Drastic DOGE-Backed Changes Put Social Security Benefits for Millions at Risk

The Social Safety advantages of thousands and thousands of individuals in the US are in danger because the Trump administration institutes drastic adjustments billed as “anti-fraud” measures, however which critics say are aimed toward weakening the favored program and probably laying the groundwork to denationalise it. The Social Safety Administration has already shuttered dozens of places of work throughout the nation and is shedding hundreds of staff. On the identical time, the company is demanding individuals make extra in-office visits for routine enterprise. The adjustments are a part of government-wide efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE, the so-called Division of Authorities Effectivity.

“They’re destabilizing this system,” says Nancy Altman, president of Social Safety Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Safety Coalition. “It’s actually onerous to think about what they take into consideration, what their endgame is, aside from destroying our Social Safety system.”

We additionally communicate with Jacobin employees author Branko Marcetic, who says Trump’s nominee to go the Social Safety Administration, monetary companies govt Frank Bisignano, has a fame for slashing prices and pushing out employees. “All of that may be a fairly grim portent” of his plans for the Social Safety Administration, if Bisignano is confirmed, says Marcetic. “The individuals which might be going to be harm by it are the precise Social Safety beneficiaries.”

Authored earlier this month by Appearing Deputy Social Safety Administration Commissioner Doris Diaz, the adjustments proposed within the memo would drive thousands and thousands of consumers to file claims in particular person at a area workplace relatively than over the telephone. In keeping with the memo, prospects making use of for retirement and incapacity advantages could be required for the primary time to confirm their id by means of a web based system. If their id can’t be verified on-line, they must go to a area workplace in particular person.

A day earlier than the memo was despatched, The Washington Submit reported Social Safety Administration was contemplating ending phone service for all claims, beneath stress from DOGE, the Division of Authorities Effectivity. Hours after the Washington Submit report got here out, the company issued a press launch claiming phone companies wouldn’t be eradicated. The proposed adjustments to Social Safety come as DOGE is focusing on the company for employees cuts of greater than 12%.

In the meantime, Trump’s billionaire Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has sparked outrage after repeatedly suggesting solely fraudsters would complain if Social Safety checks don’t exit on time.

COMMERCE SECRETARY HOWARD LUTNICK: Let’s say Social Safety didn’t ship out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 94, she wouldn’t name and complain. She simply wouldn’t. She’d suppose one thing obtained tousled, and he or she’ll get it subsequent month. A fraudster all the time makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.

AMY GOODMAN: This comes as self-professed DOGE particular person, former company CEO Frank Bisignano was grilled for greater than two hours Tuesday by the Senate Finance Committee at his affirmation listening to to guide the Social Safety company. That is one alternate with him and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Suppose this identical 65-year-old calls the assistance line to use for Social Safety, however he’s advised in regards to the new DOGE rule, so he has to go surfing or in particular person. He can’t drive. He has bother with the web site, so he waits till his niece can get a day without work to take him to the native Social Safety workplace. However DOGE closed that workplace, so that they must drive two hours to get to the following closest workplace. Once they get there, there are solely two people who find themselves staffing a 50-person line, so he doesn’t even make it to the entrance of the road earlier than the workplace closes, and he has to come back again. Now, let’s assume it takes our fellow three months to straighten this out, and he misses a complete of $5,000 in advantages checks, which, by regulation, he won’t ever get again. So, Mr. Bisignano, is {that a} profit lower?

FRANK BISIGNANO: Properly, to begin with, Senator, I loved —

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Is {that a} profit lower?

FRANK BISIGNANO: I loved.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: I’m sorry, my time is restricted right here. That’s a straightforward query. Sure or no? Is it a profit lower?

FRANK BISIGNANO: I’ve no intent to have something like that occur on my watch, Ma’am.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: I perceive that. Is it a profit lower?

FRANK BISIGNANO: I’m undecided what to name it. It appears like a horrible scenario.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: Is the particular person getting the $5,000 they had been legally entitled to?

FRANK BISIGNANO: That was your situation. And so —

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN: So, are they getting $5,000 they had been legally entitled to?

FRANK BISIGNANO: I don’t know.

AMY GOODMAN: Social Safety gives essential financial safety to greater than 70 million individuals and accounts for over half the revenue of most individuals over age 65.

In certainly one of many protests nationwide, dozens of principally older adults protested Friday exterior a Nashville, Tennessee, area workplace they are saying is already understaffed, with lengthy wait occasions, is on a listing of 47 area places of work DOGE plans to shut.

PROTESTER: We’re being advised, and every part that they are saying that they’re attempting to not do — and one of many issues they’re saying is that they’re not going to assault Social Safety. And but all of the actions they’re taking is attacking Social Safety.

AMY GOODMAN: For extra, we’re joined by two visitors. In Chicago, Branko Marcetic is with us, Jacobin employees author, the place his current piece is headlined “Trump’s Nominated Social Safety Head Is aware of The best way to Lower.”

However we start in Washington, D.C., with Nancy Altman, president of Social Safety Works, chair of the Strengthen Social Safety Coalition, the co-author, with Eric Kingson, of Social Safety Works for Everybody!: Defending and Increasing the Insurance coverage Individuals Love and Depend On. Altman has spent the final half-century engaged on Social Safety. After our interview, she’ll be at a rally close to the Capitol about defending Social Safety.

Nancy Altman, welcome to Democracy Now! Let’s start with you earlier than you go off to this rally. It appears just like the commerce secretary, the billionaire Lutnick, who says that his 94-year-old mom wouldn’t complain if she didn’t get her Social Safety verify — she’s the mom of a billionaire — solely fraudsters would, is laying the groundwork for individuals to begin to count on, maybe, that they received’t get their checks. Are you able to clarify what’s occurring?

NANCY ALTMAN: It’s actually outrageous. Donald Trump has an issue. He ran across the nation, flooding the swing states, saying he wouldn’t lower Social Safety, Medicare or Medicaid, however in his first time period he proposed cuts to these packages each single 12 months. Now, these cuts didn’t undergo. So what’s he doing now? He’s claiming that there’s huge quantity of fraud, which is a lie — there’s vanishingly small quantities of fraud — so when he cuts your advantages, he’ll be saying he’s slicing fraud, he’s not slicing the advantages that you’ve earned.

AMY GOODMAN: So, discuss what is occurring at this level. You have got, first, the threats of telephone service. And who’re the individuals who use Social Safety, and what it means not to have the ability to communicate on the telephone? Then it’s important to go to a satellite tv for pc workplace. Maybe that workplace goes to be closed or understaffed. You must wait perhaps a month to have the ability to go in. And the difficulty is that they’re closing these places of work throughout. What’s occurring to Social Safety as we communicate?

NANCY ALTMAN: You understand, it’s all being achieved behind closed doorways. And what’s being achieved — as a result of we’re following it very intently and speaking to the individuals who work at Social Safety — is they’re destabilizing this system. The company may wind up collapsing. You’ve obtained the DOGE minions, Elon Musk’s, , 20-year-olds, operating round Social Safety. They’ve been doing it since this new administration. They’ve been forcing individuals out, firing individuals, hollowing it out. And, frighteningly, they’ve all of our most private information, and nobody is aware of what they’ve in retailer for that.

AMY GOODMAN: However, Nancy Altman, that is going to alienate, , MAGA Individuals who get Social Safety. We’re speaking about tens of thousands and thousands of Individuals, in addition to Democrats, progressives, independents. So, what’s the response to — for instance, you’re organizing. Who’s going out and protesting across the nation proper now at these over — understaffed, overworked of us at these area places of work, and the opportunity of them closing?

NANCY ALTMAN: Sure, it’s actually onerous to think about what they take into consideration, what their endgame is, aside from destroying our Social Safety system. As you stated, there are over 70 million Individuals who obtain month-to-month advantages, that they’ve earned. They are usually — they’re seniors, individuals with disabilities. It’s the nation’s largest youngsters’s program. A lot of them have mobility points. If they’ll’t use the telephone, they are surely excluded from getting these advantages. It’s actually an outrage.

And we’re attempting to get the phrase out. And I’m so appreciative that you just’re having this phase, as a result of it’s actually necessary. I don’t wish to scare individuals, as a result of persons are depending on these advantages to pay their hire, to pay their meals. And I don’t wish to scare individuals, however I do need individuals realized. Everybody ought to be rising up and saying, “Arms off Social Safety.”

AMY GOODMAN: I wish to go to Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, grilling Frank Bisignano at his affirmation listening to to go the Social Safety Administration, Wyden citing a tip from a whistleblower and asking Bisignano if he was bringing on DOGE workforce members who may entry Social Safety beneficiaries’ private data.

SEN. RON WYDEN: So, in line with the whistleblower, you personally intervened to get key DOGE officers put in on the company who’ve masterminded this shipwreck that we’re dealing as we speak. Did you discuss to anybody at Social Safety about these adjustments?

FRANK BISIGNANO: I’ve by no means talked to Mr. Dudek. I’ve talked to Mike Russo, and I’ve stated that to your employees after they requested me. I do know Mike Russo. He was the CIO of Shift4, and he was the CIO at Oracle for Mark Hurd. And I do know him for 20 years. I don’t know him as a DOGE particular person; I do know him as a CIO.

AMY GOODMAN: So, Nancy Altman, president of Social Safety Works, are you able to reply to what the nominated head of Social Safety Administration is saying, Frank Bisignano?

NANCY ALTMAN: He’s bobbing and weaving. Right here’s the reality. He has described himself as a DOGE man. Now, what which means is, though it’s the federal government of effectivity, it’s bringing in inefficiency, it’s bringing in waste, and it’s opening the opportunity of huge fraud by means of id theft and so forth.

He, from the very starting, has been very aggressive. He’s nonetheless a personal citizen. He’s been nominated. He has no function within the authorities. However he has been everywhere in the Social Safety Administration. He’s been working hand in glove with Elon Musk to hole out the company and to make these adjustments, the place you possibly can’t — the place you not can change your routing quantity, and you may’t end your claims by telephone. You must go into area places of work, which, in fact, they’re attempting to terminate all the sphere places of work. And he’s actually part of what’s going on, and is bobbing and weaving so he can get confirmed.

AMY GOODMAN: I wish to herald Branko Marcetic into this dialog, the Jacobin employees author. Your current piece, Branko, is “Trump’s Nominated Social Safety Head Is aware of The best way to Lower.” Inform us who he’s.

BRANKO MARCETIC: Yeah, Bisignano was the CEO of Fiserv from 2020 to now. Earlier than that, he was the CEO of a unique fee processing firm, First Information. It was a bank card fee processor. I feel individuals, after they suppose [inaudible] introduced on as a result of he has expertise when it comes to funds, massive quantities of funds each single day, each second being processed, subsequently he’ll be good for one thing just like the Social Safety Administration, the place that’s a lot of the accountability.

However the factor about Bisignano is that his report as CEO of those corporations is related in one other method. He was liable for huge cuts to employees ranges, to places of work, to advantages for staff at these corporations — principally, very a lot the identical sort of factor that we’ve been seeing DOGE doing on the Social Safety Administration already. So, anybody who was pondering that if Bisignano goes to be introduced in because the commissioner of the Social Safety Administration, that there was going to be a change in path from what we’ve seen, that the administration, the Trump administration, was going to make good on the president’s guarantees to go away Social Safety untouched, I feel, ought to be very nervous by his appointment.

AMY GOODMAN: When you may discuss Bisignano’s company time as CEO of Fiserv? You write, “Fiserv’s Glass Door evaluations are riddled with bitter private animus to Bisignano particularly: ‘The choice making on this firm has been extraordinarily erratic since Frank Bisignano took over as CEO.’” One other one, “As soon as Frank took over, it turned a horrible place to work for.” One other stated, “Frank and his squad, not the best tbh” — to be sincere. One other one, “The CEO is a micromanager and solely cares in regards to the inventory value.” One other, “Change Frank with a pacesetter who listens.” One other, ”CEO may care much less about workers. They’re all a widget and an expense to him. Mr Scrooge at his most interesting,” concluded one. And different stated, “Frank, please go purchase an island and transfer there, by no means to return.” Speak in regards to the significance of this, after which the way it suits in, Branko, to being the top of the Social Safety Administration.

BRANKO MARCETIC: I imply, there’s a deep, deep dislike, to place it mildly, for Bisignano among the many staff of Fiserv. I imply, what comes up in these Glass Door evaluations, I’d suggest individuals go and have a look at them. There’s hundreds upon hundreds, most of them effectively earlier than anybody knew that he was going to get nominated for Trump’s administration.

And so they all paint a reasonably comparable image. Not solely do they suppose that Bisignano is a horrible CEO, somebody who has achieved all these huge cuts in order that he can simply pour billions of {dollars} of revenue again into inventory buybacks — and by the best way, he’s a large shareholder in Fiserv and truly bought $25 million value of shares, so he’s the one profiting straight from this — however in addition they discuss in regards to the sort of impact that these cuts have had on them as staff, as individuals attempting to make Fiserv, , do what it’s meant to.

And what they are saying is that skilled individuals, among the most succesful staff, have both been fired as a result of they didn’t wish to relocate when places of work had been closed and consolidated in locations that had been advantageous for tax incentives, or they left as a result of they discovered that the working [inaudible] had been so rigid and so inconvenient that they could as effectively simply go someplace else. And so that you had this huge mind drain from Fiserv, whereas on the identical time individuals complained about their working situations getting worse, their advantages being lower. They talked about having to tackle a a lot larger workload and having to make that work, though that they had now a much smaller employees.

All of that may be a fairly grim portent, I’d say, if that is what Bisignano is being introduced into the Social Safety Administration to do, which I feel he’s. It means that the people who find themselves left, who usually are not fired from this huge cost-cutting operation by DOGE, are going to be left attempting to scramble and maintain their heads above water even if they’ve far much less functionality to take action. And the individuals which might be going to be harm by it are the precise Social Safety beneficiaries.

AMY GOODMAN: I wish to thanks each for being with us, however ask Branko to stick with us for our subsequent phase. Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin employees author. We’ll hyperlink to your piece. And Nancy Altman is president of Social Safety Works. She’s going off to a rally to protect Social Safety.

Subsequent up, Democratic lawmakers demand Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth and nationwide safety adviser Michael Waltz resign, after they mentioned plans to bomb Yemen on an unsecure Sign group chat and included a journalist in that chat. Stick with us.