Summary
The White House scrambled to clarify comments from Elon Musk suggesting cuts to Social Security and Medicare, insisting no such plans exist.
Musk, speaking on Fox Business, criticized entitlement spending, sparking viral backlash. Trump’s administration defended Musk and attacked journalist Jake Sherman for misrepresenting his remarks.
Officials cited reports on fraud and waste but claimed benefits would remain intact. Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized Social Security, labeling it a “Ponzi scheme.”
Critics fear Trump could use fraud reduction efforts as a pretext for cuts despite his assurances otherwise.
Dammit, Daily Beast, these are not “entitlements”. They are programs Americans were forced to pay into with the guarantee that they would receive proportional benefits.
Gotta keep the right wing framing!
yeah and ugh. but tbh we see this wording even from outlets surprisingly far to the left. (of a depressingly right-shifted so-called center, but anyway.)
Using the original meaning of a word and not chasing off on the euphemism treadmill is hardly shifting to the right.
The simple fact of the matter is that the word has become loaded and is now seen as a negative thing.
Yeah, much like the term “liberal”. Decades of trashing the term and now people often look like they are admitting to some kind of crime when they say they are liberal.
Exactly. If they cut Social Security, I’m signing a class action lawsuit against the federal government for every penny I’ve put in.
Entitlement is literally the term for social security and Medicare because those who’ve paid into them their whole lives are 100% entitled to receive payments from those programs.
Pretty sure that is the literal definition of a government entitlement, I know the profligates have smeared the term for the last 40 years and all but this is one of their stupider ones.
Doesn’t that just mean that we’re entitled to, or owed a return, on that money?
Is it just an issue with connotation of that word? Or is it actually not an entitlement?