Cliff Notes
- The Trump administration is purportedly dismantling the Social Security Administration (SSA) under the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), raising concerns about the impact on benefits that support millions of Americans living in poverty.
- Insiders and former SSA commissioner Martin O’Malley have warned that the agency’s cuts, including staff reductions and office closures, may lead to failures in benefit distribution, affecting the 73 million Americans who rely on Social Security.
- The current reshaping of the SSA involves the elimination of key departments and the workforce, with plans to reduce staffing by approximately 12%, or 7,000 employees. This move comes amidst a historical low in staffing against the backdrop of a rising number of benefit applicants as baby boomers age.
- Concerns have been voiced regarding the hasty approach taken by DOGE, which reportedly operates under a “zero-based budgeting” philosophy, prioritizing cuts over problem-solving and efficiency improvements. This strategy may jeopardize timely processing of benefits, particularly disability claims.
- Former SSA officials are calling on the public to pressure congressional Republicans to halt the ongoing restructuring, emphasizing the potential political consequences if Social Security services fail as a result of these changes.
Trump and Musk Could Break Social Security, Martin O’Malley Warns
Under the guise of efficiency, Donald Trump’s administration is dismantling the agency that runs Social Security, threatening benefits that keep millions of Americans out of poverty and setting up a political gamble for the White House and congressional Republicans.
Social Security Administration (SSA) insiders and its former commissioner, Martin O’Malley, warn Rolling Stone and American Doom that the cuts being carried out inside the agency by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will result in widespread failures, including checks not being distributed to some of the 73 million Americans who receive Social Security benefits.
The ongoing dismantling of the agency — particularly the gutting of employees and offices who deal directly with the public — will also prevent Americans from quickly and easily applying for benefits and delay processing of disability claims.
So far, DOGE has closed Social Security field offices, shut down internal departments that deal with technology and online interfaces that Americans navigate to access and apply for benefits, and are reorganizing the agency office that is largely responsible for rooting out and troubleshooting inefficiencies like improper payments and overpayments.
Meanwhile, an unknown number of employees are being offered early retirement packages and other buyouts as acting commissioner Lee Dudek and DOGE also threaten widespread firings — all part of plans to reduce the agency’s workforce by 12 percent, or about 7,000 employees.
Carnage inside the agency
The carnage inside the agency is being carried out in a haphazard manner, and is in line with Musk’s “zero-based budgeting concept,” in which sweeping cuts are made to an organization, with decisions on what should be reinstated coming only after failures begin to occur.
The employee says that an agency executive was recently interviewed by DOGE’s lead within the SSA and was told that DOGE is “not there to solve problems or improve service — only to eliminate property, head count and find fraud,” the employee said. Unless the executive “had a $50 billion idea,” DOGE wasn’t interested.
O’Malley and others say with what’s happening within the SSA, there is no longer a question of whether Musk and Trump intend to reduce the agency’s capacity to distribute benefits. Instead, the only question that remains is: Will they get away with it?
National Republican Congressional Committee
Standing in the breach of this potential political suicide mission are congressional Republicans, who were recently advised by the National Republican Congressional Committee, their political fund, to no longer hold town hall events where constituents can press them on Musk’s firings and cuts. O’Malley says at least one Republican congressperson is acutely aware of the pitfalls that lie in wait should the agency and the benefits it provides fail.
“They have no idea the public blowback they’re about to get,” the congressperson said, according to O’Malley.
The SSA and the White House did not respond to requests for comment for this story. The employees in this story have been granted anonymity to speak freely without fear of retribution.
O’Malley says it’s now up to the American people to pressure Republican lawmakers into stopping the agency’s destruction.
“The question now being put on the table of this democratic republic is — will you let them destroy your Social Security?” he tells US NEWS. “To govern is to choose. And the people are still in charge, for the time-being, in our country.”