Is social security really at risk of going away ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you see this?


https://www.instagram.com/realdlhughley/reel/DHee1q3y8ZW/


"I describe it to people this way: Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who is 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't. She'd think something got messed up, and she'll get it next month," said Lutnick, who paid for his 16,250 square-foot mansion with $25 million in cash. "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining."


"Elon [Musk] knows this by heart," he continued. "Anyone who's been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen. Because whoever screams is the one stealing!""

Lutnick is yet another example of a rich guy who has no clue how regular people live.

I really think the answer is to throw these guys into Gitmo and see how much they’re willing to pay in order to live free again.

Did you miss when Trump announced this as the new immigration plan? Either join Trump's brownshirt army physically attacking Americans, or pay $5M for your Gold Card, or get shipped to a Salvadoran prison.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you see this?


https://www.instagram.com/realdlhughley/reel/DHee1q3y8ZW/


"I describe it to people this way: Let's say Social Security didn't send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who is 94, she wouldn't call and complain. She just wouldn't. She'd think something got messed up, and she'll get it next month," said Lutnick, who paid for his 16,250 square-foot mansion with $25 million in cash. "A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining."


"Elon [Musk] knows this by heart," he continued. "Anyone who's been in the payment system and the process system knows the easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop payments and listen. Because whoever screams is the one stealing!""

My great aunt would call and complain and she started working when she was 16 as the earned effing or my that be as he he receives from SS. I know people who rely on their SS and it would be catastrophic if they didn't receive their check. The elderly worked when salaries were miniscule compared to what they are today and to many SS is their life line.


Elderly

Musk, who lives on the government teat, will declare your great aunt a criminal, and Attorney General Bondi will prosecute her as a terrorist, and Trump will put her on a plane to El Salvador. Promises made. Promises kept.

[Anonymous]

The sooner they mess with SS, the faster the backlash will come. That's the GOOD news here.

[Anonymous]

Well, w/o social security the Dickensian debtors prisons may come back with a vengeance. I hope not. (They still exist in some benign form.) I don’t think the U.S. would ever send senior citizen debtors to the notorious prison in El Salvador. But who knows in this day and age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

Musk can’t seem to make a safe car, a safe rocket, nor a safe brain implant. His X goes down at the drop of a DDoS hat. His lotto is move fast and break things.

And you want to turn over the lifeline to millions of seniors to his merry band of overconfident idiot savants who don’t even know what COBOL is?

GTFO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Boomers. We warned you. You seemed to be under the mistaken impression that you could flirt with oligarchy and still get yours, and all the problems would get punted to your children to solve. The truth is you’re just too expensive as a generation, and Thiel and Musk and Bezos and all their billionaire friends think they have better uses for their tax dollars than supporting your elder years.

Yes, I know you paid in your whole lives, but that money was spent long ago on Bush’s wars and other things you voted for. It was never sitting in a special account with your name on it making guaranteed money. It’s just a huge liability that needs to be paid now.

If you want to save your elderly years you need to start convincing your congressmen that they have more to fear from crossing you than crossing the Heritage Foundation. You’re retired and I know you have time on your hands. Pick up the phone and save yourselves. I’m too busy looking after my family and figuring out how I’m going to survive the recession to stick my neck out for people who put me in this spot.

Oh... we're still doing the "blame Boomers for this mess" thing? I thought that had run its course, given all the male GenZers who helped elect Trump this time around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

I think every sentence you wrote is factually incorrect.
* Elon Musk can't fix anything because he's not a technical person. He buys other peoples intellectual property. His attempts to reengineer X have been disastrous.
* SS is not going to become "insolvent". It's a pay-go system that also relies on a Trust Fund to make up for gaps when the demography is unfavorable. If the Trust Fund runs dry, 75% of payments can still be made based on current payroll taxes. That's not insolvent. Relatively small fixes to retirement age or income caps can restore the health of the Trust Fund if Congress were serious about helping. So stop with scare tactics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

I think every sentence you wrote is factually incorrect.
* Elon Musk can't fix anything because he's not a technical person. He buys other peoples intellectual property. His attempts to reengineer X have been disastrous.
* SS is not going to become "insolvent". It's a pay-go system that also relies on a Trust Fund to make up for gaps when the demography is unfavorable. If the Trust Fund runs dry, 75% of payments can still be made based on current payroll taxes. That's not insolvent. Relatively small fixes to retirement age or income caps can restore the health of the Trust Fund if Congress were serious about helping. So stop with scare tactics.

Yes, that is what insolvent means that you can’t pay the promised amount in full. What did you say, it can pay 75 percent of benefits? And you think a “relatively small fix” to retirement age is magically not the same thing as cutting benefits by 25 percent? Don’t pretend it is a small problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

It takes money to do the massive computer upgrade SSA needs. Money that Congress— Dem and R controlled— haven’t allocated. So they just patch on a partial new system to manage anew workload or regulation or policy change as needed. Because that’s what they can afford. It’s 1970s and 2020 technology having to work together and held together with straws and chewing gum.

And I wonder, what could be so complex about a system with all the financial and banking and work history and tax and birth and death and parentage and immigration and marriage information, etc, etc about every single American citizen and many permanent residents Americans, coming in from 50 states and abroad and from multiple federal agencies— and used to administer not just retirement, but survivors befits, spouses benefits, widows benefits, etc. Oh— and add on that half the agency’s workload is disability, which requires getting and reviewing medical for tens of millions of Americans that come from every medical provider in the country, from solo MD partitions who still handwrite notes and stick them in an envelope and mail them to megacorps who send in records electronically. 15 years ago, the disability files were all paper. Some still are. 5 years ago almost all retirement appeals were paper. They are just now being made electronic. And it requires documenting not just underlying eligibility for benefit which is complex in many cases, but financial entitlement for programs like SSI.

The IRS, SBA, treasury, department of Ed, etc, etc they have some of the records. Musk is parked at SSA and pitching a temper tantrum because SSA has ALL THE RECORDS and receives them from the different programs at each department, plus all the different ways doctors, companies and people submit. For 350 million people.

What could be complex about that?

Plus, the underlying Regs are a beast. You work for a company your whole life, get a W2, get retirement. That’s easy. But, not everyone lives on W2 income. Not everyone is being paid on their own earning record. And making disability determinations is its own complex regulatory monster. It takes subject matter experts. You aren’t one if you think it’s just pressing a button for folks with well documented W2 income. Is there a common law marriage in the claimants state? Has parentage been proven? Has someone who is self employed earned a quarter of coverage? Does a 60 year old with an high school education and semi-skilled past work have transferrable skills with little or no vocational adjustment— working with a vocational database whose job list predates computers? Because if the don’t they anre disabled otherwise, they are. Easy easy lemon sqeasy, amirite?

But to answer your question— the updates requires would be a massive expenditure. And Musk isn’t in the massive expenditure on SSA business. Neither is Congress. Until it breaks. Which it will. Because a patched together system will only work so long. Especially when you are pushing the people who understand it out the door.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Boomers. We warned you. You seemed to be under the mistaken impression that you could flirt with oligarchy and still get yours, and all the problems would get punted to your children to solve. The truth is you’re just too expensive as a generation, and Thiel and Musk and Bezos and all their billionaire friends think they have better uses for their tax dollars than supporting your elder years.

Yes, I know you paid in your whole lives, but that money was spent long ago on Bush’s wars and other things you voted for. It was never sitting in a special account with your name on it making guaranteed money. It’s just a huge liability that needs to be paid now.

If you want to save your elderly years you need to start convincing your congressmen that they have more to fear from crossing you than crossing the Heritage Foundation. You’re retired and I know you have time on your hands. Pick up the phone and save yourselves. I’m too busy looking after my family and figuring out how I’m going to survive the recession to stick my neck out for people who put me in this spot.

Oh... we're still doing the "blame Boomers for this mess" thing? I thought that had run its course, given all the male GenZers who helped elect Trump this time around.

Yeah, we are blaming Boomers, because they are to blame. At least according to the AARP.

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/election-analysis-older-voters.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Boomers. We warned you. You seemed to be under the mistaken impression that you could flirt with oligarchy and still get yours, and all the problems would get punted to your children to solve. The truth is you’re just too expensive as a generation, and Thiel and Musk and Bezos and all their billionaire friends think they have better uses for their tax dollars than supporting your elder years.

Yes, I know you paid in your whole lives, but that money was spent long ago on Bush’s wars and other things you voted for. It was never sitting in a special account with your name on it making guaranteed money. It’s just a huge liability that needs to be paid now.

If you want to save your elderly years you need to start convincing your congressmen that they have more to fear from crossing you than crossing the Heritage Foundation. You’re retired and I know you have time on your hands. Pick up the phone and save yourselves. I’m too busy looking after my family and figuring out how I’m going to survive the recession to stick my neck out for people who put me in this spot.

Oh... we're still doing the "blame Boomers for this mess" thing? I thought that had run its course, given all the male GenZers who helped elect Trump this time around.

Yeah, we are blaming Boomers, because they are to blame. At least according to the AARP.

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/election-analysis-older-voters.html

Ohhh! You mean the white MAGA Trump-loving Boomers. Those Boomers! It’s wild that once America finally becomes “color-blind” the result is to castigate a whole generation for crap that has always been out of my personal — and even community— control.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

It takes money to do the massive computer upgrade SSA needs. Money that Congress— Dem and R controlled— haven’t allocated. So they just patch on a partial new system to manage anew workload or regulation or policy change as needed. Because that’s what they can afford. It’s 1970s and 2020 technology having to work together and held together with straws and chewing gum.

And I wonder, what could be so complex about a system with all the financial and banking and work history and tax and birth and death and parentage and immigration and marriage information, etc, etc about every single American citizen and many permanent residents Americans, coming in from 50 states and abroad and from multiple federal agencies— and used to administer not just retirement, but survivors befits, spouses benefits, widows benefits, etc. Oh— and add on that half the agency’s workload is disability, which requires getting and reviewing medical for tens of millions of Americans that come from every medical provider in the country, from solo MD partitions who still handwrite notes and stick them in an envelope and mail them to megacorps who send in records electronically. 15 years ago, the disability files were all paper. Some still are. 5 years ago almost all retirement appeals were paper. They are just now being made electronic. And it requires documenting not just underlying eligibility for benefit which is complex in many cases, but financial entitlement for programs like SSI.

The IRS, SBA, treasury, department of Ed, etc, etc they have some of the records. Musk is parked at SSA and pitching a temper tantrum because SSA has ALL THE RECORDS and receives them from the different programs at each department, plus all the different ways doctors, companies and people submit. For 350 million people.

What could be complex about that?

Plus, the underlying Regs are a beast. You work for a company your whole life, get a W2, get retirement. That’s easy. But, not everyone lives on W2 income. Not everyone is being paid on their own earning record. And making disability determinations is its own complex regulatory monster. It takes subject matter experts. You aren’t one if you think it’s just pressing a button for folks with well documented W2 income. Is there a common law marriage in the claimants state? Has parentage been proven? Has someone who is self employed earned a quarter of coverage? Does a 60 year old with an high school education and semi-skilled past work have transferrable skills with little or no vocational adjustment— working with a vocational database whose job list predates computers? Because if the don’t they anre disabled otherwise, they are. Easy easy lemon sqeasy, amirite?

But to answer your question— the updates requires would be a massive expenditure. And Musk isn’t in the massive expenditure on SSA business. Neither is Congress. Until it breaks. Which it will. Because a patched together system will only work so long. Especially when you are pushing the people who understand it out the door.

This is too many words for the average MAGA.

MAGA, SS is like your trusty old truck Beulah that’s being held together with duct tape and salvage parts. Sure she ain’t pretty, but she’s paid off and reliable as long as you change the fluids regularly and keep the spark plugs clean, and you take care to turn the engine just so, and let her run for a few minutes before driving and accelerate carefully and engage the clutch just so. You know that if you respect her she’ll respect you.

Now, Musk is the kid at the stealership fresh out of trade school promising he can make Beulah run like new again with his fancy diagnostic machine and a blank check. You trusting him with your old girl? Especially when his sales manager is actively selling your wife on a sedan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, Boomers. We warned you. You seemed to be under the mistaken impression that you could flirt with oligarchy and still get yours, and all the problems would get punted to your children to solve. The truth is you’re just too expensive as a generation, and Thiel and Musk and Bezos and all their billionaire friends think they have better uses for their tax dollars than supporting your elder years.

Yes, I know you paid in your whole lives, but that money was spent long ago on Bush’s wars and other things you voted for. It was never sitting in a special account with your name on it making guaranteed money. It’s just a huge liability that needs to be paid now.

If you want to save your elderly years you need to start convincing your congressmen that they have more to fear from crossing you than crossing the Heritage Foundation. You’re retired and I know you have time on your hands. Pick up the phone and save yourselves. I’m too busy looking after my family and figuring out how I’m going to survive the recession to stick my neck out for people who put me in this spot.

Oh... we're still doing the "blame Boomers for this mess" thing? I thought that had run its course, given all the male GenZers who helped elect Trump this time around.

Yeah, we are blaming Boomers, because they are to blame. At least according to the AARP.

https://www.aarp.org/politics-society/government-elections/info-2024/election-analysis-older-voters.html

Ohhh! You mean the white MAGA Trump-loving Boomers. Those Boomers! It’s wild that once America finally becomes “color-blind” the result is to castigate a whole generation for crap that has always been out of my personal — and even community— control.

I’m not really sure who we should be blaming if not the people that overwhelmingly voted for this under the mistaken assumption that their entitled yet impoverished selves would be exempt. I recognize you may not be a part of that group but many of your peers are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work for SSA. Here’s reality. Forget solvency and Trump’s stooge threatening to shut the agency down. It will break its own and miss payments due to staffing shortages and computer issues— probably in the next few months.

Our staffing was below 1970s levels even before Trump took office. With huge backlogs. My division was backlogged a year. And was detailed to an 18 month backlog. Now, Elmo and the GS 15 ACOSS stooge are making the working environment so incredibly toxic that substantive work has ground to an halt annd anll we seem to do is sit in all hands calls trying to comply with the latest instance and insulting email.

And then they offered VSIP and VERA— stacked. Everyone who can get out is— 12 people out of the 40 or so one my team had their last day today. These are the people who have been there long enough to understand the program. Employee retention and hiring was a huge issue before Trump. Now, we no longer have the staffing or institutional knowledge to keep the program running. I have 18 years in, can’t VERA and it never dawned on me during Trump 1 to leave. And I’m actively interviewing to leave the agency and move out of the DMV. And praying for a RIF so I get my years severance. I can’t do this for 4 years.

And now they are adding 85,000 people each week who would have done teleservice benefits registrations to the field office workload. While cutting staff and closing field offices and regional offices. It can’t be done.

SSA is an incredibly complex program running on 1970s computer systems. It takes years to really understand the program and systems. And mentoring and training new hires takes people off of casework. Which makes it a Humpty Dumpty Agency. Once you break it, there is no real way to put it back together. And it will break— even if Musk were not trying to kill it off. It’s just a matter of when.

You making the case for DOGE with your post. What is so incredibly complicated about SSA other than it is running on incredibly antiquated software and hardware? This is something Musk can actually help fix. What is harder to fix is that the program is going to become insolvent if it continues without changes. It is not going to get cancelled but the ss tax need to increase or benefits need to decrease.

Rather than just "having Musk fix it" how about putting out an RFP and let companies bid on the project, you know, the way a functonaing government actually works? Musk doesn't know crap. His rockets blow up, his cars fall apart or don't work in the winter...he is a total charleton.