Since 1935, the Social Security Administration has provided the American people financial protection for millions of citizens, created on the promise that the most vulnerable people in our society should be able to maintain a basic standard of living.
However, with the reelection of Donald Trump and the “Move fast and break things” approach that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have been taking to our services and staff, the stability of the program is in doubt.
As a technician with Social Security, I have seen firsthand the damage done to the agency, and so have many of my colleagues.
Since the implementation of DOGE, computer system issues have plagued us as our information technology budgets have been slashed.
Understaffing across the board has led to case backlogs going back years, with no end in sight. Beneficiaries are forced to wait for hours on hold or a call back for even basic services such as a bank or address update.
And if they even manage to get to one of the wonderful people who staff our teleservice centers, they may be forced to wait weeks or months to get an appointment to go into their local field office to prove their identity even to make this one simple change.
Our regional offices have been reduced, eliminating crucial support to our field offices and our beneficiaries.
“But these efforts will eliminate waste, and combat fraud and abuse,” people will say.
In fact, I have heard this tired refrain for the past 100 days.
My answer is this: It has not. In fact, all it has done is cause chaos within the agency as we are forced to scramble to parse whatever policy change was coming down that day.
This is also going on outside the agency, undermining the public trust.
This is all by design.
It seems clear to me that what Musk and the forces allied with the administration want is nothing short of privatization of the nation’s most efficient federal program, made so by the valiant efforts of the career civil servants that staff the SSA.
The lies of the administration are laid bare because, despite their promises that Social Security benefits wouldn’t be harmed, the inefficiencies that have been created under this utter failure of the leadership of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, under the orders of DOGE sycophants who have been embedded within my agency, have started the death spiral of a program that has served the American public faithfully for 90 years.
I wish this weren’t so. I wish this weren’t the reality we live in.
The damage done to Social Security and across the federal government will be felt for generations.
About the author: Mack Sloan is a federal worker at the Social Security Administration in Kansas City.
