Democrats believe they’ve found a political message that is resonating with the public: Elon Musk is illegally accessing the federal data of American taxpayers.
At outdoor rallies and in news conferences inside the Capitol this week, congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm about Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team accessing Treasury Department payment systems that contain Americans’ sensitive personal data. This week, DOGE officials also accessed systems and technology at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, as Musk’s team seeks to tackle fraud and waste in government.
“Why does Elon Musk and his minions need access to the names, Social Security numbers, addresses, birth dates and bank account information of millions of Americans,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., asked at a news conference today. “Why does he need that information? What are they doing with it? And why aren’t House Republicans stopping them?”
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“The actions that Musk and his IT goons have taken — they’re illegal, very clearly illegal, but, so far, unprosecuted actions — have already compromised millions of Americans’ privacy and data security,” Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., said at the same news conference. “If we close this barn door today, how much is already burned down? We don’t know the answers to those questions.”
Casten and Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., a Treasury official during the Obama administration, said they will introduce the Taxpayer Data Protection Act, which would severely restrict who could access the Treasury Department’s payments systems in a bid to protect Americans’ sensitive personal information.
Hours later, Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee held a separate news conference, where they raised concerns about Musk’s team accessing Social Security and health records.
“What is more important than health records? If an individual goes to a pharmacy, to the CVS or to Walgreens, they’re very guarded about the prescription that they might secure. That is their business,” said Rep. Richard Neal, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee. “We have no idea now where this data might land.”
Musk today tweeted a video of himself from last fall detailing how he would tackle waste, fraud and abuse in the government.
“We’re going to make the spending lower … if we don’t, we’re going to bankrupt the country,” Musk said in the video from October. We got to do something. It’s got to be some pretty big moves.”
Last night, the Trump administration agreed to put restrictions on DOGE accessing the Treasury payment system as a lawsuit, filed by federal employee unions, moves through the courts. The deal would allow only two DOGE officials to have “read-only” access to data at Treasury.
Casten said he worries that Musk and DOGE will use Americans’ data to punish Trump’s critics.
“What am I afraid of is that they are going to use data that they are legally not allowed to use to act as a bully. So what does that mean for my home state of Illinois, where our Gov. Pritzker has been very forceful in calling him out. If they take control of the stop payments, does Illinois all of a sudden not get their Medicaid reimbursement money?” Casten told reporters.
He added: “What might they do to someone who’s on a fixed income but had the strength of their convictions” to criticize Trump?
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