SSA Worker: Why DOGE Could Be ‘Sabotaging' Social Security — and How That Affects You
Social Security has long been considered the untouchable 'third rail' of American politics. But a seasoned Social Security Administration (SSA) employee predicts that the upheaval resulting from recent restructuring initiatives implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is intended to 'destroy Social Security from the inside.'
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In an interview with The Daily Beast1 published on April 8, SSA claims technical analyst Rennie Glasgow said, 'We're being pushed to ensure that we cannot perform effectively and efficiently, so that they can privatize.
'I'm almost certain that the goal is privatization for this agency because there's a lot of money they want to get their hands on,' he said.
Glasgow, a 15-year veteran of SSA and vice president of Local 3343 of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents SSA workers, noted that the SSA is remarkably cost-efficient, spending just 1% of its budget on employee costs. In fact, the total administrative costs from both of Social Security's trust funds is less than 1%, according to the SSA.2
Glasgow's suspicion stems in part from workforce reductions that have increased wait times for phone help and in-person assistance. Exacerbating the delays are daily system outages that render staff at Glasgow's Schenectady, New York, office unable to help individuals who might already have waited several hours for their turn at a window.
Also concerning is DOGE's demand for secure access to SSA databases — a move Glasgow said circumvents strict controls on beneficiary information and essentially allows DOGE to make up its own rules as it goes.
Glasgow is not the only one who suspects that the DOGE-induced chaos is part of a concerted effort to discredit Social Security program operations. Earlier this month, Alex Jacquez, a former National Economic Council senior policy advisor and current chief of policy at Groundwork Collaborative, told Fortune,3 'My view is that the ultimate goal here is what has been the holy grail for Republicans for decades now, which is to privatize the Social Security Administration and privatize Social Security.
'There's already a long list of things that Elon [Musk] and the administration have basically floated as being services that they want the private sector to take over,' Jacquez said.
President Donald Trump says his administration won't touch Social Security, and Frank Bisignano, Trump's nominee for SSA commissioner, has denied hearing or thinking of plans for privatization.4 However, Musk is a vocal critic of Social Security. He has called the program a Ponzi scheme and made unsubstantiated accusations, often amplified by Trump, that the SSA is engaging in fraud5 — despite a 99.97% payment accuracy rate for Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance, according to the Office of the Inspector General.6
As Glasgow noted, customer service is already suffering under the weight of cutbacks. That could get worse amid regional office closures and the loss of field and hearing offices due to lease terminations. But if his suspicions about privatization are correct, the restructuring could have a significant impact on Social Security benefits as well.
Under the current system, Social Security payroll taxes go into trust funds that invest the money in U.S. Treasuries, which offer predictable but low returns compared to the stock market. Privatization would allow beneficiaries to invest some or all of their payroll withholdings. Proponents say these investments could result in larger nest eggs because of higher returns.
Privatization opponents point out that Treasuries are extremely safe because they're backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. That safety allows the SSA to guarantee your Social Security retirement benefits. Stock market returns, on the other hand, are unpredictable and never guaranteed, so your retirement benefits couldn't be guaranteed, either.
It's important to remember that Social Security is only meant to replace about 40% of income at full retirement age, which is currently 67. However, a survey by The Senior Citizens League7 found that two-thirds of America's seniors rely on Social Security benefits for more than half of their income, and nearly half of seniors rely on it for 76% to 100% of their income. While higher benefits would have obvious advantages, they'd come at the expense of the safety net millions of seniors rely on to ensure that their most basic needs are met after they leave the workforce.
Sources
The Daily Beast, 'I Know Musk's Secret Blueprint to Destroy Social Security from The Inside.' (April 9, 2025)
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Social Security Administration, 'Social Security Administrative Expenses.'
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Fortune, 'Elon Musk's DOGE is undermining the Social Security Administration's technology and operations, former White House official says.' (April 1, 2025)
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ABC News, 'Trump SSA pick not seeking to privatize Social Security, will meet people 'where they want to be met.'' (March 25, 2025)
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NPR, 'Former head of Social Security says Elon Musk and DOGE are wrong about the agency.' (March 24, 2025)
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Payment Accuracy, 'Annual Improper Payments Datasets.'
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The Senior Citizens League, 'Two-Thirds of Seniors Rely on Social Security for More Than Half Their Income.' (Nov. 5, 2024)
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Birthrates are in freefall, and while we're saying the words out loud more often, we've yet to process what this means for our societies, our businesses, or the very survival of the economic model our current form of civilization depends on. Toby Ord and others in the longtermist camp have been sounding the alarm for years. In The Precipice, he outlines a spectrum of existential risks facing humanity, from engineered pandemics to unaligned AI, but undergirding many of these is the quieter collapse of our demographic engine. If there are no people, there is no future to protect. While longtermism has found its home in academic circles and a handful of venture capital firms thinking centuries ahead, the population crisis hasn't yet pierced the mainstream with the same urgency. 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And it's not just an American problem. Japan is decades into its population contraction. China's demographic decline has officially begun. Even the Nordic countries, long viewed as social policy success stories, are struggling to reverse the trend. The demographic future isn't looming. It's here, even if our earlier momentum still keeps us going. 'This isn't hyperbole,' Napper adds. 'It's not that we're all going to die. But your needs are not going to be met in the ways they are today. The expectations we've built into every institution, every business model—they just won't hold any more.' We have not faced an existential threat with such clear implications for our economy before. There's no precedent for what happens when an entire economic system built on constant growth finds itself with fewer hands to work, fewer children to teach, fewer buyers for the homes, and fewer taxpayers to sustain the state. Faced with a future as bleak as this, it's only natural to ask what is driving it, and what could we do about it? There's no singular villain here. The decline in birthrates isn't the result of one policy or one cultural shift; it's a slow-motion trainwreck caused by everything, everywhere, all at once. 'We've tried paying people,' Napper says. 'But money doesn't fix this. It's not just an economic decision or a transaction the government or employer can influence with just money. It's personal. People are making very deliberate choices about the kind of life they want, and many are deciding not to replicate the one they've lived.' In part, we've overoptimized for affluence. Modern life is a relentless treadmill of degrees, performance reviews, debt, and the promise that things will get better if you just stick it out. But what if better never comes? What if the very structure of our success makes having children feel like a selfish, impossible luxury? 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Greg Casar, D-Austin, told the Tribune that he has had conversations with Gill related to this incident, including about how members of Congress should take their jobs seriously and that disagreements will happen, but that there is a line. 'He can stand out based on his opinions, if he wants to, but he shouldn't stand out by saying things that put the life at risk of people that he works with,' Casar said. Gill has continued to set off sparks at House committee hearings – leading to clips that have gone viral in conservative circles – with pointed lines of questions directed at the CEO of NPR, the mayor of Chicago and the head of USA Fencing. Cruz praised Gill on his podcast, 'Verdict with Ted Cruz,' calling the freshman representative a 'rising star in the House,' and Gaetz, in a social media post, called Gill the better version of himself following the NPR hearing. Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, who serves with Gill on the oversight committee, praised the freshman. 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He also told the Tribune that the Freedom Caucus holdouts on the budget reconciliation package had 'excellent points,' and that the holdouts were fighting to include Trump's agenda into the final tax and spending bill. Gill had returned to Washington early, a week after his son was born in May, in an attempt to move the Republican megabill out of the House Budget Committee. The legislation was temporarily blocked by Roy and other holdouts in the committee as they pushed for more reforms. Gill has plans to continue focusing on his push to permanently defund NPR and PBS, lower border crossings, codify cuts to the federal workforce, and eliminate some of the Biden administration's climate policies. 'We should be doing … all the things that we told voters we were going to do,' Gill said. 'The things that voters saw us talking about and said, 'We need to give these people a majority in Washington.' ' Disclosure: Politico has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. First round of TribFest speakers announced! Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd; U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio; Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker; U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, D-California; and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas are taking the stage Nov. 13–15 in Austin. Get your tickets today!
