Category: Health – Happiness

DOGE Wants to Cripple Social Security Phone Services

Rolling Stone

DOGE Wants to Cripple Social Security Phone Services

Nikki McCann Ramirez – March 18, 2025

Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is planning to restructure the Social Security Administration’s phone support services in a move that could force millions of seniors to require in-person services from the already understaffed agency.

According to a leaked memo obtained by Popular Information and later reported by Axios, Acting Deputy SSA Commissioner Doris Diaz proposed adding additional online identity verification to Social Security claims processing in an effort to clamp down on alleged payment fraud. In reality, Social Security fraud is quite rare, affecting less than 1 percent of payments between 2015-2022. By Diaz’s own admission, the additional identity verification could cause increased wait times, and potentially delay or deny services to vulnerable seniors.

In the leaked memo, Diaz suggests that the SSA use “current internet identity proofing, for agency benefits claims and direct deposit changes done over the phone. For instances where a customer is unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identifying documentation.”

Social Security recipients are already required to go through an identity verification process if they utilize the agency’s phone service, and discrepancies are typically resolved by mailing copies of identifying documents to the SSA for verification. A former SSA official told Axios that the memo was crafted at DOGE’s request.

Requiring in-person verification would, as Diaz herself wrote, result in “75,000-85,000 additional visitors per week” to SSA offices, “longer wait times and processing time,” “increased challenges for vulnerable populations,” a higher demand for “resources, staff, and systems updates,” and “increased costs for identity proofing services and potential budget shortfalls.”

Sounds awful, so why do it? Well, the most likely result would be that thousands of people — either through delays, roadblocks, or inability to access in-person services — will stop receiving social security payments. Fewer payments mean less spending on Social Security, and that’s ultimately the Trump administration’s goal.

Last week, amid rumors that SSA telephone services would be cut off entirely, the agency issued a press release stating that phone services would remain available. “SA is increasing its protection for America’s seniors and other beneficiaries by eliminating the risk of fraud associated with changing bank account information by telephone,” the agency wrote.

DOGE’s incursion into the SSA has already wreaked havoc on the agency. Musk has accused the program of being “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” and falsely claimed that millions of payments are going out to dead individuals who are over 120 years old. Ten SSA field offices have already been shut down by DOGE, and Musk is floating over $700 billion in cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicaid.

As previously reported by Rolling Stone, the Trump administration is also planning to offload the cost of overpayments and other errors made by SSA officials onto the seniors who receive them. Earlier this month, interim SSA chief Leland Dudek announced that the agency would be increasing the amount of money it withheld from social security recipients who had been overpaid from 10-100 percent — potentially their entire check. For the millions of elderly Americans who rely on social security to make ends meet, an error made by the government could result in a devastating penalty.

Essentially, the Trump administration’s plan to cut back on Social Security seems to be focused on making it more difficult to access benefits, and increasing the amount of money they can withhold from recipients.

Questions also remain about what kind of access Musk and DOGE have to the troves of sensitive personal data housed and managed by the SSA. In February, Acting Social Security Commissioner Michelle King stepped down from her post after refusing to provide representatives from DOGE access to systems containing sensitive recipient data. Similar conflicts have taken place at other agencies, including the treasury.

On Tuesday, top Democrats on the House Oversight Committee issued a letter demanding that Musk and the Trump administration comply with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for “details on who really is in charge at DOGE, the scope of its authority to shutter federal agencies and get rid of more than 100,000 federal employees, the extent of its access to the government’s most sensitive databases, and whether DOGE is serving the interests of the American people or the interests of Mr. Musk’s companies and his foreign customers.”

“By filing these FOIA requests, which every American has the right to make in order to demand transparency from our government,” wrote Ranking Members Gerald Connolly (D-Va.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). “The President, Mr. Musk, and DOGE can and will be held accountable to the American people, the original and ultimate source of all sovereign power in the United States of America.”

Not even our fallen at Arlington National Cemetery escape Trump’s DEI hate

USA Today – Opinion

Not even our fallen at Arlington National Cemetery escape Trump’s DEI hate | Opinion

EJ Montini, Arizona Republic – March 18, 2025

It turns out that even the dead must suffer idiotic consequences from Donald Trump’s derangement over any hint of diversity, equity and inclusion.

Worse still, the edicts coming from the White House are now dishonoring the heroes buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

The military news website Task & Purpose reported that “the cemetery’s public website has scrubbed dozens of pages on gravesites and educational materials that include histories of prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members buried in the cemetery, along with educational material on dozens of Medal of Honor recipients and maps of prominent gravesites of Marine Corps veterans and other services.”

Flags are placed at headstones to honor individuals laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.
Flags are placed at headstones to honor individuals laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Cemetery officials said it was done to comply with anti-DEI orders from Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Dishonoring Black, Hispanic and female heroes over DEI

The article noted that links to three lists of Black, Hispanic and female service members buried at the cemetery were removed, as well as documents from an education section.

It added that a section talking about Black soldiers in World War II originally saying they had “served their country and fought for racial justice” was altered to say only that cemetery memorials “honor their dedication and service.”

Those who served and sacrificed deserve better.

Opinion: Elon Musk called a combat veteran a ‘traitor.’ No American should tolerate it.

Lesson plans available for teachers covering topics that included Women’s History and Medal of Honor recipients were removed.

An Army spokesperson at Arlington told Task & Purpose, “The Army has taken immediate steps to comply with all executive orders related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) personnel, programs, and policies.

“The Army will continue to review its personnel, policies, and programs to ensure it remains in compliance with law and presidential orders. Social media and web pages were removed, archived, or changed to avoid noncompliance with executive orders.”

Actually, Arlington is the most egalitarian place in America

I’m not sure there is anything at Arlington that could indicate any form of “noncompliance with executive orders” having to do with DEI.

The suggestion that such a thing is possible makes me sick. It should make us all sick.

Opinion: I’m a trans veteran. Service members like me need a lifeline more than ever.

I have been to Arlington several times.

It is the most egalitarian community in America. There is nothing in the open expanses or tree-covered hills of the cemetery’s 639 acres distinguishing those resting there by way of race or gender or ethnicity.

Only row after row after row of silent heroes, more than 400,000 of them, each of their graves marked by a simple white marble headstone.

EJ Montini is a columnist for the Arizona Republic.

Proposed Trump policy could force thousands of citizens applying for Social Security benefits to verify their identities in person

Fortune

Proposed Trump policy could force thousands of citizens applying for Social Security benefits to verify their identities in person

Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez – March 18, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump (left) and Elon Musk speak in the White House on March 14, 2025.

Trump’s Social Security Administration proposed a major change that could force thousands of people every week to show up at a shrinking list of field offices before they can receive benefits.

In an effort to combat fraud, the SSA has suggested that citizens applying for Social Security or disability benefits over the phone would also need to, for the first time, verify their identities using an online program called “internet ID proofing,” according to an internal memo viewed by the Washington Post.

If they can’t verify their identity online, they will have to file paperwork at their nearest field office, according to the memo sent last week by Acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations Doris Diaz to Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek.

The memo acknowledged the potential change could force an estimated 75,000 to 85,000 people per week to seek out field offices to confirm their identities and could lead to “increased challenges for vulnerable populations,” “longer wait times and processing time,” and “increased demand for office appointments,” the memo read, according to the Post.

The change would disproportionately affect older populations who may not be internet savvy, and those with disabilities. Claimants seeking a field office will also have fewer to choose from, as more than 40 of 1,200 are estimated to close, the New York Times reported, citing advocacy group Social Security Works. The list of offices slated to close is based on an unreliable list released by DOGE, according to Social Security Works. Elon Musk’s DOGE has also said it will cut 7,000 of the SSA’s 57,000 employees.

The White House and the Social Security Administration did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.

The SSA previously considered scrapping telephone service for claims, the Post reported, but backtracked after a report by the outlet. Regardless, the SSA said claimants looking to change their bank account information will now need to do so either online or in-person and could no longer do so over the phone.

Almost every transaction at a field office requires an appointment that already takes months to realize, according to the Post. 

The White House has repeatedly said it will not cut Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits, and has said any changes are to cut back on fraud. A July 2024 report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general estimated that between fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2022, the SSA sent out $8.6 trillion in disbursements. Fewer than 1% of the disbursements, or $71.8 billion worth, were improper payments, according to the report.

Acting Social Security Commissioner Dudek said for phone calls, the agency is “exploring ways to implement AI—in a safe, governed manner in accordance with” guidance from the Office of Management and Budget “to streamline and improve call resolution,” according to a Tuesday memo obtained by NBC News.

Dudek mentioned in the memo that the agency has been frequently mentioned in the media, which has been stressing out employees.

“Over the past month, this agency has seen an unprecedented level of media coverage, some of it true and deserved, while some has not been factual and painted the agency in a very negative light,” he wrote. “I know this has been stressful for you and has caused disruption in your life. Personally, I have made some mistakes, which makes me human like you. I promise you this, I will continue to make mistakes, but I will learn from them. My decisions will always be with the best intentions for this agency, the people we serve, and you.”

musk is a sociopathetic excuse for a human being: Elon Musk’s war on Social Security unmasks the GOP’s true disdain for retirees

Salon

Elon Musk’s war on Social Security unmasks the GOP’s true disdain for retirees

Amanda Marcotte – March 18, 2025

Elon Musk Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images
Elon Musk Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images

“Social Security is not being touched,” Republican Rep. Bill Huizenga tried to assuage his panicked Michigan constituents earlier this month. The congressman may be misinformed or simply lying. Either way, his words were not true. Social Security is facing an all-out assault from Elon Musk‘s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) — and voters know it.

“We worked our entire life,” one panicked retiree declared at Huizenga’s most recent town hall, held via teleconference. “But we can’t get any help because we can’t get through to anybody.” The former teacher was featured in an Associated Press report from the weekend detailing how angry and frightened Social Security recipients are storming town halls, begging their congressional representatives to stop Musk’s misnamed DOGE from taking away their benefits. Donald Trump won this part of the state with over 60% of the vote, but now voters are begging their Republican representative to save them from the consequences of their electoral choices.

As the New York Times reported Monday, Musk’s DOGE “has taken its chain saw to the agency’s operations,” trying to institute mass layoffs and office closures, which “could create gaping holes in the agency’s infrastructure, destabilizing the program.” There have even been efforts to destroy the phone service that allows beneficiaries to call the Social Security Administration for help. On Monday, Popular Info released a leaked memo from Trump’s management to Social Security workers, detailing how the administration is well aware that the planned cuts will dramatically increase “demand for office appointments” — even as Musk is shutting down offices, making those appointments even harder to secure. The result, according to Trump’s own appointees, will be “service disruption,” and “delayed processing” of payments to retirees.

Want more Amanda Marcotte on politics? Subscribe to her newsletter Standing Room Only.

Musk loves to play word games when defending his assault on a program that helps keep millions of elderly and disabled people from falling into poverty. He insists he’s merely trying to attack “waste and fraud” in the program, falsely claiming that $700 billion a year can be categorized this way. (Reality-based assessments show that it’s likely less than 1% of that figure for the entire federal government, not just Social Security.) To justify this outright disinformation, Musk has insisted that “millions of people” getting Social Security checks are “definitely dead,” calling them “vampires” and declaring “tax dollars are being stolen.”Advertisement

It’s not true, and we can call this a lie, because Musk has repeatedly been told the retirees he calls “definitely dead” are very much alive. He refuses to back down or admit he was wrong. Instead, he disparages Social Security altogether. “Social Security is the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time,” he declared on Joe Rogan’s show earlier this month. Musk has long obsessed over the idea that low birthrates and the subsequent aging population are “the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” While he tends to emphasize the “more babies” part of the equation to fix this alleged problem, it’s not much of a leap to see that “fewer old people” would also get the job done. Musk is savvy enough to know better than to say this about the U.S., but he’s been happy to say it of France, denouncing the nation for having a retirement age of 62, only three years short of the U.S. He complains these retirement ages were “set when life spans were much shorter” and it’s “impossible for a small number of workers to support a massive number of retirees.”

Musk frames retired people in parasitical terms, not seeing them as those who have paid their dues and have earned their reward. In light of that, when he speaks of “waste” in Social Security, he’s hinting at this broader view that retired people are inherently illegitimate. While he couches language like “vampire” and “fraud” in false claims that he’s talking about illegal payments, the accumulated impact of his rhetoric is to demonize elderly people as a useless burden on society. When the end goal is “efficiency,” it’s easy to get to this view that retired people are an “inefficiency” and “redundancy” that should no longer be funded.

The ugly attitude towards elderly people is an inevitable result of the profoundly anti-human views and ideology of Musk and his compatriots in the tech billionaire world. Tech journalist Kara Swisher, who has covered Musk for decades now, explained to the New York Times that the billionaire views himself as “the person who matters the most,” and that “everybody else is an N.P.C. — a nonplayer character,” which is video game slang for preprogrammed characters in a video game.

Musk hinted at this during his Rogan interview, complaining, “The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy, the empathy exploit.” While insisting “you should care about other people,” he made it clear this was rear-covering nonsense. His larger point was that empathy is “civilizational suicidal” and “the empathy response” is “a bug in Western civilization.” The larger interview painted a picture of a man full of contempt for other people, with all their needs and subjective experiences, when he would rather they be compliant automatons who fulfill his demands without resistance. He fantasized about replacing people with “artificial intelligence” and robots, even talking up the incel-inflected dream of replacing women with sex robots.

Musk and his fellow techno-fascists often cast themselves as the saviors of “civilization,” but that rhetoric is only there to put an ennobling gloss on a deeply sociopathic view: that human beings exist to serve the system, and not that the system is there to serve humanity. In this case, the system is capitalism, which has taken on a near-religious status to Silicon Valley’s billionaire elite. It’s an attitude that’s inherently eugenicist, measuring people’s value solely in terms of whether they can be utilized to make more money for the already-wealthy investor class. It’s why Musk has no respect for federal workers whose labor is centered around helping people, not profits. And it’s certainly not a worldview that has space for retirees, people who, by definition, are out of the paid labor market.

Causing people who have earned their Social Security to lose benefits doesn’t look like an unintended consequence of “efficiency.” It’s becoming clear that it is Musk’s end goal.

US Institute of Peace says DOGE has broken into its building

Associated Press

US Institute of Peace says DOGE has broken into its building

Matthew Lee – March 17, 2025

The United State Institute of Peace building is seen, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESS
The United State Institute of Peace building is seen, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency have entered the U.S. Institute of Peace despite protests from the nonprofit that it is not part of the executive branch and is instead an independent agency.

The organization’s CEO, George Moose, said, “DOGE has broken into our building.”

The DOGE workers gained access to the building after several unsuccessful attempts Monday and after having been turned away on Friday, a senior U.S. Institute of Peace official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

It was not immediately clear what the DOGE staffers were doing or looking for in the nonprofit’s building, which is across the street from the State Department in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood.

DOGE has expressed interest in the nonprofit for weeks but has been rebuffed by lawyers who argued that the institute’s status protected it from the kind of reorganization that is occurring in other federal agencies.

The U.S. Institute of Peace says on its website that it’s a nonpartisan, independent organization “dedicated to protecting U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad.”

The nonprofit says it was created by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,“ and it does not meet U.S. Code definitions of “government corporation,” “government-controlled corporation” or “independent establishment.”

Trump Memo Reveals Plan to Throw Social Security Into Chaos

The New Republic

Trump Memo Reveals Plan to Throw Social Security Into Chaos

Hafiz Rashid – March 17, 2025

The Trump administration plans to upend and cripple the Social Security claims process, according to a memo obtained by Popular Information.

An internal  Social Security Administration memo, sent on March 13, outlines changes to the agency that would cause processing delays and prevent Americans from applying for as well as receiving benefits, ostensibly to reduce “fraud risks” according to its author, acting Deputy Commissioner Doris Diaz.

The changes include requiring that people seeking benefits provide proof of identity over the internet for benefit claims made over the phone. If someone is “unable to utilize the internet ID proofing, customers will be required to visit a field office to provide in-person identity documentation.”

Right now, Social Security claims and identity verification can be done over the phone thanks to staffers answering calls on its toll-free number. Actual fraud is rare, because people have to provide multiple pieces of personal information, checked against medical records, bank statements, pay stubs, and tax returns, depending on the type of claim. 

Beyond that, if there are any discrepancies, an applicant might have to mail their birth certificate to the agency. This entire process allows people who are elderly or disabled, and thus have difficulty accessing the internet or visiting a physical office, to apply for and collect Social Security benefits. 

Introducing internet verification would be a significant hardship to the 40 percent of Social Security beneficiaries who depend on the phone service. If they can’t use the internet system, they would also have to visit a physical location. Diaz’s own memo estimates that 75,000 to 85,000 people would have to visit Social Security offices under the new policy. 

But even before the Department of Government Efficiency’s massive cuts to the agency, the SSA’s physical offices had an average wait time of more than a month. They don’t accept walk-ins and would not be able to accommodate such a large increase in foot traffic. 

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner, Leland Dudek, recently announced further cuts of 7,000 employees, or about 12 percent of the agency. Physical offices around the country are being closed, and some people are more than 100 miles away from the nearest location. On top of that, one day before the memo was issued, the agency was reportedly considering ending its phone service altogether due to misguided concerns from DOGE over widespread fraud.

After an outcry over ending the phone service, the SSA denied that it was being eliminated, with this memo appearing to be a workaround. Even still, if these changes go through, many disabled and elderly people will have major difficulties in getting their benefits and may end up losing them altogether. The memo foresees this, stating there will be “service disruption,” “operational strain,” and “budget shortfalls.” All of that is a euphemism for causing irreparable damage to Social Security.

musk’s DOGE wants to punish children with reading disabilities; what would his own 14 children think about that: For So Many Children, This Is What Reading Feels Like

By James Robinson – March 16, 2025

CreditCredit…

Mr. Robinson is a video producer for Times Opinion and the author of the forthcoming memoir “Whale Eyes,” from which this article is adapted.

When you’re a struggling reader, there’s no amount of motivation that can power you through the sludge of an opening paragraph. Because no matter how intrigued you may be by the topic, when you get to around here, the words begin to fa l t e r.

T h e s e n t e n c e s s l o w d o w n.

Y o u ha ve t o co n cen trat e s o h a r d t o e n s u r e t h a tyo u ca n r em em ber th e b eg inn i n g o f th e sen t e n ce b y t h et i m e

y o um a k e i t t o t h e en d.

And you wonder: What would it be like to make it to the bottom of an article?

Your mind twists around a question: How is it possible that some people can do this so easily? Yet you can’t.

It’s a visceral experience. Of frustration. And raw insecurity.

A graphic of the word “Why?” repeated and jumbled to form a mass.

It feels like the words have given up on you.

It’s tempting to skip to a short paragraph. You should be able to make your way through that. But without context, even a short paragraph doesn’t make sense; you’re confused.

How is it that so many people use these forms to gain a grasp of the world? When you can hardly grasp each word.

I know this experience of reading because for much of my childhood it was my own. For me, the cause was alternating exotropia. I see out of one eye at a time, and every few seconds the words jump back and forth on the page. For others it is dyslexia or ADHD, or simply a lack of resources.

Since the onset of the Covid pandemic, America’s reading scores have plummeted. Students at the top are still succeeding. But a record percentage of eighth graders failed to meet even the lowest “basic” benchmark.

Thesearestudentsforwhomforwhomakingtheirwaythroughtexttheirwaythroughtextfeelslikethis.

These students are soon to be victims of America’s great reading absurdity: Precisely at the moment when reading scores have reached an all-time low, the Trump administration and the Republican Party are stripping away the protections and resources that help children who struggle to read.

A graphic composed of the words “Why is this so hard for me” repeated and jumbled to form a black cloud. The letters “A” “B” “C” “D” “O” “G” “E” are printed on top of the cloud.

On the federal level, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has already taken an ax to critical research initiatives. This includes canceling Education Department contracts with organizations such as the Regional Educational Laboratories, one of which played a major role in the “Mississippi Miracle,” helping the state jump from 49th to 29th in fourth-grade reading scores between 2013 and 2019. (The department has said it will enter into new contracts.) On Tuesday, more than 1,300 Education Department workers were fired, including almost half of the office responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination protections for students with disabilities.

At the state level, school voucher programs are siphoning hundreds of millions of dollars away from public school systems into private schools, which are not required to offer the same level of support to disabled students.

Meanwhile, 17 states sued the Department of Health and Human Services last year in response to updated Biden administration regulations, asking the courts to declare Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act — the bedrock of disability rights legislation in the United States — unconstitutional. The suit poses a threat to the roughly 1.6 million children in America who depend on the law for accommodations like assistive technology and modifications to testing procedures. (While many of the attorneys general on the lawsuit have since said they are not seeking to overturn Section 504 entirely, some legal experts are skeptical.)

Collectively, these measures amount to an attack on those struggling to read — those who, at this point, would not be able to identify the position of this article, its core argument, or what is at stake.

F o r ast r u ggli ng r e ade r, r ea c hin g t h e b ot tom o f the pa ge ca n fe el like a dre am.

You wonder if there will ever be a time when your eyes reach this point on the page and you’ll carry with you an understanding of all the words stacked above.

For decades, Republicans and Democrats have agreed that no matter where you grew up or how your brain sees and processes these shapes, our public school system should help you to understand the words on this page. Reading is a basic right.

But as long as our answer to low scores is to slash support for struggling readers, we risk turning this right into a privilege.