{"id":39971,"date":"2025-03-04T12:41:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T20:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=39971"},"modified":"2025-03-04T12:41:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T20:41:53","slug":"this-guy-is-a-leech-on-the-public-aoc-rips-musk-over-attack-on-social-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/04\/this-guy-is-a-leech-on-the-public-aoc-rips-musk-over-attack-on-social-security\/","title":{"rendered":"‘This Guy Is a Leech on the Public’: AOC Rips Musk Over Attack on Social Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Joined<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Elon Musk attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0(Photo: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No matter how many billions he gets in tax cuts and government contracts, it will never be enough for him,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Now he’s going after the elderly, the disabled, and orphaned children.”<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mar 03, 2025 (CommonDreams.org)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Progressive lawmakers and advocates hit back on Sunday after Elon Musk<\/a> parroted the long-debunked<\/a> right-wing claim that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, the billionaire’s latest false attack<\/a> on the nation’s most effective<\/a> anti-poverty program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk made the comments during an appearance<\/a> on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast over the weekend, and the episode has already racked up nearly 8 million views as of this writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk said. “If you look at the future obligations of Social Security, it far exceeds the tax revenue.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The advocacy group Social Security Works<\/a> noted in response that Social Security\u2014which is 90% funded<\/a> for the next quarter-century\u2014”hasn’t missed a payment in 89 years” and accused Musk of “defaming” the program as part of an effort to “cut benefits and otherwise destroy Social Security.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/i\/status\/1895655463255248904<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musk’s comments came as the Trump administration, with the assistance of the billionaire Tesla CEO’s lieutenants<\/a>, is working to gut<\/a> the already-understaffed Social Security Administration, an effort that could result in benefit delays and disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This guy is a leech on the public,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> (D-N.Y.) wrote on social media after a clip of Musk’s remarks on Rogan’s podcast circulated. “No matter how many billions he gets in tax cuts and government contracts, it will never be enough for him.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Now he’s going after the elderly, the disabled, and orphaned children so he can pocket it in tax cuts for himself,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “It’s disgusting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, wrote that “a guy who makes $8 million a day off the government<\/a> thinks seniors getting $65 a day they worked their whole lives to earn is a ‘Ponzi scheme.'”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Protect Social Security,” Casar wrote. “Fire Elon Musk.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.) also weighed in on Musk’s comments during an appearance on NBC<\/em>‘s “Meet the Press” Sunday morning, calling the billionaire’s attack on Social Security “totally outrageous.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“That’s a hell of a Ponzi scheme when for the last 80 years, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American. Quite a Ponzi scheme,” said Sanders, who called on lawmakers to support his proposal to expand Social Security benefits by lifting the cap on income<\/a> subject to payroll taxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You lift that cap, we can extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years,” the Vermont senator said. “And you can raise benefits.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week, as Common Dreams<\/em>reported<\/a>, Sanders attempted to pass his Social Security expansion bill through the Senate via unanimous consent, but Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) objected, blocking the legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A previous version of this story improperly identified “Meet the Press” as an MSNBC show.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

JAKE JOHNSON<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Johnson is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elon Musk attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House on February 26, 2025 in Washington, D.C. \u00a0(Photo: Andrew Harnik\/Getty Images) “No matter how many billions he gets in tax cuts and government contracts, it will never be enough for him,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “Now he’s going after the… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39971"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39971"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39971\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39972,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39971\/revisions\/39972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}