America’s historic retirement security program has survived world wars, pandemics, and recessions. But without a rapid course correction, it may not survive Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
In mid-February, Musk demanded access to private Social Security data. When the Acting Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) declined, President Donald Trump immediately replaced her. He leapfrogged over 120 more senior employees to install a DOGE sympathizer, Leland Dudek.
Dudek is reportedly planning to lay off at least 15 percent of SSA’s already understaffed, overworked workforce. SSA staff were 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 have 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.
They’ve also ordered all workers to return to the office. But where are those workers supposed to go if their offices are closed? That only makes sense if the ultimate plan is not just to fire the currently reported 7,000 workers from SSA, but everyone!
Many of SSA’s most senior employees, including five of eight regional commissioners, have left. This is causing an enormous brain drain. Together, they represent a huge loss of critical institutional knowledge. Collectively, those employees had almost 1,000 years of institutional knowledge and skills.
SSA was already severely underfunded and understaffed before all of this. The DOGE bloodbath could lead to its collapse.
Most at immediate risk are those applying for disability benefits. Already, large numbers of disabled workers find themselves homeless, and a staggering 30,000 Americans die every year while waiting to receive their earned benefits. Now that number is likely to rise significantly.
Retirement benefits are less complicated to administer, but they’re not safe either. People who are accidentally over- or under-paid will have a far harder time correcting the error. And the planned layoffs are so destabilizing that seniors may even see a disruption in their monthly payments.
Furthermore, Americans will have a terrible time reaching SSA if they have questions, need to change their bank accounts, or have other issues. Moreover, grieving families may have trouble getting the survivor benefits their loved ones have earned for them. Relying on a website or worse, an AI chatbot, won’t cut it.
Nobody voted for this. During the presidential election, Donald Trump blanketed swing states with campaign flyers pledging that he wouldn’t touch Social Security. Make no mistake: Trump has broken that promise.
In his March 4 address before Congress, Trump lied about this extremely efficiently run program. Worse, he’s given Elon Musk, who recently slandered Social Security by calling it a criminal “Ponzi scheme,” the power to destroy it.
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.
Tell them to represent the people they serve by making Elon Musk and Donald Trump keep their hands off our earned benefits.
Nancy Altman is the President of Social Security Works. This op-ed was distributed by OtherWords.org.
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rayfusco68
Very good article. The simple solution to funding Social Security is to remove FICA cap on earnings. Doing this will provide 1.3 Trillion dollars in new revenue for Social Security. SS will not need that much so the FICA rate can be reduced putting more money in worker take home pay and reducing employer costs also.
Sunday, March 16 Report this
Islandman
“extremely efficient agencies” do not have millions of beneficiaries over 115 years old listed in their system.
Musk and Trump are NOT eliminating or ending SS.
They are making it more viable by Cleaning out the waste, fraud, and abuse which permeates SS!
Sunday, March 16 Report this
ruthlawler
As a retiree who has paid into social security for over 55 years, myself and MILLIONS of taxpayers have participated in paying into this system. I now depend on my SS income for my living expenses, as it was designed and agreed to function. The answer is NOT to cut services and staff. We must have all taxpayers, including and especially the wealthy, support social security and increase the cap on what is paid by the higher income taxpayers. I have read extensively on Project 2025, follow the daily actions of this the administration and am horrified as program after program is slashed. 30% of those government employees terminated through DOGE actions, are military veterans. The terminations state, in most cases, due to "inadequate performance" without any proof or recourse. Slash and burn. Ruth Lawler
Sunday, March 16 Report this
pattybeenutty
The government needs to return the money it took from our funds.
Sunday, March 16 Report this
gatorheel
@islandman you need to read up on these so called "115 year olds" in the system. This claim was immediately disproven and proves how little the DOGE team understands. They can't even get the basic facts right.
Monday, March 17 Report this
hooker.nancy
I have never really liked the Social Security System as it has been and still is funded. Personally, I have received in benefits more that I paid in during the many years I was gainfully employed including what I could have made in a privately invested fund. To me it has always been a Ponzi scheme. There is no way in this world that you can pay into a fund that is not invested and earning a return and take out more than you put in. I have always advocated for those funds I was required to pay in to be properly invested. They have not been invested. Social Security and Medicare are going broke simply because our government continues to give us all inflation adjusted raises yearly without increasing our contribution. Without drastic changes, the drain on our tax dollars will continue.
Over the years, Congress has used benefit increases to gain favor at the polls. Franklin Roosevelt did not design this system to pay benefits for children whose wage-earning parent died, to give a widow the benefits of her spouse at his death, to pay disability payments when a worker becomes disabled. These unfunded benefits have been partially to blame for the losses Social Security is facing. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE or this country will go bankrupt and there will be no Social Security at all, no military to protect us, etc. No entity can survive paying out more than it takes in.
All that said, I do not like the method Trump is using. He is breaking so many laws and constantly defying authority and punishing those who oppose him with job losses for fictious reasons and no severance benefits. Trim the budget, clean up the fraud we all know has been there forever, but do it properly within the laws passed by Congress.
Monday, March 17 Report this