Hiltzik: A dangerous attack by a Trump representative on social security

It would not be exactly to mark the short reign of the incumbent social security commissioner Leland Dudek as an unrestricted catastrophe.

This is because it is catastrophic, there is a mitigating factor: Dudecs burned actions and their obvious confirmation by others in the Trump administration committees awakened the beneficiaries of the program for the threat to the administration.

At a panel discussion on March 14, which was organized by the National Academy of Social Insurance, former Commissioner Martin O’malley said that public awareness of that of Elon Musknment of Government Efficiency (Doge) at the social security administration “fast”.

He added: “Whether democracy is so high that it is an open question on what is already in motion.”

For most of around 70 million Americans who receive benefits, social security has operated on like a well -oiled machine, as it for most of the 90 years of existence.

This recording is threatened, which is mainly due to a concerted exertion of Trump-the sworn that social security is not to lower and musk, the head of Doge, the quasi-government agency, which led through state program Rohshod to undermine the public’s trust.

The alarm is widespread – and justified.

The words of O’Malley, a bidding representative, were repeated by his co-panelist, the former commissioner Michael Astree, a George W. Bush representative. Astree also pointed out concerns that Dudek’s opening databases to Doge employees have personal data about his beneficiaries and the 185 million Americans who could make wage and salary account contributions to the program, “very bad actors”.

Astrue called the Doge People, who “idiots” from the social security management, which “don’t really understand what they do”, “don’t really understand”. He accused Dudek, to whom he recognized that “completely illegal and inappropriate behavior takes place”.

The increasing concerns come at a crucial moment. Trump’s candidate for the Commissioner Wall Street, Frank Bissignano, will compete with the Senate Bank Committee on a hearing on a hearing on Tuesday.

This is the first opportunity for senators -Democrats and Republicans -to receive answers to the activities of Doge in social security and obligations to protect the program from partisan interlopers.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) And Ron Wyden (D-ORE) searched for these obligations in advance in a letter that they sent to Bissignano on Sunday. Warren is the ruined democratic member of the Senate Banking Committee and Wyden is the rushing member of the Senate Finance Committee.

They asked him not to commit any components of social security and reverse dismissal points and Field Office closings if they affect the application or collection of services by the beneficiaries and remove Doge’s staff from the social security management.

Bissignano did not respond to them. He also did not answer my questions about these topics sent through his company Fiserv.

Let’s take a closer look at the damage that Dudek has done in his short reign at the top of social security.

A good starting point is the abrupt decision of Dudek at the beginning of this month, in which the parents in Maine are obliged to apply for their newborn social security numbers by presenting the infants personally in social security offices, in contrast to parents in any other state.

The change burdened with hours of trips while exposing their newborn children to infectious diseases. It was not long after the democratic governor of Maine, Janet Mills, Trump had publicly questioned the rights of transgender students.

After a turmoil, Dudek quickly turned around. “In retrospect,” he said, he realized that the change “caused an inappropriate burden for people in Maine, which was not the intention.”

At that time he did not say what the intention was, but he revealed it in an interview with the post in Washington published on March 18.

It should be a matter of course that the manipulation of access to social security as political retaliation should be a disqualified action for a civil servant of social security. I asked Dudek about the agency’s press office to confirm the accuracy of the quote and to determine whether this did not show that he was not qualified for his role. I received a “no comment” as an answer.

On Thursday, after the federal judge Ellen Lipton Hollander from Maryland had issued an order that blocked Doge’s staff from access to social security data, Dudek claimed that the order was so far that it would apply to all social security employees and that he would have to close the agency.

This was an obvious misinterpretation of Hollander’s command, which was only applied to Doge’s staff, which had not been properly checked or trained for access to the data. The next day she made this crystal clear with a follow-up letter. Dudek confessed not to have been “out of line”.

It should be remembered that social security officers, as I have already reported, exposed Dudek – put him in relation to the government in relation to the government – for unauthorized access to Doge. While he was still on vacation, Trump fired the then commissioner Michelle King and gave Dudek the job.

Dudek is not alone when it comes to playing quickly and easily with the well -deserved call for the efficiency of social security. Musk disparaged the program as “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time”, a repetition of an old MEMS that I wrote, only demonstrated that he knows nothing about social security and nothing about Ponzi programs.

The prospect that Doge’s Rampage delays the performance payments through social security or even prevents the beneficiaries from not getting them to the Commercial Secretary Howard Lutnick, a billionaire who voluntarily reported to a podcast with two plutocrats with other plutocrats that are to be exposed to social security tests or bank deposits.

“Let us assume that social security has not sent its checks this month,” said Lutnick. “My mother-in-law, who is 94 years old, would not call and complain … she would think that something was messed up and she will get it next month.”

But “a fraudster,” he said, “always shouting, screaming and complaining … The easiest way to find a fraudster is to stop and listen to payments, because whoever screams is the one who steals.”

Lutnick’s observation gained an immediate meme status on social media, together with his wool insurance on the government’s expenditure that had nothing to do with inflation, and improved his stature as a patooy of the outstanding horse of the Trump cabinet.

Here is what would happen in my opinion if the social security examinations and direct deposits were also delayed for a single day: the Fallout would be catastrophic for the Republican Party. It would not be hidden anywhere. It would be on the coast from title pages to coast to coast.

While they were miserable, a delay that had been unprecedented since the first checks in 1940 would be a gift for Democrats if they know how to use it.

Lutnick’s discharge on the effect of delayed payments on millions of Americans was so blatant and cavalier that Ayn rand would blush. Here is the truth about the importance of these advantages for the Americans they receive: In the 65 years, 39% of men and 44% of women get 50% or more of their income from the program. In 12% of men and 50% of women, these payments make up 90% of their income or more.

In the Panel of the National Academy, O’Malley warned that the ability of the social security management to offer the beneficiaries and applicants collapsed effective customer service under Dudek and Doge. In congress statements, he found that the agency’s employee had reached a 50-year-old low, even as the number of recipients reached a record.

“We worked for the entire last year to turn around things that all went in the wrong direction,” he said of the efforts he undertaken to shorten the waiting times to the 800 number of the agency and the deficit of cases of disabled people.

The biggest threat to customer service was then wear and tear, since the agency’s employee was increasingly being retired. “The so-called Doge team did everything to accelerate wear,” said O’malley. They offered all employees buyouts with an annual wage that was supported by the risk of layoffs if they did not accept.

Dudek said that his goal was to reduce the workforce of 54,000 by 7,000. The departures, as O’malley said, take place without effort, since the deprivation people train their replacement or give the information they need to take on their work. “About 40% to 45% of people in the office of performance information systems are too justified. I think they will lose much more than 7,000 people.”

Throughout its history, social security was directed by an almost unbroken line of commissioners and supporters, whose commitment to the sacred responsibility of the program was undisputed. This is not the case today. At Bisignano’s confirmation negotiation on Tuesday, it is hoped that senators will show him on both sides of the partisan that his commitment meets these responsibilities in every respect.