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Long Island Dems Host Forum to Debunk Lies Trump, Musk, and DOGE Using to Eviscerate Social Security [1]
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Date: 2025-04-28
By Karen Rubin,
[email protected], news-photos-features.com
Long Island Congressmembers Tom Suozzi (NY-03) and Laura Gillen (NY-04) hosted an in-person briefing on Social Security with the former Social Security Administrator, Martin O’Malley, at the Tilles Center in Nassau County, to address the unprecedented damage being inflicted on Social Security by the Trump administration and the severe consequences of any disruptions to payments and services. O’Malley debunked the myths and lies being floated to justify DOGE’s invasion, evisceration and possible privatization of one of the most revered and appreciated programs offered by the federal government, and addressed the concerns of constituents who filled the auditorium.
“Social security is a compact between the American people and the government,” Congresswoman Laura Gillen said. “The premise is that if you work hard, pay into the system, you will have enough money to retire with dignity. This country has never reneged on that agreement, which has allowed millions of Americans to retire. For the majority of older Americans, Social Security is their primary source of income. They deserve to be assured that money will be there.” © Kaen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“Social security is a compact between the American people and the government,” Gillen said. “The premise is that if you work hard, pay into the system, you will have enough money to retire with dignity. This country has never reneged on that agreement, which has allowed millions of Americans to retire. For the majority of older Americans, Social Security is their primary source of income. They deserve to be assured that money will be there.”
Social Security is a lifeline for 69 million, including 61 million retires, but for 3.7 million widows, 2 million spouses and 3.1 million children and 1.7 million disabled workers through the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
“When the unthinkable happens, Social Security provides a lifeline to relieve the pressure these families face,” she said. “We live in one of the most expenses places in the country. We need to implement cost of living increases. We will always support Social Security and resist effort to privatize. We will continue to fight back against the mass firings of staff, office closings, shutting down service by phone to force people to show up in person - efforts to prevent Americans from accessing benefits to which they are entitled.
“Now more than ever, with an aging population, 401ks being wiped out, we need to strengthen, not undermine social security,” she declared to applause.
People are gravely concerned about what is being done to Social Security – as evidenced by the protests nationwide.
Chief among them:
Benefits will be delayed.
Benefits won’t be there when retire
Will Social Security be solvent in the future?
I can’t reach anyone at Social Security. Wait times have skyrocketed; employees are being fired, offices are closing.
A great concern is that DOGE is accessing people’s personal information (drawing a loud boo). “That got me off the rails,” Suozzi asserted. “These are young computer hackers, gamers, who knows what they are doing with the information, how are they vetted [they aren’t]. Cabinet officials have to go through Senate hearings and confirmation; federal workers have to undergo background checks.”
Indeed, there are reports that thousands of migrant workers who pay into Social Security and Medicare, have been declared “dead” in the system –resulting in bank accounts and credit cards being frozen, and even reports of citizens being declared dead, either by mistake or malevolence.
Another huge change causing not just concern but hardship, is the imposition of a new policy that if the Social Security Administration errors in sending an overpayment, the payments are being clawed back in full, all at once, instead of repaying 10% at a time, as before. “People who rely on social security, don’t have that money,” Suozzi said.
There are also concerns about unsubstantiated claims of fraud – being used to justify canceling phone service and requiring in-person visits, at a time when offices are being shut and workers fired – and the suggestion that just complaining about a missed check is “proof” of a fraudster, as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick audaciously charged. “Only a fraudster would complain.”
In just the first 90 days of Trump administration, staffing at the Social Security Administration went from 57,000 to 50,000. Eliminating the 7000 theoretically and arguably could save $992 million (“Wonderful!” Suozzi sarcastically exclaimed).
But Social Security, an agency that people rely on for their most basic needs, spends $1.6 trillion. “So cutting 7000 employees for this massive big important program in America only saves 0.06% - not 1%, not six/tenths of a percent, not a half percent, just six one hundredths of a percent. Why decimate an administration with massive responsibility for basic needs in people’s lives for that kind of savings in cost?”
Suozzi reflected that of course, everyone wants to get rid of “waste, fraud and abuse” - the meme DOGE uses to justify their egregious, possibly illegal actions. “I wanted to do that as Nassau County Executive, but I didn’t do it willy nilly, all at once, but by attribution. And we didn’t fire the lowest wage earners. But when we didn’t [refill a position], we fixed the service, added technology, made things more efficient, and did it over two years instead of 60 days.
O’Malley Debunks Myths, Lies
Martin O’Malley, the former Social Security Administrator widely praised as a “compassionate, competent” official who made the administration more efficient, has been traveling the country, preaching the message of the importance of strengthening, not decimating an agency he holds dear, by “bursting a few of the big lies.”
“They want to undermine trust in an agency that has traditionally had the second highest rating of all, only second to the National Park Service.”
He took exception to a statement by Elon Musk (the unelected co-president), “Empathy is the greatest weakness in the western mind.”
“You and I are part of a living, breathing mission, the USA, that at heart believes in and acts upon the truth that we are all in this together, we need each other and we have to help each other if we are going to succeed. You see, the greatness of a country isn’t in the amount of wealth or the size of its army, but is measured by compassion, the care we demonstrate for one another. And there is no act of compassion, caring more impactful and far reaching that anyone put into law for one another than social security. It is a lifeline. For 40% of seniors, it is the difference between dignity and poverty.”
Prior to Lyndon Johnson enacting Social Security, three-quarters of all people eligible to retire lived in poverty; today that rate is 10%.
O’Malley then set out to burst the Big Lies and myths that are being circulated to undermine the agency, starting with that it is bloated and overstaffed.
Myth 1 (propagated by Elon Musk): “Social Security is a Ponzi scheme.”
“It’s not a Ponzi scheme – Musk’s bitcoin might be a Ponzi scheme, but not social security. It is actually a pay-as-you go program. Workers contributed $1.3 trillion in 2024 but that year – because of the demographic bubble of Baby Boomers retiring – paid beneficiaries the $1.3 trillion plus an additional $100 billion.
“We didn’t borrow that $100 billion; the Chinese didn’t give it.” That $100 billion came out of the Social Security Trust Fund, to which workers contributed, based on the last time that Congress adjusted the tax cap, as it does about every 30 years.” The fund has accumulated $2.6 trillion.
It was expected back then – since they make forecasts 75-years into the future – that the Trust Fund would have enough to cover the Baby Boomers (the 76 million born between 1946 and 1964; 10,000 turn 65 and reach retirement age each day, a trend that will continue through 2029). But with increased longevity, there is a shortfall that requires Congress to make a new adjustment to the cap on income taxed for Social Security.
That’s the second myth: that Social Security Trust Fund is going bankrupt. “It’s not – it can’t – but it is facing 17% reduction in benefits by 2035 unless Congress acts.”
With the last change, income up to $176,000 in 2025 is taxed at 12.4% (6.2% from paycheck; 6.2% from employers, or 12.4% for self-employed)– but because of demographics and the Baby Boom bubble, there was that $100 billion shortfall from the amount current workers are paying in and current retirees are getting out.
“The fact it is going bankrupt is not true, but Congress could make an adjustment so we don’t have to go into the Trust Fund surplus to make up the difference.”
Changes in the tax code have exacerbated income inequality, which means that a plumber, a teacher, a bus driver and McDonald’s worker pay into social security with every paycheck all year long. But somebody like Elon Musk pays up until two seconds after the New Year’s ball falls.
“If you had a business and were told that by 2035 it would suffer a 17% reduction, would you put out a poster saying ‘Going out of business in 2035!’. But you can solve problem by adjusting the cap,” O’Malley said.
(The Congressional Budget Office, in a December 2024 report, has proposed raising the cap to $250,000.)
The third falsehood: “There is an zombie apocalypse stealing money from Social Security every single day. There is no zombie apocalypse- the administration is automatically alerted the second a death certificate is filed. and because the vast majority of Americans are honest, a third party typically calls to report a death in the family.
The fourth falsehood is that “illegal immigrants are stealing social security dollars; they came because as soon as they arrive, they get enormous benefits.” In the first place, they can’t get benefits that they haven’t paid for but also, it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to collect ever, even though undocumented immigrants pay $25 billion a year into Social Security.
In fact, by terrorizing immigrants by having Border Patrol access IRS data, it is very possible migrants won’t pay into the system, costing the Treasury $97 billion, including $25 billion paid into Social Security.
The fifth myth is that Social Security Administration is wasteful and inefficient.
O’Malley debunks the myths of waste, fraud and abuse: The number of people working at SSA fell steadily from a high of 66,967 in 2011when there were 63 million Social Security recipients, down to 56,645 by the end of 2024, even as the number of recipients steadily rose to 73 million, and will continue to steadily increase to 83 million by 2029. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
In fact, the number of people working at SSA fell steadily from a high of 66,967 in 2011 when there were 63 million Social Security recipients, down to 56,645 by the end of 2024, even as the number of recipients steadily rose to 73 million, and will continue to steadily increase to 83 million by 2029.
Moreover, Just like in private health insurance vs Medicare – where the combination of profit-taking, shareholder distribution and marketing leaves only 80 percent of the premiums paid in to go to patients (the 80% is capped under the Affordable Care Act), while 97 percent of Medicare funding goes to patient care, Social Security proves to be the most efficient insurance provider, with only a 1.2% overhead compared to 19% for Allstate and 27% for Liberty Mutual.
“Social security is the most efficient insurance company in the US,” O’Malley asserted.
But it is Musk’s DOGE that is creating the inefficiency – and it seems purposeful sabotage.
“What’s happening is breaking my heart,” O’Malley declared. “I love this agency, its people. What’s happening is cruel, but the ones who will feel the pain are the American people.”
The agency is now run by DOGE who are using the power they should not have to force Social Security to serve up personal data – defying the sacred oath of the agency to protect privacy –for what purpose, no one knows, except there are now reports of thousands of migrants and even some citizens being declared dead to uproot their lives.
They fired the analytics staff, closed the office of civil rights and equal opportunity
They are forcing people out, but paying them not to do work. As a result, wait times are surging on the phone, there are intermittent interruptions on the website that are more frequent and longer – problems that will cascade because they eliminated half of the IT staff. And now they are talking about replacing the entire software system with a new system in a matter of months.
“The problems will cascade,” O’Malley warned. “I truly believe there will be some interruption event for some period of time, in the near future. I hope I am wrong. The DOGE kids say they will transform whole thing.”
What is endgame? “I don’t know,” O’Malley said. “Is it to demonize, to privatize, to liquidate and pay out a lump sum?”
In the meantime, people are dying before they can access the benefits to which they are entitled.
Fix the System
Here is the problem that the MAGA Republicans exploiting: this year, because of demographics, the the difference in the money paid into Social Security by workers ($1.3 trillion) was $100 billion short of the $1.4 trillion in payments to 73 million beneficiaries.
“We were short $100 billion that had to be made up from the Social Security Fund. Why cut by 7000 workers and save less than $1 billion, or 0.06% (six one hundredths of one percent) and wreck the system in the process? Why instill trauma in employees,” said Congressman Tom Suozzi, who confessed his frustration at trying to work with Republicans and getting facts to constituents. © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com
“We were short $100 billion that had to be made up from the Social Security Fund. Why cut by 7000 workers and save less than $1 billion, or 0.06% (six one hundredths of one percent) and wreck the system in the process? Why instill trauma in employees,” said Suozzi. He was directly referring to the Project 2025 leader and now Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought’s comment, “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down… we want to put them in trauma.”
Meanwhile, that loss of 7,000 workers – to the lowest level in decades as the number of beneficiaries has doubled as 10,000 Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) turn 65 and reach retirement age each day, a trend that will continue through 2029. That has added to wait times, delays in retirees, the disabled and widows receiving benefits they are entitled to. Some 100 people a day die before their payments start. (It is estimated that between 10 and 15% of people die before eligible or can receive benefits; Trump/DOGE/HHS policies seem to be aimed at increasing premature mortality.)
“They are just trying to wreck it, break the system. If we want to get $100 billion more a year [to preserve benefits and save the Social Security Fund], we need Congress - Democrats and Republicans - to fix the system,” Suozzi said.
‘We have two ways to fix the system: increase the revenues or decrease the expenses. I don’t think we should decrease the expenses because 22 million recipients would fall into poverty if they didn’t get their Social Security benefit,” Suozzi declared.
This year, the shortfall was $100 billion on the $1.4 trillion payout (an amount that includes $25 billion from undocumented immigrants who will never collect Social Security benefit). That $100 billion is paid out of the accumulated money in the Social Security Trust Fund, which has $2.6 trillion. (Supposedly in a “lock box,” as Al Gore was mocked for saying, the government likes to dip into it, if for nothing else than magically reducing the budget deficit.)
If the Social Security cap (now at $176,000 for 2025) isn’t raised, by 2035, benefits will have to be reduced by 17%.
But Congress could do what it has done multiple times and raise the cap – how about sufficiently high so that the rate for everyone could actually be reduced from 6.2% out of paychecks, or 12.4% for the self-employed, and still keep the Fund more than solvent.
Suozzi noted that constituents are screaming, “Do something!” but are not aware of what he and Democrats have been doing, or trying to against the stonewall put up by MAGA Republicans, including writing SSA to ask about DOGE access to personal info; cosponsoring bills to prevent DOGE from closing offices; launching an inquiry about DOGE activity; co-signing letter to OMB; and co-sponsoring resolutions demanding inquiry.
“We’re doing stuff but you don’t hear about it.”
But in the end, in these extraordinary times, he said, it is up to the people to act – write letters to the editor, organize opportunities to inform neighbors of what is going on, contacting representatives, and signing up for your Congressmember’s newsletter.
Suozzi, a proud “commonsense” Democrat, tried to address the frustration that Democrats have been unable to stop the train to autocracy and dystopia of a wannabe dictator and a complicit MAGA Republican Congress. There is only so much Democrats can do in Congress, against a Republican Majority that has had no interest in consensus, compromise, working across the aisle, or representing anyone other than their own voters (and pleasing Trump). In these precarious times, power must come from the people.
See the forum at:
https://www.facebook.com/RepTomSuozzi/videos/1146705833926012
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