Elon brings in Silicon Valley crony to destroy Social Security
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A job too big and important for BigBalls [gift link]:
A private equity investor who is one of Elon Musk’s closest confidants has taken a new role in the Social Security Administration, a development that could be politically combustible given the program’s popularity with voters and Mr. Musk’s apparent intent to make major changes at the agency.
The investor, Antonio Gracias, who has served on the boards of Mr. Musk’s businesses Tesla and SpaceX, has started a job at the administration as part of the Musk-led cost-cutting effort known as the Department of Government Efficiency, according to documents seen by The New York Times and two people informed about his appointment.
Of the more than 50 people who have joined Mr. Musk in Washington, almost none have as extensive a history with him as Mr. Gracias. The men met around two decades ago and in that time, Mr. Gracias has become one of Mr. Musk’s most trusted advisers.
The involvement of such a close ally with the Social Security Administration suggests that Mr. Musk has made overhauling the agency a priority; in recent weeks, the tech billionaire has regularly talked about supposed fraud inside the system. Two weeks ago, he referred to Social Security as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and this week he claimed that fraud in the program and other major entitlement spending was “the big one to eliminate.”
Republicans have long eyed privatization or cuts to Social Security, but have avoided following through out of fear of political blowback. Even as top Republicans argue that they simply want to strengthen the program’s finances, Democrats have spied a political opportunity in Mr. Musk’s potential shake-up at the agency.
Nine DOGE members have arrived at the Social Security Administration in recent days. They include Mr. Gracias and two other men who work at his investment firm, Valor Equity Partners — Jon Koval, a vice president on the investment team, and Payton Rehling, a data engineer — according to documents seen by The Times.
In early February, while speaking with allies of Mr. Musk on an episode of the podcast “All-In,” Mr. Gracias minimized his role with the cost-cutting task force. “I’m in-and-out a little bit and trying to help where I can, but I’m not there full time,” he said.
But he said that he and his team at Valor had been scrutinizing audits of the Social Security Administration and that he had been alarmed by the size of its so-called trust funds, government accounts created to make sure Americans receive their full benefits. Mr. Gracias said he believed this showed there were “material weaknesses” in the system.
Ah yes, “All In,” a collection of America’s dumbest self-dealing libertarians, who are now more or less setting the national agenda.
Donald Trump became president in large measure because he instinctively understood that there is no mass constituency for Social Security cuts. But he’s an increasingly senile and checked out old man who doesn’t seem to give a shit about his standing outside the hardest core of the MAGA base. and certainly doesn’t care about the future of the Republican Party. This is a dangerous place.