As Social Security enters its death spiral, Team Trump attempts a distraction with promise to eliminate taxes for anyone making less than $150K

Upon pushing for debunked conspiracies regarding dead people receiving payments, Elon Musk has called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme.” These misleading claims were repeated by President Donald Trump, laying the groundwork for any cuts to what is considered to be one of the most successful programs in U.S. government history in terms of its sustainability and wide-reaching, meaningful impact.

In a March 4 meeting, SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek, in reference to the Department of Government Efficiency’s harum-scarum actions, commented on how he’s never seen a government operating in such a manner:

“DOGE people are learning, and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA. I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.”

More recently, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who confidently stated that if there is a recession it should not be blamed on Trump’s tariff wars but – you guessed it – Joe Biden, suggested, in the same tirade, the end of social security and no tax for those who make less than “$150,000 a year.” This would be the equivalent of dangling a carrot in front of a naïve bunny so it doesn’t notice the destruction of its burrowed retirement plan.

Can you believe this? Please don’t.

JUST IN: 🇺🇸 Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick says President Trump's goal is to eliminate taxes for anyone earning less than $150,000 per year. pic.twitter.com/3zSoqMsqMQ

— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) March 13, 2025

The way Howard Lutnick says, “I know what his goal is! No tax for anyone who makes less than $150,000 a year,” is like a parent who baits their kid with the prospect of going to Disneyland next spring just so they will stop throwing a tantrum. It’s as if he wants you to ignore that he’d just suggested hatching the same program that keeps two-thirds of American elderly out of poverty.

In response to this clip, one commenter on X wrote: “Had [Trump] ended the Ukraine war in 24 hours and not tanked the stock market, I might have believed this too. Til this moment, his biggest accomplishment has been buying that red car.”

Funded by the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA), Social Security does not contribute to the debt deficit because it pays for itself, with workers and employers paying 6.2% of their wages. However, since 2021, Social Security has entered its deficit years, meaning if nothing changes or is actively done about it, the Trust Fund reserves will run out in about a decade.

Now, because the Trump administration is on a mission to prove to the American people that they are curbing wasteful government spending – whether that’s true or not – there have been talks among Trump and GOP senators on how “to make the math work on their costly plan” by using “controversial accounting tactic”  to “treat trillions of dollars in tax cuts” as having no cost (per Politico).

Republicans targeting Social Security is nothing new. In a recently aired January debate between left-wing commentator Sam Seder and 20 Trump-voting Zoomers, one can see the fallacious propaganda that has led to even young adults advocating for the loss of their own safety nets upon retiring. In other words, arguing against their own interests.

It would be more understandable for these Gen Z-ers to believe in the end of Social Security if they did not exist within American society, whose for-profit healthcare system is the most brutal among Western nations, able to ruin you financially in ways you can’t prevent or control – you don’t choose when or whether to get sick. No one can anticipate if they are going to have health issues or if their insurance company will find ways to weasel out of paying for essential care every step of the way.

Upon listening to wealthy politicians and businessmen who needn’t save for retirement their whole lives, these conservative working-class individuals tend to advocate for individualism and meritocracy when it comes to things such as social mobility and money-saving efforts. However, you can save money all your life and have it funneled out in a matter of months because – oops – you’ve got cancer, a degenerative or chronic disease, knock on wood. Remember, kids: Capitalistic individualism will always come back to bite you.