The Trump administration’s quest to tame the sprawling federal bureaucratic leviathan is slated to face a key hurdle on Monday, as Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to rule after more than a dozen states sought a temporary restraining order, accusing Elon Musk of ‘unconstitutional’ actions.
Musk, who is spearheading the effort to identify government components that can be eliminated or slimmed down, has been widely hailed by the political right.
But he has been scrutinized and criticized by many on the political left as they raise alarms about DOGE probes.
While Musk is leading the charge, he is doing so with President Donald Trump’s blessing, and the commander in chief is standing firmly behind the push to root out government waste.
‘DOGE: BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE BEING FOUND. CAMPAIGN PROMISE. IMPORTANT FOR AMERICA!!!’ he declared in a Truth Social post last week.
In a post late Sunday night, Musk indicated that a Social Security database lists scads of people as 100 or older ‘with the death field set to FALSE!’
‘Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,’ he quipped.
Musk shared a chart that indicated there were millions of individuals listed between the ages of 100 and 159, as well as some listed with ages even higher than that.
A Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General Report issued in 2023 noted, ‘at the time of our review, although the Census Bureau estimated approximately 86,000 individuals residing in the United States were age 100 or older, SSA’s Numident included approximately 18.9 million numberholders who were born in 1920 or earlier but had no death information on their Numident record. Death information missing from the Numident and the DMF hampers both SSA and Government-wide efforts to prevent and detect fraud and misuse.’
‘Our audit revealed that the Numident includes approximately 18.8 million more ‘living’ numberholders age 100 or older than the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are alive and residing in the United States,’ the report noted.
‘Agency officials noted that, as of March 2023, SSA had issued approximately 531 million unique SSNs, and the 18.9 million records represent approximately 3.6 percent of all Numident records. Officials also noted that almost none of the 18.9 million numberholders currently receive SSA payments,’ the report stated. ‘At the time of our review, approximately 44,000 of the 18.9 million numberholders were receiving SSA payments,’ a footnote added.
The audit was conducted from September 2021 to May 2023, an appendix on the report indicated.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., declared in a post on X that while he wants to increase government efficiency and save billions of taxpayer dollars, ‘Rummaging through your personal s— is *not* that.’
‘A party of chaos loses – always,’ he added in the Monday tweet.
But Musk, a billionaire business magnate, fired back.
‘Bruh, if I wanted to rummage through random personal s—, I could have done that at PAYPAL. Hello???’ Musk declared. ‘Having tens of millions of people marked in Social Security as ‘ALIVE’ when they are definitely dead is a HUGE problem. Obviously. Some of these people would have been alive before America existed as a country. Think about that for a second …’
Their exchange continued, as Fetterman responded.
‘Elon, the DOGE mission resonated in PA; I came at it with common sense and an open-mind,’ Fetterman replied. ‘For many, it’s causing chaos and confusion – which IMO, doesn’t help DOGE. PA voters want their personal info secured and taxes spent wisely. Safe to assume both are priorities?’
‘I love the people,’ Musk responded. ‘We just want to fix the waste and fraud that is bankrupting the country. The scrutiny on me is extreme, so it’s not like I could ‘get away’ with something, nor do I have any incentive to do so.’
An interview featuring Trump and Musk is slated to air Tuesday night on Fox News Channel’s ‘Hannity.’