When mega-billionaire Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency started taking a chainsaw to the federal government, many of us warned that his “efficiency” initiative was a pretext for dismantling the government’s programs. Just two months into President Donald Trump’s administration, those predictions are being proved right: There are signs that DOGE is already breaking Social Security.
The Washington Post details multiple ways that changes at the Social Security Administration, which provides financial assistance to about 1 in 5 U.S. residents, are degrading the service:
- The SSA website crashed four times in 10 days in March.
- The phone lines are a disaster: “Depending on the time of day, a recorded message tells callers their wait on hold will last more than 120 minutes or 180 minutes. Some callers report being on hold for four or five hours. A callback function was available only three out of 12 times a Post reporter called the toll-free line last week,” the Post reports. And the overloading of the phone lines and reduced staff has forced office managers, who are already plenty busy, to try to field calls.
- More than half the regional offices overseeing field operations have been shuttered.
- The long-standing process by which naturalized citizens and legal immigrants can apply for or update Social Security cards has been de-automated and requires in-person applications.
- There is no longer a system for monitoring customer experience.
This downturn in service comes as Leland Dudek, acting SSA commissioner, has sought to cut up to 12% of the agency’s workforce and implement changes to service at breakneck speed. Axios reports that, according to two sources who attended a meeting with him Monday, Dudek explained “the changes in question would usually take two years to implement, but will be made in two weeks instead.” Dudek has also “pushed out dozens of officials with years of expertise in running Social Security’s complex benefit and information technology systems,” according to the Post. Looking ahead, it’s distressing that Frank Bisignano, Trump’s nominee to run the SSA, is a self-described “DOGE person.”
It turns out that people who radiate a “move fast and break things” ethos do, in fact, move fast and break things. But what’s happening here isn’t disruption in the private sector; it’s the destabilization of a social service that is a lifeline to some of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens: the elderly, the disabled and their families.
When it’s harder for people to talk to SSA officials, fewer people will get the benefits they're entitled to. The Atlantic reporter Annie Lowery’s concept of “the time tax” comes to mind. Time-consuming and confusing paperwork and long wait times can shift “public administration onto individuals” and discourage “millions of Americans from seeking aid.” She’s argued that the “time tax” effectively “rations public services through perplexing, unfair bureaucratic friction.”
As I’ve argued before, Musk’s outrageous claim that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme” is a signal to the public that the Trump administration is angling for cuts to the program. While there’s been no new law or policy that strips people of their benefits, making it hard to impossible to communicate with the SSA goes a significant way toward accomplishing that cynical goal.
