ICYMI: Larson Discusses Push to End Elon Musk’s ‘DOGE’ Conflicts of Interest and Attacks on Social Security

Washington, D.C. – This week, Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) joined the SiriusXM Michelangelo Signorile Show to discuss Elon Musk and DOGE’s access to millions of Americans’ sensitive personal information and his attacks on Social Security. 

“Our radar has been up from the very beginning about this,” said Larson. “When Elon Musk is going to go look for ‘fraud, abuse, and waste,’ and when you look at the federal budget, you got to understand—I know you do and I think your listeners will as well—that 70% of that budget is made up with three primary entities: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and national defense. These have become his targets.”    

Well, what we’ve done is submit the [Ending DOGE Conflicts Act] that would basically say this: unless you disclose your financial information like the other 29,000 federal employees have to do, then you can not proceed with your job. It’s that straightforward and that simple,” Larson continued.   

Rep. Larson’s Ending DOGE Conflicts Actwould require Elon Musk, who is currently serving as a ‘Special Government Employee’ while also controlling companies with billions of dollars in government contracts, to file a public financial disclosure and face review for his potential conflicts of interest by the independent Office of Government Ethics.   

The full transcript of the interview is below. You can also listen to the interview HERE. 

Michelangelo Signorile: You know, we’ve all been talking about Social Security — 

Rep. Larson: Yes, we should be.  

Signorile: And what Elon Musk, and his — 

Larson: Minions?  

Signorile: Yes, those people who he has working for him are doing in terms of the Social Security Administration. Tell us what you know, and what you’re thinking about what they’re doing and how legal it is.  

Larson: Well, let’s start with the fact that it’s illegal—not that this seems to prevent the Trump Administration from looking into anyone’s personal data or information or records. That, first and foremost, a.) that it’s illegal and b.) why are they looking at it? Supposedly, under the auspices that [Elon Musk’s] responsible for finding fraud, abuse, and waste. Now, that’s what needs to be debunked from the outset.   

Following your show, I know that you know this. But as your listeners may recall, the Trump legacy is all based on the fact that in 2017, they provided a two trillion-dollar tax cut where 70% of that tax cut went to the nation’s wealthiest 1%. It was unpaid for and contributed to, at that time, the largest singular amount of money to our national debt.  

Now Trump is campaigning on saying that he is going to restore that. A lot of people don’t realize that this benefit sunsets in 2025, a.k.a this year. It’s no coincidence that he’s charged Elon Musk with coming up with two trillion dollars, which is the equivalent of that tax cut, 70% of which goes to the nation’s wealthiest 1%, a.k.a billionaires like Musk and Trump.  

Our radar has been up from the very beginning about this. When he's going to go look for “fraud, abuse, and waste,” and when you look at the federal budget, you got to understand—I know you do and I think your listeners will as well—that 70% of that budget is made up with three primary entities: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and national defense. These have become his targets.   

Just last week they came out with something that has been debunked by everyone, that people who are 150 years old are still receiving Social Security benefits. Trump went on for a good five minutes about how this is why this is important. No. What’s important and what everyone has to understand is that they’re trying to justify this tax cut. They’re trying to find two trillion dollars and are looking directly at your and mine and everyone else’s Social Security so that the billionaire class can benefit.  

Because, as you know Michelangelo, won’t this all trickle down to us at this point? Won’t we be the better benefactors for this?  

Americans may have been born at night, but not last night. They get this. That’s why it’s vitally important that we bring this out and debunk these myths that he’s putting out there and make sure that the American people understand what the truth is.  

Signorile: Yeah, this thing about the 150-year-olds... I’m speaking with a reporter from WIRED who has explained that these people who are actually going through the Social Security Administration. They don’t even understand the coding and don’t know what they’re even looking at it. None of that is true. They keep saying they’ve found all this fraud. We don’t know what it is they’ve found.  

Now what they’re talking about, to get to your point about trickling down — that they want to give people back 20% of what they find in fraud. Send people checks. What do you make of that?   

They haven’t told us what they’ve actually found. Now they’re saying they’re actually going to give money back when the whole idea was that they wanted to bring the deficit down. None of it makes sense.  

Larson: You notice how they very rarely talk about the deficit. Again, I go back to where I started, their interest is about themselves. His legacy is the 2017 tax cut. He boasted about then, during the last campaign, and now — that he’s going to restore that. It’s no mystery that he’s given that number for Elon Musk to find.   

As you point out, I thought they were going to do that, so we can deal with the national debt.   

Important to know about Social Security, as well, is that it is a separate trust fund that has nothing to do with the national debt!  

Signorile: Right.  

Larson: Here again, what they’re just doing is looking for monies that they can provide. I think they’re dangling something out there like “We’re going to give this back!” so that people will say, “Wait a minute, why are you concerned about them looking into Social Security and Medicare if there is fraud and abuse?” I do a lot of town halls and etc. I said, “Everybody should be focused on fraud and abuse.”  

In fact, the Republicans and Democrats have gone back and forth over Inspector Generals over the last decade about this. Ironically, Trump has fired the Inspector Generals, including the Inspector General of Social Security. By the way, Michelangelo, do you know what the [Inspector General of Social Security] was looking at? They were looking at all those people making $400,000 and why they haven’t paid anything, or nothing, into the program.   

So, hmm, wow they’re fired!   

People could make out like bandits if Trump just said, “I’ll tell you what: we’ll give you a percentage of what we find there!” But I don’t think you're going to see that happen.  

Signorile: You introduced a bill to ensure transparency and stop the conflicts of interest, with regard to Elon Musk. Again, we don’t know what they’re doing. You introduced this bill. A lot of Democrats have signed on to it. Talk a little about it and what Republicans are saying.  

Larson: Sure, well thank you for bringing that up. Primarily because there is no accountability.   

When you bring this up in town halls and address people, when they understand that: number one, Elon Musk did not have to go through any kind of Senate confirmation, number two, he is not even regarded as a federal employee, number three, he is not even regarded as a volunteer!  

He is a Special [Government Employee]. Not to anyone's surprise, a Special {Government Employee] is something that is legal and that presidents can do this. Asking special help from someone with no pay. However, they had a 90-day window. Well, President Trump has said that they will decide what that window is.   

Also, as we all know, Elon Musk has contracts already with the federal government including Tesla and SpaceX which amount to billions of dollars. Which, in and of itself, should be a red flag and a conflict.   

Yet Trump reasserted again last week, that he has confidence in Elon Musk and hopes he pursues this even further.  

Well, what we’ve done is submit the [Ending DOGE Conflicts Act] that would basically say this: unless you disclose your financial information like the other 29,000 federal employees have to do, then you can not proceed with your job. It’s that straightforward and that simple.   

He should have to disclose his financial information. I think that would be, everybody would like to have a set of eyes on that, so you can better appreciate and understanding why it is that he’s going after all this data and information. Why does he need that?  

There's nobody who is ever going to quibble with the idea that we shouldn’t be all concerned about any kind of fraud and waste in government. But why do you need people’s banking data and information and details about them and everything about them as an individual, especially as it relates to their finances.   

I think Americans are greatly concerned about that and that’s why we want the disclosure. We hope we can find, as you know we have 215 Democrats who will vote for this, 3 Republicans that are willing to say yeah: “You should have to disclose your financial interests when you’re dealing with the government’s three main budgetary concerns: Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, and Defense.”  

Signorile: Well, let’s hope that people are going to continue to go to these town halls and pressure Republicans. I appreciate your coming on and talking about this and giving people insight and clarity. Congressman Larson, thanks so much for joining us.  

Larson: My pleasure. Look forward to coming back, Michelangelo. Keep up the good work.