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We know – those who’ve not been hiding in caves - the last few
weeks have been the most destabilizing for Social Security in its 90-year
history. And while the nation’s historic
retirement security program has survived world wars, pandemics, and recessions
it may not survive Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
In this case in the guise of their DOGE pestilence.
Recall, in mid-February, Musk demanded access to private
Social Security data. When the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security
Administration (SSA) declined, Trump immediately replaced her. He then leapfrogged
over 120 more senior employees to install a DOGE sympathizer, Leland Dudek.
Now, here's a 'data point' that I suspect points to negative DOGE influence on the system and its accounting. Just a guess, I still can't prove it. When I checked our February Social Security payment in our Wells Fargo account, it was spot on correct - to the last cent. Janice's totals and mine added to the correct amount.
Fast forward two days ago, I checked the March payment and lo and behold it was nearly $5,000 MORE than what we should have received. A significant overpayment. I blame the incompetent Dogesters for somehow mucking things up and introducing this error. Why?
Dudek is reportedly planning to lay off at least 15
percent of SSA’s already understaffed, overworked workforce. SSA staff
were also sent a message on February 27 telling them the
organization will soon undergo an “agency-wide organizational restructuring”
and incentivizing them to resign rather than get fired.
Trump and Musk also instructed the government to terminate the
leases on SSA’s over 1,200 field offices, which are critical for the agency’s
public-facing work. Social Security field offices, like our post offices, are
in every community. They’re there to help us when it’s our turn to access our
benefits.
Don't believe there's a connection between this ham-fisted handling of the SSA workforce and the overpayment we saw in March? I DO!
Worse, as one Substack blogger noted, while retirement benefits are less complicated to administer, they’re not safe either. People who are accidentally over- or under-paid will have a far harder time correcting the error given the shortage of competent staff. Which is exactly what concerns me. (Also, the planned layoffs are so destabilizing that many seniors may see a disruption in their monthly payments.)
Technically, those overpaid must await a written letter from the SSA to that effect, and then have 30 days to repay the excess. But if SSA is now so understaffed how do we know anyone is even keeping track of overpayments, far less trace them to their source? It has all the portents of a shitshow - and we're not even talking yet about how this tax season (and refunds) will be upended, given the DOGE firings at the IRS.
Nobody voted for this, let's be crystal clear. During the presidential election, Donald Trump blanketed swing states with campaign flyers pledging that he wouldn’t touch Social Security. Make no mistake the orange Russkie plant has broken that promise.
As the Substack blogger noted, Dotard - in his inflated overlong lie fest March 4th - lied about this extremely efficiently run program. Worse, he’s given Musk - who recently slandered Social Security by calling it a criminal “Ponzi scheme,”- the power to destroy it. Who knows? A series of inept overpayments to millions may be the first 'shots over the bow' - then claiming "4 million already dead 119 year olds" are being paid. When it is actually witless overpayments to normal beneficiaries.
Remember, no matter what Musk bellows, SSA’s budget comes out of the Social Security trust funds, not
general government revenue. That means that when Americans pay into Social
Security with every paycheck, they’re also paying for high-quality customer
service.
That’s exactly what we would get — if
Congress allowed SSA to spend just a few percentage points more of its $2.7
trillion surplus to hire and adequately train staff, open new field offices,
and get wait times down. Instead, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are planning to
utterly demolish Social Security’s customer service to pay for billionaire tax
cuts.
It isn’t too late to stop this disaster. Everyone should call
their members of Congress. Tell them that cuts to the Social Security
Administration are cuts to Social Security. Tell them that you value your local
Social Security field office.
Oh and tell them to not use the massive DOGE rollback of SSA staff, to have an excuse to cut benefits because of accounting errors - like overpayments- which are an inevitable result of under staffing and overwork.
See Also:
Social Security Issues Update on Trump's Dead Recipient Claims
And:
Former Social Security official describes hostile takeover by Musk team
And:
by Thom Hartmann | March 7, 2025 - 6:13am | permalink
Tuesday night, Donald Trump stood before the nation and, with the full backing of billionaires like Elon Musk, laid the groundwork for the biggest heist in American history — the rapid, systematic destruction of Social Security, disguised as “reform.”
We saw the formal announcement of it during Trump’s State of the Union address, and the DOGE announcement earlier in the week that 7,000 employees at Social Security are to be immediately laid off — with as many as half of all Social Security employees (an additional 30,000 people) — soon to be on the chopping block.
Republicans and their morbidly rich donors have hated Social Security ever since it was first created in 1935. They’ve called it everything from communism to socialism to a Ponzi scheme.
In fact, it has been the most successful anti-poverty program in the history of America, one now emulated by virtually every democracy in the world.
And:
Donald Trumpyby Heather Digby Parton | March 6, 2025 - 6:35am | permalink
If you were one of those people who have given up on the news since the election and decided to watch last night's presidential speech before a joint session of Congress (a State of the Union address in all but name) you had to come away a little bit shell-shocked by what you heard. President Donald Trump delivered what felt like an interminable litany of his alleged accomplishments over the course of an hour and 40 minutes that would make anyone's hair stand on end if they hadn't heard it all before.
To set the stage, you would have had to know that the congressional Democrats have been hand-wringing for days over how they were going to handle the speech, seeing as Trump has been systematically dismantling the federal government, destroying the economy and discarding the existing world order. It just seemed wrong to behave as if this is business as usual despite the trappings of a normal State of the Union address. (In fact, one representative, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, stood silently holding a sign that said "this is not normal" until a Republican ripped it from her hands and tore it up as Donald Trump walked down the aisle to the podium.) In the end, many decided not to attend while others wore matching pink clothing, held up signs that said "false" or "save Medicaid." Some walked out at different times during the speech after Congressman Al Green of Texas yelled out and was forcibly removed. (Interesting that the same rule was not applied to Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert when they mercilessly heckled Joe Biden.)
Trump noticed that none of them would stand or applaud:
And:
by Carl Gibson | March 4, 2025 - 6:53am | permalink
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is now confirming that it plans to lay off 7,000 workers as President Donald Trump's administration proceeds with its mass firings of federal employees.
CNBC reported that while the SSA won't be laying off 50% of its workforce as it previously suggested, it's aiming to reduce its number of employees from 57,000 to 50,000. While the agency won't be gutted by the firings, Greg Senden— a paralegal analyst who worked at the SSA for 27 years — said it's likely the layoffs will harm beneficiaries.
"It's going to extend the amount of time that it takes for them to have their claim processed," said Senden, who helps the American Federation of Government Employees administer Social Security benefits to its retirees in six states. "It's going to extend the amount of time that they have to wait to get benefits.
The SSA, which is now led by acting commissioner Leland Dudek, said it aims to achieve most of its layoffs through offering early retirement to longtime employees and voluntary reassignments. It also hunted at "reduction-in-force actions that could include abolishment of organizations and positions."
And:
by Robert Reich | March 6, 2025 - 6:17am | permalink
— from Robert Reich's Substack
Friends,
I remain optimistic about the longer term, but I still awaken each morning with a sense of dread. I’m sure some of you do, too.
Start with Elon Musk’s bonkers comment that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
In a Ponzi scheme, a con artist lures investors into a fake investment project, pockets the cash, and then gets new “investors” to funnel their cash to the earlier investors — until there are no new recruits and the whole thing collapses. The last ones in are suckers left holding worthless bags.
Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It’s a high-functioning, universal, and exceptionally efficient part of the American social safety net — the opposite of a Ponzi scheme. Which is why the overwhelming majority of Americans oppose cutting it.
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