The nation’s second-oldest senator tore chunks out of Elon Musk after hearing how the world’s richest man thinks welfare payments for the elderly are basically just fraud.
NBC’s Kristen Welker was joined by veteran left-winger Bernie Sanders when the topic came up on Sunday’s broadcast of Meet the Press, with the host asking the Vermont senator what he thought of Musk describing Social Security as a “Ponzi scheme” during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Sanders, for his part, was having none of it. “What Musk, the wealthiest guy in the world, just said is totally outrageous,” the 83-year-old erupted. “That’s a hell of a Ponzi scheme when for the last 80 years, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American.”
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The Tesla founder’s recent comments put him at odds with the position taken by President Donald Trump, who repeatedly assured elderly voters on last year’s campaign trail he had no desire whatsoever to interfere with Social Security payments.
During his interview with Rogan, Musk, who just welcomed his 14th known child, also lamented that “people are living way longer than expected [while] there are fewer babies being born,” suggesting that an aging U.S. population has threatened to create an unmanageable financial burden for the federal government in future.
Visibly seething at the SpaceX CEO’s perceived hypocrisy, Sanders went on to dismantle Musk’s argument by pointing out that support for senior U.S. citizens would potentially only prove unmanageable if the state was opposed to actually tapping all available financial resources.
“Right now, Musk, worth $400 billion, contributes the same amount into the Social Security trust fund as somebody making $170 million,” he said, proposing that a lift to taxable thresholds for the nation’s wealthiest would enable the government to “extend the solvency of Social Security for 75 years.”
