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Elon Musk is claiming, without evidence, that Democrats have been using fraud in entitlements like social security and Medicare to attract immigrants and boost their voting ranks – language that also echoes racist rightwing conspiracy theories. The billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX and Donald Trump’s “first buddy” has been trying to justify cuts to programs like social security, arguing that the fraud has cost the government up to $200bn.
“This is why the Democrats are so upset about the situation,” Musk said on a podcast with the Republican senator Ted Cruz and radio host Ben Ferguson. “By using entitlements fraud, the Democrats have been able to attract and retain vast numbers of illegal immigrants and buy voters. Basically bring in 10, 20 million people who are beholden to the Democrats for government handouts and will vote overwhelmingly Democrat.”
He then voiced what sounded akin to the “great replacement theory”, which has been taken on by rightwing extremists and describes the theory that people in the US, specifically those who are white, are being “replaced” by immigrants. “If the Dems can bring in 200,000 illegals and get them legalized … even without cheating, if you bring in illegals that are 10 [times] the voting differential in a swing state, it will no longer be a swing state,” Musk said. “And the Dems will win all the swing states in a matter of time.”
Over the last few days, Musk’s Doge has started to zero in on social security – what Musk has called “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time” – arguing that the agency has seen billions of dollars in fraud, though not necessarily from immigrants.
Musk has especially attached himself to an alleged list of dead people he says the agency is still giving money to. In a recent interview with Fox Business, Musk claimed that there were 20 million “dead people in the social security database”. Those with the agency, including the acting commissioner, Lee Dudek, have said the list Musk is referring to are people who don’t have date of deaths on their records and are not necessarily receiving benefits.
Musk has also made some other changes at the Social Security Administration (SSA), the agency that oversees social security. Like many other federal agencies, SSA is seeing cuts to its workforce. In February, the agency said that it was reducing its staffing target to 50,000, down from 57,000. Under pressure from Musk, the SSA said that it will start requiring in-person identity checks for recipients. In the past, recipients who couldn’t verify their identity online could do so over the phone.
Different government agencies have released competing figures of how much the government has lost to fraud.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
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