entitlements, like Social Security
I, like many others, was devastated (but certainly not surprised) when Trump’s DOGE team, led by the unelected Elon Musk, decided to gut the Social Security Administration (SSA). When I was a caseworker for a Congressperson for 9 1/2 years, I worked with SSA as one of my casework areas. I want to say that the people who work at least at our local SSA offices are smart and dedicated, hardworking and patient people. They are the ones answering the phones and taking the meetings with people needing the benefits.
Established in 1935 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as a response to the Great Depression, Social Security has served the people who have needed it most. I can tell you from my time as a caseworker that every single person whose case I had with that office needed the benefits, whether it was for retirement or disability, survivor benefits or getting people enrolled in Medicare. People are NOT scamming the system left and right like people say. That is just false.
The Social Security Administration is there for seniors and helps them get signed up for Medicare and retirement benefits. What if your parents’ benefits get cut off for no reason and it takes months to fix because there is no one there to answer the phones to get the issue fixed? What if you have to visit an office out of town because of living in a rural area and you have trouble getting to your appointment? What if you need an emergency check cut but there is no one to help you there? These are things to think about as we move forward.
We are leaving our most vulnerable populations without help so that Trump and Elon can line theirs and their oligarch friends’ pockets. Tell me how that is okay. Please, I’ll wait. You really want people who genuinely can’t work to not have any money because they can’t work? That’s not right. They gotta eat too. They’re not poor because of a moral deficiency, they are poor because of greedy billionaires like Trump and Musk and the like using their labor to further their interests. All on the backs of the poor, who they consider second class.
SSA was created to help those who need it because there should always be some sort of social safety net. And when you take that away, people suffer. But I won’t pretend that this administration or Trump or Elon actually gives two shits about the average American. The cost of eggs doesn’t affect them. The cost of toilet paper, still doesn’t. But not buying Tesla vehicles and tanking Elon’s stock? That’s some good collective action! Quitting Twitter/X for good? Awesome! Good for you! Join the resistance because it’s just going to get worse and worse.
Stay rude, my friends.
