President Donald Trump and co-President Elon Musk’s cuts to the Social Safety Administration’s workforce and operations have induced huge issues for the favored social security web program that 73 million People rely on to afford their fundamental price of residing.
The Washington Put up printed a bombshell report on Tuesday, detailing the issues Musk has induced on the Social Safety Administration by means of his so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity.
From the report:
The Social Safety Administration web site crashed 4 occasions in 10 days this month, blocking thousands and thousands of retirees and disabled People from logging in to their on-line accounts as a result of the servers have been overloaded. Within the discipline, workplace managers have resorted to answering telephones on the entrance desk as receptionists as a result of so many workers have been pushed out. However the company not has a system to watch prospects’ expertise with these companies, as a result of that workplace was eradicated as a part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.
[…]
The turmoil is leaving many retirees, disabled claimants and authorized immigrants who want Social Safety playing cards with much less entry or shut out of the system altogether, in response to these acquainted with the issues.
The issues are because of a myriad of selections Musk has made to how the company runs.
The Social Safety Administration plans to chop roughly 7,000 workers—or 12% of its workforce—which present and former Social Safety officers say may make it unattainable for this system to maintain up with the wants of the tens of thousands and thousands of People who obtain and apply for advantages yearly.
“Everything they have done so far is breaking the agency’s ability to serve the public,” Martin O’Malley, who served as Social Safety commissioner beneath former President Joe Biden, instructed The New York Instances.
Musk and his DOGE bros additionally modified the way in which recipients can confirm their identities to the company, nixing the power to take action over the cellphone and requiring the aged and disabled individuals who obtain advantages to do it both on-line or in-person. That’s an unbelievable burden for a inhabitants that’s not as laptop literate as others. It may additionally burden recipients who reside in rural areas or areas with poor web entry. Stepping into individual can be much more of a burden since many aged and disabled recipients can’t journey to workplaces—if they may even get an appointment.
Demonstrators collect exterior of the Edward A. Garmatz United States District Courthouse in Baltimore, on March 14, 2025, earlier than a listening to concerning the Division of Authorities Effectivity’s entry to Social Safety information.
Musk has had it out for Social Safety since his buddy Trump put him accountable for discovering waste, fraud, and abuse within the federal authorities.
Musk criticized the social security web program as a “Ponzi scheme.” He lied that this system is rife with fraud—lies which have led eligible individuals to lose advantages. He additionally helped drive out the appearing Social Safety administrator and change him Leland Dudek, an unqualified hothead who has acted vindictively since taking on.
For instance, Dudek canceled a contract that allowed new mother and father in Maine to use for Social Safety numbers for his or her new child infants on the hospital—a transfer that will have compelled these mother and father to journey to a Social Safety workplace to acquire. He seemingly did it to punish Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat who stood as much as Trump at a gathering with governors.
Dudek additionally threatened to close your complete Social Safety Administration down as a result of he was mad {that a} choose blocked DOGE officers from accessing People’ delicate private data as they sought to show Musk’s baseless lies that the company is rife with fraud.
Musk isn’t the one Trump administration official attacking Social Safety.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick disparaged this system and accused anybody who has had issues receiving advantages as being “fraudsters.”
“As an instance Social Safety did not ship out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she would not name and complain. She simply would not. She thinks one thing obtained tousled and he or she’ll get it subsequent month. A fraudster at all times makes the loudest noise screaming, yelling, and complaining. And all the fellows who did PayPal, like Elon is aware of this by coronary heart, proper? Anyone who’s been within the cost system and the method system is aware of the best option to discover the fraudster is to cease funds and hear,” Lutnick—who’s a billionaire and will simply guarantee his mother-in-law wouldn’t face monetary spoil if her Social Safety examine went lacking—stated on a podcast.
Musk’s assaults on the overwhelmingly standard social security web program goes in opposition to Trump’s declare that he would defend Social Safety if elected.
And breaking Social Safety is politically moronic. It is without doubt one of the hottest packages within the nation.
Eighty-seven % of People ages 25 and older imagine that Social Safety must be a precedence for the nation, no matter governmental funds deficits, in response to an October 2023 ballot from Greenwald Analysis for the Nationwide Institute on Retirement Safety, a nonpartisan analysis group. And a newer ballot, carried out by Related Press-NORC Middle for Public Affairs Analysis, discovered that 67% of People believed the federal government spends too little on Social Safety. Solely 6% stated an excessive amount of is spent on this system.
What’s extra, older voters who obtain Social Safety advantages are among the many most dependable voting blocs within the nation. Which means a backlash from these voters may sink Republicans possibilities within the 2026 midterm elections. In 2024, Trump gained voters ages 65 and older by simply 1 share level, in response to exit polls, so even a modest backlash from that voting group may closely injury Republicans subsequent November.
And the indicators that the backlash is coming are already exhibiting up. Older voters are packing into Republican lawmakers’ city halls to demand they stand as much as Musk’s DOGE cuts.
Thanks to the Each day Kos neighborhood who continues to struggle so arduous with Each day Kos. Your reader help means the whole lot. We’ll proceed to have you ever lined and maintain you knowledgeable, so please donate simply $3 to assist help the work we do.
