The cast of Republicans in the crosshairs of progressives may cycle through the years, but from Paul Ryan to Elon Musk, the attacks from Democrats and their allies in the media remain the same. Just as Tea Party Republicans faced left-wing fury over daring to tell the truth over a decade ago, the Tesla tycoon-turned-DOGE master has started another prime-time contretemps for pointing out that the single greatest chunk of waste to cut from federal spending is likely contained in its single largest category of overall spending: the entitlements of Social Security and Medicare.
Do not merely trust the reporting about Musk’s interview with Fox Business’s Larry Kudlow — watch it for yourself. Other liberal media outlets, either mistakenly or maliciously, have misreported Musk’s remarks, which he delivers in his clipped and quick South African accent.
“The waste and fraud in entitlement spending, which is all the — which is most of the federal spending, is entitlements — that’s the big one to eliminate. That’s the half trillion, the six- or seven-hundred billion a year,” Musk said. “That is also the mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants, essentially by paying them to come here and then turning them into voters. This is why the Democrats are so upset about this situation.”
Musk clearly said his goal is to eliminate “the waste and fraud in entitlement spending,” not necessarily entitlement spending itself. That’s why his estimate ranges from $500 billion to $700 billion. If Musk were talking about eliminating entitlements wholesale, which specifically includes the majority of mandatory spending on social programs, primarily Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, he would be talking about trillions of dollars. Of the $6.75 trillion the federal government spent throughout the last fiscal year, $2.935 trillion went to those three largest entitlements, consuming 60% of all federal tax revenue collected. Musk is arguing he is seeking to eliminate “waste and fraud” that composes between a sixth and a quarter of our entitlement spending, not all of it or even most.
This, of course, did not stop Democrats from peddling the party line.
Anyone who has grappled seriously with the federal budget knows that fishing for savings in discretionary spending is like finding coins in your couch cushions or cash in last season’s coat — an added bonus but never a sizeable amount of actual savings. For example, we already see in last month’s budget review from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office how the Department of Government Efficiency faces an uphill battle if it ignores entitlements.
Last month, the Trump administration successfully slashed State Department spending by 53% from February last year and Education Department spending by 39%. But the total savings of those two campaigns amounted to $7 billion. By comparison, the mere 6% increase in Social Security spending added up to $7 billion, while an 8% increase in Medicare spending equaled $6 billion in additional spending.
Musk is banking that between 17% and 24% of these entitlements are waste and fraud. The most obvious target would be what Musk refers to with Kudlow. While illegal immigrants are generally denied access to Social Security and Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program are less strict and, thus, prime targets for Musk’s machete.
Seven states and Washington, D.C., offer socialized health insurance to illegal adults. Another 23 states plus Washington offer CHIP to illegal immigrants who are pregnant, and 14 states and Washington provide socialized healthcare to minors. While some of these states go to great lengths to pretend that they silo state spending on illegal immigrants from the federal funds allocated for Medicaid, states like California engage in no such facade.
For over a year now, California has offered Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program, to all illegal immigrants below a certain income threshold, regardless of age. The federal government gives Medi-Cal nearly $100 billion each year, contributing the majority of its funding. Then, there are the already accounted-for improper payments tallied by the Government Accountability Office before President Donald Trump even took office. For example, in fiscal 2023, Medicare and Medicaid racked up more than $100 billion in payment errors, the majority of which were overpayments.
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But the reality remains that even shaving entitlements by a quarter will not solve the structural flaw at the heart of Social Security and Medicare, which Musk has previously admitted are Ponzi schemes. And even as an ever-dwindling generation of younger workers pays into a system they will never see, entitlement beneficiaries get to retire at the same age as they did when Social Security was established in 1935, even though the average American life expectancy is 23% greater. But ignore the millennials and Zoomers who won’t get a dime back when they hit old age. When Social Security reaches insolvency in eight years, beneficiaries will see an automatic average benefit cut of 23%.
Of course, Trump doesn’t care about any of this, and in Musk’s capacity as the DOGE dungeon master and the president’s hatchet man, neither does he. The media were trying to pull a disingenuous gotcha on Musk, but even a decade later, it’s no less pathetic than accusations that Republicans are throwing Granny off a cliff.