One of our major social safety nets is in dire jeopardy.
When I retired from teaching a dozen years ago I was fortunate that a local Social Security office was right around the corner from where I lived.
A short walk and a short wait and I was able to talk to a real live person.
There was no trying to navigate some poorly designed web site. If I had questions, she provided immediate answers.
What was impressive about the woman was she seemed to be acting as my advocate rather than my adversary.
“I just want to make sure you get everything that is owed to you.” she told me.
It turned out that despite her best efforts there were federal laws that denied me everything I deserved.
That wasn’t her fault.
The last congress passed a repeal of those federal laws. It was signed by President Biden. My earned benefit and back pay was supposed to start soon.
But Trump and Musk had other plans.
Their attempt to destroy the federal bureaucracy has come to the Social Security Administration. Thousands of it’s most senior Social Security personnel are being fired.
Local offices like the one I went to are being shuttered.
They claim these actions are not cutting benefits.
But of course if there is nobody to run the agency, to advocate for retirees, to mail out the monthly checks, then whether benefits are cut or not is a distinction without a difference.
Government Executive reports:
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called Trump and Musk’s actions at SSA as akin to “taking a wrecking ball” to the agency and its services.
“Trump and Elon are now pushing all SSA employees out the door,” she said. “They are threatening them with future firings and forced reassignments while offering financial incentives to leave . . . 90% of the agency’s staff work across the country outside of headquarters at the over 1,200 field offices to make sure they’re available to help people in every part of the country. And the staff who are not providing direct service to Americans support the performance of critical work that keeps the agency and the Social Security system operational.”
But when asked by reporters about whether her caucus will demand protections in a deal to avert a government shutdown later this month, Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, demurred.
Senator Murray and the Democrats unwillingness to fight does not reflect the urgency of the situation.
Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA), said Monday the recent cuts made by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) at the agency could result in the “collapse” of the Social Security system “within the next 30 to 90 days.”
Appearing on the Joe Rogan podcast, Musk gave away what he and Trump are really up to.
This is not about cutting fraud, waste and abuse.
They want the Social Security to collapse and be replaced by some sort of privatized retirement system. Turn the whole thing into a 401K.