When leaders or parties in nations with free media spoke half-truths, they were exposed, and the public reacted strongly against it; not so any more in the US
It is not unusual for political leaders worldwide to paint their administrations in a positive light while criticising the opposition parties and their leaders as incompetent. Arguments are made to persuade people to believe their own viewpoint.
This is especially seen during elections but it goes on all the time. In this give and take between those in power and the opposition, one principle was observed by both sides in the past: no political leader or party took any liberty with facts. This was especially so in countries with a free media because if a leader or a party did not adhere to facts and truth, they were soon exposed.
If the leaders or parties spoke half-truths, they were exposed and the full facts were brought to the attention of the public. The public reacted strongly against false statements and half-truths, and the reputation of leaders and parties was tarnished. This situation has now changed.
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This was vividly seen during President Donald Trump’s address to a Joint Session of the US Congress on March 4.
Bombastic assertion
Trump claimed that there was massive fraud going on in the US government during his predecessor Joe Biden’s administration. As an example, he gave the example of Social Security payments being made to very old persons. It is best to quote what he said on this in full.
Trump said: “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…3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 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 are searching right now… 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, it hurts 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.
"Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229. One person between the age of 240 and 249 — and one person is listed at 360 years of age. More than 100 years — more than 100 years older than our country.”
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Trump and truth
If these numbers are added up, it comes to 20.47 million Americans are over the age of 100. This is naturally not true.
If Elon Musk — currently entrusted with making the US government more efficient and rooting out fraud — has discovered that the Social Security administration of the US registers not only contain this number but that payments are actually being made to them, then he has unearthed what is truly a great fraud. It also shows that the US audit authority is completely incompetent.
Any auditor would seek to first ascertain if the problem lies with the record keeping of the US Social Security Administration (SSA), which has not removed these persons from its records, or if actual payments have been made to them. And, if payments have been made, then what is the amount. None of this comes through in what Trump alleged.
Anti-Biden
Indeed, a responsible leader would seek to ascertain these figures and facts before speaking about them before the highest forum of his country.
This is more so in the case of an American leader because what he says is immediately flashed to the entire world. Fraud and such incompetence would only show the US system in a bad light. It would bring no credit to the world’s most powerful country’s administration.
Obviously, Trump was not concerned with the reputation of the US. He is focused on tarnishing the image of the Democratic Party and of Biden, whom he has called the most incompetent US President ever.
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Claims and realities
So, what are the facts regarding the allegations made by Trump on the number of old Americans in the country’s Social Security system?
A prominent US newspaper which is respected all over the world reported that the US audit authorities had pulled up the SSA in 2023 for not recording deaths properly. Consequently, there are 18.9 million persons in its records who are shown to have been born before 1920 — currently aged over 100.
US census figures of 2021 show that there were 86,000 persons living in the US who were 100 years or older.
Suppressing audit findings
Thus, there is an obvious and great inefficiency in the SSA record keeping. The question is: how much money was paid to these 18.9 million persons who were 100 years or older in the SSA records?
The newspaper reported that 44,000 persons were getting paid social security. It also reported that over the period 2015-22, the SSA made improper payments amounting to $71.8 billion. That is an enormous figure but it constitutes only 0.84 per cent of the total SSA disbursements of $8.6 trillion made over the same period.
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The conclusion that emerges is that what Trump highlighted is the number of persons in the SSA records whose names should have been deleted on their deaths. He did not disclose that the audit authorities had, during the Biden administration, asked the SSA to take corrective action. More importantly he did not reveal that the improper payments were less than 1 per cent of the total disbursements made.
Naturally, in an ideal administration, no improper payment should be made and those who commit fraud should be prosecuted. But it is a fact that some minimal leakages take place even in the most advanced administrative systems.
Trump’s agenda
Perhaps the US SSA can follow the Indian government pension system which seeks an annual life certificate from pensioners to prevent any fraud and is thereby also able to correct its records.
The fact is that no one in the US really challenged Trump for suggesting falsehood and suppressing the full truth. This is because the world is now living in the age of ‘alternative truths’! And, in this age of the social media with the public attention spans getting more and more limited, no one cares to go into details to ascertain the truth.
Leaders like Trump exploit these tendencies of the present age and promote their agendas, often based on half-truths, falsehoods, sensationalism and divisiveness.
(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the articles are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal)
