Okay, But Why Is Social Security At Risk?

Social security is an American institution. After decades of working hard, we expect to retire with a well-earned safety net to help us with our monthly expenses. 

Trump and Elon Musk claim that Social Security is rife with corruption and fraud. Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan that it’s “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” But whenever unbiased, nonpartisan groups study the numbers, they find very little fraud. Instead, they find millions of people who rely on those payments for their very survival. (And, it should be noted, exactly zero 150-year-olds receiving benefits.)

So... why is Social Security at risk? This episode breaks down the facts and corrects the disinformation about the agency, who's receiving payments, and what's really happening.

For a transcript of this episode, please email comms@redwine.blue.

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Transcript

CLIP from Senator Tina Smith at the new Social Security Commissioner hearing last week: “It has become clear to me that since Elon Musk’s DOGE took over the Social Security Administration last month that this administration is intent on dismantling Social Security. Now, President Trump understands that Americans love Social Security and so he’s claimed that his administration won’t touch Social Security but that is not what is happening and Americans can see it.”

Narrator: Social security is an American institution. After decades of working hard, we expect to retire with a well-earned safety net to help us with our monthly expenses. 

Trump and Elon Musk claim that Social Security is rife with corruption and fraud. Musk told podcaster Joe Rogan that it’s “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” But whenever unbiased, nonpartisan groups study the numbers, they find very little fraud. Instead, they find millions of people who rely on those payments for their very survival. It’s particularly important for women and people of color.

Like Nadine, a grandmother in Ohio. She had to move in with her son and daughter-in-law because of cuts to her social security.

CLIP: Nadine: “And I don’t think it’s fair that the older people work all their lives and then they have to give their home up because they can’t afford to live here.” “The Social Security cuts have affected Nadine so much that at age 73, she’s going back to work at the Revere School District as a part-time custodian.”

Narrator: Or Ebie, a man who was active with his grandkids and his job helping children at a local hospital until he was diagnosed with kidney failure. 

CLIP: Ebie: “My life without Social Security would mean that I could not afford renal care. The health care that I am currently receiving, I couldn't afford it. It's probably the best thing that ever happened in terms of providing services to people in need.”

Or Michelle, whose adult daughter is disabled. Without her daughter’s Social Security checks to help cover her needs and the cost of her care, her entire household couldn’t survive. Michelle says losing that support would be devastating.

So… with so many Americans depending on it, why is social security at risk? 

Let’s start by going back to the beginnings of Social Security in this country. It was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who signed the Social Security Act into law in 1935. He was seeing Americans suffering from poverty in the midst of the Great Depression and believed it was the government’s duty to help.

CLIP: FDR: “It has become increasingly difficult for individuals to build their own security single-handed. Government must step in and help them lay the foundation stones, just as government in the past has helped lay the foundation of business and industry. We must face the fact that in this country, we have a rich man’s security and a poor man’s security, and that the government owes equal obligations to both.”

Narrator: Social Security pays benefits to three categories of people: retired people, disabled people, and widows or widowers. The average payment is about $1900 a month and around 68 million Americans currently receive them. 23% of retirees say that Social Security is their only source of income. It’s funded primarily by payroll taxes - when you see those deductions on your paycheck for FICA, the Federal Insurance Contributions Act, that’s Social Security.

By the way, this isn’t some special program unique to the United States. Not only does almost every country in the world have some form of social security, the US is actually near the bottom in terms of how much retirees get in benefits - almost 20% lower than average.

It is true that a big chunk of the federal budget goes to Social Security. In 2024, it was 21 percent of the federal budget, or $1.5 trillion. But the vast majority of that money comes directly from our payroll taxes. We’re all paying into a system with the expectation that when we retire, we’ll get that money back again. And for years, Social Security actually took in more money than it paid out. It’s only now, with so many Baby Boomers retiring, that the program is starting to lose funds. It’s projected that benefits will need to be cut starting in 2033. We can all agree that’s a big problem!

Okay, so can we fix it by removing bureaucracy and fraud, like Trump and Musk are saying? Honestly, if that was true, it would be great. We clearly need to do something. But the truth is, the amount of bureaucracy and fraud in Social Security is very very low. Trump and Musk claim that “millions of dead people” are receiving benefits –

MUSK clip: “Just a cursory examination of Social Security, we’ve got people in there who are 150 years old.”

TRUMP clip: “When I saw the Social Security numbers, I said wow, that’s really something. We have millions and millions of people over 100 years old, everyone knows that’s not so.”

Narrator: – but the administration’s own statistics show that literally nobody over the age of 115 is on Social Security. Only 80,000 people over the age of 100 receive benefits – which makes sense because there are about 100,000 living Americans that age. If anything, it seems like too few centenarians are receiving benefits! And most importantly, payments are automatically stopped at age 115. If you take anything from this video, let it be that. Literally zero people over the age of 115 are on Social Security.

Elon Musk was getting his information from a database called Numident, which contains a record of every person who’s ever had a Social Security number. There are indeed millions of people in that database who appear to be over the age of 150, because they died before electronic records were established. 

But those people are not receiving Social Security. That database is maintained by the Social Security administration but it is not used to decide benefits. So DOGE and its 22-year-old tech bros gained access to all of our social security numbers… in order to come to a completely wrong conclusion. Do we really believe that Elon Musk doesn’t know the numbers he got from Numident are wrong? Or that the President of the United States doesn’t know? Either they don’t understand the systems they’re breaking, or they’re intentionally misleading us, and either way, it’s the American people who are paying the price.

That’s not to say there’s zero fraud, of course. But the most common type by far is overpayments to people who haven’t reported their full income. Like imagine that your grandpa is on Social Security, and then he picks up a part time job at a hardware store and doesn’t realize that he has to report that new income. His social security check will be a little higher than it’s supposed to be. To be clear, this is already illegal, and when it’s discovered, recipients are required to pay it back.

And you know who discovers those overpayments? Administrators. Federal employees. You know, the ones who are getting laid off by the thousands. Not only is “bureaucracy” not the problem, it’s the solution to finding fraud.

AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, says they’ve been hearing from thousands of their members who are confused and concerned about their Social Security payments and who they can ask for help. And it’s no wonder they’re concerned - in-person offices are closing around the country, wait times are soaring for phone calls, and it’s only getting worse as more Social Security employees get laid off. And in addition to the intentional cuts, as DOGE completely overhauls the agency’s computer systems, translating them into a totally different kind of code, it’s likely that some payments will accidentally fall through the cracks too.

If you or your loved ones are on Social Security, be sure to keep your eye on incoming payments and be sure to report any changes right away. It hurts the heart to think about the number of seniors who may suddenly stop getting payments but won’t say anything - either because they don’t know how, or because they don’t want to be a bother.

Social Security isn’t a Democrat or a Republican issue. Millions of Americans across the country rely on their monthly payments, and if we unite on this issue, we can have a real impact. Tell your legislators, wherever you live, that they cannot cut Social Security. We will not leave our most vulnerable citizens behind.