Summary
Acting Social Security Commissioner Leland Dudek threatened to shut down the agency after a court barred Elon Musk’s DOGE team from accessing sensitive databases.
Dudek said he would cut off IT access for all employees, raising fears of halted benefits for 70 million Americans.
The court later clarified that not all SSA employees were DOGE affiliates, leading Dudek to backtrack.
Critics, including advocacy groups, accuse Dudek of undermining the agency and pursuing Musk and Trump’s anti-fraud agenda, which falsely alleges widespread improper payments.
“Let’s say Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month. My mother-in-law, who’s 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,” Lutnick said on the “All-In” podcast. “A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”)
Yes, of course. Fraudsters are the ones who will want to bring attention to themselves when the checks stop coming, and not poor people who rely on that money to survive.
I know these people are stupid, crazy and sadistic, but it’s like they have some kind of competition going to see who can be the stupidest and most repugnant.
“A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.”)
And then gets elected anyway.
Elections aren’t about what you can do, it’s a popularity contest.
And this is the person who is IN CHARGE OF Social Security.
The shit will hit the fan if social security gets cut. This will push the public over the edge.
Hate to say it, but good. We need to hit the tipping point and soon.
I’m hoping they continue with the extremism. Worst case scenario was Trumps admin continuing business as usual. A slow and calculated takeover would make the warnings of fascism appear to be a lie. Our only hope now is that the fascists are as stupid as they appear —as stupid as the electorate — stupid enough to push too hard, too fast, and turn the majority of the domestic and international population against them before they achieve their goals. They’re well on their way!
At this point the only thing that could snap Republicans out of their mental illness is extreme pain and distress. I’m talking recession, extreme poverty, homelessness, starvation… millions of previously comfortable people becoming unemployed and destitute. These ignorant know-nothing bottom-feeders need metaphorical blunt force trauma to bring them back to their dumb as fuck reality. If that fails, they’re gonna end up causing literal blunt force trauma, and fascists aren’t ever gonna win this fight. We’re talking about anti-intellectuals who think critical thought is something you attain from quacks on youtube. They’re all gonna end up dead, but millions of innocent people will die before their loss is final.
Cut social security and Medicare now.
It’ll suck for a lot of people. Parents will have to move in with their kids. It’ll collapse entire sectors of Healthcare, housing, even basic stuff like utilities and grocers will be decimated by the loss.
The worst thing would be for them to be able to kick the can down the road long enough that their policies have time to solidify. Once the institutional knowledge is gone for good we won’t just be able to repair the damage.
I hope people stand firm about letting republicans deal with their own issues. I have R family that are not welcome in my home. I have D friends that I would gladly let stay with me. I don’t think it’ll matter, but no quarter for Rs imho. I’m sure the government will find a way to just keep checks going to people registered R, or open places for them, or force dependent status or something, but no one should open their homes to them. If the government is hostile to me, I can at least make my home hostile to them.
I don’t think so; just a lot of quiet suffering and a storm of online activity.
People will have no clue what to do, no leaders to help them, and no support to protest.
So, no mass protests except by a few in very large cities like we have already seen the last few years
deleted by creator
You have a good point. Except it requires there to be midterms in 2026. At this point I’m not confident that will happen
deleted by creator
There’s also considerable overlap between the remaining supporters and seniors dependent on these systems.
Not could you imagine what would happen if tens of millions of Americans suddenly couldn’t afford to pay their bills, all at once? I’ll bet these ass-disasters can’t. They probably also don’t know that rocks are free and making fire is easy.
Historically, a threshold of only 3.5 percent of a population to actually protest is enough to topple a regime: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190513-it-only-takes-35-of-people-to-change-the-world
For the US, that means about 12 million people. If those people would stand up, Trump would be finished. It’s as simple as that.
Well, Hong Kong turned out in large numbers and still was squashed. And Trump seems to like the way Xi and Putin run their countries “with an iron fist”…
To be fair, Hong Kong wasn’t really large numbers for the government that would actually have had to have been affected to change the policy, that is, mainland China. Had every other Chinese city had protests similar in relative scale, things might have gone differently.
Krasnov
This is all playing into their hands. Hundreds of thousands of seniors with mental issues, anxiety, Alzheimer’s, etc. are calling Social Security everyday freaked out about their benefits. This has already overwhelmed their meager resources.
The administration has already changed the rules so everyone now has to go to a local Social Security Office to verify their identity because of fraud and at the same time shutting as many offices as they can get away with
Also let’s threaten to fire and layoff the remaining staff. This is deliberate sabotage against tens of millions of our most vulnerable Americans. After the shit hits the fan they will call for an end of Social Security pointing out the shit show they have created.
Wonderful.
I’m on SSDI, (Disability), its my only income.
I got the… relatively regular Continuing Disability Review packet they send me every 6 or 7 years… got that earlier this month… and I’m gathering documents and getting everything straight before I submit it.
If… they just ‘turn it off’… does that mean I can’t submit my shit digitally? Does that mean if I mail it in… they won’t process it?
… Would that all mean I fail the review for not submitting it on time?
I have already reached out to a non profit legal firm that hopefully can at least advise me, or if I do ‘fail the review’, help me through the appeals process… but the appeals process itself … may or may not even function/exist, at this rate.
Awesome.
