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Social Security

Recording Reveals Social Security Head’s Thoughts On DOGE And Trump

March 30, 2025 Eli Hager, Pro Publica. , , , ,
Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID, the Treasury Department and elsewhere.

Could Elon Musk Actually Destroy Social Security As We Know It?

March 25, 2025 Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org. , , ,
Why is Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, hyperventilating about Social Security? Why is he inventing unhinged tales about “fraudulent” hordes of Social Security grifters? Why is his “DOGE” chopping away staffers at the already understaffed Social Security Administration? Let’s start with the political reality that most Americans see Social Security as absolutely essential to their future financial security. These average Americans, Musk and his like-minded super wealthy fear, are eventually going to start demanding that America’s rich pay a far bigger share of the revenue Social Security so desperately needs.

How To Avert The Imminent Collapse Of Social Security

March 24, 2025 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , ,
The Social Security Administration (SSA), which has been understaffed for a long time, is now facing collapse within months if changes made by the Trump administration are not reversed. 73 million people in the United States rely on Social Security for part or all of their income. Clearing the FOG speaks with Alex Lawson of Social Security Works about the cuts to the SSA workforce, the closure of regional and local offices and other changes that are going to lead to beneficiaries not receiving their checks and possibly the end of this 89 year old institution. Lawson describes how people can join the struggle to save Social Security. Visit SocialSecurityWorks.org.

Trump Administration Threatening To Shut Down Social Security

March 22, 2025 Linda Benesch, Social Security Works. , , , ,
The following is a statement from Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works, on the news that Trump-appointed acting commissioner Leland Dudek is threatening to shut down Social Security rather than comply with a court order to stop Elon Musk’s DOGE from continuing to access sensitive Social Security data: Donald Trump and Elon Musk installed Leland Dudek as acting Social Security commissioner six weeks ago. Plucked from administrative leave, Dudek was elevated over more than 100 higher-qualified civil servants because he was willing to give Musk’s DOGE complete, unfettered access to Americans’ most personal, sensitive data.

Thousands March In Manhattan Against MAGA Cuts

March 18, 2025 G. Dunkel, Workers World. , , , ,
From New York’s City Hall to Bowling Green, the march stretched from curb to curb in Manhattan on March 15, behind a lead banner that read “Stand with workers. Stop the cuts.” Among the thousands who marched, many held signs opposing Trump’s attacks on Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. The protest represented a broad coalition with significant union participation, notably from the Laborers, Service Employees Union (SEIU), Communications Workers of America (CWA), American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) and Professional Staff Congress (PSC-CUNY) of the American Federation of Teachers Local 2334.

As DOGE Mauls Social Security, Profit-Hungry Private Equity Is Swooping In

March 17, 2025 Tyler Walicek, Truthout. , , ,
The Social Security Administration (SSA), an irreplaceable lifeline for 73 million people, is only the latest venerable U.S. institution to be hit with a campaign of media falsehoods and startling internal sabotage efforts, all on the orders of Trump and the reactionary right. This has taken its most visibly outrageous form in the bureaucratic pillaging committed by Elon Musk’s self-proclaimed “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), the widely loathed advisory body with a meme-derived name as juvenile as its staffers. But this week, a still-more ominous threat appears to be circling.

The Greatest Threat To Social Security In Its 90 Year History

March 9, 2025 Nancy Altman, Counter Punch. , , , ,
The last few weeks have been the most destabilizing for Social Security in its 90-year history. 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.

Trump And Musk’s Next Target: Social Security

February 22, 2025 Natalia Marques, People's Dispatch. , , ,
The world’s richest man has shown his determination to use his unelected position within the Trump presidency to wage war on the working class in the United States. Elon Musk’s latest accusation of widespread fraud within the Social Security system in the US could represent yet another major offensive against workers, who nearly universally rely on the country’s largest social service for current and future retirement plans. Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an invention of the Trump administration that has pursued broad cuts to federal departments and regulations, has pursued access to sensitive information of millions of people in the US, held by the Social Security Administration.

Elon Musk’s DOGE ‘Proud Boys’ Blitzkrieg Of Government Offices For Personal Data Of All US Citizens

February 3, 2025 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , , , ,
In raids reminiscent of the “January 6” Proud Boys attack on the U.S. Capitol four years ago, unelected, unvetted and without federal government security clearance, the Trump anointed head of the yet unapproved Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk and his henchmen with enormous computing background are wrecking havoc in government offices with sensitive personal data of all U.S. citizens. This past week, Musk’s blitzkrieg team gained access to sensitive Treasury data including Social Security and Medicare customer payment systems.

Wage Stagnation: The Real Threat To Social Security

December 11, 2024 Lallan Schoenstein, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
No matter what they say about the U.S. economy, finding a job to support yourself is tough when you are starting out. Finding rewarding and meaningful work is an even greater challenge for most. If you are that lucky, you’re preoccupied with paying off student loans and having enough money to travel or afford your own home. Thinking about a secure future after a lifetime of work might not be your greatest concern. But listen up! In mid-November, the New York Times reported that the Social Security fund that pays retiree benefits is projected to be depleted by 2033.

Work Longer, Die Sooner! The Dire Need To Expand Social Security And Medicare

May 15, 2024 Lynn Parramore, Scheer Post. , , ,
Shameful fact: the plight of U.S. retirees is a global exception. In their pursuit of lower taxes, America’s wealthiest individuals support policies that make it extremely difficult for seniors to manage the increasing costs of healthcare, housing, and basic necessities. Not so in other rich countries like Germany, France, and Canada, where robust public pensions and healthcare systems offer retirees stability and dignity. After a lifetime of hard work, older citizens in the U.S. find their reward is merely scraping by, as savings diminish under the weight of soaring medical costs in the most expensive healthcare system in the developed world.

That’s What US Capitalism Does Right Now – Jettisons Its Elders

March 18, 2024 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting.. , , ,
I became an elder, and I was a radical elder. I’ve been in our movement about—not about, 58 years is the amount of time that I’ve spent in the left of this country, very wonderful years, but starting to get old; I’m now in my seventies. And I was looking around for something that focused on the very specific issues and the particularity of the issues that I faced as a human being in my seventies, and that many people who I knew in my age bracket were facing. And I found nothing. I found a bunch of liberal organizations that sought to reform this and that, expand this and that, or reestablish particular programs that have been dismantled, etc.

A Working Class Victory On Colombia’s Horizon

January 19, 2024 Omar Ocampo, Inequality.org. , , ,
A working-class victory is on the horizon in Colombia. The Seventh Committee of the House of Representatives voted to approve 16 of the 98 articles of the landmark Labor Reform bill right before the start of winter recess. The bill will now advance to a second round of legislative debates that will resume next month. This is great news for the workers movement: Labor reform represents one of the three flagship policy proposals of the Petro-Márquez administration that seeks to equitably transform society. The bill will not only restore the labor rights that were rescinded a little over twenty years ago by a far-right government — it will go a step further and expand these rights.

Many Senior Citizens Expect To Die With College Loan Debts

September 12, 2023 Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report. , , , , ,
Marjorie Sener was still in her 20s when she took out a loan for about $5,000 to get some college credits she hoped would eventually add up to a bachelor’s degree. That goal was thwarted when her partner became ill. “The burden of our living expenses fell on me,” said Sener, who lives in the Dallas suburbs. “I devoted all of my resources to keeping our heads above water.” But while Sener never got her degree, that student loan kept growing, fattened by compounding interest. Now, at 74, she owes more than $55,000, or 10 times what she originally borrowed, and has put off any hope of retiring. Sener still works, as a legal secretary, juggling her student loan debt with other expenses, including medical costs from recent cancer treatments.

Beware The Time Thieves

February 22, 2023 Jenny Brown, Labor Notes. , , ,
French workers have shut the country down with general strikes three times in the last month to defend their time. They’re protesting a proposal to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. It’s enough to make you cry. Here, the Social Security retirement age was ratcheted up to 67 by bipartisan agreement during the Reagan administration. But because the oldest people affected were in their 40s at the time, few people noticed that everyone would soon be losing two years of paid time off. They’re coming for our time again. Republicans had a cunning plan to block raising the debt ceiling unless the Biden administration agreed to Social Security cuts.
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