‘This Isn’t A Vampire Conspiracy’
Joe Rogan, a longtime admirer of Elon Musk, recently pushed back against the billionaire’s claims about Social Security fraud, calling them misleading. On a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” he and guest Mike Baker discussed Musk’s assertion that millions of dead Americans—some supposedly 150 years old—are receiving Social Security benefits.
Musk first made the claim during a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this month, stating he had found “crazy things” in the Social Security system, including people marked as alive despite being impossibly old. He later doubled down on social media, posting screenshots of data that he said showed widespread fraud.
Don’t Miss:
President Donald Trump repeated Musk’s numbers a few days laterr during a Mar-a-Lago press conference, raising concerns about potential fraud in the system. “Now, the big thing is, how many of these people got paid?” Trump asked, suggesting that if the numbers were true, it would be “a massive fraud.”
However, Social Security experts quickly dismissed the claims. Kathleen Romig from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities pointed out to ABC News that the numbers were exaggerated, stating, “So, when they’re throwing around numbers like tens of millions of dead people are getting Social Security, well, they’re throwing around numbers like tens of millions of dead people are getting Social Security, well, there’s only 67 million total. What are they talking about? Half the people are actually dead? The numbers are so ridiculous. It’s not true.”
Trending: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it?
Rogan, who had Elon Musk five times on his podcast and once called him his “favorite billionaire,” took a skeptical stance on this claim, bringing up insights from experts who understand COBOL, the outdated programming language still used in government systems. He read from a post explaining that Social Security databases often misinterpret missing data. If a person’s birth or death date is missing, the system defaults to the year 1875, making it appear as though someone is 150 years old.
Source link
