lon Musk and members of the Department of Government Efficiency defended their proposed cuts to the Social Security Administration in a wide-ranging interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Thursday evening.
The Context
Musk and DOGE have drawn sharp criticism for making sweeping cuts to critical government programs that serve the elderly and disabled, as well as address critical public health needs.
Their focus on Social Security, in particular, has sparked backlash and concerns that the SSA cuts could disproportionately affect senior citizens and those with disabilities who rely on the program to sustain themselves.
What To Know
Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE software engineer, told Baier that the task force wants to improve Social Security in two ways: “Helping people legitimately get benefits” and “protecting them from fraud that they experience on a routine basis.”
Musk also claimed that Social Security benefits often go to “some fraudster” and that “this happens all day, every day.”
Although the SpaceX CEO and President Donald Trump frequently repeat this claim and allege that tens of millions of dead people are getting Social Security payments, there is no evidence of widespread Social Security fraud.
The SSA’s inspector general released a report last July that found that from 2015 to 2022, the agency paid out almost $8.6 trillion in benefits. Around $71.8 billion—or less than 1 percent of the payments—were improper, the report found, adding that most of the improper payments were overpayments to living people.
Musk and the DOGE team have also drawn intense scrutiny over the nearly unfettered access they’ve had to the personal data of millions of American taxpayers.
Last week, a federal judge blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive systems within the SSA which house that data, noting that it was ironic for DOGE to voice concerns about the privacy of its staffers while enjoying broad access to the private information of Americans.
“The defense does not appear to share a privacy concern for the millions of Americans whose SSA records were made available to the DOGE affiliates, without their consent, and which contain sensitive, confidential, and personally identifiable information,” known as PII, U.S. District Judge Ellen Hollander wrote.
The judge, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, went on to bar DOGE from accessing the SSA systems and ordered Musk, DOGE and other affiliates to destroy any non-anonymized data they’ve obtained.
“The DOGE Team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at SSA, in search of a fraud epidemic, based on little more than suspicion,” Hollander wrote. “It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack, without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack.”
What People Are Saying
Asked Thursday whether he was surprised at judicial rulings against DOGE, Musk told Baier: “The D.C. Circuit is notorious for having a very far-left bias. And when you look at the people close to some of these judges, where are they working? Oh, they’re working at these [non-governmental organizations]. Oh, they’re getting—they’re the ones getting this money. Does that seem like a system that lacks corruption? Sounds like corruption to me.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration recently backtracked on a proposal to cut phone services for Social Security beneficiaries. The initial plan would have required people to go online or travel to a Social Security field office in person to apply for benefits or make changes to their account information.
Following criticism of the proposal, the Trump administration delayed the implementation of the plan for 60 million recipients of regular benefits and indefinitely postponed it for 8 million disabled persons.
