whatever else I need to do. I can find a source of income somehow. F**k Trump and Musk....

but you shouldn't have to. I'm looking forward to your deserved retirement.

I will live in my car if need be. But losing my home of 34 years will be heartbreaking, the place where my daughter grew up, a memory palace.
As it seems to be going to turn out, Social Security is not secure and its trust fund in untrustworthy. I am going to be robbed by the richest person in the world.

now be paid off.

didn’t say their mortgage wasn’t paid off. They said they lived in their house for 34 years. Maybe they would hate to have to sell it to survive because they no longer received SS. Also, what’s it to you if their house wasn’t paid off yet. You don’t know that person’s circumstances.

But I'm constantly amazed and horrified at how many people apparently spend every single penny of income, don't set aside as much as a dime, and then are bamboozled by their lack of money.

I'm here to tell you that it is possible to refrain from spending every possible penny. Keep in mind that there is probably someone down the street from you who takes in several thousand dollars a year less, and they are surviving. If they can, you can also. And cut back a bit so you can save something.,

I learned this lesson decades ago. I'd borrowed the money needed to buy my car, a VW bug (convertible, hooray!) and the payback from my checking account every two weeks was a bit more than the minimum needed. I only learned that when I went to borrow some money to do Christmas shopping, and learned I already had the sum I wanted to spend. Ever since then I understood the value of credit unions, and every time I had a job that offered one, I signed up.

$25.00/pay check isn't a lot of money, wasn't a lot more back in 1969 when I signed up to have that amount taken from every paycheck. But it added up. It still does.

Which can make it difficult to maintain if an income stream is lost

they let Elon Musk decimate Social Security, THEY won't be held accountable.

Fools.

Congress has to pass a budget. And they have to vote on Musk's cuts. And be held accountable at the polls in 2026.

hoping we'll forget by their next election.

Because I don't believe there will be elections, at least not free, fair, and legitimate elections.
Why would Trump allow Musk to do all he has done if he would get crucified in the '26 midterms by losing both the House and the Senate by huge impeachment and conviction margins?

rigged enough of the machines for us to lose every election.

and every County to have paper ballots! It may take some time to get final election results, but it's worth it.
Where I live, there are paper printouts of the vote, but even then, if it's going though a machine I wouldn't trust it.
We do have paper ballots that are read by the voting machines.

Hopefully this will help make elections Muskproof.

at least until Trump/Musk are gone and maybe forever. We just can't protect machines if we can't even protect our tax returns and social security. At least we'll know if the checks don't come. if the votes aren't counted, we'll never know.

This is typical in a fascist regime to make people more docile and compliant.

And yes, cutting SS and Medicare is a real possibility.
Trump is very cruel and he and the billionaires want the SS fund for themselves.

Also it is consistent with their philosophy that the old and sick are useless eaters.
We make no money for the billionaires, so why feed us?

They did not do it alone.

We provided an educated, responsible workforce.

We paid taxes to provide transportation, local safety and security, police, fire, etc.
A stable country where they were free to make as much money as they wanted.

US taxpayers provided the entire infrastructure for them to get rich.

for their businesses and stock holdings. SS is good for the economy.

These guys just see the tax breaks and don't understand where their wealth came from in the first place. Proof that having money doesn't make you smart.

The American taxpayer and consumer made the billionaires what they are.
And they hate us and want to destroy us.

And yes, older people may have a bit more leeway in the budget with the kids
out of the house and on their own.

It was not until I retired that I did a few things for myself.

and if you take away SS we don't have it. What does loss of SS do to Senior buying power? What if we collectively have 50% less money and we are 20% of the population? That would be a 10% reduction in consumer spending. That doesn't count younger people and children affected by having someone in their household drawing SS.

When does anything that big happen to the economy? The repercussions would be huge.
This just isn't good for business.

Compared to allowing us to spend it.

They cut out the middleman.

and not for everybody. Because you won't have people paying into SS if the benefits have been stolen. The loss in business income will be long term, the cache they steal can only happen once. And fewer people will prosper from the stolen benefits than a healthy economy.
But thieves think short term--especially if they are old, and Republicans and Oligarchs chronically think short term so they want to cash in. That's why they can't consider climate change, or future generations.

I believe the billionaires know that climate change is real and will cause a great deal of damage and change in lifestyle.

They also see the fascist alliance coming to global power.

All of this cuts into their profits so I think they are raking it as fast as they can
before the shit hits the fan.

they remain mortals and they can't take it with them.

It is an addiction and it doesn't matter that they cannot take it with them.

They already have more money than they or their heirs can spend in a lifetime.

which was recently posted on DU.

The fact that it has gone so far as to be an illness cannot be over-emphasized.
It's not one faction's interests against another's.
There are no needs being met here for the billionaires. It is beyond nonsense that the richest man in the world wants to get richer.

We need to keep saying this.

do I get 2000 a month. I didn’t work for many years because of medical issues, so I get less than 800 a month.

Exactly why they are doing this.

I imagine that when the checks really stop that we will see an avalanche of confirmation by posters here. I don't believe I've seen one here that could be attributed to Musk's actions.
With 71 million getting SS, there must be many each month who don't receive theirs for one reason or another.

I just heard yesterday that my city's SSA office has closed--a western Wisconsin city of 50,000.

Let's not assume it's going to really happen.
We must stop it from happening.

...if SS is cut, but I also hear that TSF ordered his admin to prepare the way for invoking the Insurrection Act and initiating martial law. That would give him the ability to crush any resistance quickly.

My anxiety level is off the charts. Without SS we'll likely lose our house.

Riots of course are not the solution but even peaceful demonstrations risk giving Trump an excuse.
We must overwhelmingly win the media battle on SS and other cuts and threatened cuts. People aren't for these things unless they are misinformed. That's why Bernie is making the rounds and Rachel is on every night. Of course we need to do more.

Already our Intelligence experts are upset at being suddenly forced to withdraw help to Ukraine after 10 years of dedicated help.
Rachel questioned whether the armed people letting DOGE into the lates federal agency were really US Marshalls. If not, I wonder if they couldn't get actual marshalls to do the job.

Soldiers have family on SS. They won't like to see their ranks purged by Musk and AI.
They need to understand that anything Trump orders them to do is illegal and against the wishes of the people.
No one signs up to serve the country and then attack it.

And the fact that many are worried about their financial security, and whether their check will show up is abusive.

The way we are all living right now - waiting for the next hit on our institutions and our sense of stability, also feels abusive.

I'm in a couple Facebook groups where I've noticed the retirees are checking in with each other on this each month.

It's horrible and I bring it up to my useless congresspeople whenever I call or write on the topic of SS.

Useless R Rep's recent reply claims Dems "lied" about SS and Medicaid and Medicare being endangered. *eyeroll*

And know the agenda and philosophy of the Techno Fascists who are in charge of the government.

Your fears are legitimate people and don't let people gaslight you on the right, or left (or DU for that. Matter) and tell you they are not.

The key question is what do we do with that fear and information.

did back when the parties worked together sometimes. The cap hasn't even been raised to keep up with inflation, of course it can't keep up.

15% on all of his income. He won’t miss one meal.

to cover the damage he has wrought

was going to do something about illegal immigrant crooks.

If I don't get it I will not say what I will do. paid into it off and on since 1984. It is a promise.

While I have a non federal defined benefit pension lined up SS is the proverbial icing on the retirement cake. I will not give up said icing without a serious fight.

Plus I have several relatives that have no real retirement other than SS so they need it more than we do. IE serious fight.

The most money, the most victims. We have to fight the lies about corruption and insolvency. People need to understand there is something to lose. Especially young people who feel the cost of paying in but don't understand how much they'll need it someday.

Long before Trump I met young people who complained that SS wouldn't be there for them when they were old. SS is easy to fix but people don't know it. We have to educate them. And we have to expose Elon's lies.