on a new target: Social Security. On Sunday, Musk reposted a message from extreme Republican Sen. Mike Lee referring to herd-earned Social Security benefits Wisconsinites depend on as a “ripoff.” This followed reporting identifying Social Security as the next target of illegal ‘DOGE’ defunding efforts that have already shuttered entire federal agencies and attacked public education and health care.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Joe Oslund issued the following statement:

“Make no mistake: Wisconsin Democrats will fight the Republican DOGE attack on hard-earned Social Security benefits at every turn. Social Security isn’t a ‘ripoff’ or a ‘Ponzi scheme’ like Elon Musk and Ron Johnson seem to think—it’s a lifeline for our seniors that they earned over decades of hard work. The lawless DOGE attacks on the critical programs Wisconsinites depend on must end.”

Reporting reveals that Social Security is DOGE’s next target, as GOP operatives tied to billionaire Elon Musk illegally shut down entire agencies and withhold funding for critical programs.

SEMAFOR: “Elon Musk’s DOGE shuttered USAID. It has searched Medicare payments and gained access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system. Its initial Labor Department presence prompted a lawsuit. And it’s just getting started. The Social Security Administration is an upcoming focus of the Department of Government Efficiency, a source with knowledge of its work told Semafor, and one person involved in DOGE is currently preparing to work with the agency that provides benefits to the elderly and disabled. Led by Musk and a group of young engineers, DOGE is migrating around the government in search of cuts with an intensity that has demoralized federal workers and become a defining early mark of Donald Trump’s second term.”

WASHINGTON POST: “Over the past two weeks, Musk’s team has moved to dismantle some U.S. agencies, push out hundreds of thousands of civil servants and gain access to some of the federal government’s most sensitive payment systems. Musk has said these changes are necessary to overhaul what he’s characterized as a sclerotic federal bureaucracy and to stop payments that he says are bankrupting the country and driving inflation. But many of these moves appear to violate federal law, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, one audio recording, and several internal messages obtained by The Washington Post. Internal legal objections have been raised at the Treasury Department, the Education Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the General Services Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the White House budget office, among others.”

Billionaire Elon Musk isn’t the only one who thinks the Social Security benefits working Wisconsinites have spent their careers earning are a “ripoff”—Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson has attacked Social Security as a “ponzi scheme” and proposed putting it on the chopping block for cuts every single year.

WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO: “A day after he was called out by President Joe Biden, Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson reiterated his support for taking annual votes on funding Medicare and Social Security, calling Social Security a ‘Ponzi scheme’ in the process. … In a statement to Fox News, Johnson accused Biden of lying about him. But in an interview with WISN-AM in Milwaukee Thursday morning, Johnson stood by his plan, saying it was time to change the way Medicare and Social Security are funded.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.