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Even as President Donald Trump has claimed there will be no cuts to Social Security payments, there are widespread fears among recipients and Democrats that the retirement and disability program will be slashed.
More than 70 million people receive benefits via the Social Security Administration (SSA), with more than 20 percent of the federal budget for the 2024 fiscal year being spent on the program, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.
The agency is being scrutinized by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, who claims that his team has found billions of dollars worth of waste and fraud in the federal government. He has frequently made the assertion that dead people are receiving Social Security benefits.
In his first major speech since leaving the White House, former President Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration’s efforts to cut down the SSA on Tuesday night as he appeared at the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago.
“Seriously, people are now genuinely concerned for the first time in history, for the first and only time in history, that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted,” said Biden.
“In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They’ve gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during the pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now, for the first time ever, that might change. It would be a calamity for millions of families, millions of people,” he argued.
“Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?” Biden questioned. “Well, they’re following that old line from tech startups. The quote is, ‘Move fast, break things.’ They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later.”
“The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights,” he noted.
The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 jobs out of a staff of 57,000 from the SSA, prompting concerns that some payments may be delayed or cancelled and that SSA offices may be closed.
Biden quoted former Maryland governor and SSA administrator Martin O’Malley as he said the Trump administration “wants to wreck it so they could rob it.”
“Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations, and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations,” said Biden. “That’s going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for when they continue to run the deficit up?”
Biden said the administration will cut taxes for the wealthy by “running up the national debt” and then “by taking money from someplace else.”
“What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid,” Biden noted, adding that Republicans “are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy [friends]. Who in the hell do they think they are?”
The official SSA account on X took aim at Biden’s claims, claiming that he was “lying to Americans.”
In a thread of several posts, the SSA argued that Trump has “repeatedly promised to protect Social Security” and to make sure that seniors end up with more money in their pockets by ending taxes on Social Security benefits. The SSA also argued that they have not “permanently closed any field offices.”
The agency has introduced new rules for identification procedures that require some beneficiaries to visit field offices or go online instead of conducting their business via phone, which is likely to make it harder for some recipients to get hold of their benefits.
The SSA said on March 18 that they would be “implementing stronger identity verification procedures” that will force millions to prove their identities in-person instead of over the phone.
The following day, the executive vice president of the AARP, Nancy LeaMond, said in a statement that, “Requiring rural Americans to go into an office can mean having to take a day off of work and drive for hours merely to fill out paperwork.”
“We urge the agency to reverse this decision, or for Congress to step in and stand up for older Americans everywhere,” she added.
The SSA has since backtracked on parts of these new procedures, stating on its site on March 26 that some people will be exempt and will be allowed to apply for Medicare, Disability, or Supplemental Security Income in other ways.
Even as Elon Musk has claimed that Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” the Trump administration has said it will not cut the program. However, officials have called for cutting waste and fraud within the agency. Musk has also argued that “the waste and fraud in entitlement spending” is the “big one to eliminate.”
Trump’s nominee to lead the SSA, Frank Bisignano, the CEO of Fiserv, a payment processing firm, stated during his March 25 confirmation hearing that he was not intending to cut benefits. But with staff cuts at the SSA, the agency may be unable to deliver the congressionally mandated benefits, critics charge.
