Elon Musk will decide the fate of Social Security and Medicare. Time to panic. | Opinion

Elon Musk will decide the fate of Social Security and Medicare. Time to panic. | Opinion Billionaire weirdo Elon Musk and his band of techies have likely accessed your most private information and have their disreputable mitts on the faucet from which vital government payments flow.

Show Caption Hide Caption Thousands Protest Musk in Washington D.C. An enraged democratic senator Chris Murphy made a statement at what's been referred to as a "nobody elected Elon" rally in the nation's capital. Cheddar

If you rely on Social Security or Medicare or Medicaid, it’s time to panic. If you care about your personal data – like your Social Security number or banking information – it’s also time to panic.

Thanks to President Donald Trump and the permissive Republican Party, billionaire weirdo Elon Musk and his band of random techies have likely accessed your most private information and have their disreputable mitts on the faucet from which vital government payments flow.

I’m guessing you didn’t vote for Musk to be given free rein over computer systems throughout the federal government that are normally handled by highly trained people who’ve cleared thorough background checks. Well, tough luck. Trump’s in charges and things like “rules” and “norms” and “laws” are for losers.

Musk has access to 'vast amounts of privileged and restricted' information

Musk, under the guise of what is essentially a fabricated government agency – the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE – has brought in people we know nothing about to do things we know nothing about with zero permission from or oversight by Congress.

Colbert King of The Washington Post described Musk and Co.’s hijacking of federal systems like this: “Musk and his hirelings are gaining access to vast amounts of privileged and restricted government information on a scale unseen in our nation’s capital. The Treasury Department, where I once worked, has given DOGE license to scrutinize federal payment systems that annually disburse trillions of dollars in government expenditures. The systems also contain a trove of sensitive information about hundreds of millions of Americans ‒ information that private commercial interests and foreign governments would pay dearly to get their hands on.”

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Max Richtman, head of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, wrote in a statement: “Social Security beneficiaries and their families have every reason to be alarmed by Elon Musk’s takeover of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s payment system, which is responsible for paying Social Security benefits. The unelected billionaire, who has no legal role in the U.S. government but heads Trump’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and his newly-installed minions in the Treasury Department, now have access to the personal information of every Social Security beneficiary ‒ and the ability to stop payments for any federal programs they dislike.”

What Musk and his little band of buddies are doing is beyond dangerous

There is a word for what’s happening with de facto President Musk’s reckless mucking about. That word is “bad.” This is all just very, very bad.

And while plenty of voters liked Trump’s rhetoric about cutting back the size of the government, people were never presented with a plan in which Trump hands control entirely over to Musk and lets him go full bull-in-a-crystal-shop on things.

It’s likely that much if not most of what Musk has been up to is illegal. But it’s certain that what he’s been up to is, as previously mentioned, dreadfully bad.

Musk's intrusion into individuals' privacy 'is massive and unprecedented'

Consider this, from a lawsuit filed by the Alliance for Retired Americans against new U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, seeking to block Musk and his goons from accessing sensitive record: “The scale of the intrusion into individuals’ privacy is massive and unprecedented. Millions of people cannot avoid engaging in financial transactions with the federal government and, therefore, cannot avoid having their sensitive personal and financial information maintained in government records. Secretary Bessent’s action granting DOGE-affiliated individuals full, continuous, and ongoing access to that information for an unspecified period of time means that retirees, taxpayers, federal employees, companies, and other individuals from all walks of life have no assurance that their information will receive the protection that federal law affords.”

On the campaign trail, Trump swore up and down that he would never touch voters’ Social Security or Medicare. But Trump says lots of things, most of them false. Trusting him is a fool’s errand, and trusting Musk is flat-out ludicrous.

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Musk seems to have surpassed Trump in terms of power

I understand there are Trump voters out there who want to have faith in the new president and give him a chance, but folks, what’s happening right now should be sending up enough red flags to block out the sun. And while Trump is letting it happen, it’s Musk who presents the clear and present danger.

He is unelected, notably unhinged and working with random people we’re apparently supposed to just trust. They are eyeballs-deep in our data and could shut down your Social Security payments or cut off your Medicare coverage with a keystroke.

These are not good people. And the time to panic is right freakin’ now.

You can find contact information for your elected officials at this website: www.usa.gov/elected-officials

Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @rexhuppke.bsky.social and on Facebook at facebook.com/RexIsAJerk