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A House committee hearing turned explosive when Connecticut Congressman John Larson blasted “genius” Elon Musk for not showing up to a hearing concerning the cuts he was overseeing through the Department of Government Efficiency.
The Connecticut Democrat criticized the committee’s GOP leadership, accusing it of following whatever President Donald Trump and Musk tell them to do, rather than acting independently. The hearing considered two resolutions put forth by Democrats, including one by Larson, asking for information into DOGE’s plans.
Chair Jason Smith responded by accusing the Democrats of attempting to “undermine the critical work being done” under Trump to root out waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government.
“My Democrat colleagues claim their concerns are about process and careful vetting, but the truth is that they have never found an ounce of government fat that they are willing to trim,” Smith said.
When it was his turn to speak, Larson lit up. “We’re an equal branch of government and you start off with a blather, and yet look at the empty seats here,” the Democratic Congressman said, raising his voice at the Wednesday hearing.
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“Where’s Elon Musk?” he said, pointing to empty chairs. “I’m sure he’s a genius and a very credible person for the wealth he’s accumulated but that doesn’t put him above the law or the responsibility to come before this committee in this Congress.”
“If he’s so great, if these plans and all the fraud and abuse that he’s found are so imminent, why isn’t he here explaining it? You know why! Because he’s out to privatize Social Security,” said Larson, the ranking member of the subcommittee on social security. “He’s been on television the last couple of days talking exactly about Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and what he intends to do: privatize it.”
“The American people — some of them may have been born at night — but not last night,” he concluded.
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One day after Trump insisted he was “not going to touch Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” Musk told Fox Business Network that he was eyeing the Social Security Administration as his next target to make cuts. “Most of the federal spending is entitlements,” he said. “That’s the big one to eliminate.”
Entitlement programs provide benefits that those eligible are legally entitled to.
“Workers, employers and the self-employed pay for the benefits with their Social Security taxes. The taxes that are collected are put into special trust funds. You qualify for these benefits based on your work history (or your spouse or parent). The amount of the benefit is based on these earnings,” according to the Social Security Administration.
Musk has previously labeled the Social Security Administration as the “biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.” Roughly 69 million Americans — retired workers and people with disabilities — receive Social Security benefits each month.
DOGE’s mass layoffs, slashed contracts, and attempts to reduce the federal government’s real estate footprint have caused chaos and prompted a string of lawsuits. The cost-cutting arm claims to have saved an estimated $115 billion, as of Thursday. Various reports have contested the agency’s total savings.
Larson’s resolution would have requested the president, within 14 days, to provide documents, records, and audio recordings to the House related to Social Security Administration’s systems used by Musk, Musk and his team’s visits to the government agency, planned closures of agency offices and reductions of staff.
The hearing and resolution come after a March 3 letter, signed by more than 150 Democrats, over their “grave concern” regarding massive changes to the agency.
Republicans voted against both resolutions Wednesday.
“Shuttering field offices and gutting SSA staffing has nothing to do with ‘governmental efficiency,’” the Democrats wrote. “Staffing is at a 50-year low, despite serving a record number of beneficiaries. Years of understaffing and lack of resources have led to a customer service crisis at SSA. Closing the very field and hearing offices that beneficiaries rely on and gutting staff would only deepen the crisis, chaos, and confusion.”
