Social Security Crisis, A Town Elon Musk Cut Off From Social Security: More Perfect Union

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Sun Jun 7, 2026, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Visit to a Social Security office in Iowa that has been closed for months. 70 million people receive Social Security checks each month. Thousands of Social Security employees left the agency in 2025. By More Perfect Union, May 21, 2026. (10:43 mins).

Description: Despite his promises to protect Social Security, Trump is cutting it by defunding the agency that runs Social Security. Funding cuts to the agency are resulting in local/field office closures, reduced staff at Social Security offices, long wait times for telephone assistance and encouraging computer use for transactions.

DOGE (Dept. of Govt. Efficiency) slashed 7,000 agency staff - and local offices nationwide are shuttering. 70 million Americans are navigating a crisis to get the payments they need. "It's almost like you're being punished."
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*Also: MUSK'S LEGACY: "Stroke survivor can't access benefits as Social Security engulfed in 'turmoil' under Trump," DU, Dec. 2025.
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Also hampering the SSA’s work have been new regulations put in place by Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency that bar beneficiaries from making changes to their direct deposit information over the phone, instead requiring them to either appear in person at a field office or go online.

The Indiana SSA worker told the Post of a recent case involving a 75-year-old man who recently suffered a major stroke that left him unable to drive to the local field office to verify information needed to change his banking information. The man also said he did not have access to a computer to help him change the information online.

“I had to sit there on the phone and tell this guy, ‘You have to find someone to come in... or, do you have a relative with a computer who can help you or something like that?’” the employee said. “He was just like, ‘No, no, no.’”...Read More,
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220897945

[RockRaven]

1. Blaming "Musk" or "DOGE" gives cover to the real culprits: Republicans.

Stop blaming Musk. He holds no office and is on no ballot. This was the action of a Republican president unchecked by neither Republican majorities in Congress nor a Republican judiciary.

[appalachiablue]

3. I don't know MPU's reasoning other than Musk puts a Face on the action. And maybe because AI, tech

and powerful billionaires are unpopular in parts of the country these days.

[Blue Owl]

5. And what a smug, punchable face it is

Let’s go to town on that Muskmelon…..

[ShazzieB]

8. Ngl, Musk creeps me out.

He's cold as ice, slimy as a slug, and slippery as an eel. *shudder*

With Trump, everything is out there on full display so you know what you're dealing with. With Musk, it's impossible to tell what's going on behind that smug exterior. I would compare him to a snake, but I like snakes and they don't deserve that. 🐍

[GiqueCee]

4. Corrupt Republicans - is there any other kind...

... greased the skids, no question, but it was Musk and his malignant minions, enabled by Trump and the Republicans, that drove the blade home repeatedly, so that evil fuck doesn't get a pass as far as I'm concerned. And there's no telling how much taxpayer money wound up in his, and Trump's, pockets. Like Trump, Musk is a very bad man-child, but he's much smarter, which makes him all the more dangerous.
Here's hoping that Ketamine poisoning, or any other method of dispatch, catches up to him soon. This afternoon would be nice.

[ShazzieB]

7. No, Musk deserves a generous share of the blame.

It's true the Orange One gave him the power, but Musk and his little DOGE boys did the actual dirty work. The Muskrat's hands are just as dirty as Trump's.

[yellow dahlia]

2. Bookmarking

[Beartracks]

6. Efficiency isn't efficiency without effectiveness.

I should think that, by definition, decreasing a program's effectiveness means you have not increased its efficiency, no matter how much less money is now being spent. Focusing strictly on the dollars as a supposed measure of efficiency is just another smoky mirror from Republicans to act ideologically against common sense, Congressional mandates, and the needs of real Americans. Efficiency is a measure of program delivery per dollar spent, where delivery is the success of the program, i.e. how effective it is at achieving its goals. However, if the delivery of services suffers from budget cuts so that the program can no longer successfully achieve its goals, then efficiency is not what's happening. Bullshit is.

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