Trump & Musk’s Budget Cuts: Slashing Social Security, Gutting Services, and Protecting Billionaires

Trump and Musk Come for Your Earned Benefits, While Their Rich Friends Get Richer

In just 60 days, President Donald Trump and Elon Musk have taken a wrecking ball to the federal government and services families depend on. Now they’re saying the quiet part out loud as they zero in on his ultimate target – cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Elon Musk let it slip last week saying Social Security was “the big one to eliminate” indicating he’d be open to cutting the program by as much $700 billion, and he brought in one of his private equity millionaire pals to help his effort. That comes after earlier this month Musk called Social Security the “biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

While the Trump-Musk Administration eyes putting Americans’ earned benefits on the line and threatening families’ ability to retire with dignity, they made more moves toward helping billionaire tax cheats evade paying their taxes. After reports revealed that Trump and Musk were plotting to slash the IRS by half, they doubled down by firing top IRS officials and pushed forward in demanding highly sensitive payment records with Americans’ personal financial data. According to an analysis from Budget Lab at Yale, DOGE’s cuts would “lead to a $400 billion increase in uncollected taxes over the next decade [and] could easily mean more than $2 trillion in losses” – that would be a boon for billionaires and millionaires who skirt contributing their fair share.

Americans deserve real reform to root out wasteful spending, cut red tape and bureaucracy, and make the government work better. But DOGE’s actions couldn’t be further from that objective – instead Trump and Musk are axing the essential services families depend on and paving the way for themselves and their wealthy pals to get even richer. It’s a scam and regular Americans are being left to pay the price.

HOW THE TRUMP-MUSK ADMINISTRATION’S DOGE IS HARMING FAMILIES

Doubling down on plan to gut 80,000 VA employees, throwing veterans out of their jobs: After a leaked memo revealed Donald Trump and Elon Musk are planning to fire more than 80,000 workers who serve veterans, VA Secretary Doug Collins doubled down saying the cuts were the “goal [and] target.” More than a quarter of VA employees are veterans themselves, throwing thousands of veterans’ jobs into question. Already, DOGE’s plans to cut the VA are destabilizing veterans’ mental health, according to NPR reporting: “Some patients who have post-traumatic stress disorder say the changes are especially disconcerting. One woman, who asked to be identified only as D.M., says she’s been suffering from near-constant anxiety since the changes began at the VA.”

Worsening public education by gutting more than 1,300 Department of Education positions: The Trump-Musk Administration put families’ ability to access high-quality, public education at risk, by cutting more than 1,300 Department of Education employees in a move that will shrink the Department by half. The cuts are expected to drain job training programs, increase costs of higher education, impact the Department’s ability to investigate civil rights violations and discrimination on campuses, and limit options for students with disabilities. According to former agency employees, the cuts may stand to have the opposite effect of Trump and Musk’s so-called goal with DOGE: “If there is waste, fraud and abuse, this administration has now eliminated the very agency that would provide oversight for that.”

Firing 1,000 more NOAA employees, further endangering Americans in the face of extreme weather events: Trump and Musk fired an additional 1,000 NOAA employees focused on climate science – responsible for tracking extreme weather events and giving life-saving wildfire, tornado, and hurricane warnings, and ensuring accurate and timely weather reports, after axing at least 800 people earlier this month. As a former NOAA Administrator warned: “This is not government efficiency. It is the first steps toward eradication. There is no way to make these kinds of cuts without removing or strongly compromising mission capabilities.” NOAA has already stopped releasing at least two weather balloons that gather crucial observations for forecasts because of the cuts.

Putting highly sensitive financial information at risk: Trump and Musk have sought “sweeping access” to Americans’ confidential records and data from across government agencies, in a move that is “raising deep alarm among federal workers and privacy advocates.” To make matters worse, not clear what vetting or background checks Musk’s staff has undergone.

CONTENT TO LIFT

‪@accountable-us.bsky.social‬: ICYMI: Yesterday, Trump turned the White House into a Tesla showroom—then hours later, Elon Musk pledged $100M to his campaign. A president should work for the people, not billionaire donors. accountable.us/elon-musk-pumps-100-million-to-trump-after-white-house-tesla-meeting/
@accountable-us.bsky.social‬: Beth Crowell was auditing a $3B company that had never been checked by the IRS. Then Trump’s mass layoffs hit—5 of 9 auditors gone. The case? Likely dead. Billionaires win. Tax cheats thrive. The IRS isn’t being reformed—it’s being dismantled. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/u…
@repmarcykaptur.bsky.social‬: 🚨 Time to sound the alarm 🚨 Not only are DOGE coming for Social Security, sources inside the Social Security Administration say they are close to breaking the system entirely and stopping your hard-earned benefits from reaching you on time or at all.
@raskin.house.gov‬: One day after Republicans passed a bill to slash NOAA funding, DOGE plans to cut 1,000 jobs from the agency which produces weather data and climate science. Trump thinks he can redirect hurricanes with his Sharpie but you don’t need a weatherman to know this administration blows.
‪@replindasanchez.bsky.social‬: Every single Ways & Means Republican voted today to block transparency and protect DOGE’s access to your sensitive information. Why are they so afraid to defend the rule of law and stand up to President Trump and Elon Musk?

Budget cuts by DOGE are hitting critical services hard—healthcare, farmers’ aid, research, veterans’ care, and Head Start programs.

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