Tag: social security
MAGA Oligarchs Using 'Friction Theory' To Ruin Social Security

MAGA Oligarchs Using 'Friction Theory' To Ruin Social Security

Thomas Jefferson referred to the U.S. government as a "common house" that provided the people protection and stability. Donald Trump is trying to evict Americans from that comfy home by making it hard to get benefits that should be thought of as a right.

Witness the slashing of basic government services in the name of deficit reduction, or more accurately, paying for tax cuts. Elon Musk's rash firings are about more than saving taxpayers money on salaries and office rent. It's about frustrating Americans trying to obtain benefits to the point that they give up.

In economics, "friction theory" describes how governments (or other institutions) put into place unnecessary complexity, bureaucratic hurdles, or inefficiencies to discourage the public from accessing services. This can take the form of complex paperwork, or limited hours of operation to reduce demand.

It's no accident that Musk is cannibalizing the workforces that administer such benefits as Social Security and Medicaid. These are people we sometimes must talk to.

Trump started applying the friction theory in his first term to undermine the Affordable Care Act. Its purpose was to steer away the younger and healthy beneficiaries needed for a stable insurance pool.

He shortened the annual ACA enrollment period and slashed its advertising budget by 90%. He cut funding for the navigators who helped folks understand the ACA program and how to enroll in it.

He employed other means to dismantle the program. The tax cut legislation effectively repealed the "individual mandate" requiring most Americans to have health coverage or pay a penalty. By removing the penalty, fewer healthy people bought coverage. The result was higher ACA marketplace premiums to cover a riskier pool of beneficiaries.

Trump also expanded access to short-term plans that didn't have to meet basic ACA requirements, such as covering preexisting conditions. Many people opted for these cheaper plans, again leaving the ACA marketplaces burdened with a sicker population.

Unable to bankrupt the ACA, Trump then tried to kill the program outright and almost succeeded. Time to try again.

The ACA expanded access to Medicaid. Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint for a second Trump term, calls for stricter eligibility standards to decrease enrollment in Medicaid and place limits on lifetime benefits. What Project 2025 wants, Project 2025 seems to be getting.

As for the Social Security Administration, Musk's mass layoffs insert friction into the process of getting information about benefits or fixing problems. That has resulted in limited phone-based services and the shutting of local offices providing in-person assistance. The Social Security website has crashed four times in 10 days this month so far.

The MAGA slumlords now portray Social Security not as the earned benefit it is but as some kind of racket. Consider Musk's fake claims about armies of long-dead Americans still collecting benefits. And he calls Social Security a "Ponzi scheme."

Social Security faces financing challenges, but the benefits come out of taxes paid by the workers and their employers. What's not distributed to beneficiaries gets invested in securities backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.

Our new commerce secretary broke new ground in portraying those claiming a missed Social Security check or incorrect payment as likely criminals. I quote Howard Lutnick:

"A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining. ... The easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing."

Face it. The knives are out to destroy Americans' confidence in the government services that made their national house feel like home. The goal of the MAGA slumlords is to get the public to curse the program and, most importantly, go away. Frustration is their weapon.

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

How Trump Is Screwing Rural Seniors Who Elected Him

How Trump Is Screwing Rural Seniors Who Elected Him

Donald Trump’s administration is a disaster that is hurting Americans. While Democrats got punished at the polls for trying to improve people’s lives, victorious Republicans are rewarding voters by actively coming up with new and creative ways to hurt them.

Like, who the hell decided that senior citizens have it too easy?

“In an effort to limit fraudulent claims, the Social Security Administration will impose tighter identity-proofing measures — which will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with the agency over the phone,” the Associated Press reported. “Beginning March 31st, people will no longer be able to verify their identity to the SSA over the phone and those who cannot properly verify their identity over the agency’s ‘my Social Security’ online service, will be required to visit an agency field office in person to complete the verification process, agency leadership told reporters Tuesday.”

To add insult to injury, the Trump administration plans to slash the number of Social Security field offices.

Multibillionaire and Trump co-President Elon Musk, having promised trillions of dollars in government cuts through his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, has finally realized he can’t get there without gutting enormously popular entitlement programs like Medicaid and Social Security. After calling Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” Musk has claimed the program meant to keep senior citizens out of poverty is beset by fraud.

“Most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that’s like the big one to eliminate. That’s the sort of half trillion, maybe $600, $700 billion a year,” Musk told Larry Kudlow on Fox Business.

In reality, a 2024 Inspector General report found $72 billion in “improper payments” over eight years (between 2015-2022), or just $9 billion per year. That represents less than one percent of overall payments distributed during that time frame. If Trump really cared about rooting out that abuse, perhaps he shouldn’t have fired all the inspectors general as soon as he took office, as that was literally their job.

While this new in-person requirement will impact all seniors and people with disabilities who receive Social Security payments, it will disproportionately affect those in rural areas. Urban recipients can Uber or take public transportation to their local office. Rural Americans don’t have that convenience.

Take Maine, for instance.

“The Presque Isle field office, the only Social Security office in Aroostook County, is one of the locations that could close, forcing some Mainers to drive hours if they have trouble getting their benefits,” reported local TV station WMTW. “Many offices are already understaffed.”

Aroostook County is at the northernmost tip of Maine and covers 6,800 square miles with just 67,000 residents. It makes sense that the region was covered by an office in Presque Isle, population 8,800, as it is the largest city in the area. Trump won the county with 62 percent of the vote—almost exactly matching Trump’s rural national performance of 64 percent. Unfortunately, we don’t have exit polls combining age and area type, but generally speaking, older rural white people (and this county is 94.5 percent white) are heavily Republican.

Way at the other end of our country from Maine, ginormous Alaska will be relegated to three Social Security field offices. Meanwhile, Musk’s DOGE has already canceled leases on 47 offices—16 of them in red states, just two in blue states, and almost all in rural counties. And that’s likely just the beginning. (For example, the Presque Island office isn’t on that list.)

As with Medicaid, Trump’s latest policies are particularly cruel toward his own supporters. They voted for him to hurt other people, or because of the mistaken belief that Trump could lower grocery prices—and karma is biting them in the ass.

It’s quite remarkable that rural Americans voted for a candidate that promised to slash government waste, given how much they benefit from heavily subsidized rural broadband, nationalized mail service, federally funded health care, and government field offices like these Social Security locations. Now they’re finding out that running the federal government like a business means that they are the “waste” everyone was talking about. It turns out they aren’t as self-sufficient as they thought they were—and that serving these rural denizens is certainly not efficient, as far as Trump and Musk are concerned.

There were 71.6 million Americans on Social Security in 2023, and 5.8 million new additions to its rolls that year. The new edict requires all new beneficiaries, as well as anyone changing their direct deposit information, to visit a field office in person if they cannot verify their identity via an online portal—something that tech-challenged seniors will disproportionately struggle to accomplish. How exactly will the agency, already understaffed before the DOGE massacre, verify all of them in person while simultaneously facing additional staffing cuts of up to 50 percent?

Long wait times, long drives, massive inconveniences … it’s all good, though. They voted to own the libs, and mission accomplished! I’m sure these consequences will be more than worth it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Musk Vows Again To Slash Social Security By '$500 Billion' Per Year

Musk Vows Again To Slash Social Security By '$500 Billion' Per Year

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is now openly declaring his plan to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from earned benefits programs like Social Security and Medicare.

During a recent appearance on Fox Business, Musk told host Larry Kudlow that he remains committed to his goal of enacting steep cuts to Americans' retirement income and health insurance. He noted that "most federal spending is entitlements," which is a catch-all used to describe mandatory spending obligations like Social Security, Medicare and veterans' benefits.

"That's the big one to eliminate," Musk said. "That's, sort of, half trillion, six or seven hundred billion a year."

He also asserted without evidence that Democrats were enticing "illegal immigrants" to come across the border "by essentially paying them" Social Security money in exchange for their votes. This claim has been debunked, with Portland, Oregon NBC affiliate KGW reporting that "undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Social Security and Medicare benefits." The Social Security Administration (SSA) has stated that while some immigrants can receive benefits, they must prove a "lawful presence."

"This is why the Democrats are so upset about the situation," Musk said. "If we turn off this giant money magnet for illegal immigrants, then they will leave. And they will lose voters."

In response to Musk's comments, Alex Lawson — who is executive director of the advocacy group Social Security Works — slammed the South African centibillionaire's efforts to "destroy" Social Security. He added that if the tech magnate followed through on his promise, he would experience the "ferocity" of the American public.

"Our Social Security system is the opposite of everything Elon Musk is. It embodies the best of American values. It rewards hard work, playing by the rules, and delaying gratification," Lawson told AlterNet. "At its core, it is an intergenerational promise of empathy and understanding that we all do better when we all do better."

Musk's comments to Kudlow come just weeks after the CEO's address to the Conservative Political Action Conference. In February, Musk argued to NewsMax host Rob Schmitt, who interviewed him onstage, that Social Security was rife with hundreds of billions of dollars in "waste." He suggested that he may cut Social Security by roughly $500 billion per year.

"People ask how can you find waste in D.C., it's like being in a room and the wall, the roof and the floors are all targets," Musk said. "You can shoot in any direction. You can't miss."

President Donald Trump has empowered the world's richest man to cut spending across the board at multiple federal agencies as part of his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. When DOGE representatives went to the SSA, however, Michelle King —the Trump-appointed acting commissioner of the agency — was effectively forced out of her role when she refused to hand over sensitive data to DOGE employees. King was replaced by Leland Dudek, who the Washington Post reported had heaped praise on DOGE on his social media channels.

Elon Musk reiterated his intention to destroy programs like Social Security, which he has called a Ponzi scheme: "Most of the federal spending is entitlements... that’s the big one to eliminate."

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— More Perfect Union (@moreperfectunion.bsky.social) March 10, 2025 at 9:05 PM

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Leland Dudek

Trump's New Social Security Chief Blames DOGE For Massive Cuts And Chaos

Leland Dudek, the acting Social Security commissioner installed by President Donald Trump, reportedly admitted in a closed-door meeting that Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency is behind massive cuts planned at the vital agency.

The Washington Post reports that Dudek made the admission in a meeting held with advocates for the elderly and disabled, legal aides, and senior members of agency staff. According to a meeting participant’s notes, Dudek described DOGE as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs.”

Dudek said the billionaire Republican donor’s emissaries will “make mistakes” but pushed to give them access to the Social Security system that millions of Americans rely on.

Dudek was installed after former acting commissioner Michelle King resigned in February after refusing to give DOGE access to sensitive government data. By contrast, Dudek worked to give DOGE access to data even before getting his promotion.

Last week, the agency announced plans to cut 7,000 jobs despite ongoing staffing concerns and stretched resources affecting wait times and disability hearings.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who served as IRS commissioner under President Joe Biden, told CNBC on Monday that DOGE cuts could lead to a collapse of the Social Security system in one to three months.

“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits,” O’Malley said, and advised people to save funds immediately.

DOGE’s actions come as rhetoric from Trump and Musk has increased concerns that an attack on Social Security—which was signed into law in 1935 by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt—could be imminent.

During his speech to a joint address of Congress on Tuesday, Trump repeated a lie from DOGE that millions of Social Security payments are being made to people over 160 years old. The lie has been repeatedly debunked. In reality, the old computer system maintaining agency records inaccurately shows recipient ages, and virtually none of those people receive payments. But Trump’s rhetoric helps to undermine trust in the system.

Similarly, in an interview with conservative podcaster Joe Rogan, Musk repeated the longtime conservative lie that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.” Invoking such a fiction has often been used as an excuse to attack the system. Musk is the richest person in the world, and unlike most Americans, he has no need for Social Security savings. Killing the program would affect them, but he (and Trump) would be unscathed.

DOGE isn’t being welcomed with open arms throughout the government. On Wednesday, employees of the U.S. African Development Foundation blocked DOGE representatives from accessing their headquarters in Washington, D.C., even as DOGE employees tried to get into the agency’s data systems.

Following revelations of DOGE attacks on multiple systems and the bigoted beliefs of some on the DOGE team, disapproval of the organization has been rising. But the threat to foundational American institutions continues.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

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