I listened to much of President Trump’s 99-minute speech to
a joint session of Congress last night. One section was particularly
interesting to me, since it claimed there was widespread payment fraud.
“Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million
Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6
million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people
that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from
ages 120 to 129. 2.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people
from ages 140 to 149, and money is being paid to many of them, and we’re
searching right now.
In fact, Pam, good luck, good luck. You’re going to find it.
But a lot of money is paid out to people, because it just keeps getting paid
and paid, and nobody does, and it really hurts Social Security and our country.
1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to
the social security databases, are age over 160 years old. We have a healthier
country than I thought, Bobby.
Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220
and 229, and one person between the age of 240 to 249 and one person is listed
at 360 years of age – more than 100 years, more than 100 years more than our
country. But we’re going to find out where the money is going, and it’s not
going to be pretty, by slashing all of the fraud, waste and theft. And theft we
can find. We will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car
payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors and put more money in the
pockets of American families.”
Today I checked to see if his numbers made any sense. They
do not - they're a fairy tale. Those numbers came from a post by Elon Musk, shown above with ages over
120 highlighted in yellow. (There are a total of 12,428,110). Two weeks ago there was a brief YouTube video at Fox
News misleadingly titled Over 11 million Americans are collecting Social
Security between the ages of 120 and 160. It’s misleading since at the very end
it revealed that no payments really were made to those over 115 years old, as
is indicated on a web page from the Social Security Program Operations
Management System (POMS) that says this automatic stoppage has been going on since
back in September of 2015. An article by Kinsey Crowley at USA Today on February
19, 2025 titled ‘Vampires’ in Social Security data? Here’s what to know after
Elon Musk claims SSA fraud makes the same observation.
Any competent speechwriter would have edited out that lie.
