Summary
At the first meeting of the DOGE Caucus, a new congressional group focused on government efficiency, Republican Rep. Greg Lopez stated that cuts to Social Security and Medicare are likely “on the table” as part of debt reduction efforts.
The caucus, led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, aims to slash government spending, raising concerns among advocacy groups about potential attacks on anti-poverty programs.
Critics, including Social Security Works, warn the caucus may push for privatization and benefit reductions.
This comes despite Trump’s prior commitment to protect these programs.
Disabled people will be first to be killed by this. It is already a Herculean task to be approved for SSDI and takes years for many despite clearly documented and proven disabilities. And it does not pay out enough for most recipients. That will only get worse if SSA is targeted. I am not legally allowed to state my opinion on this.
Interestingly enough, social security’s disability trust fund has enough money to continue paying out until 2098; it’s the old person part that’s running out.
It should also be mentioned that it wouldn’t be running out if they didn’t cap the taxable income at $168,000. If you make $168,000 a year you pay the same social security tax as every millionaire and billionaire. BuT iTs InSoLvEnT
It also wouldn’t be running out of wages hadn’t been stagnating for the last several decades.
As more and more people earn less and less of the country’s output, that means more of it is above that cap, in the hands of the rich, and never put into the fund.