GOP's Social Security Chainsaw Threatens Millions - The Thursday AM Quickie 3/20/25
I'm sad to see Jacob move on from the newsletter, but I'm glad to know he'll continue to do great work as a freelancer and author, and I'll be sure to highlight it here. We'll be welcoming a new co-writer to the newsletter soon. In the meantime, get used to my name in your inbox. - Corey
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3/20: It's an EmMajority Report Thursday!
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Today you'll read about Donald Trump's latest attempt to shake down Volodymyr Zelenskyy, what's in the big batch of files on the JFK assassination that just got released, and an encouraging victory for free speech in Miami Beach.
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THE BIG NEWS
MAGA Meddling in Social Security Will Force Millions of Elderly Beneficiaries to Make in-Person Office Visits
Acting Social Security commissioner Leland Dudek, a craven suckup to Elon Musk and Donald Trump and confessed bully, has been helping the Nazi-saluting oligarch and his US DOGE Service gut the guaranteed anti-poverty program, even though he knows that a collapse of the system would be, in his words, "catastrophic for the people in our country." The latest outrage they've cooked up will make life harder for an estimated 4.4 million Americans – and intentionally sabotage the popular program.
In a call with reporters yesterday, Dudek announced that the agency will no longer allow beneficiaries to verify their identies by phone in the name of fighting imaginary "fraud." Instead, people, many of them elderly and disabled, will have to fumble their way through an online system or show up to a Social Security office in person – even as the Trump administration prepares to close dozens of agency offices across the country.
Connecticut Rep. John Larson, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, says "Trump and Musk are trying to create chaos and inefficiencies at SSA so they can privatize the system." Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York calls the changes part of "a full-blown attack on Social Security," warning constitutents that "Elon Musk is trying to take away benefits you earned."
The agency will be training frontline employees and managers about the policy change over the next two weeks, the Associated Press reports. Advocates are deeply concerned and agree the changes are part of a push to privatize the program. Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, warns that "this will make it far harder for the American people to claim their earned benefits. It could even cause major delays, and ultimately collapse the system, by overwhelming the field offices."
Many beneficiaries are terrified. "What would happen if I didn’t get that check?" one 80-year-old New Yorker, Sandi Bachom, tells the AP. She credits Social Security with saving her life. "We shouldn't have to be freaked out at this age that somebody is going to rob us," she says.