Backdoor Trump/DOGE attacks on Social Security

I think it's important to understand that due to his worsening dementia Trump doesn't really remember what he said to whom, from one day to the next. Before too long it could be more like one hour to the next. It's all about who has his ear at any given time.

President Donald Trump was asked at a press conference this month if there were any federal agencies or programs that Elon Musk’s newly formed Department of Government Efficiency wouldn’t be allowed to mess with.

“Social Security will not be touched,” Trump answered, echoing a promise he has been making for years. Despite his eagerness to explode treaties, shutter entire government agencies and abandon decades-old ways of doing things, the president understands that Social Security benefits for seniors are sacrosanct.

Still, the DOGE team landed at the Social Security Administration (last) week, with Musk drawing attention for his outlandish claims that large numbers of 150-year-old “vampires” are receiving Social Security payments. DOGE has begun installing its own operatives, including an engineer linked to tweets promoting eugenics and executives with a cut-first-fix-later philosophy, in multiple top positions at the Social Security Administration. - ProPublica

An example from France regarding retirement

The potential parallels aren't precise, but they're plenty close enough.

To an American viewer, the current protests over raising France’s retirement age might look a little quaint: the country that once beheaded members of its aristocracy still gets in a tizzy when its president wears an expensive watch. In January, When President Emmanuel Macron revealed his plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age from a relatively young 62 to 64, protests erupted across the nation. Garbage collectors in Paris and other cities have gone on strike, leaving trash to pile up in the streets for more than two weeks.

But this is not a case of petulant Frenchmen failing to see how good they’ve got it. It’s a worker protest against an overbearing president, a demonstration of the power of organized labor, and a warning for the United States, whose retirement system faces similar challenges...

It’s unclear how the protests, and Macron’s policy, will turn out. But French people’s refusal to allow an undemocratic attack on their social safety net should be an inspiration for the US, whose people are bound by the will of an unelected Supreme Court, six of its justices appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote. Raising the retirement age in France isn’t trivial, and French unions are proving it. - Mother Jones

Trump threatens Social Security

For some reason we have not really been able to get through to people, seniors in particular, with the realities of this, even as the greedheads have been looking to destroy earned benefits for decades. There has to be a way.

Grassroots advocacy groups representing millions of retirees and seniors across the United States are speaking out against and urging Congress to oppose President Donald Trump's threat to block desperately needed Covid-19 relief legislation if it does not slash the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare...

"We're not doing anything unless we get a payroll tax cut," Trump said Sunday, just days after vowing to protect Social Security and Medicare.

Max Richtman, president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said in a statement Monday that Trump's remarks "set off alarm bells for America's seniors and their advocates."

"Make no mistake: by pushing to cut off the program's funding stream, President Trump is taking the first step toward dismantling Social Security," said Richtman. "The president's campaign to eliminate payroll taxes is a violation of his patently false promises to seniors 'not to touch' Social Security. This proposal goes way beyond 'touching.' Choking off Social Security's funding stream is an existential threat to seniors' earned benefits." - Common Dreams

Update: The U.S. Senate isn't into this. The GOP caucus there has terrible ideas of their own.