Summary

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are falsely claiming that tens of millions of dead people collect Social Security to justify cutting “waste” and “fraud.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick echoed this, calling Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid “wrong” while supporting Musk’s plan to slash $1 trillion in spending.

Despite Trump’s public assurances, House Republicans’ budget proposals include deep cuts to these programs while prioritizing massive tax breaks for the wealthy.

Experts note improper Social Security payments are minimal, contradicting Musk’s claims.

  • ohitsbreadley@discuss.tchncs.de
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    19 hours ago

    If it’s wrong, then I want my money back. If they revoke the promise of returning what is due to me in retirement after years of paying into the system, then fuck them, I want it back. Every cent.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Helping Americans in their time of need is wrong!.. We should be trying to find ways to pay more for healthcare and give up our houses to those who can work and give money to Elon.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    When I was 20, I also didn’t comprehend that you could have incomplete data so assumed the real world was wrong.

    Imagine dealing with data tracking hundreds of millions of people across multiple generations starting from before the time of computers and having to deal with the reality of missing or lost data/documentation. We can’t confirm your birthdate because that hospital burned down 80 years ago? FRAUD. /s

  • dev_null@lemmy.ml
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    24 hours ago

    So they will fight the fraud, and all the saved money instead of going to dead people will go to living people, meaning people will get more under these programs?

    Right? /s

  • Kit
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    1 day ago

    As a masochist, I still regularly check Facebook comments. The vast majority of Republicans are calling this “fake news” and still claim that Trump would NEVER cut their social security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, disability, etc. They’re in for a wild ride. And I say that with an incredibly heavy heart, knowing how many people this will hurt.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      Sometimes, people only learn when they get kicked in the dick.

      Sometimes, they get violent. Guess we will see what happens because this administration is creating a lot of desperate people in a country awash in firearms.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
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        21 hours ago

        The second amendment was supposed to be about the citizens protecting themselves against a fascist government, right? (Though I don’t think the term existed back then)

        Here’s the fascist government, Americans. What are you actually using your second amendment for?

      • kylie_kraft@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Guess we will see what happens because this administration is creating a lot of desperate people in a country awash in firearms.

        What happens is likely to be violence against trans people, immigrants, and minorities who will be scapegoats for breaking the social safety net.

      • finder@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        They already are blaming Democrats and immigrants for everything that is currently happening :(

    • stardust@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I’m surprised they are even calling it fake news instead of celebrating about how it’s going to own the libs with how they will gladly suffer if it means others do too.

      • Kit
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        1 day ago

        Yeah, I’ve heard that half of Trump voters receive some sort of government assistance, and if true, this will hit them hard. These folks won’t be able to put food on their table or get the medical care they need without bankruptcy. I’m torn between “haha face eating leopards” and feeling incredibly defeated because humans are going to suffer, and I never want to see that. It’s such a complicated mess.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I’m a school bus driver and most of my colleagues (and me for that matter) are either already collecting Social Security and Medicare or working towards that in a few years. They are also mostly trumpers and love what is currently happening. They are certain the republicans won’t cut SS or medicare because then 70 million people would be marching on Washington - which is pretty laughable coming from people that have trouble climbing into their buses in the morning.

          My fear is that the Muskovites will keep these benefits in place for their supporters and cut them off for democrats, something they could easily do with their control over information technology and social media.

        • Dogiedog64@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          Honestly, if it weren’t for the fact that Trumpers would gladly destroy their own lives to see me and mine dead (Queer folk), I’d feel somewhat bad for them too. However, they’ve shown time and again that they want us dead for the pettiest and most made up reasons, so I’ll feel nothing but contempt for them as they burn. As for everyone else… for them, I will weep openly, as they do not deserve this fresh Hell.

      • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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        22 hours ago

        I’m tired of you “liberals” looking for every opportunity to punch left instead of facing your real enemies. You’re feeling smug because you did the one and only political action you’re aware of, which is to tick a box every few years.

        Every single bit of progress was led by people doing more, by people standing up, by people applying pressure between election days.

        I’d trade every liberal that’s now crying with their tail between their legs waiting for a chance to vote for those principled people who were applying real pressure to the government to resist genocide. Guess what: most of them also still voted blue.

        All of you “vote blue no matter who” dogs barking at anyone who even dared to demand better from the Democrats are why that party has become complacent and completely and utterly useless. If you were more like the ones wanting more, if you joined them years ago instead of allowing the bare minimum of being “less bad” to be the only fucking platform of the Democrats for my entire adult life, then there would have been a party worth voting for and a party that’s fighting back now.

        They’re lazy, out of touch, useless politicians, and YOU are to blame.

        • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          I literally don’t know how to respond to the level of cognitive dissonance on display here. Not only have you guaranteed the people of Gaza willl not even have a home to go to, once trump gets on with moving them out, you’ve essentially handed Ukraine and it’s people to the Russians. Not to mention the loss of your healthcare, damage to your healthcare system, erosion of your education, damage to your judiciary, removal of lbgtq+ and racial equality rights, loss of geopolitical soft power, loss of data privacy as Elon runs amok though your public systems, erosion of trust with your allies, rampant pardons on literal insurrectionists, neutering of your governing and legislative bodies, rise of anti intellectualism, curbing of public discourse and media freedoms, and all this in the first 6 weeks.

          Well done, sir. I’m sure youre very proud of what you’ve accomplished.

          • TheresNodiee@lemm.ee
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            19 hours ago

            The idea that Gaza would have been a-ok if Harris won is insane.

            A Democrat victory would have meant next to nothing to the Palestinian people. Dems don’t care about them either.

            It’s also a lie that pro-Palestine voters withheld their votes in any significant number as well. That’s just the MSM trying to pass the buck onto the left while ignoring the fact that the Dems have nobody to blame for their loss but themselves.

            You’re buying into propaganda from the Dems’s “good guy” billionaires.

            • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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              14 hours ago

              Guy kicked off the thread by wishing bad things on genocide protestors, I find it hard to believe they care about these issues. In any other country they’d be a conservative

          • leftytighty@slrpnk.net
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            20 hours ago

            how’d you know I’m Donald Trump? this is my alt. Idiot

            Just like the DNC and Democrat party leaders you think the solution is to blame progressives and keep attacking the left.

            Take some responsibility for your loss.

            • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
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              7 hours ago

              How about they take responsibility for their choice? If a child makes a mistake, you teach them the bigger picture, but you always make them take responsibility. If you coddle them, they’ll never understand their actions, and you end up creating another trump, acting with impunity and expecting special treatment. Every. Time. Dem or republican, that’s not on.

              These morons need to understand that the world is a series of interconnected systems, and that their actions affect others. They’d rather burn down their country for the sake of their oversimplified world view and one trigger issue. They endanger others, so if others need to vent back at them, then boo fucking hoo.

        • Auli@lemmy.ca
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          22 hours ago

          And what did those principled non voters achieve? Nothing and they have made the situation which they where protesting worse. Now Trump well own Gaza notice he never says America he says I well own it.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      1 day ago

      They are about to gut the USPS. The ramifications to the economy will be astronomical.

      Small businesses exist because of it. So along, and thanks for the fish, I guess?

      • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I got this cadence inside of me that says “go to your capital”

        And whether thats the state or nation I dont care.

        If everyone followed that cadence, we could fix this.

  • skillissuer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    1 day ago

    this is the kind of shit that didn’t ever happen even in the most brazen ripping-copper-from-the-walls years of 90s privatization in eastern block. yall elected your own yeltsin and now you’ll deal with consequences

  • njm1314@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    This entire endeavor, basically the work they’ve been doing for the last century, is to undo the entirety of the new deal. We didn’t lock them up and execute them after the business plot like we should have. Just a bunch of robber barons trying to take us back to the Gilded Age.

  • oyo@lemm.ee
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    1 day ago

    So I’m going to get a refund plus interest for everything I’ve paid into the system, right?

    • JeeBaiChow@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Phew! I thought it was the insurrectionist rapist felon grifters fault. Good thing we didn’t vote Kamala!

      /s for the triggered fuckers