Summary

Staff at the Social Security Administration (SSA) warn the agency is in “complete, utter chaos” due to drastic budget cuts, office closures, and job losses led by Elon Musk.

Plans to cut 7,000 jobs and centralize operations have disrupted services, with website outages and record backlogs.

Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek backs DOGE’s changes, despite union opposition and legal pushback. Critics say Musk is pushing misinformation to justify dismantling SSA.

With staffing at 50-year lows, experts fear a “death spiral” and potential collapse in service delivery.

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    124
    ·
    1 day ago

    This is the most powerful anti-Trump message you can deliver.

    A lot of Boomers are completely reliant on Social Security to survive. Those folks vote in every election.

    Tell any old person you meet that Trump is closing their Social Security office and that Musk is moving all services to online.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      20 hours ago

      With oz planning to cut Medicaid and care, which Republicans are reliant on type 2 diabetes meds

    • huppakee@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      65
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 day ago

      This reminds me of Brexit, where a lot of leave voters were farmers who actually had a net-benefit from the subsidies the eu hands out to farmers. Now a big part of the country suffers from bregret, but there is no way to go back in time to change the vote. I’m afraid an anti-Trump message makes as much as a difference to the people in America as bregret does in the UK.

      • Embargo@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        40
        ·
        1 day ago

        Bregret is so fucking funny to me since I always thought Brexit was the most cringe and unbelievable official name.

        • dalekcaan@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          11 hours ago

          Even worse were the conservatives in other countries trying to follow suit, like Nexit in the Netherlands or Frexit in France. Luckily then Brexit happened and everyone suddenly went quiet.

        • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          19
          ·
          1 day ago

          I live in Ireland- the UK press, and to an extent, possibly as an effect, the general public, use these infantilized, gross ass cutsie words to describe things. Footie (football). Chockie (chocolate). It makes me nauseated.

            • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              17 hours ago

              Im moreso talking about news headlines. Leaving the EU was an incredibly serious situation and the news media made a cutsie pun nickname for it and said it on TV with a straight face.

              Just as a side point, saying “someone else also does it!” doesn’t further anyone’s understanding of anything in my opinion.

    • dhork@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      38
      ·
      1 day ago

      The problem is that many Trump-supporting seniors have been told for all of their adult lives by Conservative media that government is corrupt and wasteful. So when the checks stop coming, they won’t blame their team for it, they will ask Trump to double down on the cuts until everything is fixed. They take it as axiomatic that everything wrong with government is due to bloat and waste, and good luck convincing them otherwise.

      • takeda@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        19 hours ago

        Maybe, but on 4/5 protests yesterday I saw something interesting.

        Typically it is younger people, minorities that are oppressed.

        This time majority were white people, vets, seniors (many on walkers or wheelchairs). Actually there was a very small number of minorities. As I understand it is because of ICE and threat of being locked up in prison in El Salvador (not criticizing, this is all understandable as being darker skinned places a target on you for corrupted law enforcement)

        Though this gives me hope that actually a large number of seniors actually understand who is responsible.

      • OffColor@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        39
        ·
        1 day ago

        I dunno. Fucking with trans people, black people, women is cool. Destroying the economy in general is cool. Eradicating education and free lunches is cool. Cozying up to foreign states that are clearly fascist is cool. Sexually assaulting women is cool.

        But fucking with old, white people’s money is most certainly not cool. It’s surprising how quickly a mind is changed when it is finally their turn to suffer. This isn’t something many seniors can live without, literally. They rely on social security as their only income source. If social security fails, the Republicans will kill a significant portion of their own voter base.

          • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            15 hours ago

            Well, if the qons think their elections are at risk because they killed so many of their own base, they’ll find a way.

        • dhork@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          21
          ·
          1 day ago

          No, when the checks stop coming Conservative media will say “This is all part of Trump’s Master Plan, the woke corruption runs deep and it will take a while to fully root it all out”, and their voters will buy it (but nothing else, since they all are running out of money)…

          • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            11
            ·
            1 day ago

            Good thing Fox news is on cable something that won’t be able to afford without those checks. So I hope they al fucking strave to death. Sick of these old fucks getting in the way and stopping progress. Because of their short sited racist views.

            • dhork@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              9
              ·
              1 day ago

              It’s not just Fox anymore, though. If anything, the hardcore ones have migrated off of Fox onto other, more extreme platforms.

              • kautau@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                6
                ·
                1 day ago

                Like Facebook, which boomers are addicted to and lap up every bit of misinformation years after telling their kids “not to believe everything they read on the internet”

        • Bristingr@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          1 day ago

          I’m not giving them any sympathy. They voted for it.

          I already expected that I won’t get Social Security as a Millennial because of these fucks. They simply added everyone else to that list.

          My mom still refuses to believe they’ll end social security as they’ve “been saying that for 30+ years”, but I guess she’ll learn that Musk doesn’t give a shit.

      • kautau@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        Yeah exactly. Good luck convincing them this wasn’t some “joe and the ho” plot that they so easily ate when russia spent billions on social media telling that the dems were coming for their money so they could put Krasnov in power to destabilize the west.

    • peoplebeproblems@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 day ago

      You know what the protests had a ton of?

      Boomers. That is a good sign that I heavily anticipated. Boomers need that social security.

      But us millennials and gen-zers need to rememember - Boomers used to be far more politically active than we ever were. My parents we active in the 70s and 80s. I’ve had great aunts and uncles tear gassed. Many arrested, one arrested multiple times (and she has not stopped protesting as she never had kids).

      I’m personally bringing out my inner Zelensky - the guy when from comedian body to military body once Russia invaded again. If the old people out there have health events, you can bet your ass we need to save them.

      • UraniumForBreakfast@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 day ago

        The boomers in my family didn’t do shit. 😅

        In fact, they prided themselves on barely passing high school and still making a ‘decent living’.

    • kobra@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 day ago

      Take it a step further and add something like: “as a democrat I think it’s great they’re embracing remote options to keep people safe from the ongoing pandemic”

    • TooManyFoods@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      1 day ago

      Maybe, but the fact that they are willing to attack this shows is that maybe they didn’t think they need their votes anymore. Hopefully we prove them wrong, because it’s a scary thought otherwise