Tell Congress: Don't let Elon Musk cut Social Security!

Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich here. On January 1 at 12:15 a.m., just 15 minutes into the new year, Elon Musk stopped paying into Social Security.

Because of the Social Security tax cap, all of Musk’s earnings over $176,100 are completely exempt from Social Security taxes. So while 94% of Americans pay taxes all year on every dime they make, billionaires like Elon Musk pay almost nothing.

And now Musk says he wants to gut Social Security in order to fund even more tax breaks, including for himself, through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

My message to Musk: When hell freezes over.

Republicans have been dying to get rid of Social Security for decades, and despite Trump’s oft-repeated promises to protect Social Security, his actual policies would do the opposite, accelerating the date when the program will run out of funding to pay full benefits.

Musk has been even more clear about his intentions to attack Social Security. As co-chair of DOGE, he's said he plans to cut $2 trillion, or about 30%, of the federal budget, which would require massive cuts to Social Security. Musk also retweeted a series of posts by Senator Mike Lee that attacked Social Security as a “nightmare.”

The real solution is obvious: Scrap the Social Security tax cap and make the rich pay their fair share in Social Security taxes.

One plan introduced by Bernie Sanders would eliminate the cap on earnings over $250,000 and also subject investment income to Social Security taxes. It’s estimated that this would extend the solvency of Social Security for the next 75 years without raising taxes on 93 percent of American households.

Tell Congress: Social Security is one of the most successful and popular government programs of all time. No cuts!