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With Musk Targeting Social Security, Democrats See a Political Opportunity
After the 2004 elections, a Republican president, newly returned to office, decided the political moment was right to overhaul Social Security, making it more like private retirement plans in a bid to prevent it from going bankrupt in the future. Two years and a bruising political fight later, Democrats took back the House and Senate from Republicans.
Democrats now believe history may be about to repeat itself.
Elon Musk, the multibillionaire overseeing the Trump administration effort to drastically shrink government, has derided the nation’s most popular federal program as a sketchy pyramid scheme while pushing to close offices and eliminate thousands of jobs of those who administer the program. In doing so, he has touched a topic that has traditionally been known as the third rail of American politics. And Democrats, who increasingly regard Mr. Musk as a more opportune political target than even President Trump himself, have rushed to highlight what they consider to be a major political blunder.
“They don’t learn,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said of Republicans as his party pounced on the issue. “Their biggest mistake was going after Social Security when George Bush was president. And now they are doing it again.”
Illustrating the emphasis Democrats intend to put on the subject, Senator Elissa Slotkin, the Michigan Democrat who delivered her party’s rebuttal to Mr. Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday night, hit on Social Security as well, using it to cast doubt on the president’s vows not to touch the federal retirement program.
“The president claims he won’t, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” she said in her remarks, quoting a social media post by Mr. Musk.
Democrats were already pressing Republicans on potential cuts to Medicaid, the government health coverage program for lower-income Americans, but they view threats to Social Security as having broader resonance.
Congressional Republicans respond that Democrats are distorting the Trump administration’s — and their — position on Social Security and that they are simply trying to bolster the finances of the program to guarantee that it won’t run out of money, allowing future generations, like past ones, to get the money they paid in.
“We need to make sure that Social Security is strengthened and saved for the future so that everyone who’s paid in can get it,” said Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the No. 2 Senate Republican.
Social Security has long been the political backbone of the Democratic Party. For years, Democrats have capitalized on the slightest hint of any attempt to dismantle or privatize it, as they did when President George W. Bush pushed the idea in 2005, much to the detriment of his party’s midterm election fortunes.
The issue is so volatile that when Senator Rick Scott, Republican of Florida, put forward a policy agenda during the 2022 midterm elections that would have theoretically required the program to expire and be re-evaluated, he was immediately repudiated by Republican leaders and eventually had to disavow his own plan.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly emphasized that he has no plans to tinker with Social Security or Medicare. But Democrats see something afoot with Mr. Musk’s derogatory comments and Mr. Trump’s claims that the program is riddled with fraud.
Despite multiple reviews that have found Social Security to be one of the better-run federal programs with a record of never missing payments, Mr. Musk has characterized the program as riddled with fraud and waste.
Mr. Trump emphasized that theme in Tuesday night’s address, saying that millions of obviously long-dead beneficiaries remain on the Social Security rolls. But the claim he and Mr. Musk make that benefits still flow to those people has been widely debunked. The agency says that it is a data recording problem, and has reported that just under 90,000 people 99 years or older received Social Security benefits in December — slightly more than the 85,000 Americans over the age of 100 recorded by the Census Bureau.
Still, Democrats see the focus by Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump on erroneous claims of fraud as laying the groundwork for a benefit review that could affect those lawfully receiving monthly benefits as Republicans search for ways to offset the cost of hugely expensive tax cuts.
Democrats say an equal threat to the program are plans to reduce the work force that had already shrunk, including an effort to pare down as many as 7,000 employees while consolidating regional offices and ending the leases on dozens of field offices around the country. They say the loss of personnel and the shuttering of offices would be tantamount to denying benefits to applicants who would face long waits to talk to advisers or to receive their assistance.
Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said such delays would break the inherent promise of Social Security that Americans can collect what they contributed.
“Part of that promise means being able to get on the phone with an actual human being without having to wait on hold for an hour or more, visit an in-office person to help you get your benefits without having to jump through hoops or drive hundreds of miles,” Ms. Murray said. “But Trump and Elon are decimating the Social Security Administration and without adequate staff at the agency, there will be people who cannot get their benefits period.”
Some Republicans also expressed concern about how cuts could affect the level of service their constituents receive.
“I do know that it is a whole lot easier to work your way through Social Security benefits if you’re doing it in person with somebody who is well trained in how the system works,” said Senator Mike Rounds, Republican of South Dakota. “Trying to do any of that stuff online is much more difficult.”
But Mr. Rounds also credited Mr. Musk with bringing attention to the fiscal condition of Social Security, which is in such dire financial trouble that benefit cuts could come within a decade if nothing changes.
“He’s at least ringing the alarm that the rest of us have tried to do,” said Mr. Rounds, who added that obvious fixes were available.
Multiple ideas are circulating to stabilize the program, such as lifting the current $176,100 cap on the amount of pay that is taxed for Social Security.
“If Congress eliminated the payroll tax cap for individuals with annual income in the millions of dollars — an amount Elon Musk makes every two hours — and collected the money they are illegally evading in taxes, Social Security would be fully funded for decades,” said Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, the senior Democrat on the Finance Committee.
But no one on Capitol Hill is talking seriously about raising that cap any time soon. For now, the push by Mr. Musk to shrink the agency and the beneficiary rolls will guarantee that Social Security remains at the center of the clash over federal spending in the coming months and next year’s elections.
News
Manhattan Building’s Columns Buckled Beneath New Addition, Images Show
At least two structural columns buckled and failed in a 37-story office tower in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, prompting evacuations of nearby streets and buildings. While city officials asserted that the tower was in no danger of collapsing completely, outside engineers said further failures in the structure could not be ruled out.
A pair of columns that failed completely were part of the tower’s existing structure. A New York Times review of images and videos from inside the building has found that several floors were added atop these columns.
City officials said in a news conference on Tuesday that the building was continuing to move, while they simultaneously assured the city that the building would not suffer “total collapse.” “The way this building is constructed, it’s a steel-frame building,” John Esposito, a chief in the Fire Department in New York, said at the afternoon news conference. “So, it would not be a total collapse. It would be more of a localized collapse.” Still, he said, “that remains our concern, that it’s moved.”
Engineers said that the movement itself was cause for concern. In a properly designed steel building, they said, loads should redistribute quickly to surviving structural supports if columns failed.
Joe DiPompeo, a former president of the Structural Engineering Institute at the American Society of Civil Engineers, said that if the structure had been overloaded, he would expect any movement “to happen very quickly,” rather than gradually.
“Generally when a column buckles, it’s a sudden failure,” Mr. DiPompeo said. He said that a full collapse remained unlikely given the redundancies built into the building codes.
Engineers often refer to the most dangerous possibility as a progressive collapse, a process in which structures near the initial failure become overstressed and also fail, potentially bringing down the building if the sequence continues. While unlikely, it cannot be ruled out, Mr. DiPompeo said.
Footage recorded from inside the building shows at least two structural columns appear to have failed completely, Mr. DiPompeo said. Other nonstructural, interior walls — or at least the metal “studs” that were in place to hold them up — also appear to have deformed.
“The only way that really happens is if the floor above them dropped. It looks like the floor above could have dropped a foot or two, which is obviously not a good situation,” Mr. DiPompeo said.
The 37-story building is in the process of being converted from office space into residential units. Four new floors and a large vertical portion were added onto the existing building in recent months. The vertical portion consists of a stack of over a dozen new floors cantilevered out over the existing building below.
Engineers said that there was nothing inherently wrong with adding residential floors or the cantilevered section above the columns that failed, as long as the original structure and the modifications had properly accounted for the added weight and wind loads.
“The cantilever alone doesn’t change anything,” Mr. DiPompeo said, but it does put additional load on the columns underneath — a factor that should have been reflected in the design.
Nathan Berman, managing principal and founder of MetroLoft, the developer overseeing the conversion, said on Tuesday that “this incident is nothing more than a typical construction mishap.”
He said two columns near the northwest corner of the tower had bent under the weight of additions to the building above, most likely because those columns had not been properly reinforced, though he said an investigation would determine the cause. The rest of the columns, he said, “picked up the weight.” He estimated the affected floors above the failed columns had sagged by a maximum of four inches.
Mr. Berman said that he expected the problems to be fixed and the project to be completed with, at most, a slight delay.
On Tuesday evening, installation of temporary shoring was set to begin shortly, in order to help stabilize the 20th and 21st floors of the building.
News
DOJ warns of criminal charges for state election officials if noncitizens vote
The Justice Department sent letters warning election officials in all 50 states and the District of Columbia that they could face criminal prosecution over noncitizen voting, a spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed Tuesday.
The letters, signed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads up the department’s Civil Rights Division, give states five days to explain how they will comply with federal voter eligibility laws and how they will maintain “clean voter lists.”
“The Department sent these letters to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, asking for voluntary compliance in a timely manner with their obligations under federal law to ensure only citizens vote in federal elections,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in a statement.
Noncitizen voting in federal elections is extremely rare, but Trump and his administration have falsely portrayed it as a widespread issue.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar and Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson are among those who said they received the letters from the Justice Department.
The letters say state election officers “could be criminally prosecuted for aiding and abetting” noncitizen voting. They further specify that any election officer who knowingly retains noncitizens on a statewide voting registration list or who facilitates noncitizens’ receiving and casting ballots could be subject to criminal liability.
“An intentional act that is aimed at diluting the votes of citizens could also constitute a violation” of federal law, the letters said.
Henderson wrote on social media that the threats constitute “truly bizarre behavior.”
“Got another love letter this morning from the DOJ sprinkled throughout with threats of criminal prosecution,” she wrote. “I’m sure I’m not the only chief election officer of a state who is being targeted for following state and federal laws by resisting DOJ’s demands for private voter data that have thus far been ruled illegal by at least a dozen courts.”
The letters are the latest move in the Justice Department’s campaign to assert more federal control over state elections.
While some states have complied with the administration’s demands that they hand over voter roll data, the Justice Department has sued 30 states and Washington, D.C., for resisting. So far, 11 different federal courts have dismissed the Justice Department’s efforts to seize voter rolls.
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Reigning champion Argentina escapes with remarkable World Cup victory over Egypt
Lionel Messi #10 of Argentina celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during their World Cup match against Egypt in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Elsa/Getty Images
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Elsa/Getty Images
They looked beaten. And out. Argentina, the defending World Cup champion and No. 1-ranked team, was down 2-0 late against Egypt.

Then, in a span of 13 remarkable minutes, Argentina scored not once, not twice, but three times, capping a comeback for the ages and leaving Egypt stunned and shellshocked.
For much of the game in Atlanta, Egypt was in control, hobbling Argentina early. The Egyptian attack began almost immediately with a stunning header goal delivered by Yasser Ibrahim in the 15th minute. After that, Egypt’s defense closed ranks, making it practically impossible for Argentina to equalize.
It was downhill from there for the Argentines: team captain Lionel Messi failed to convert a penalty kick, and in the 67th minute, Egypt got a second goal from Mostafa Ziko (after an earlier Egyptian goal had been disallowed after a video review). It looked like Argentina was finished. On the brink of elimination.
But no one told the Argentine players that.
In the 79th minute, Lionel Messi began doing his thing. He fired a cross near the Egyptian goal, and Cristian Romero headed it in. Messi was not done. Four minutes later, he powered a shot past the Egyptian keeper. It was his eighth goal of this tournament, the most of any player. The score was 2-2.
Then, in stoppage time, yet another Argentina header and another goal, this time from Enzo Fernandez.
“This is the World Cup for you,” said Messi after the game. “It wasn’t easy to come back from two goals down. But as I always say, this group never gives up. We always try to fight until the end.”
French referee François Letexier speaks with Egypt forward Mohamed Salah during the World Cup Round of 16 match between Argentina and Egypt in Atlanta.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
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Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images
Afterward, Egypt coach Hossam Hassan complained about the French referee and the officiating. “I am not convinced. I am not convinced with this outcome. I’m not convinced with the way things unfolded during this match,” said Hassan in a post-match news conference. “We have been treated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice.”
“We would have deserved to earn this win, but we are leaving with honor, with pride, regardless of this defeat,” said Hossan.
African soccer teams have been the stars of this World Cup. Morocco has yet to lose a game. Cape Verde qualified for the first time in its history and stymied Spain, Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. Argentina barely beat them in a nail-biter of a match.
For Egypt, getting this far in the tournament is historic in itself: it’s the first time the team has made it this far. For Argentina, it was a terrifying yet relieving victory: several players, including Messi himself, cried after the game.
Next, they move to the quarterfinals and will play the winner of today’s Switzerland-Colombia match.
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