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Social Security Cards on Yellow Background
Close up of stacked old and new SSN cards
The Trump administration is on course to undermine Social Security, one of the most vital public programs the federal government administers, warned former Social Security Administration director Martin O'Malley to The Bulwark's Joe Perticone.
President Donald Trump repeatedly promised he would not touch Social Security benefits on the campaign trail. However, Republicans in Congress have floated changes to the program, and Trump, alongside tech billionaire and Department of Government Efficiency task force chief Elon Musk, appear dead set on going after the workforce of the SSA, even if they're not outright cutting benefits.
And that could have massive implications for the agency's ability to fulfill its duties.
Lee Dudek, who is currently running SSA for the Trump administration on an acting basis, sent out an ominous letter outlining this plan, Perticone noted.
"We stand at a crossroads," wrote Dudek. "With a clear mandate to change from the President, we are committed to ensuring that accountability never interferes with our customer contact service mission. We administer Old Age, Survivors, Disability Insurance and SSI. It is not our job to do the mission work of the FTC, ICE, BLS, IRS or the States. The life affirming moments we provide in the lives of citizens, is a result of serendipity - from doing our work well – it is not an end in itself, nor our mission. We need to double down on our greatest strength – the field. We need to revitalize SSA operations by streamlining activities, outsource non-essential functions to industry experts, and reinstating human judgment and common sense into every decision at every level."
The line "outsource non-essential functions to industry experts" is a particularly troubling promise, O'Malley said. It could mean replacing humans with artificial intelligence in call centers, which would potentially degrade SSA's service.
“Do you have anybody you love who is over 85 or 90? I think the people saying these things have never actually sat with a call taker or listened to people on the other end of the phone or sat in on the trainings to see the complexity of what they’re taught. If you’re somebody over 70, you just want to talk to a person to work out your problem,” said O'Malley, adding, “We have a 50-year low in staffing while the baby boomer generation is swelling their ranks. That’s the underlying reality here, and these guys appear hell-bent on breaking it. It seems they really want to break Social Security.”
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