Taking a shot at a questioner whom she said was being “brainwashed by the news that you’re watching,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reiterated her support for the work of DOGE under Elon Musk‘s leadership and doubled-down unambiguously on her pledge that “we are not cutting Social Security, we are not cutting Medicare.”
[NOTE: In the remarks she shared below, Rep. Greene did not mention Medicaid as being immune from future cuts, though in captioning the video the Congresswoman did namecheck Medicaid as a service being safe-guarded by Musk’s DOGE oversight, writing: “DOGE protects benefits like Medicare, Medicaid, & Social Security from criminals who STEAL taxpayer dollars!”
“There’s nothing more important we can do for you as Americans to protect your Social Security than get ride of the criminals that are stealing it.”
Your benefits are safe. DOGE has found over 9.9 million people wrongfully drawing social security. DOGE protects benefits like… pic.twitter.com/W1GM1n0Oxu
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
(@RepMTG) April 17, 2025
Greene’s contention that DOGE is rooting out “waste and fraud” from Social Security — and the data she uses to make the claim — is both celebrated and questioned in the comments, even by MAGA adherents. If all the fraud claimed was actually discovered, people ask, where are the arrests and prosecutions?
Soooo who is going to put all that stolen money back in social security, how many have been arrested???@realDonaldTrump @AGPamBondi @FBIDirectorKash
— Doug Tomczak (@dougpueblo) April 18, 2025
Another commenter, who applauds Greene, says “America still wants five bullet points of what you did.”
That suspicion of real progress is emphasized in the response below, by a self-professed Greene fan, who believes “theatrical politics” is what’s being delivered.
I adore you and everyone who’s brought this to light, however…. If we don’t see arrests, I think
just theatrical politics. There’s a money trail for each one!
— Pfizer Stole My American
Another commenter, less enamored of Greene, wonders if the GOP pledge to protect Social Security has already been jeopardized by compromising the agency that administers it, and by Musk’s public characterization of the program as a “Ponzi scheme.”
Oh sure, Marjorie, nothing more important than “protecting” Social Security… by laying off thousands of SSA workers, shutting down field offices, and crashing the damn website. That’s not saving it, that’s gutting it from the inside while folks can’t even get through to fix…
— Human
(@4HumanUnity) April 17, 2025
Still, Social Security and Medicare benefits, which Greene mentions aloud, look less likely — at least immediately — to see the level of disruption that Medicaid, which she does not mention, may face in light of recent developments in Congress.
Greene helped House Speaker Mike Johnson narrowly get approval on the recent Senate budget resolution, which passed with a razor thin 216-214 margin and fiscal hawk Republicans Thomas Massie (KY) and Victoria Spartz (IN) joining Democrats in voting against it.
The broad outline of that budget charges the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which administers Medicaid, with finding $880 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, money that can only come — most budget experts attest — from cuts to Medicaid.
The Medicaid disruption threat is prominent enough that a number of GOP congress members, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), have alerted Johnson of the need to treat Medicare with kid gloves.
The Hill reports that Scalise is one of a dozen MAGA lawmakers who sent a letter to Johnson addressing their concerns and saying “We cannot and will not support a final reconciliation bill that includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.”
That language is notable in that it does not appear to require a cease and desist on all Medicaid cuts, only a prohibition on cuts that impact “vulnerable populations” — a term that can be defined loosely, with exceptions and targets potentially being carved out along political lines.
Even while demanding those protections, the group recognized “reform” as a part of Medicaid’s future: “We acknowledge that we must reform Medicaid so that it is a strong and long-lasting program for years to come.”
NOTE: Health care research firm KFF reports that “Medicaid provides a major source of funding for the U.S. health care system, covering 19% of all health care spending and 19% of hospital spending” and over half of all spending for U.S. adults in long-term care. The program covers 39% of U.S. children.
In 2025, a KFF survey also found that “more than three-fourths (77%) of Americans held favorable views of Medicaid, including six in ten Republicans (63%), and at least eight in ten independents (81%) and Democrats (87%) (Figure 10). Medicaid is also viewed favorably by a majority of voters who say they voted for President Trump in the 2024 election (62%).”
Greene backed up her pledge that no cuts would hit Medicare or Social Security boldly by invoking President Trump’s promises on the campaign trail, as well as her own, saying: “This is a promise from President Trump and Republicans like myself on the campaign trail and we will live up to that promise.”