Former Official Reveals Recklessness of Musk’s Meddling in Social Security System
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is facing mounting scrutiny after a lawsuit was filed by labor unions seeking to block Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing Americans’ sensitive personal data. According to the Washington Post, the legal challenge includes testimony from Tiffany Flick, a former senior SSA official, who warned in court filings that DOGE’s interference poses a serious threat to the security of data belonging to millions of people. Flick, who resigned her post at SSA after three decades, cited these actions as part of broader concerns over mismanagement and policy risk brought on by interference in the agency by Trump, Musk, and DOGE.
Trump & Musk Tried to Make it Harder for Parents to Register Newborns for Social Security
It started as a baffling and alarming decision. The Social Security Administration (SSA), under the influence of President Trump’s campaign to gut the federal government and Elon Musk’s DOGE team, announced the termination of Maine’s Enumeration at Birth (EAB) program. For 35 years, the EAB program had allowed parents to register their newborns for Social Security numbers right at the hospital. But suddenly, without warning, SSA moved to rescind this critical service, effectively forcing parents to register their children for Social Security with an SSA agent, at a time when Trump and Musk are closing SSA field offices and radically reducing the agency’s workforce.
Millionaires Are Done Paying Into Social Security for 2025
Millionaires stop paying into Social Security for the year on March 1st --- and billionaires already stopped contributing wages to the program in January. The rest of us continue paying into the system for the entire year. Is it fair that Elon Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Charles Koch, and Tim Cook of Apple don’t have to contribute to Social Security for the rest of the year while most Americans do?
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Dem/GOP Split on Social Security Apparent in Hill Hearing
The House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee held a hearing about the program's trustees' projection that the Social Security trust fund will become depleted in 2035, absent Congressional action. Even so, Social Security still could pay 83% of scheduled benefits at that time. No one wants Congressional inaction, but the hearing emphasized the difference in the two parties' approaches to the problem.
House GOP Appropriators Announce 10% Cut in Labor/HHS Spending
House Republicans once again are showing where their true priorities lie. Appropriations committee chair Tom Cole (R-OK) announced the GOP’s topline numbers for fiscal year 2025 --- including at least a 10% cut in funding for Labor/HHS (Health & Human Services). That could mean agencies like the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would endure a huge spending cut, while Republican appropriators propose to boost military spending by 1%.
New Biden Administration Rules Aim to Boost Nursing Home Care & Caregivers
The Biden administration is out with a historic, new rules designed to improve elder care --- and protect caregivers. The first rule, issued last week, requires all nursing homes to provide 3.5 hours of daily care per patient by certified nurses’ aides or nurses. Up to now, there has been no minimum federal staffing requirement. Staffing levels were regulated only by the states, insufficiently in many cases.
Wisconsin’s MAGA Senate Candidate in Hot Water again re. Nursing Homes
We blogged a couple of weeks ago about Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Erik Hovde’s head-scratching comments about seniors in nursing homes supposedly not having the mental capacity to vote. Now, the New York Times has reported, Hovde is financially entangled with a nursing home that is being sued for mistreating patients:
MAGA Wisconsin Senate Candidate Rebuked for Nursing Home Comments
Seniors’ advocates and their political allies are criticizing recent comments by Wisconsin U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde suggesting that nursing home residents can't – or shouldn't – vote. Hovde, who is running to unseat incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), told Fox News’ Guy Benson::: “We had nursing homes where you had 100 percent voting… Well, if you’re in a nursing home, you only have a five, six-month life expectancy. Almost nobody in a nursing home is in a point to vote. And you had children, adult children showing up saying, ‘Who voted for my 85 or 90-year-old father or mother?’” – GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde These comments by the Trump-endorsed, MAGA Republican candidate drew sharp rebukes as blatantly ageist and fact-free.
Republican Study Committee Budget Cuts Earned Benefits; Keeps Trump Tax Cuts
For solid clues as to what the Republicans would do to Americans’ earned benefits if they maintain power in the House and recapture the Senate and/or the White House, look no further than the House Republican Study Committee (RSC) 2025 budget blueprint. For the second year in a row, the RSC proposes cutting Social Security and Medicare. Rep. Brendan Boyle, Ranking member of the House Budget committee, estimates that these cuts amount to $1.5 trillion for Social Security and $1 trillion for Medicare.