Social Security in the US is a crucial safety net for over 73 million Americans but is now facing challenges due to significant staffing cuts. The program, designed to provide financial support to the elderly, disabled, and those in need, is under strain as a result.
Initially conceived as part of Elon Musk’s efforts to streamline government agencies, it has evolved into a situation where Social Security is experiencing a slow and steady decline. The implications are severe for the beneficiaries who heavily rely on this program.
In the past, voters of every age and political affiliation have long considered Social Security to be an untouchable entitlement program.
With Musk and President Donald Trump at the helm, Social Security is now encountering unprecedented disruptions. Reports of delays, dropped calls, and widespread confusion at local Social Security offices have become common among millions of Americans nationwide.
Amid disastrous mismanagement, some critics have called DOGE’s actions a dangerous experiment in Silicon Valley ‘bro culture’ run amok.
At the heart of the crisis is the elimination of more than 7,000 Social Security jobs, more then 12 percent of the agency’s entire workforce, under the direction of DOGE.
The sweeping layoffs and budget slashes have hollowed out the agency’s front lines, leaving elderly and disabled Americans stranded for hours on the phone or standing in lines that snake out the doors of understaffed government buildings.
‘People are calling the Social Security office, getting hold wait times of four, six hours, and when they finally get through they are told they have to go to an office they can’t get to,’ Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-New Mexico) said after being turned away from a Social Security office herself while seeking answers on behalf of constituents.
Under the wrecking ball of Elon Musk ‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the Social Security Administration is now buckling under the weight of brutal staffing cuts
Social Security is is one of the largest and most relied-upon safety nets in the United States and the financial lifeline for over 73 million Americans
‘People on Social Security are elderly. They may not be able to drive. They may have health conditions.’
The horror stories appear to be multiplying with living recipients wrongly classified as dead, checks going missing and sensitive personal data being mishandled or lost.
A Gallup poll earlier this month found public anxiety about the future of Social Security at a 15-year high, with more than three-quarters of Americans expressing deep concern about the system’s stability.
But perhaps most galling to longtime public servants and policy experts is what they describe as DOGE’s reckless, juvenile approach to governing.
Musk and his appointees, steeped in the ‘move fast and break things’ ethos of Silicon Valley, appear to have brought the same cavalier mentality to the machinery of American social welfare.
‘I think you have a group of very immature people coming out of Silicon Valley bro culture, and they have decided federal agencies are filled with bad people doing bad things, and if you go in and hack away – and you don’t have to know what you are doing – you can improve it because less is more,’ said Michael Astrue, who served as Social Security Commissioner under both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in an interview with The Washington Post.
‘This is not reform. This is sabotage.’
Musk, the world’s richest man with a $374 billion fortune, has called Social Security ‘the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,’ and has long made clear his disdain for the very idea of a government safety net.
Musk and his appointees, steeped in the ‘move fast and break things’ ethos of Silicon Valley, appear to have brought the same mentality to the machinery of American social welfare
The controversy has exposed deep philosophical divides over the future of Social Security
His DOGE team, charged with ‘disrupting’ federal departments, has openly embraced cuts that critics warn could trigger benefit interruptions within months.
‘Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse, and there will be an interruption of benefits,’ former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley warned during an interview with CNBC.
‘I’ve never hoped I was wrong so much in my life.’
According to reporting from The Washington Post, the Musk-Trump cuts have already led to catastrophic errors, including the misclassification of over four million living Social Security recipients as deceased.
The resulting bureaucratic nightmare has sent seniors and disabled citizens scrambling to prove they are still alive – forced to show up in person, IDs in hand, at offices now so short-staffed that many cannot get an appointment at all.
After months of struggling to craft a political message that resonates while Trump dominates the headlines, Democrats are seizing on the Social Security disaster as their rallying cry.
Former President Joe Biden, in his first public comments since leaving office, unleashed a blistering attack on Trump and Musk for their handling of the program, accusing the administration of causing ‘so much damage’ through what he called an attempt to ‘cut and gut’ one of America’s most beloved institutions.
There are plenty of Americans who are unhappy at the work being conduct by Musk and Trump
Demonstrators protest against cuts. Since taking office in January, Trump has launched a campaign led by Elon Musk to unilaterally, downsize or dismantle swaths of the US government
A group of demonstrators gather in front of the Social Security administration building to protest Elon Musk and Donald Trump in Washington DC earlier this month
The Musk-Trump cuts have already led to catastrophic errors, including the misclassification of over four million living Social Security recipients as deceased
More than 72.5 million Americans rely on the program which include retirees and children who receive retirement and disability benefits
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) pulled no punches at the launch of the Senate Democrats’ Social Security ‘war room’.
‘Elon Musk makes $8 million a day from the federal government, and he wants to take away the $65 a day that the average Social Security recipient gets. This is really ugly,’ Warren said.
Across the country, Democrats are staging town halls, flooding social media, and releasing targeted ads hammering Republican senators like Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) for what they call complicity in the dismantling of Social Security.
‘For much of the country, Washington might as well be Mars for all the connection it has to them,’ said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), the top Democrat on the committee overseeing Social Security.
‘But Social Security is something where there is connective tissue between the government and the people.’
The Democratic push appears to be gaining traction. Rep. Marilyn Strickland (D-Washington) reported over 22,000 constituents joined a recent tele-town hall on the crisis.
O’Malley has been drawing large crowds at similar events in Florida – a key battleground state where seniors hold significant political power.
The crisis stems from sweeping changes within the SSA under newly established DOGE, the agency created under the Trump administration and led by billionaire Elon Musk
Social Security is facing an unprecedented threat and is on the brink of collapse warns former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley, pictured
According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office two of the funds will be drained by 2035 while another major fund will be gone by 2048
Social Security spending has been on the rise as more Americans hit retirement age and leave the workforce, solely relying on the fund’s benefits
‘Because the public program is so broadly supported by Americans across the political system, they can’t really rob it until they wreck it,’ O’Malley warned.
‘So all those patently false allegations about the agency being rife with fraud, about the agency itself being a fraud, about illegal immigrants milking it dry — they need to wreck its reputation.’
The Trump administration has scrambled to contain the political fallout.
White House spokeswoman Liz Huston insisted that Trump remains committed to protecting Social Security benefits, dismissing Democratic criticism as ‘fake concern’ and accusing them of caring ‘more about illegal immigrants than their own constituents.’
‘President Trump will fiercely protect Social Security, eliminate unfair benefit taxes to boost seniors’ take-home pay, and drive the Social Security Administration to modernize systems, enhance customer service, and combat fraud,’ Huston said.
But even some Republicans acknowledge the worsening service issues.
At a March confirmation hearing for Trump’s nominee to head Social Security, Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana) played recordings of the agency’s interminable hold music to underscore constituent frustration.
‘They should have at least had Olivia Newton-John or some mediocre ’70s music,’ Daines quipped, before adding: ‘We’ve got a lot of work to do to serve the taxpayers in this country and improve their customer experience.’
The controversy has exposed deep philosophical divides over the future of Social Security.
While audits consistently find less than 1 percent of benefits are paid improperly, Musk and Trump have repeatedly suggested massive fraud, including the widely debunked claim that millions of checks are going to people aged 100 or older.
Romina Boccia of the libertarian Cato Institute offered a stark assessment of the debate.
‘The Democrats are basically scaring seniors while Republicans are shouting about fraud,’ she said. ‘But neither party is willing to tell the truth about Social Security’s math.’
That math remains grim. The program’s trustees project that by 2033, the Social Security old-age fund will only be able to pay 79 percent of promised benefits without intervention.
Democrats favor lifting the cap on Social Security taxes, while conservatives push for privatization schemes that have repeatedly failed to gain popular support.
But for now, it is the damage inflicted by DOGE’s reckless cuts and the culture of contempt Musk and his allies have brought to Washington that stands at the center of the political firestorm.
