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GOP Senators Face Key Test on Health Care Affordability 

Last week, the House of Representatives took a bold step towards averting huge increases in Americans’ health care premiums, passing a bill that would extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits for three years. The measure succeeded thanks to YES votes from all House Democrats and 17 House Republicans, who openly defied GOP Speaker Mike Johnson.
2026-01-16T16:26:56-04:00January 13th, 2026|Categories: affordable care act, Congress, Older Americans, President Trump, Republicans|

Latest Social Security Website Crash a Symptom of Trump/DOGE Mismanagement 

Seniors trying to access their earned benefit information hit a snag when the Social Security Administration's (SSA) website crashed on Wednesday morning. These sorts of incidents have unfortunately become commonplace since the Trump administration took over, as DOGE’s crusade at SSA has left the agency in chaos.  "We continue to get reports of glitches on SSA's website. It looks like this was one of them," said NCPSSM President and CEO, Max Richtman. 
2025-12-23T13:07:54-04:00December 19th, 2025|Categories: President Biden, President Trump, Social Security, Social Security Administration (SSA)|

Trump & GOP Intransigence Will Hike Health Care Premiums

Open enrollment season for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans arrives amid a severe threat from Trump and congressional Republicans —- who continue to block the extension of crucial ACA premium subsidies. These subsidies have helped middle and lower-income Americans afford health coverage since they were enacted during the Covid pandemic.  This is what the government shutdown — now in its fifth week — is all about. Democrats insist that the subsidies be extended; Trump and the GOP have refused, despite the economic pain and health insecurity their actions will inflict on everyday Americans – including millions of MAGA voters. The president and his party won’t even negotiate with Democrats to end the shutdown. 
2025-11-06T15:05:23-04:00November 6th, 2025|Categories: affordable care act, Aging Issues, Congress, President Biden, President Trump, Republicans|

Hopes that Senate Would Mitigate Medicaid & SNAP Cuts Have Been Dashed

Many who analyzed the reconciliation bill narrowly approved by the House of Representatives in a 215-214 vote on May 22nd hoped that the U.S. Senate would temper unaffordable tax cuts for the wealthy — and avoid slashing Medicaid and SNAP. Those hopes have been dashed by Senate Republicans on the Finance and Agriculture Committees, who propose to end Medicaid and SNAP as we know them – as lifelines for millions of Americans across the country who need reliable access to basic health care and food to survive. 
2025-06-20T13:07:40-04:00June 20th, 2025|Categories: Medicaid, President Trump, Republicans, Senate|

Trump Wants to Reclassify Social Security Staffers as Political Appointees

The Trump administration is again targeting the Social Security Administration (SSA) with changes that could undermine its mission. President Trump seeks to replace career civil servants at federal agencies (including SSA) with politically loyal appointees, using a classification known as “Schedule F.”  This reclassification is designed to boost the president's control over career federal staffers by removing their civil service protections and making them easier to fire.
2025-04-24T11:00:13-04:00April 23rd, 2025|Categories: Elon Musk, President Biden, President Trump, Social Security Administration (SSA)|

Martin O’Malley Makes the Case Against Trump, Musk & DOGE on Our Podcast

On Friday, April 4, our “You Earned This” podcast will feature a special guest:  former Maryland Governor and Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. It’s a conversation that everyone who cares about the future of Social Security should hear. O'Malley, who led the Social Security Administration (SSA) during the final year of Joe Biden’s presidency, brings a voice of consternation --- and determination to the national conversation. His message is clear:  Social Security is under attack, and the consequences for millions of Americans couldn’t be more dire.
2025-04-04T16:12:27-04:00April 3rd, 2025|Categories: President Trump, Social Insurance, Social Security, Social Security Administration (SSA)|

7 Questions for Trump’s Social Security Commissioner Nominee

President Trump’s pick to head the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, will have his Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday morning.  The financial services CEO and Republican donor has been waiting in the wings since the Trump administration took over in January. In the meantime, Elon Musk and his DOGE squad have invaded the Social Security Administration (SSA) and wreaked considerable havoc on the agency --- alarming seniors’ advocates and a sizeable swath of the general public. In the absence of a confirmed commissioner, Acting SSA chief Leland Dudek has abetted Musk and DOGE every step of the way, allowing them access to the sensitive personal data of 73 million Americans for no justifiable reason, radically reducing the workforce that serves Social Security customers, closing field offices, and slashing services on the agency’s 1-800 phone number that seniors rely on.  He claims to be “following orders” from President Trump and Elon Musk. Dudek threatened to "shut down" SSA after a federal judge ruled against the agency's decision to grant Musk and DOGE access to beneficiaries' private data. Bisignano has no appreciable experience in public service in general --- or Social Security in particular --- but Trump wants him to run one of the federal agencies that most closely touches Americans' lives every day.  We don't know much about what Bisignano thinks of Social Security or what he will do to the program if confirmed.
2025-03-24T17:55:00-04:00March 24th, 2025|Categories: Bernie Sanders, President Trump, Social Security, Social Security Administration (SSA)|

Trump “Buyout” Offer May Devastate Social Security Administration

Voters may have sent various messages to Washington last November, but they certainly did not include a call to gut the federal workforce that serves American seniors and people with disabilities. Yet, that’s exactly what the Trump administration --- abetted by billionaire advisor ex-officio Elon Musk --- is attempting to do. On Tuesday, federal workers --- including employees of the Social Security Administration --- received an email from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), offering “deferred resignation.” The email said employees could resign now and continue to receive pay and benefits through September --- an offer of dubious legality that was immediately criticized by Democratic lawmakers and labor unions representing federal workers.
2025-02-03T13:45:50-04:00January 31st, 2025|Categories: President Trump, Social Security, Social Security Administration (SSA), Social Security Disability Insurance, Uncategorized|

Special Counsel in Biden Classified Documents Case Plays Amateur Gerontologist

By declining to charge President Biden but gratuitously impugning the president’s cognitive abilities, special counsel Robert Hur overstepped his bounds and fed into a blatantly ageist narrative. Hur pulled a “James Comey” yesterday in announcing that the president would not be charged with a crime but criticizing Biden’s handling of classified documents, just as Comey did with Hillary Clinton in 2016. (And we know how that turned out.)  But, unlike Comey, Hur also felt the need to disparage the President’s age and his memory, referring to Biden as "a well-meaning, elderly man."
2024-02-09T17:11:22-04:00February 9th, 2024|Categories: ageism, Election 2024, President Biden, President Trump|

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