Elon Musk Issues Social Security Warning Over Trump's Tax Bill

Newsweek ^ | 6/04/25 | James Bickerton, Shane Croucher

[Libloather]

Elon Musk has warned "if the massive deficit spending continues," there will be no money for Social Security, health care or defense, as he continues opposition to President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill."

The tech billionaire and former head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) made the comment about Trump's spending package on his Truth Social website in the early hours of June 4.

Newsweek contacted Musk for comment via the SpaceX and Tesla press offices outside of regular office hours on Wednesday.

Why It Matters

The House narrowly passed Trump's budget package on May 22 in a 215-214 vote, despite a number of Republicans rebelling. The bill is expected to be voted on by the Senate shortly, and several Republican Senators have already expressed deep reservations. The GOP has a 53-47 majority in the Senate, meaning a handful of GOP rebels could block the package.

Musk is an influential figure within the Republican Party and, until recently, was a close Trump ally, working to cut what the two men and DOGE regarded as wasted government spending.

What To Know

On Thursday morning on his X website, Musk shared a post saying: "We pay over $100 billion per month in interest on the national debt. $1.2 trillion per year. That is about 25% of all government revenue going to pay interest on the debt."

[ETCM]

Musk said the same thing before DOGE began. He anticipated 2 tril in cuts by DOGE....he wasn’t even close.

Yes, most of the promised/claimed DOGE cuts were vaporware, and that was obvious from the start. But some folks ate it up. "Look! 19 Million people over 100 drawing Social Security!" People are gullible. The one fantastic accomplishment of DOGE was exposing USAID. For that, I praise Musk. Unfortunately, the same can be said for Trump's claim that he has secured $10T in investments in the USA. Very little of it is actually secured.

I agree with Musk that the bill doesn't cut enough. $2.8T over 10 years isn't going to get us out of debt. The estimated cost of extending the tax cuts and cutting taxes on tips, overtime and some Social Security, results in a debt increase of $3T over those same 10 years. Something has to change. Either revenues or expenditures.

[ETCM]

That’s how our republic works. We elected them and empowered them to spend that money.

[JayGalt]

No.
Americans didn’t spend those $. Democrats threw them hand over fist at cronies so they could vacuum up those that spilled over. Fraud, graft, people scamming the system, lack of oversight consumed the rest as did foreign aid and boondoggles.
If people would have some grit and stay the course we could turn the ship around. Trump’s plan worked last time & his plan will work again.
CBO lies should not spook those who hew to the truth & stay the course. It’s always most difficult at the beginning of change but it will snowball.
Right now Musk is working for the other side purposely or out of frustration as are several senators who want to advance their ambition ahead of the American people.

[JayGalt]

Absolutely not. Musk made patriotic sacrifices. He is not an economist nor does he operate based on economic insight He is a genius, and an entrepreneur, inventor. He is out of his wheelhouse in the sphere of USA economy and the levers to correct it’s course.

[JayGalt]

Going bankrupt for a Country is a lot more like the atom bomb and lives would be shattered. But I love the graphic.

[9YearLurker]

Bravo to Trump for standing up to Musk: https://www.axios.com/2025/06/03/elon-musk-trump-white-house-relationship

[JayGalt]

Something is changing, lots of things. A couple days ago the Whitehouse sent the first list of cuts to Congress and they are going to get them passed in short order according to Thune & Johnson.

[JayGalt]

OMG. Those cuts were promised by June 2026 not immediately!

They are on pace to fulfill that according to the doge team. The figure last mentioned was $8 billion/day.
The Doge clock is now up another 10 billion to $180B 9.00% of $2T goal.
The clock posting lags as does the listing of individual cuts on the site. The department secretaries are making cuts as well which are not reflected.
https://dogegov.com/dogeclock

[JayGalt]

You can’t tell the players w/o a score card.
That article is food for thought. Certainly sounds plausible.

Elon is on the spectrum, Aspergers, & he does seem to get triggered sometimes. Remember the tech VISA blowup. I am grateful for his gift to the Nation of his time, effort & analytics of computers & bookkeeping.
Hope he gets back to an even keel soon.

[9YearLurker]

He didn’t fork over $275 million for nuttin’!

[dragnet2]

You need a bit of help here.

It was American politicians/government who spent 36 trillion dollars we didn’t have.

[ETCM]

Obviously it was a very inclusive “Americans”. We elect representatives who are empowered to act on our part, including spending.

[Revel]

I completely understand How Elon feels about this. Unfortunately is congress that is responsible. They always insist on doing 10 bad things for every good thing they do.

[odawg]

I must be the only person in the world who remembers when Nixon got us off the gold standard. In college you have time to read things, and I was reading, I think it was an interview, of an economist, and he was asked that since the dollar was not pegged to gold, what would keep the Fed from going wild-ass (my words) printing up paper money. He said nothing at all, except the sure knowledge it would destroy the dollar and the economy, so therefore it would not happen. And he discussed the weight of interest payments that would crowd out all other spending.

Well, we are there. The Fed has gone wild-ass printing up money. We have a trillion dollar interest payment each year now. It just highlights the fact that politicians are the lowest scum on earth.

[JayGalt]

You may be right.
You would be in the case of most people.
Elon is a very different kettle of fish from most folks and I am reluctant to decide what motivates him.
I suspect there is a spur of the moment aspect, how things strike him. That’s why that article is so interesting, lots of factors may have triggered him.

[JayGalt]

That’s a joke, son.
I have no confidence that the people have elected politicians for many years. Sometimes, perhaps, if no one important cared enough to manipulate the votes.

[Bratch]

Elon Musk says he wants to ‘fire’ Republican politicians in midterm elections after calling Trump’s budget bill “a disgusting abomination.”

June 3, 2025 | Sundance

I said when the alignment first took place, there would come a point when Elon Musk turned on President Trump and attempted to split MAGA into oppositional teams so that Musk could achieve his agenda.  Elon Musk is currently mining for team members.

[Source]

Elon Musk supports President Donald Trump by putting the House and Senate in control of Democrats?

See this for what it is.

Elon Musk has an agenda, and it has nothing to do with DOGE or spending. Y’all already know what his agenda is, many of you just didn’t want to believe it.

[9YearLurker]

He’s a military-tech frontman like so many “genius” CEOs in tech.

[JayGalt]

[plain talk]

So some believe we can fix SS and the government with one bill? Trump has only been in office four months. Elon and some of these people have unrealistic expectations for this initial bill.