Cable Forum - View Single Post

**Hugh** · 25-03-2025, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pierre

I’m sure they printed the evidence and didn’t just make an unverifiable comment………..

In any event, I’d welcome such an intervention and investigation into U.K. benefits fraud by anyone with the will.

Oh, the irony...

Musk has been making unverifiable/false statements consistently, but you never seem to question those...

https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.36Y83WL

Quote:

Elon Musk suggested Social Security data shows millions of improbably and impossibly old people collecting benefits, amounting to massive fraud in the retirement program. But the billionaire's claims about payments to dead people lack evidence -- and experts say his figures appear to count past-issued Social Security cards, not how many people are cashing checks.

Quote:

Although Musk did not specify a source for the figures he posted, Wolfers and other experts told AFP they appear to come from the Numident, an internal database of Social Security card holders.

Social Security numbers are usually given to Americans shortly after birth and may also be issued to new immigrants, visiting workers and others.

"The most likely explanation is that he is looking at the number of Social Security numbers, not the number of beneficiaries," University of Illinois professor Jeffrey Brown, who served on the Social Security Advisory Board under former Republican president George W. Bush, told AFP (archived here).

Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who was the SSA's principal deputy commissioner under Bush, agreed (archived here).

"Musk confused the existence of a Social Security number with benefits being paid on that number," Biggs told AFP. "They're not the same."