Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) exploded over Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency during his remarks on Wednesday to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Larson, who was red-faced during a discussion of bills relating to the House receiving information about DOGE’s access to Treasury Department Payment Systems and Social Security Administration systems, shouted to his Republican coworkers, “You are going to do what Elon Musk or Donald Trump say you will.”
“Where’s the independence of the committee? Where’s the legislature? We’re an equal branch of government,” an enraged Larson yelled. “Look at the empty seats here. Where’s Elon Musk?”
Larson stated, “I am sure that he is a genius. He’s also a person of great credibility because of his wealth. But this does not exempt him from the law and the obligation to appear before the committee or Congress.” Why is he not here to explain it? If he was so great and that all of the frauds and abuses he discovered were so obvious, then why wouldn’t he be here to explain them?”
He wants to privatize Social Security. The last two days, he has been talking about Social Security and Medicare, and his plans to privatize them. “Some of the Americans may have been born last night, but not all.”
Fox News Digital received a response from the White House on Thursday.
Harrison Fields, principal deputy White House press secretary, said: “The Democrats don’t have a plan to recover from this embarrassing defeat. It shows.”
It’s not illegal to cut waste, fraud, and abuse, and become better stewards for the hard-earned money of American taxpayers.
Democrats criticized Musk’s comments on eliminating fraud and waste in entitlement programs, which Musk said accounted for the majority of federal expenditure.
He said that there was a large amount of fraud involving people who submitted Social Security Numbers for Social Security Benefits, Unemployment, Small Business Administration Loans, and Medical Care. We’re working to stop all that.”
Musk said that federal entitlements programs are “a way for the Democrats to attract and retain immigrants, by paying them to arrive here and turning them into citizens.”
According to the White House, fraud costs taxpayers $521 billion per year, and most of it is in entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
Musk said, in an interview on a podcast with Joe Rogan, that last month, “Social Security was the biggest Ponzi Scheme of all Time,” another comment that Larson found offensive.
Larson says the Trump administration is trying to “slash” and privatize Americans’ benefits. He claimed that Musk and the White House were spreading “big lies” about a Democratic scheme “to lure illegal immigrants to the United States by paying them Social Security.” Larson said, “There is not one thread of truth in any of this.”
“Yet, this person is not accountable — not an employee of the federal government, nor a volunteer, but someone who has not been approved by the Senate and to whom this committee now says, ‘Yes we agree with President.’ He shouldn’t be held accountable. He should have the freedom to do what he pleases. “We will follow his lead and do what he tells us because, as the richest man on earth, he surely knows how to save the rest of humanity from themselves,” Larson stated.
Larson said Social Security “just happens to be the No. 1 anti-poverty program for the elderly and for the children of this country,” adding that Musk and Trump “aren’t going to lose a moment’s sleep thinking about the privatization.”
Larson said that Republicans were trying to prevent the resolution from being put to vote. The congressman, along with all Democrats on his committee, introduced a Resolution to force DOGE to answer questions about their intentions regarding Social Security.