What do we HONESTLY BELIEVE the reaction will be if Musk shuts down SS payments for 73,000,000 Americans?

[Miles Archer]

We have paid $18.2 million for Trump to take 3-day golf weekends on six of his seven weeks in office. We also paid $20 million to send him to the Super Bowl, and $5 million to send him to Daytona, so $43.2 million in 7 weeks for someone who is SUPPOSED to receive an ANNUAL salary of $400K.

IF the SS system collapses, how many of the 73,000,000 million receiving EARNED benefits can simply shrug off "delayed" payments, especially since we have NO IDEA how long the delay would be?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-social-security-cuts-could-put-millions-of-older-americans-at-risk

[spanone]

1. K&R

[creon]

2. I have no idea

I suspect, but cannot prove, there will not be much of s reaction.

[WiVoter]

12. Not Be Much Of A Reaction?

Ok.

[MiHale]

34. Really?

[MarineCombatEngineer]

43. Are you fricken serious?

There would be massive outcry and protests across the country.

[Rebl2]

54. You would

see a lot of seniors not able to pay their bills, go to the doctor, buy medication, buy groceries etc. I believe it would collapse the economy. I hate president musk so much.

[usaf-vet]

70. AND KILL EVERY SENIOR WHO LOSES THEIR SS CHECK. This is the goal: the more that die, the more $$$ to pillage.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

74. And a lot of them would be those who voted for Been A Dick Donald who thought that his

policies wouldn't affect them because they voted for the criminal.
Bunch of fucking idiots.

[OldBaldy1701E]

78. Yup. (n/t)

[bdamomma]

131. Damn straight

There will be hell to pay!!!!

[kacekwl]

55. Are you kidding ?

Not to mention the economic impact this would have the people and I'm one of them will not and can not accept this. Revolt will be severe.

[Rebl2]

58. Seriously

[ChazInAz]

61. Are you kidding?

My SS deposit was a week late this month. Anxious times.
If it happens again, there are going to be unpaid utility bills, and I'll be bankrupted by medical bills.
Cancer treatments are expensive, and doctors don't work for free.

[alcuno]

69. I'm going to agree with you - it's the boiled frog thing.

I feel like Americans have so accepted the degradation of belief in government that it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You say that government is bad and incompetent and wasteful for decades and people continually have lower and lower expectations.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

76. Sad that you actually believe that there wouldn't be a massive outcry from the public.

Especially from the MAGAt's who depend on their SS payments.

[alcuno]

123. Of course I could be wrong

but I kind of think Americans have been conditioned to expect being screwed over and to fight with each other over scraps. Hopefully we won't even have to deal with it.

[pattyloutwo]

128. Look at everything they have accepted and still voted for him

I hope that would be the last straw, but the brainwashing runs deep

[ProfessorGAC]

83. Boiled Frog?

That's a silly metaphor.
The impact of seniors, dependent on the SS checks will not be gradual. It will be immediate.
Most recipients will notice the effect in 1-3 days.

[yardwork]

73. Um, no.

If 73 million people don't get their SS checks one month, there will be one hell of a reaction.

[berksdem]

80. What?!

[uponit7771]

87. ... at first, a couple of weeks for protest a month for riots

[creon]

121. Maybe

I am probably "outside the loop".
All that I know are either apathetic or faithful GOP.

[Volaris]

111. I disagree. Grandma will walk down and set the county courthouse on fire.

THAT will be the nationwide response, in a nutshell.
But, it won't be for Elon to make that call. The GOP will end up shutting it all down anyway because they can't count, and the payments will stop by memorial weekend at the latest.

So, there's that.

[orangecrush]

112. I guarantee

You will change your mind on that.

[creon]

119. If there is

GOP people are pretty accepting of whatever Trump does.

Others might react.
But, I have no faith in GOP people.

[Cha]

124. You're WRONG

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

142. Well.put, Cha! Just imagine the effect. It's not like most SS

recipients have loads of savings to make up for the suddenly missing income! I'm no economist, but I know if people can't afford to pay their bills most will drastically cut back on spending.

[Cha]

143. I'll be out on the Street and so will many

more. I bet even the Cult will Revolt against having their checks, that they paid into their whole Working lives, taken away.




Dark n Stormy Knight

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

144. You have the makings of a new bumper sticker/meme, Cha!

"Time for the cult to revolt!"

[Cha]

145. We Need Miracles, Stormy! And, I'm UP for

That!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

146. I am so with you!!!

[hlthe2b]

6. The sarcasm emoticon is here and available for a reason. Kindly use it...

Unless you agree with the MAGA take on the situation.

[Miles Archer]

8. And that IS the MAGA talking point.

I took it as sarcasm, but not knowing the individual who posted it, all bets are off.

[elocs]

27. Sadly, sarcasm too often goes over the heads of those who need to get it the most.

The often needed requirement to label or warn that it is sarcasm pretty much ruins it as a form of wit, especially these days.

[hlthe2b]

35. Kindly explain then to us (apparently) dumb DUERS how THAT is funny, witty, or anything else...

Good gawd, elocs. Really?

Millions will suffer. How damned funny. (do you get THAT sarcasm?)

[William769]

46. The jury got it.

[William769]

22. My reaction is the same as yours.

I'm very good at detecting sarcasm It gets thrown at me all day long. This one, I can't tell.

[Emile]

25. Wow 😲

[Orrex]

4. The MAGAts among those 73M will blame Democrats and DEI

And they'll scrape pennies out of their crumbling sofas to send Trump another contribution.

[NoMoreRepugs]

5. When seniors can't pay for food, rent or meds and that affects their children - if they have any - coupled with the

crippling of the VA and Medicare cuts tossing out millions of retirement home residents I’m thinking even dumbfuck Americans will notice.

[Texin]

101. Oh, I think if that happens and the offspring of parents affected end up having to bring Mom, Dad, Grandpa, Uncle

Will and or Aunt Mabel home with them and them wind up on the couch or taking one of of their children's bedrooms over, there'll be a helluva a reaction. Think about the elderly (or just retired but active folks) who live in assisted living or in retirement communities where they are using SSI to pay for their housing (even if it's just a portion) who will be forced to the curb because they no longer have the means to pay. If they don't have a family member to provide them assistance, they'll be just one of the unhomed people living in this country. Never mind thinking about their medical care/costs and food, etc.

[bamagal62]

108. I have 3 family members...

2 mothers and a sibling, that if they lose their social security, I’ll have to pick up the slack somehow. All 3 would not physically be able to protest. But, you bet I’ll be in the streets for sure.

[cayugafalls]

7. I'll be taking the truck to DC..

I am sure there will be plenty of people to meet up with once I get there…

SYATB

[LiberalArkie]

9. Kind of like the Bonus Army in 1932..

I personally would not have the means to go as I would have already starved to death as SS is my only means of support. Luckily I will have starved before I was evicted for non payment.

[appalachiablue]

45. Hang in there and glad you mentioned the Bonus Army. We really could use

an updated, well done documentary on this significant protest event and period in US history, pronto.

[Luz]

40. Me too. Plan B is to get arrested on fed charges.

Federal penitentiary is better than living under the freeway begging for scraps of food. I'm to old for that. Take my SS? Take care of me for the rest of my life.

[LiberalArkie]

57. You know, not a bad idea.. My kin came over to BCA in 1532 from England. I wonder if they would deport me?

But then my moms side came from Normandy for the little Battle of Hastings.. Maybe France then.

[Texin]

103. I guess that's one option.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Certainly not obedient acceptance

[Abstractartist]

11. My speculation

My speculation is Musk and anyone who is working with him while shutting down Social Security would be advised not to walk down any street at anytime. One thing could happen, the 19 year old computer hacks would meet a difficult situation that may just make them quit. I know SS is mainly for seniors, but grandma has some grandkids that don’t want to see her suffer. This is just my speculation. I hope I never see SS cut or eliminated, but I always come back to the young man and the dead United Healthcare CEO….and the amount of support the young guy is getting. People in this country have had it with the shit they are witnessing.

[Miles Archer]

17. What I can't get past is that hurting 72,000,000 Americans in ONE SHOT is pretty damned unprecedented.

Last edited Sun Mar 9, 2025, 09:17 AM - Edit history (1)

3000 Americans died in the wake of 9/11.

Americans died of COVID.

But the DISEASE AT PLAY here is Elon Musk. It is a DELIBERATE and INTENTIONAL assault on 72,000,000 Americans.

I think the lid will blow off the pot. I think this is one of the main reasons why Trump has expressed an interest in weaponizing the Military as his own personal "police force."

[Wiz Imp]

28. Um, 104 millions Americans did NOT die of COVID

That would have represented between 1/4 & 1/3 of the entire population of the US.

[Miles Archer]

41. I did a Google search and obviously had a bad source...

...so I edited it to say simply "Americans died of COVID."

Thanks for pointing it out.

[Wiz Imp]

48. It appears the actual number of Americans who died of COVID was around 1.2 million

The 104 million figure may have referred to confirmed cases of COVID, though the total number of cases was likely even significantly higher than that.

[MineralMan]

30. You might want to check those Covid death numbers.

Not even close.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

33. Uhhh, I don't think 104 million Americans have died of Covid.

More like one million.

[Miles Archer]

42. Please see my reply above. I got a bad source on a Google search and edited my comment. n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

127. This is what I advocate, to publish the names of every one of these doge asshats constantly, make sure that they

don't get a moment of peace, hound them forever, make sure that they can't get jobs, etc., since they're so interested in taking away grandma, grandpa's, others S. security so quickly.

[miyazaki]

13. Smoke and ashes. Not just a great song by Tracy Chapman.

The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.

[JI7]

14. Even right now aren't Teslas and charging stations being destroyed ?

[Miles Archer]

20. They are, but I assume protesters would get closer to the source

I don't think the image of Musk, deep in his K-hole, prancing around with a chainsaw and giggling as he yelled "I SCREWED YOU" would bode well for his comings and goings in public.

[JanMichael]

15. Americans are soft. In other countries you might see wheelchair barricades

Not here.

[elocs]

16. If they steal Social Security from me it will take a few months but I'll be homeless.

Sadly, we appear to have feckless Democratic leadership.
My hope is like a drop of water on a hot summer sidewalk--rapidly disappearing.

[Miles Archer]

24. I literally cannot work. I had cancer surgery last October.

I'm not going to divulge the details but suffice it to say that "full recovery" can take up to a year or longer.

I cannot go out and get a full time job, and in this town, it's minimum wage for hard manual labor. We do not have a multitude of "office jobs" here.

[elocs]

52. I'm sorry to hear that. Fortunately for me, I am in good physical shape, maybe better than

20 years ago and not by accident. So I can find a job if there are jobs to be found.

[bobhuntsman]

18. There will be violence.

[Ferryboat]

37. Without a doubt

Someone will decide they have nothing left to lose. Make a clumsy attempt at assassination of a political figure.

[kacekwl]

64. A lot of clumsy attempts will

result in many lucky outcomes.

[Frasier Balzov]

117. And those who stand in the way

risk becoming collateral damage.

[DinahMoeHum]

94. He/she only has to be lucky ONCE

Their targets have to be lucky 100 PERCENT. They'll be looking over their shoulders for a very long time.

[Comrade Citizen]

19. If they need money, magats will just use their guns to rob everyone. nt

[LuckyCharms]

21. We won't even have to think about having a reaction.

Because the economy will react for us.

The economy will crash completely. It will be situation FUBAR.

Social Security funds received do not get saved, they get spent.

Rents will not get paid. Mortgages will not get paid. Food will not be purchased. Utilities will not get paid.

All of this means that businesses will suffer and the stock market will crash.

The economic fallout will do our bidding.

[Miles Archer]

26. I keep a "cushion" of about $100 a month for emergencies.

Other than that, I spend every penny, and on the day I receive my benefits, that "saved $100" gets spent immediately.

I was thinking about utilities companies turning off electricity for non-payment, and if they did that, they'd have to do it for 72,000,000 customers. They would HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE what Musk had done, HAVE to acknowledge that it was NOT negligence on the part of their customers. Or not. I don't know. I hope we don't have to find out.

[LuckyCharms]

32. I do the same. Direct deposit hits in the early morning hours.

I awaken at about 600AM, have a coffee, sit at my desk, pay my bills, and the money is completely spent that day.

Social Security is not my only income source, but it is used to pay every major bill for the month. My other income source simply pays off credit cards, and nothing else.

[ms liberty]

50. This is the answer

Particularly with all the other crap - layoffs, tariffs, measles, bird flu.

[uponit7771]

88. Absolutely, people who still trust Putins Puppet will wait for a fix but the economy wont

[Justice matters.]

118. This. AND Putler will celebrate his long-term plan's VICTORY.

[allegorical oracle]

122. So true. Millions of people will affect the economy. Maybe as much as the pandemic did. What

concerns me is that TSF won't give a damn. Elon may succeed in convincing the Repugs that SS is a ponizi scheme.

[Buns_of_Fire]

23. Eloon the Nazi will immediately increase his bodyguard staff by at least 10-fold.

And demand the government pay for it.

[Miles Archer]

29. He "reportedly" is already wearing a Kevlar vest...

...and keeps his son propped up on his shoulders as a human shield.

[Aviation Pro]

65. Do you think his whelp

Would be protection against anyone who has completely broken bad?

Remember Brock.

[NotHardly]

91. A decent sniper could get it done w/o harming the boy. Just say'in.

[kacekwl]

68. Won't be enough.

Elon , trump and others better get used to being a recluse.

[lark]

31. Oh,I think there will be hell to pay!

A lot of us seniors grew up in the 70's and marched against the wars - especially Vietnam. I think we will yell and scream and call lawyers and head to the streets to scream out our anger. The rich won't care, it won't affect them, but working class old folks could be severely impacted and not able to survive without THEIR money!

It will effectively end elections because the can't let all the old people vote against the Rfascists - and they would!

[Miles Archer]

36. And 72,000,000 people won't be buying anything

So on the surface, yes...rich people won't care... but rich people who own businesses that sell things to working class people, poor people, and seniors will eventually HAVE to care. They can't just shrug that off.

[Wiz Imp]

60. I'm not trying to pick on you, but I thought your points are stronger if your numbers

are put into context. Of the 72 million SS recipients, about 40% rely on SS as their ONLY source of income (still an extremely high number). According to a recent survey, approximately 77% of current retirees depend on SS to pay at least part of their necessary expenses. So about 20% could probably get along without their SS benefits, but they shouldn't have to because they EARNED those benefits.

[BoRaGard]

38. $20 million so Krasnov (R - Felon) could go to the Super Bowl?

WTF? And repubicons call themselves "conservatives" - what utter bullshit

[Miles Archer]

44. Breaking down what Trump's Super Bowl trip cost taxpayers

Breaking down what Trump's Super Bowl trip cost taxpayers

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/02/12/trump-super-bowl-cost-taxpayers/

On Feb. 9, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl. Amid the new administration's focus on government spending, people online jumped to calculate exactly how much this trip cost American taxpayers. Snopes received dozens of requests to look into the matter, with many claiming that the excursion cost anywhere from $4 million to $20 million.

[wishstar]

39. Rampages against offices with understaffed and overwhelmed SS employees

while Repub Congress critters will be spending more time in DC hiding from their local constituents

The prime targets will be the remaining Federal employees struggling to carry out their duties. Even over 30 years ago the SSA offices had to have security guards on duty every day because of threats and attempts to ram the buildings with vehicles from disgruntled claimants or recipients whose disability claims were denied or who were missing their payments.

[littlemissmartypants]

75. Some of those...

Social Security offices are on the list for closure or have already been closed.

https://doge.gov/savings

Scroll down to see the list...

Real Estate
Displaying 748 lease terminations totaling 9,587,384 square feet and ~$468M in lease savings.

[wishstar]

84. More than I realized including Greenville NC, Franklin NC and Roanoke Rapids NC

Surprised Hendersonville NC not on list yet being so close to Asheville but it's home to Repub Congressman for entire WNC district.

But closings might be for offices whose leases are coming up sooner. Many have 10 year leases such as Asheville where their lease probably doesn't come up for maybe 7 more years.

[QED]

109. I scrolled through the list - it's death by a thousand cuts.

[Norbert]

47. The economy will suffer and it will be broken

Seniors spend money and go grocery shopping. What if most of them are cut out of the picture. What about the over 50s that now need to put much more in their 401K.

[Silent Type]

49. Ain't gonna happen. Too many GOPers on SS, and their younger kids will protest having to pay for mom/grandma's care.

[Joinfortmill]

51. Mass protests, I'd say, and what follows won't be good.

[rubbersole]

100. There wouldn't be anyone able to repair the damage.

Government has always been the only way to enforce laws and the "fairness" our society has built. Money finally took over Government and Money is taking it all. Money is using phony "white grievance" to enforce/distract the citizens while they empty Ft Knox and debase the dollar. I doubt we have 3 months to stop them. I hope I'm delusional and worried for nothing. But I'm acting as if I'm right.

[Gary 50]

53. What would happen?

Trumps approval rating would fall from 48% to 45%. The rightwing media would tell the maga idiots it was Hillary, Biden and DEI that screwed them out of their social security.

[twodogsbarking]

56. Fires. I am betting on fires.

[Ocelot II]

59. The economy would collapse with a thud.

Total SS payments to retired people, disabled recipients and survivor benefits is $1.6 trillion per year. Those funds aren't saved, they're spent. https://www.ssa.gov/news/press/factsheets/basicfact-alt.pdf. That's an enormous amount of money that would no longer be injected into communities at the rate of $125.5 billion per month - for rent, food, all the basic stuff that SS recipients buy, and the loss of those funds would affect the entire economy. That's trickle-up economics, and the results would be bad for rich people, too.

[questionseverything]

129. Collapsing the economy is the goal

[paleotn]

62. Total pandemonium and an economic disaster of biblical proportions.

Outside of the human tragedy, imagine that amount of demand suddenly evaporating from the economy. We're talking a Covid style depression. You can't remove that much spend without massive unemployment and rioting in the streets.

[Kid Berwyn]

85. Exactly.

[Butterflylady]

63. The state of Florida....

Would turn the bluest of blue..

[Hogart]

66. SS

I believe that there will not be an immediate shutdown of SS payments. Musk is followwing the Trump strategy of weakening our institutions by lying and misleading Americans about the solvency of SS and exaggerating the prevalence of fraud within SS. All designed to cause people to distrust SS leading to a private takeover. They are stupid but I think they understand that the immediate shutdown of SS payments will not succeed.

[GenThePerservering]

140. I think, though that SS is too immediate to too many citizens

for that to work, as that's a longer game. The turbulence would be too great. A lot of people on SS don't have anything to lose.

[BBbats]

67. Could be the prelude to Martial Law.

If there are mass protests all it will take is one violent incident.
That could well be staged or started by provocateurs placed to start some illegal trouble. Of course it will be blamed on Liberals,ANTIFA,Leftists,etc. Ya know!.Whatever it is we will be blamed.
The Military will be called in to squash it. Remember(I've said this over & over) our Military is now being led by people who would sic it on a civilian population. Hegseth is just itching to do it!
Martial law declared.Who knows?
Maybe they'll start rounding up anyone who's a registered Democrat.

[Metaphorical]

81. That's my guess

Imposition of martial law, purging of Congress, removal of all judges who don't pledge a loyalty oath. internment camps for dissidents.

I think he'll try. I'm not sure he'll succeed.

[WhiteTara]

71. This will affect disability payments too

and many, many MAGAts are on disability and they will freak out.

[Jughead]

72. It will lead to......

Violence ya think?🧐

[Escape]

77. I am afraid...

there would be a lot of talk...and very little action.

So far, America has surrendered to everything Trump has done to the constitution and the country.

Old people carrying signs won't stop the pillaging.

[rso]

79. Social Security

Probably a national uprising hopefully supported by a substantial portion of the military.

[Ocelot II]

82. A lot of old people performatively trying to rob banks

so they can go to a federal prison where they can be housed and fed.

[hlthe2b]

107. Or sadly become a "suicide by cop" victim...

[the_liberal_grandpa]

86. I wouldn't want to be seen driving a Nazi Mobile that's for sure.

[patphil]

89. It's not just the people who receive these checks, it's all the businesses that their money gets spent on.

Things like rent, utilities, food, health care, automobile upkeep, clothing...it goes on and on.
Add to that all the fired Social Security workers and a similar impact from their loss of income, and you've got the makings of a recession.
This will cause our economy to grind to a halt. And I'm not even including all the losses that are about to be inflicted on people receiving medicare, medicaid, veterans benefits, etc, and the places that money would be spent.
Deep recession, diving toward depression.
This is a deliberate dismantling of the US economy.
I see this as a means of goading the citizenry into riots and violence, so Trump can declare marshal law, and call out the military to "restore order".
Exit our Constitutional Democratic Republic, and enter dictatorship.
Because of their inaction, I can only conclude that the Republicans in Congress are OK with this.

[DetlefK]

90. Blame Biden, Obama and Clinton.

Republicans are already pre-blaming Trump's tariff-recession, which will happen later this year, on Biden.

[Martin68]

92. It will be a genuine shitshow.

[Autumn]

93. People will get pissed and it will settle down. Americans have no interest in doing anything that is hard

They might get lucky and they will set up food stamps to help them out. Like during the pandemic. An 800 free check will sooth it over. The federal government at this time is really encouraging Americans eat rodents and other invasive species. Makes one go hummm . Of course the country will go into a depression. But I have no faith in half of this country. But there might be just cuts and if thats
the case Americans have been taught to accept that. Just like a yearly COLA raise goes to insurance companies and old people just roll witrh it. (yeah, I'm old too) . That seems to be what Republicans want.

Seriously. Who the fuck knows.

[CaptainTruth]

95. Pitchforks & torches.

[mackdaddy]

139. Todays world it is Glocks and AR-15s

I would not want to be a Republican representative or anyone in authority. There are supposedly 393 million guns in the US. This would get ugly fast.

This would trigger the second civil war. This would be an economic collapse that would make the last three republican crashes look like a bump in the road. And not just for those on SS, but every business that sells to the 71 million SS recipients.

As Donald the Dumb says "No one has ever seen anything like this."

[IronLionZion]

96. More likely it will be in stages

major slowing down of services for the offices and call center to frustrate people. Incorrectly removing plenty of people from the system as "fraud, waste, and abuse". This administration loves to antagonize and enrage people to sow distrust in government services.

Then they'll respond with insults like "What if, what if, what if a bomb drops on your head?" type of nonsense like we saw with the question of what if Russia violates any peace agreement. It's what they do. They love it when people get mad. They don't give a F what your reaction is. They're evil laughing all the way to the bank.

[ancianita]

97. For their grandmas & elders, long haul truckers will blockade major highways to affect the economy, I believe.

But it will take more nationwide protests than we've seen to-date to make the Muskovite & felon restore SS.

Around the end of the first week of Maga protests, the Democratic Party caucuses should hold a press conference at the Capitol once a week until 2026, where they (different Democratic speaker each week) publicly announce that if they win the midterms, they will

1. Restore Medicaid funding;
2. Restore all lost Social Security deposits;
3. Restore all VA job cuts and back pay,
4. Restore all Medicare benefits.

Nothing else will matter for the midterms but voting to end their losses.

[hadEnuf]

98. I think a generalized national strike would be in order.

Trump and Musk can order the military in all they want. Let's see if they want to shoot down their own parents being thrown out into the streets due to no income.

Social Security is the third rail of politics. It is non-negotiable. If they touch it, fry them.

If this country bends over and let's these subhuman villains rob Social Security out from under us without a vicious fight then I'm not sure we deserve it.

Social Security MUST be the line in the sand.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

99. Spoken truth to power.

[melm00se]

102. Retirees

approximately 1/2 of retirees rely on SSI for 50% of their income and 1/4 of retirees rely on it for 90% of their income.

For all retirees, SSI makes up 30% of their household income.

Someone needs to remind Republicans about Jean-Jacques Rosseau and his social theory contract.

Trump is on the verge of breaking that contract.

[DFW]

104. Republicans are expert liars, so if, by any chance, they really do this......

They will set up something in its place. It will be more cumbersome, more costly, and it will exclude millions from benefits (which was the whole idea behind this whole theater in the first place), but not enough to start a full-scale voters revolution.

Fox Noise will be screaming in overtime about what a wonderful deal it is, and the Trumpanzees will eat it up. Of those who lose out, millions will say it's Biden's fault, and will take that belief to the grave.

The Republicans will crunch their numbers, and make sure that benefits get "restored" to just enough people that they will suffer no long-term consequences. Justin Trudeau saw though Trump's "21 day breather tariff postponement," and said, "how nice, we'll just leave our retaliatory tariffs in place for that period, in case he changes his mind AGAIN."

If 73 million Americans don't see immediately that declaring a trade war on Canada over nothing is a very stupid thing to do, then they won't see that starving and being thrown out in the street is bad, either.

Moderately rich Republicans, on the other hand, have seen their own numbers, and know that the old saying is true: "If you want to live like a Republican, vote for a Democrat."

[JohnSJ]

105. If that happens the reality is that the country would go into an immediate recession/depression. The millions who live

from hand to mouth couldn't pay their rent/mortgage, food, energy etc.

The whole economy would collapse overnight.

Instead of a "trickle down" effect, it would very quickly impact the middle class, and complete chaos would follow.

While I suspect the economic implosion would cause them to reverse course quickly, the damage done would linger on until they could restore the Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security System back to what it was.

It is much easier to destroy something then to bring it back once it is destroyed.

[Fil1957]

106. When people have nothing left to lose,

they will do almost anything to change their situation. Civil unrest in some form or another would be likely. Things could get very ugly very quickly.

[Bayard]

110. Geezers in the streets!

And I'll be one of them. Martial law? Bring it! How many members of the military will be gunning down their parents/grandparents? We can stage our own version of Jan. 6 on the White House.

Like a lot of us, I don't have much left in my bank account a few days before the next SS payment is deposited.

[NameAlreadyTaken]

113. They will blame Democrats, of course

Their media outlets will instruct them to blame Democrats, using some twisted fallacy.

Trump can never, ever, ever do anything wrong, in their eyes.

[Uncle Joe]

114. Major protests/strikes and if it's not immediately resolved,

probably another Great Depression and poverty, starvation with increasing violence and most likely riots.

Followed by Martial Law, with *rump going full dictatorship, and forming an alliance with Putin and Russia's oligarchs.

Followed by a collapse of world order and increased potential for World War III.

Thanks for the thread Miles Archer

[AnnaLee]

115. From the DOGE table, I get

so far, SSA savings is about $66M or .062% of the total DOGE.
if I assume (from internet search) half of 59,000 employees making an average of $106,302 are eliminated or about $3.1B, then total savings as known and planned would be about $3.2B or 0.8% of the tax cuts for the rich needed $406B.

($406B comes from Penn Warton at U.Penn: Effects of Permanently Extending ...
The workforce numbers come from the Pew Center:
What the data says about federal workers)

I did this quickly with a lot of copy/paste into Excel and no double check. Perhap someone more patient could duplicate and double check and update with better numbers if I am far off and/or they have better numbers.

[ecstatic]

116. I think magasses would finally wake up

I saw a YouTube video where a guy was talking about elon and trump's attempts to shut down the CFPB and what it would mean for consumers. There were actually dumbass magats in the comments either defending elon or insisting (without evidence) that it wasn't true.

They're not going to wake up until the shit actually hits them. Then and only then will they venture outside of their right wing media bubbles and attempt to access real news.

[BlueTsunami2018]

120. MAGAts will support it.

Everyone else will be outraged.

Nothing will be done about it.

[liberalla]

125. But Magats need their SS check too! Most aren't wealthy and don't have reserve dollars to live off of...

They are waiting for that check every month too!

They're watching the calendar for when it will be deposited... waiting for it so they can pay bills and buy groceries.
The stoppage of SS payments will hurt everyone of every political affiliation!

[BlueTsunami2018]

126. I don't disagree, but they'll be talked into supporting it almost instantly.

This is a true cult.

I’ve seen it time and time again. Asshole does something, I get the immediate reaction from the MAGAts I talk to and they’ll have an opinion that doesn’t toe the party line. An hour or two later, they’re right on board with it.

These people will starve and die for the asshole.

[liberalla]

133. I still don't agree. My experience is they are fine with *other* people getting hurt, but

when they, themselves feel the pain? Suddenly they have a problem with it!

Hopefully we won't have to find out.

[kimbutgar]

130. I purposely avoid food shopping on the first few days of a month

Anxious seniors shopping and trying to stretch their money. Walking in aisles slowly checking every detail of items they purchase. If they cut these people off the outcry will be furious ! And also near the end of the month. I have encountered some seniors who are so stretching their money they have to put something back because they don’t have enough money. I sometimes will pay for that extra item they had to put back.

This will affect red and blue states. And magaloons will be affected and have to help their family members with their own money! Grandma and Grandpa will end up moving into the magaloons homes.Multigenerational living situations will deteriorate by mid month!

[IzzaNuDay]

132. Grandpa "Luigi" might have something to say

Oh shoot!

[haele]

134. Honestly? Confusion at first.

The Media will try to whitewash it at first - "Temporary pain while the Government tries to get rid of all the Liberal Fraud" and non-*rump cultists will start lawyering up. *Rump cultists and other GOP fans will basically have a deer in the headlights look - "there must be a mistake - I earned my Soshul Security"...for a good week or two.
Blue states will start scrambling to backstop needed services, if they haven't already.
Red states will shrug and say "wait for the fraud to be fixed."
15 days after no payments, there will start to be a cascade collapse; some elderly services(nursing homes) might attempt to keep things going throughout a four week period but corporate ownership (especially pharmacy and medical services like dialysis) will basically tell any beneficiary "f-you, gimme the money you're contracted to before I'll give you what you need."
After 20 days, the Media and Federal Government can't avoid it anymore. At best, the eviction notices will start going out. At worse, people will have started dying - starvation or lack of medication.
After the first month, Medicare scammers, pharmaceutical and medical services companies will start talking to the government about maybe starting payments back up.
That's what the general public will probably see.
Those personally affected (SS beneficiaries and their survivors) however, are going to be seriously pissed by the end of the month. Who knows what happens when we get to the Hooverville/Bonus Army stage?
Tech Bros will probably call out the Warthogs. If they can find any pilots willing to take on civilians that might include kin of friends or co-workers, if not their own.

[Meowmee]

135. I hope it will be 73 m and more shutting down the country and pouring into the streets etc.

[99MainSt]

136. The disinformation will be off the charts.

Of course they'll stall and obfuscate. They'll blame it on the Democrats. Then they'll blame it on Canada. And they'll spin it every which way to Sunday. Then they'll partially re-fund the Social Security Administration and hire some of the employees back and then fire them again. They'll divide White against Black, brother against sister and blame it on immigrants from south of the border. They'll sow confusion to the utmost maximum.

They may even get the Proud Boys after their chosen scapegoat group. And meanwhile, Social Security will be gone. We live in "interesting" times.

[Thunderbeast]

137. You ain't gonna take our draw!

?si=8qy7Bj9taiUW1q66

[CousinIT]

141. The MAGAts will blame Democrats. MAGAt voters like my shockingly ignorant relatives will believe & repeat it. Nt