Summary

Elon Musk amplified Senator Mike Lee’s calls to overhaul Social Security, labeling it a “nightmare.”

Lee, known for advocating the elimination of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, criticized the program as deceptive and mismanaged.

Musk, co-chair of Trump’s advisory commission on cutting federal spending, faces accusations of aligning with GOP efforts to privatize or gut Social Security.

Advocacy groups denounce these moves as a threat to seniors and disabled Americans, warning that Republicans aim to shift earned benefits to Wall Street, despite broad public opposition to cuts or privatization.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    As a disabled person (barely) surviving on SSDI I’d like to suggest that when you’re the one who starts a war then you become a legitimate military target.

    • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      They never try to make it better for the “natives”, they always try to make it better for themselves. Sometimes those improvements align, sometimes they don’t. They almost all try to pull up the ladder behind them in some way, but Musk is trying to pull up the ladder on everyone not white and independently wealthy.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        The rich yes, immigrants no. Many immigrants come here because they believe in improving America and being a part of that. Their descendants are the ladder pullers oftentimes

  • Gork@lemm.ee
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    8 days ago

    It flabbergasts me that Musk, an unelected billionaire, has any input at all in policy decisions.

    • SkyNTP
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      8 days ago

      Just another day in the post-truth age. This and much more awaits in a society that allows a handful of algorithms unfettered editorial control over what people think.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        It’s just another day in the plutocracy that has probably run things the entire lifetime of “democracy”.

        The only difference is with MAGA the plutocracy no longer need to hide behind lobbyists, campaign financing, super PAC’s, nepotism/cronyism, quid pro quo, virtue signaling about national security, etc to engage in corruption, loot the public coffers, and divert trillions to their own companies or cronies in the MIC or whatever.

        The conservative propaganda machine has now successfully groomed and cultivated a mentally ill cult, who will let their king insert a microchip into their brains without a second thought… Hell, they’ll probably hand over their life savings for the privilege.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Trump’s just doing it in the open. Every president has had unelected advisors.

    • Pips@lemmy.sdf.org
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      8 days ago

      Plenty of unelected people have a massive say in policy. We wouldn’t get anything done if every bureaucrat had to be elected.

      This specific unelected soon-to-be bureaucrat is fucking towel though.

      • Aphelion@lemm.ee
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        8 days ago

        This specific unelected soon-to-be bureaucrat is fucking towel though.

        Hey now, that’s not very fair, towels are at least useful and pretty good at wiping up shit. Phony Stark only ever makes messes and then wallows in the shit.

    • RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Sure he is unelected, but he paid Trump 75 billion

      Doesn’t that entitle him to bankrupt your parents. They can move in with you.

      N’est pas?

      /s

  • TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org
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    8 days ago

    So, they plan on stealing the money I’ve put into it over my 25 year working career?

    I know that’s not exactly how it works, but yeah it feels like it’s theft with extra steps if I never see benefits but had paid into it.

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Any billionaire should be open to a robin hood law, if you’re going to violate the social contract so much that it’s obliterated and you’re no longer subject to law or criminal charges then you should also be exempt from its protections.

    • AlecSadler@sh.itjust.works
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      8 days ago

      Man, I don’t advocate violence (except when necessary), but I’m struggling to feel bad about this. I’ve had almost all major and many minor health insurance providers and UHC was above and beyond the worst, hands down, full stop. Just garbage.

      • krashmo@lemmy.world
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        8 days ago

        Same. I’ve been saying for a while that I’m surprised this kind of thing doesn’t happen more often. All it takes is one person deciding that their problems are a specific company’s fault. One can imagine all sorts of reasons for that conclusion to be drawn. Tons of shootings happen for way more trivial reasons too.

      • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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        7 days ago

        Why struggle? Just don’t feel bad. You don’t owe them anything. Hell, advocate for this becoming a national holiday. “The day someone actually did something impactful”

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        I just saw a headline pushed at me while walking around and it was effectively that most Americans don’t feel that bad about the guy…

          • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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            7 days ago

            Ha. No idea on that specifically, but I do remember a podcast YEARS ago bringing up the awareness that some of America’s oligarchs had when it came to being concerned about uprisings involving guillotines and the like…this batch seems to have zero concerns.

    • 4lan@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      I’m so happy that these fuckers will be looking behind their back constantly now. They know what they did to us, they know that their greed has a death toll.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    I’ll never understand why billionaires hate OASDI…

    The cap means no one pays more than 10.5k this year. That isn’t even fucking pocket change to Musk or any billionaire.

      • Zier@fedia.io
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        8 days ago

        They never had any. They also never had any value to the Human race.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      The most powerful people in the US acquired their power from privatizing Social Security in the form of retirement accounts.

      The largest retirement account management companies are Vanguard, Blackrock, and State Street. They consolidate all of the power of the shares from all of the retirement accounts they manage, to give them board control of 89% of the S&P 500.

      Those faceless firms are actually the ones who control the hardship index (price of food, housing, clothing, other essentials) that earned Trump so many “bad economy” votes.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      8 days ago

      People like him have all the money they could ever need. This is about control, and punishing people they don’t like (and those that don’t fall in line and lick the boot).

    • alcoholicorn
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      8 days ago

      Every dollar the working class has is a dollar they don’t have to sell their labor to get.

  • Pantsofmagic@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    One of the first thoughts I had with the election result was “welp, there goes my retirement”. None of this surprises me even a little

  • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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    8 days ago

    Well, seeing as SSDI is my only source of income, guess I’ll die homeless if that gets cut off.

    Cool!

    • ATDA@lemmy.world
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      8 days ago

      Being homeless is also not an option in conservative hell. You’ll need to report to your local jail, er slave cen, er employment center!

      • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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        8 days ago

        So anyway, anyone in a more sane country wanna do a sham marriage?

        35 / M / Former DB Admin, Software Engineer

        Been told I have a lovely singing voice.

          • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.zip
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            7 days ago

            ASL, lol?

            I am mostly not kidding.

            Though I am in good spirits, I spent most of 2023 and a bit of 2024 homeless… got held hostage and assaulted for a week in my own apartment, was severely injured, lost my job, couldn’t pay rent, got evicted, lost everything I’d ever owned, family and ‘friends’ either didn’t care or said I was crazy and none of that happened.

            My life objectively sucks, if my SSDI gets cut to nothing, I will likely literally die horribly.

            If anybody needs a stay at home tech dork, who can maybe hopefully someday do enough of my own self directed physical therapy (lol can’t afford actual PT), may also be useful as a light handyman…

            I also have a steam library I can family share… I dunno.

            • AlligatorBlizzard@sh.itjust.works
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              7 days ago

              30s/FtM/Minnesota

              I am mostly kidding though, unfortunately. I do have an easy path to EU citizenship open to me, but actually moving is expensive and I work retail. I’m absolutely open to the idea that, at my age, standards are low enough and I might just click with someone and know that I want to spend the foreseeable future with them, but I’m not actually looking to defraud anyone, lol.

  • TunaCowboy@lemmy.world
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    8 days ago

    Go ahead, steal my hard earned contributions skum. Let’s see how many desperate people you can piss off, we might actually see some real change.