Turns Out, Trump Is Touching Social Security

 

The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts because the servers were overloaded. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones at the front desk as receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. But the agency no longer has a system to monitor customers’ experience with these services, because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.

And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.

--WashPost, "Social Security Is Breaking Down" 

Musk's DOGE has pushed out more than 12 percent of the SSA staff of 57,000. No wonder phones go unanswered. (I've personally been on hold for more than an hour at a time; leaving a call-back request took more than 3 hours, but it did come, and the woman who helped me was super helpful. I said at the end of our business, "I know you guys are under incredible duress and strain in your job--" She laughed "yeah!" Musk and Trump don't deserve her or any of the other good people summarily fired.)

Social Security is the primary source of income for about 40 percent of older Americans. The agency has been underfunded and understaffed for years already, before Musk brought his chainsaw to the party. Following COVID and even right now, review of an initial claim for two disability programs takes 233 days on average. Musk makes it worse. Ten regional Social Security offices have been slashed to four.

"DOGE's obsession with false claims that millions of deceased people were fraudulently receiving benefits consumed [them] at first. Then came new mandates designed to address alleged fraud: Direct deposit transactions and identity authentication that affect almost everyone receiving benefits will no longer be able to be done by phone. Customers with computers will be directed to go through the process online — and those without computers, to wait in line at their local field office." If they can find one within a day's drive.

This is recent polling: