This is a feature not a bug. Musk believes that Social security is a big Ponzi scheme and the Commerce Secretary thinks that anyone who complains about it is committing fraud.
This is already happening and they’re just getting started:
The Social Security Administration website crashed four times in 10 days this month because the servers were overloaded, blocking millions of retirees and disabled Americans from logging in to their online accounts. In the field, office managers have resorted to answering phones in place of receptionists because so many employees have been pushed out. Amid all this, the agency no longer has a system to monitor customer experience because that office was eliminated as part of the cost-cutting efforts led by Elon Musk.
And the phones keep ringing. And ringing.
The federal agency that delivers $1.5 trillion a year in earned benefits to 73 million retired workers, their survivors, and poor and disabled Americans is engulfed in crisis — further undermining the already struggling organization’s ability to provide reliable and quick service to vulnerable customers, according to internal documents and more than two dozen current and former agency employees and officials, customers and others who interact with Social Security.
According to Angelo Carusone of Media Matters on MSNBC, what’s happening at the SSA goes beyond even Project 2025. They just wanted to raise the retirement age and slowly roll out some benefit cuts. Musk wants to destroy it altogether. Now they’re working in tandem to just let ‘er rip.
The SS Administrator nominee Frank Bisignano had his confirmation hearing this morning. I don’t think he’s going to make many improvements:
“It’s bedlam out there in Social Security,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the ranking member of the Finance Committee.
“The urgency for today’s hearing couldn’t be greater. Since Donald Trump took office, Social Security has experienced the most chaos in its history,” he said. “Mass personnel layoffs, eliminating phone service for basic help, sending seniors to overcrowded and understaffed field offices that have also been put on the chopping block for closure, political appointees poking around your most sensitive private information.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., asked Bisignano whether he agrees with Musk’s claim that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme.” The nominee didn’t directly answer, saying twice that it’s “a promise to pay.”
Bisignano told Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that his objective is to continue and improve Social Security. When asked if it should be privatized, he said, “I don’t believe anybody’s thinking about that.”
Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said Trump “has Elon Musk … running rampant through Social Security, and he’s laying off staff and making it much more difficult for people to get benefits.” She asked if he’d stand up to Musk and DOGE if they come for benefits.
Bisignano promised to “lead the agency in the manner that this Senate Finance Committee wants me to do” and said he has no thought about slashing benefits. He made clear he reports to Trump amid questions about Musk.
Well ok then.
The Republicans, by the way, said these complaints are all a pack of lies and nothing but scare tactics. There’s no need to worry your pretty little heads about anything. Daddy’s home.