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Before President Donald Trump initiated widespread layoffs of federal employees, he vilified them, claiming that most never reported to work, despite evidence to the contrary. In tandem with cutting foreign aid, both he and Elon Musk alleged rampant misuse of funds, though providing scant proof to support their allegations and possibly just disagreeing on the spending methods.
With this context, consider the current actions of the Trump administration towards Social Security, spreading an unsubstantiated notion that millions of deceased individuals are receiving benefits. Michelle King, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration, departed following a clash with Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency over recipient data, adding to the intrigue.
Although Trump pledged during his campaign not to reduce Social Security and Medicare benefits, Musk’s wider government budget cuts prompt a scrutiny of American expenditure on social welfare, echoing a longstanding concern among financially conservative lawmakers about the national debt.
Musk claimed with certainty that fraud in federal entitlements significantly surpasses private scams and insinuated that elderly individuals are illicitly collecting Social Security payments. Trump subsequently echoed these claims, referencing a chart during an event at Mar-a-Lago.
During a Fox News appearance, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt implied a substantial fraud probe at Trump’s behest, suggesting that millions of deceased individuals might be fraudulently benefiting from Social Security. However, concrete evidence supporting these allegations remains elusive, as the Social Security Administration has not provided clarification on Musk’s assertions.
While acknowledging some fraud within Social Security, notably less than 1% in erroneous payments, the agency’s payments totaling over $1 trillion annually to 70 million Americans necessitate attention to accuracy. Trump dismissed inspectors general at various agencies, including the Social Security Administration’s acting inspector general.
In January, prior to Trump’s tenure, the Treasury Department disclosed recovering $31 million in payments to deceased individuals over a five-month period using data from the Social Security master file.
“We are just scratching the surface here,” remarked the former Treasury official Assistant Secretary David Lebryk, who eventually stepped down following a dispute with DOGE officials regarding access to the Treasury Department payment system.
The question arises – how many centenarians are receiving Social Security benefits? The answer may surprise you: fewer than 100,000. Clearly, there is much work to be done. Over the past decade, numerous investigations have delved into the millions of Social Security numbers linked to individuals born over a century ago. However, there is no substantiated evidence to suggest that tens of millions of individuals aged 100 or older are receiving benefits.
In reality, the Social Security Administration diligently keeps track of its beneficiaries. According to the latest data, the number of recipients aged 99 or older in a country with a population exceeding 330 million is less than 90,000. This statistic aligns with the estimated 101,000 Americans who have reached the remarkable age of 100 or older, as reported by Pew.
Dispelling myths, former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley dismissed notions of a “zombie apocalypse” scenario with deceased individuals receiving Social Security checks. Instead, he highlighted the agency’s frequent need to reinstate payments that were improperly halted.
The existing facts present a daunting picture without the addition of unfounded fraud accusations. President Trump has pledged to exclude Social Security benefits from income taxes, a move that could deplete the program by $2.3 trillion over a decade. As the nation grapples with an aging population, Social Security’s fiscal stability is already tenuous. Trump has not outlined a replacement plan for the lost revenues resulting from this proposed tax cut.
Critics argue that the current Social Security system is unsustainable, as it relies on an influx of new contributors – a challenge exacerbated by declining birth rates and Trump’s push for stricter immigration policies. With approximately a decade remaining to address these issues, it is imperative to take corrective action. Even before accounting for Trump’s tax proposal, projections indicate that Social Security may be unable to meet its full benefit obligations as early as 2035 without intervention from Congress.
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