Martin O’Malley Makes the Case Against Trump, Musk & DOGE on Our Podcast
This week’s “You Earned This” podcast features a special VIP 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, conveys a clear message: Social Security is under attack, and the consequences for millions of Americans couldn’t be more dire.
O’Malley doesn’t mince words when reflecting on the state of the SSA under what he terms the “co-presidency” of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. “It breaks my heart to see the way that Musk and Trump are just taking a meat cleaver to this agency and kneecapping its ability to serve the public,” he said during our interview. “It’s not fair. It’s not right. People need to wake up to the very real threat that this poses to their earned benefits.”
2024: A Year of Progress
O’Malley described his year at the SSA as one of the most rewarding periods of his life. Tasked with leading an agency that had been chronically underfunded, he sought to rally the workforce that delivers Americans’ retirement and disability benefits. Years of congressional budget neglect had reduced SSA staffing to a 50-year low, while the demand for services was at an all-time high.
O’Malley took pride in working with SSA’s dedicated employees, who, despite these challenges, had a shared mission to serve the public. Together, they focused on addressing severe customer service backlogs, improving fraud prevention, and ensuring benefits were delivered on time. His team implemented critical changes, including improved data sharing with suspect banking institutions to combat fraud. Under O’Malley’s leadership, SSA reduced wait times on the agency’s 1-800 phone line from 40 minutes to twelve minutes, and shrank the delays for Social Security Disability Insurance hearings, among other improvements.
“I hadn’t felt that fully engaged in work since my time as mayor of Baltimore,” O’Malley said. “Watching the agency turn around, even on a very leaky battleship — even as we coped with inadequate resources and decades of neglect — was well worth doing.”
But the gains O’Malley and his team worked so hard to achieve were quickly undone.
The Sabotage of Social Security
According to O’Malley, the reversal began almost immediately after Trump took office. Under the new administration, the SSA announced severe staffing cuts, including mass firings. Entire offices, including those dedicated to improving customer service and promoting equal opportunity, were illegally purged. “Carrots and sticks” were used to incentivize early retirement, creating a hostile work environment that alienated the dedicated public servants O’Malley once led.
“Trump, Musk, and DOGE have really (abused) a group of people that I came to love very quickly. The workers believed in a shared mission, that what they’re doing matters so much to so many. That’s the only reason people hung in there through all of the tough years,” O’Malley lamented.
After the induced early retirements and firings, “people saw their colleagues hugging each other goodbye. There were tears… and cardboard boxes on top of hoods of cars,” O’Malley explained. “SSA leadership essentially said, ‘Hey, joyous news! Everybody who feels compelled to leave the agency: quit now without letting the door hit your backside on the way out.’”
O’Malley estimates that the reductions in staffing will ultimately result in 10,000 SSA jobs disappearing — a 20% cut. The consequence, he says, will be a depleted, overburdened workforce unable to meet the demands of an aging population, at a time when 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day. This systematic gutting of the already SSA has exacerbated wait times on phone lines and at field offices, caused website crashes, and increased frustration for the everyday Americans who depend on these vital services.
Musk’s Ideology of Brutal Efficiency
O’Malley doesn’t hold back on what he sees as the Trump administration’s true intentions:
“Elon Musk wants to destroy Social Security. It doesn’t fit with his worldview. He thinks people that are elderly, people who are disabled are, by their very nature, wasteful.”
Musk has publicly derided empathy as a weakness, a philosophy that seems to underpin his approach to governance. O’Malley pointed out that Musk views Social Security beneficiaries as “inefficiencies” or, worse, “dispensable.”
“The ‘waste’ that Musk is talking about are people who are elderly and can’t work, people who are disabled and can’t work, children who lose parents,” O’Malley explained. “That’s why he wants to go after a program that he thinks subsidizes people who supposedly are ‘a drain on the system.’”
Musk’s fake hunt for waste and fraud is hypocritical, O’Malley noted, given the billionaire’s reliance on federal contracts worth $8 million per day. Yet instead of safeguarding Social Security, Musk has partnered with Trump to undermine a program that keeps seniors from falling into poverty.
Trump & Musk’s Falsehoods
O’Malley also called out Trump and Musk for spreading disinformation about Social Security, including absurd claims about rampant fraud:
“Donald Trump stands up in his non-state of the union address and implies there are 360-year-olds collecting Social Security, people who presumably came here for the founding of Jamestown or Plymouth. Totally untrue.”
O’Malley re-iterated a darkly funny, but apt remark he made at a Social Security hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. “The zombie apocalypse is not real. There aren’t millions of people wandering all around the cities of America with checks spewing out of their cadaverous pockets.”
The truth, O’Malley explained, is that fraud within Social Security is extraordinarily rare, despite Trump and Musk’s bogus claims. Musk alleged that 40% of the calls on SSA’s phone line are fraudsters. In truth, says O’Malley, for every 3,100 calls taken by SSA’s call center, only one results in a successful attempt at direct deposit fraud. That’s about .0007%! Of course, ideally there would be zero fraud. In fact, new policies implemented during O’Malley’s tenure targeted improper payments. Unfortunately, those reforms likely are out the window now.
Undermining Public Confidence in Social Security
O’Malley expressed his belief that Trump and Musk aim to erode public confidence in Social Security as a prelude to dismantling it entirely. “I have come to the conclusion that Trump and Musk actually want to sour the public against the SSA. And they do that by destroying its ability to provide customer service for people who work their whole lives for these benefits,” he explained.
By making it harder for Americans to access their benefits and by spreading false narratives of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ they hope to sway public opinion against the program. Once that confidence is eroded, the ultimate goal is clear: cut, privatize, and even raid Social Security for cash.
“I could even imagine a sinister scenario,” O’Malley speculated, “where they say, ‘Hey, Social Security is broken. It was always going to go broke and it doesn’t work. So we’re going to have to liquidate the trust fund.” If that were to happen, the $2.7 trillion in the trust fund could be misdirected for unrelated purposes — including a permanent tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations.
O’Malley speaks at a Save Our Social Security rally in Florida last month
A Call to Action
Social Security isn’t a government handout. It’s an earned benefit that keeps seniors and people with disabilities financially afloat. It’s a contract between generations, ensuring workers who pay into the system today can claim benefits upon retirement, disability, or the death of a family breadwinner.
As O’Malley pointed out, the vast majority of Americans support expanding Social Security, not weakening it. “80% of Americans believe Social Security should be strengthened and made better,” he said. But maintaining that support requires action. “Members of Congress need to hear directly from the people,” O’Malley urged. “Americans see the threat and they want them to ‘stop the steal’ of their Social Security benefits.”
Since leaving his post at SSA, O’Malley has been traveling the country to advocate for Social Security and to speak out against the DOGE squad’s interference in the program. He has already delivered two speeches in Florida, warning seniors of what’s at stake, and is heading to Oklahoma next. While he may no longer be Social Security Commissioner, Martin O’Malley remains fiercely devoted to defending the agency he led — and the 73 million people who depend on it.
***********************
LISTEN TO GOV. O’MALLEY’S PODCAST INTERVIEW here.
READ OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SSA WHISTLEBLOWER LAURA HALTZEL here.
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. Under the banner of rooting out “fraud” (of which they have found none), Musk’s minions are in the process of rendering SSA dysfunctional and jeopardizing the delivery of benefits.
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.
Here are 7 questions we would like to see Frank Bisignano answer at Tuesdays’ hearing:
#1 Do you agree with the changes that Musk and Dudek have made at SSA pending your confirmation?
#2 A federal judge has ruled that Musk AND DOGE should not have access to the personal data of 73 million Americans. Do you agree or disagree?
#3 SSA has been chronically underfunded and understaffed. With 10,000 Baby Boomers reaching 65 every day, is this really the time to be slashing the workforce and closing field offices?
#4 Do you believe that Social Security itself or the functions of the SSA should be privatized? And if Social Security were to be privatized, would you and your peers in the financial services industry benefit?
#5 Do you think beneficiaries who have been overpaid (usually through no fault of their own) should have 100% of their Social Security checks clawed back pending repayment?
#6 Elon Musk recently called Social Security a Ponzi Scheme. Do you agree?
#7 What do you feel is the fair and just solution to the projected depletion of the Social Security trust fund? Do you support raising the Social Security retirement age?
Frankly, we don’t expect Bisignano to answer these kinds of questions, but they should be put to him on the record, anyway. We hope that committee members (especially Democrats including ranking member Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) will press the nominee on these extremely important issues to American seniors, people with disabilities, and their families. At this existential moment for Social Security, the public deserves nothing less.
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman Sings the Praises of Social Security
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman is best known from the 70s tv show “Sha Na Na,” where he charmed audiences with his greaser persona, elastic expressions, and basso renditions of 1950s pop music classics — including the band’s cover of “Goodnight, Sweetheart.” Over the years, though, Bowzer has evolved from doo wop revivalist to seniors’ activist — especially when it comes to Social Security. He talked about his evolution from pure entertainment to entertainment and advocacy on a recent episode of the “You Earned This” podcast.
Bowzer’s Shift to Advocacy
Bowzer says that his advocacy work stems from a belief that programs like Social Security and Medicare are lifelines, not just for retirees, but for disabled workers and families too. “Social Security and Medicare represent the values of fairness and mutual support in our country,” he shared. He sees protecting them as a moral responsibility that ensures dignity for millions of Americans.
In the early 2010s, Bowzer teamed up with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare to bolster public support for Social Security. (He now is Chair of Social Security Works’ political action committee.) “It’s not an entitlement. It’s what people paid into. It’s their money and their benefits,” he said. His mission is to counter misinformation and ensure the public knows what’s at stake, especially in the face of persistent proposals from the political right to cut and privatize the program.
Bauman, 77, also shared that he has officially stepped away from touring. He recently completed a series of cruise ship performances but admitted during the podcast that his touring days are mostly behind him. “I’ve reached the age where touring takes too much of a toll physically.” Though he’ll miss being on stage, he said he’s fully committed to his advocacy work and making a difference offstage.
Carrying Stage Skills Into Advocacy
Even though activism is his focus now, Bauman’s time as “Bowzer” still shapes the way he connects with people. His years in Sha Na Na made him an expert in grabbing and holding attention — from live venues like Carnegie Hall to national television.
“The power of a message is about how it lands,” Bauman said. He noted that his ability to simplify complex topics and relate them to everyday experiences makes his advocacy more accessible. “What always mattered most was the ability to connect and communicate. Whether it’s music or policy, that never changes,” he said.
During the podcast, he reflected on the connection between his past and present work. “It’s all about communication. If I could get an entire crowd to sing along to ‘Goodnight Sweetheart,’ then I know I can convince a room full of people why Social Security matters,” he said.
His memories of performing tend to circle back to the causes he champions now. He compared rock and roll’s enduring power to the collective effort that protects Social Security. “Both are about bringing people together and standing for something that endures.” (Social Security celebrates its 90th anniversary later this year!)
The Need to Protect Social Security
He called out critics who frame it as outdated or a burden. “This is about dignity. Social Security allows people to live independently instead of struggling in despair,” he said. Bauman affirmed that Social Security isn’t a government handout; it’s an earned benefit for more than 70 million workers. He firmly believes cutting or privatizing the program would break trust with generations of Americans.
He also didn’t shy away from addressing related issues, such as medical costs and prescription drug prices, and how they connect to Social Security. He said, “You can’t separate Social Security from things like health care. They work hand in hand.”
A Call to Action
Bauman concluded the podcast with a message about the importance of protecting Social Security and Medicare not just for today’s seniors, but for generations to come. “This is about who we are as a society. How we treat our seniors says everything about us,” he explained.
There’s still a lot of work ahead, and Bauman shows no signs of slowing down. Whether it’s through advocating with organizations, speaking to policymakers, or educating the public, his commitment to his mission is clear.
“Social Security isn’t just a program,” Bauman said. “It’s a promise. And I’ll keep fighting to make sure that promise is never broken.”
******************************************************
Listen to Jon “Bowzer” Bauman’s podcast interview here.
Watch a snippet from Bowzer’s “Truth Tour” with NCPSSM in 2012.
Former Social Security Official Says Musk/DOGE Caused “Trauma and Chaos” at SSA
Laura Haltzel is the first former Social Security Administration (SSA) official who was present for the Trump administration’s takeover of the agency to speak out publicly in an on the record interview. In her first interview since leaving SSA, Haltzel told Entitled to Know that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “traumatized” SSA employees — and created “gross inefficiencies” in the system. Haltzel resigned her post as Associate Commissioner Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics on February 28, accepting an early retirement offer that the administration extended to all SSA employees.
Haltzel describes an atmosphere of chaos and fear at SSA headquarters, based on her own experience and communications with colleagues in other departments. (Haltzel was based at the agency’s DC office while the headquarters is in Baltimore.) She had worked at SSA for a cumulative 15 years when she exited her job.
When asked why she decided to go public, Haltzel explained, “I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against every enemy, foreign and domestic… and I witnessed illegal and unconstitutional activity by our top leadership in the Executive Branch, by President Trump, and by Elon Musk.”
Under the influence of Trump, Musk and DOGE, SSA leadership has taken several extreme steps to downsize the agency and undermine its ability to properly serve Social Security beneficiaries. These actions include:
- Radically shrinking the agency’s workforce when staffing already is at a 50-year low;
- Accessing the sensitive personal data of millions of Social Security beneficiaries;
- Closing SSA field offices around the country;
- Restoring an old policy of clawing back up to 100% of beneficiaries’ monthly checks in the case of overpayments;
- Eliminating entire divisions of the agency by illegally removing staff “for cause” despite any performance appraisals to the contrary;
- Proposing to severely reduce customer service on the agency’s 1-800 phone line;
- Trying to make it harder for parents to register newborns for Social Security
The former acting Social Security Commissioner, Michelle King, resigned in protest over Musk and DOGE’s demands for access to highly sensitive SSA data without following long-established protocols. (So did her deputy, Tiffany Flick, who submitted a court affidavit about Musk/DOGE abuses.).
Haltzel says she was horrified at the violation of precedent — and federal law. “As a department head, I did not have the right to access beneficiaries’ private data on a regular basis,” while Musk’s young DOGE minions (mostly IT people with no experience in government or auditing) were rushed through a scant ‘security clearance’ process and granted full access to SSA’s database. “These people were not vetted the way they should have been,” Haltzel says.
She points out that any SSA employee who accesses Americans’ personal data without permission is subject to a maximum 5-year prison sentence and up to $5,000 in fines. Yet, Musk’s team of unqualified outsiders was granted access in a hurry, a move that Haltzel characterizes as illegal. She is deeply concerned about potential abuse of private data by DOGE.
According to Haltzel, Musk and DOGE’s chief tactic at SSA, as with other federal agencies they targeted, is intimidation of employees and sowing chaos to create an untenably stressful workplace — in hopes of driving out long-term workers and shrink the payroll. “There’s only one word for it: trauma,” says Haltzel.
“There was a daily barrage of conflicting directives… and we were constantly responding to deadlines by 5pm every day. It was hard to get real work done where every day you’re trying to comply with some new directive from the top, and then they would reverse course the next day. It created whiplash.”
Haltzel says that one person on her staff lost 20 pounds because they were sick to their stomach every day from uncertainty and “threatening emails essentially telling federal employees that they are worthless and disposable.” That staffer took up the administration’s offer of early retirement, according to Haltzel.
By Haltzel’s account, Musk and DOGE clearly have made the agency less efficient — even though their stated goal was to root out inefficiencies — along with supposed “waste, fraud, and abuse.” In truth, the Social Security Administration always has been one of the most efficient federal agencies, with overhead costs of about 1% of its operating budget.
Haltzel criticizes the leadership of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, who took over after Michelle King resigned and appeared sympathetic to Musk and DOGE’s mission. In fact, before being promoted, Dudek reportedly had been placed on administrative leave for cooperating with Musk and DOGE’s requests for access to sensitive data. According to the Washington Post, Dudek told Social Security advocates at a closed-door meeting that Musk and Trump were “calling the shots” at SSA and he was merely implementing their policies.
She did not personally interact with Dudek, but Haltzel was told by colleagues that his personal style was “very mercurial and dismissive.” She says that Dudek seemed uncurious about the workings of the agency he had just taken over. When staffers would brief Dudek on their departments’ operations, Haltzel says, he would “cut them off after one minute and say, ‘I’ve heard enough.”
According to Pro Publica, Dudek defended himself by telling advocates, “I’ve had to make some tough choices, choices I didn’t agree with. But the president wanted it and I did it.”
When asked why she thinks Trump and Musk are trying so hard to disrupt the Social Security Administration, Haltzel said it is part of their effort to discredit the entire federal government. “There’s a narrative that they want to sell that government doesn’t work. Apparently, the best way to prove that narrative… is to make it so.”
She acknowledges that the administration also may be targeting SSA because of Musk’s apparent hostility to Social Security itself, which he recently called a “Ponzi scheme.” Musk told the media that there is $700 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in “entitlement programs,” and that he intends to slash spending by that same amount — even though his baseless claims about Social Security fraud have been thoroughly discredited.
Underfunded and understaffed, SSA already was struggling to provide adequate customer service to beneficiaries before Trump and Musk took over. DOGE’s raiding of agency resources will only worsen SSA’s ability to serve the public. “The reduction in customer service ironically reinforces the Musk/DOGE narrative of government dysfunction. It has the potential to become self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Haltzel.
While the media have quoted unnamed SSA staffers in reports about Musk/DOGE interference, no agency officials who were there at the beginning of the Trump administration have gone ‘on-the-record’ with their criticisms until today. Haltzel believes that by being outside the Agency now — and having freedom of speech — she has a special duty to ensure that she speaks on behalf of those still within SSA, for whom doing so would put their jobs at risk. Haltzel realizes that going public is a risk to herself and her family, though she notes that they have taken precautions against retribution by Trump and Musk’s supporters.
“I have taken the oath of office multiple times at multiple agencies. Just because I’m not a federal employee does not diminish the oath I took. It has no expiration date,” she says. “I believe you are either a person of integrity and speak up — or you are not. I will continue to be a person of integrity. I’m not going to change who I am.”
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.
“DOGE’s requests were unprecedented and reckless,” Flick stated in her affidavit. “They demanded immediate access to taxpayer data without completing standard security checks or following any established protocols. Ignoring these safeguards is more than just careless; it’s a direct threat to the privacy of millions of Americans.”
Tiffany Flick resigned her job as acting chief of staff at SSA at the same time as acting commissioner Michelle King quit in protest of DOGE’s requests for sensitive data. A former long-time SSA staffer who did not wish his name to be used in this article, says, “Flick’s principled approach, along with former acting commissioner Michelle King, shows courage and professionalism in the face of illegal and inappropriate access requests. She and Ms. King were quite brave and paid a heavy price to adhere to the rule of law.”
What Drove Her to Leave?
Flick’s resignation stemmed from repeated attempts by DOGE to gain unauthorized access to critical databases containing highly sensitive taxpayer information. These databases were safeguarded under strict protocols designed to ensure privacy and data security. When DOGE sought to bypass these safeguards, Flick and King pushed back, risking their careers for what they believed to be the right course of action.
The methods employed by DOGE were described by Flick as “unorthodox and alarming,” undermining established security procedures. The risks were too great for her to ignore, and rather than compromise the values she had built her career upon, Flick chose to step away. “It became clear that the safety and trust SSA relies on were deliberately being disregarded,” she noted in her affidavit.
An Agency Facing Growing Challenges
Since Flick’s departure, reports indicate that DOGE’s interference has only intensified. Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has announced plans for radical downsizing (at an agency where staffing already is at a 50-year low), including firings, coerced early retirement, and the closure of field offices that service the public. Seniors’ advocates warn that these decisions could jeopardize the agency’s ability to serve its beneficiaries effectively, particularly those who rely on in-person assistance. Adding to these difficulties, many of Dudek’s decisions appear to be heavily influenced by DOGE. According to the Post, he admitted to advocacy groups that Musk and his team are “calling the shots” at SSA.
“This is about more than just internal disputes,” Flick declared in her affidavit. “It’s about whether the SSA can remain a trusted institution, or whether it becomes a tool for external agendas that put the public at risk.”
A Warning About the Risks
According to Maria Freese, senior Social Security expert at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), the ongoing interference and mismanagement represent a profound threat.
“What billionaire Elon Musk does not seem to understand is that accessing federal records is not a game. Security procedures are in place for a reason – the Social Security Administration collects Americans’ most personal and private information including Social Security numbers, banking information, work histories and in many cases, troves of personal medical records. The American people share this information with SSA because they have been assured that the government employees who have access to it have gone through rigorous screening to ensure they can be trusted.” – Maria Freese, NCPSSM senior legislative representative, 3/9/25
Musk claims all these employees have ‘security clearances,’ but Flick’s affidavit shines a bright light on the perfunctory process the DOGE staffers underwent before being cleared. “The process was clearly a ‘security clearance’ in name only – under intense pressure from Musk to approve his acolytes quickly – with little attention to whether they truly could be trusted to safely handle our personal information,” says Freese.
Freese emphasizes that any diminishment of the SSA’s ability to protect this information not only risks significant harm to individuals but also damages the trust that is fundamental to public support of Social Security. Compromising the system, she warns, is a direct threat to beneficiaries.
The Importance of Stability at SSA
Social Security serves as a vital safety net for retirees, disabled individuals, and families who rely on survivor benefits. Disruptions to this system could have devastating consequences for millions of Americans who depend on their earned benefits for financial Security. Former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley warned that Musk and DOGE’s meddling in SSA could damage the system and result in missed payments “within 30 to 90 days.”
Tiffany Flick’s decision to speak out serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of integrity and courage when public trust is at stake. “The SSA’s mission is not a commodity to be traded for political convenience,” Flick stated in her affidavit. “It’s a promise, one that must be defended for the sake of Americans today and for generations to come.”
LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST here.
JOIN THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE here.
Martin O’Malley Makes the Case Against Trump, Musk & DOGE on Our Podcast
This week’s “You Earned This” podcast features a special VIP 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, conveys a clear message: Social Security is under attack, and the consequences for millions of Americans couldn’t be more dire.
O’Malley doesn’t mince words when reflecting on the state of the SSA under what he terms the “co-presidency” of Donald Trump and Elon Musk. “It breaks my heart to see the way that Musk and Trump are just taking a meat cleaver to this agency and kneecapping its ability to serve the public,” he said during our interview. “It’s not fair. It’s not right. People need to wake up to the very real threat that this poses to their earned benefits.”
2024: A Year of Progress
O’Malley described his year at the SSA as one of the most rewarding periods of his life. Tasked with leading an agency that had been chronically underfunded, he sought to rally the workforce that delivers Americans’ retirement and disability benefits. Years of congressional budget neglect had reduced SSA staffing to a 50-year low, while the demand for services was at an all-time high.
O’Malley took pride in working with SSA’s dedicated employees, who, despite these challenges, had a shared mission to serve the public. Together, they focused on addressing severe customer service backlogs, improving fraud prevention, and ensuring benefits were delivered on time. His team implemented critical changes, including improved data sharing with suspect banking institutions to combat fraud. Under O’Malley’s leadership, SSA reduced wait times on the agency’s 1-800 phone line from 40 minutes to twelve minutes, and shrank the delays for Social Security Disability Insurance hearings, among other improvements.
“I hadn’t felt that fully engaged in work since my time as mayor of Baltimore,” O’Malley said. “Watching the agency turn around, even on a very leaky battleship — even as we coped with inadequate resources and decades of neglect — was well worth doing.”
But the gains O’Malley and his team worked so hard to achieve were quickly undone.
The Sabotage of Social Security
According to O’Malley, the reversal began almost immediately after Trump took office. Under the new administration, the SSA announced severe staffing cuts, including mass firings. Entire offices, including those dedicated to improving customer service and promoting equal opportunity, were illegally purged. “Carrots and sticks” were used to incentivize early retirement, creating a hostile work environment that alienated the dedicated public servants O’Malley once led.
“Trump, Musk, and DOGE have really (abused) a group of people that I came to love very quickly. The workers believed in a shared mission, that what they’re doing matters so much to so many. That’s the only reason people hung in there through all of the tough years,” O’Malley lamented.
After the induced early retirements and firings, “people saw their colleagues hugging each other goodbye. There were tears… and cardboard boxes on top of hoods of cars,” O’Malley explained. “SSA leadership essentially said, ‘Hey, joyous news! Everybody who feels compelled to leave the agency: quit now without letting the door hit your backside on the way out.’”
O’Malley estimates that the reductions in staffing will ultimately result in 10,000 SSA jobs disappearing — a 20% cut. The consequence, he says, will be a depleted, overburdened workforce unable to meet the demands of an aging population, at a time when 10,000 Baby Boomers reach retirement age every day. This systematic gutting of the already SSA has exacerbated wait times on phone lines and at field offices, caused website crashes, and increased frustration for the everyday Americans who depend on these vital services.
Musk’s Ideology of Brutal Efficiency
O’Malley doesn’t hold back on what he sees as the Trump administration’s true intentions:
“Elon Musk wants to destroy Social Security. It doesn’t fit with his worldview. He thinks people that are elderly, people who are disabled are, by their very nature, wasteful.”
Musk has publicly derided empathy as a weakness, a philosophy that seems to underpin his approach to governance. O’Malley pointed out that Musk views Social Security beneficiaries as “inefficiencies” or, worse, “dispensable.”
“The ‘waste’ that Musk is talking about are people who are elderly and can’t work, people who are disabled and can’t work, children who lose parents,” O’Malley explained. “That’s why he wants to go after a program that he thinks subsidizes people who supposedly are ‘a drain on the system.’”
Musk’s fake hunt for waste and fraud is hypocritical, O’Malley noted, given the billionaire’s reliance on federal contracts worth $8 million per day. Yet instead of safeguarding Social Security, Musk has partnered with Trump to undermine a program that keeps seniors from falling into poverty.
Trump & Musk’s Falsehoods
O’Malley also called out Trump and Musk for spreading disinformation about Social Security, including absurd claims about rampant fraud:
“Donald Trump stands up in his non-state of the union address and implies there are 360-year-olds collecting Social Security, people who presumably came here for the founding of Jamestown or Plymouth. Totally untrue.”
O’Malley re-iterated a darkly funny, but apt remark he made at a Social Security hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. “The zombie apocalypse is not real. There aren’t millions of people wandering all around the cities of America with checks spewing out of their cadaverous pockets.”
The truth, O’Malley explained, is that fraud within Social Security is extraordinarily rare, despite Trump and Musk’s bogus claims. Musk alleged that 40% of the calls on SSA’s phone line are fraudsters. In truth, says O’Malley, for every 3,100 calls taken by SSA’s call center, only one results in a successful attempt at direct deposit fraud. That’s about .0007%! Of course, ideally there would be zero fraud. In fact, new policies implemented during O’Malley’s tenure targeted improper payments. Unfortunately, those reforms likely are out the window now.
Undermining Public Confidence in Social Security
O’Malley expressed his belief that Trump and Musk aim to erode public confidence in Social Security as a prelude to dismantling it entirely. “I have come to the conclusion that Trump and Musk actually want to sour the public against the SSA. And they do that by destroying its ability to provide customer service for people who work their whole lives for these benefits,” he explained.
By making it harder for Americans to access their benefits and by spreading false narratives of ‘waste, fraud, and abuse,’ they hope to sway public opinion against the program. Once that confidence is eroded, the ultimate goal is clear: cut, privatize, and even raid Social Security for cash.
“I could even imagine a sinister scenario,” O’Malley speculated, “where they say, ‘Hey, Social Security is broken. It was always going to go broke and it doesn’t work. So we’re going to have to liquidate the trust fund.” If that were to happen, the $2.7 trillion in the trust fund could be misdirected for unrelated purposes — including a permanent tax cut for the wealthy and big corporations.
O’Malley speaks at a Save Our Social Security rally in Florida last month
A Call to Action
Social Security isn’t a government handout. It’s an earned benefit that keeps seniors and people with disabilities financially afloat. It’s a contract between generations, ensuring workers who pay into the system today can claim benefits upon retirement, disability, or the death of a family breadwinner.
As O’Malley pointed out, the vast majority of Americans support expanding Social Security, not weakening it. “80% of Americans believe Social Security should be strengthened and made better,” he said. But maintaining that support requires action. “Members of Congress need to hear directly from the people,” O’Malley urged. “Americans see the threat and they want them to ‘stop the steal’ of their Social Security benefits.”
Since leaving his post at SSA, O’Malley has been traveling the country to advocate for Social Security and to speak out against the DOGE squad’s interference in the program. He has already delivered two speeches in Florida, warning seniors of what’s at stake, and is heading to Oklahoma next. While he may no longer be Social Security Commissioner, Martin O’Malley remains fiercely devoted to defending the agency he led — and the 73 million people who depend on it.
***********************
LISTEN TO GOV. O’MALLEY’S PODCAST INTERVIEW here.
READ OUR EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SSA WHISTLEBLOWER LAURA HALTZEL here.
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. Under the banner of rooting out “fraud” (of which they have found none), Musk’s minions are in the process of rendering SSA dysfunctional and jeopardizing the delivery of benefits.
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.
Here are 7 questions we would like to see Frank Bisignano answer at Tuesdays’ hearing:
#1 Do you agree with the changes that Musk and Dudek have made at SSA pending your confirmation?
#2 A federal judge has ruled that Musk AND DOGE should not have access to the personal data of 73 million Americans. Do you agree or disagree?
#3 SSA has been chronically underfunded and understaffed. With 10,000 Baby Boomers reaching 65 every day, is this really the time to be slashing the workforce and closing field offices?
#4 Do you believe that Social Security itself or the functions of the SSA should be privatized? And if Social Security were to be privatized, would you and your peers in the financial services industry benefit?
#5 Do you think beneficiaries who have been overpaid (usually through no fault of their own) should have 100% of their Social Security checks clawed back pending repayment?
#6 Elon Musk recently called Social Security a Ponzi Scheme. Do you agree?
#7 What do you feel is the fair and just solution to the projected depletion of the Social Security trust fund? Do you support raising the Social Security retirement age?
Frankly, we don’t expect Bisignano to answer these kinds of questions, but they should be put to him on the record, anyway. We hope that committee members (especially Democrats including ranking member Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) will press the nominee on these extremely important issues to American seniors, people with disabilities, and their families. At this existential moment for Social Security, the public deserves nothing less.
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman Sings the Praises of Social Security
Jon “Bowzer” Bauman is best known from the 70s tv show “Sha Na Na,” where he charmed audiences with his greaser persona, elastic expressions, and basso renditions of 1950s pop music classics — including the band’s cover of “Goodnight, Sweetheart.” Over the years, though, Bowzer has evolved from doo wop revivalist to seniors’ activist — especially when it comes to Social Security. He talked about his evolution from pure entertainment to entertainment and advocacy on a recent episode of the “You Earned This” podcast.
Bowzer’s Shift to Advocacy
Bowzer says that his advocacy work stems from a belief that programs like Social Security and Medicare are lifelines, not just for retirees, but for disabled workers and families too. “Social Security and Medicare represent the values of fairness and mutual support in our country,” he shared. He sees protecting them as a moral responsibility that ensures dignity for millions of Americans.
In the early 2010s, Bowzer teamed up with the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare to bolster public support for Social Security. (He now is Chair of Social Security Works’ political action committee.) “It’s not an entitlement. It’s what people paid into. It’s their money and their benefits,” he said. His mission is to counter misinformation and ensure the public knows what’s at stake, especially in the face of persistent proposals from the political right to cut and privatize the program.
Bauman, 77, also shared that he has officially stepped away from touring. He recently completed a series of cruise ship performances but admitted during the podcast that his touring days are mostly behind him. “I’ve reached the age where touring takes too much of a toll physically.” Though he’ll miss being on stage, he said he’s fully committed to his advocacy work and making a difference offstage.
Carrying Stage Skills Into Advocacy
Even though activism is his focus now, Bauman’s time as “Bowzer” still shapes the way he connects with people. His years in Sha Na Na made him an expert in grabbing and holding attention — from live venues like Carnegie Hall to national television.
“The power of a message is about how it lands,” Bauman said. He noted that his ability to simplify complex topics and relate them to everyday experiences makes his advocacy more accessible. “What always mattered most was the ability to connect and communicate. Whether it’s music or policy, that never changes,” he said.
During the podcast, he reflected on the connection between his past and present work. “It’s all about communication. If I could get an entire crowd to sing along to ‘Goodnight Sweetheart,’ then I know I can convince a room full of people why Social Security matters,” he said.
His memories of performing tend to circle back to the causes he champions now. He compared rock and roll’s enduring power to the collective effort that protects Social Security. “Both are about bringing people together and standing for something that endures.” (Social Security celebrates its 90th anniversary later this year!)
The Need to Protect Social Security
He called out critics who frame it as outdated or a burden. “This is about dignity. Social Security allows people to live independently instead of struggling in despair,” he said. Bauman affirmed that Social Security isn’t a government handout; it’s an earned benefit for more than 70 million workers. He firmly believes cutting or privatizing the program would break trust with generations of Americans.
He also didn’t shy away from addressing related issues, such as medical costs and prescription drug prices, and how they connect to Social Security. He said, “You can’t separate Social Security from things like health care. They work hand in hand.”
A Call to Action
Bauman concluded the podcast with a message about the importance of protecting Social Security and Medicare not just for today’s seniors, but for generations to come. “This is about who we are as a society. How we treat our seniors says everything about us,” he explained.
There’s still a lot of work ahead, and Bauman shows no signs of slowing down. Whether it’s through advocating with organizations, speaking to policymakers, or educating the public, his commitment to his mission is clear.
“Social Security isn’t just a program,” Bauman said. “It’s a promise. And I’ll keep fighting to make sure that promise is never broken.”
******************************************************
Listen to Jon “Bowzer” Bauman’s podcast interview here.
Watch a snippet from Bowzer’s “Truth Tour” with NCPSSM in 2012.
Former Social Security Official Says Musk/DOGE Caused “Trauma and Chaos” at SSA
Laura Haltzel is the first former Social Security Administration (SSA) official who was present for the Trump administration’s takeover of the agency to speak out publicly in an on the record interview. In her first interview since leaving SSA, Haltzel told Entitled to Know that Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “traumatized” SSA employees — and created “gross inefficiencies” in the system. Haltzel resigned her post as Associate Commissioner Office of Research, Evaluation and Statistics on February 28, accepting an early retirement offer that the administration extended to all SSA employees.
Haltzel describes an atmosphere of chaos and fear at SSA headquarters, based on her own experience and communications with colleagues in other departments. (Haltzel was based at the agency’s DC office while the headquarters is in Baltimore.) She had worked at SSA for a cumulative 15 years when she exited her job.
When asked why she decided to go public, Haltzel explained, “I swore an oath to defend the Constitution against every enemy, foreign and domestic… and I witnessed illegal and unconstitutional activity by our top leadership in the Executive Branch, by President Trump, and by Elon Musk.”
Under the influence of Trump, Musk and DOGE, SSA leadership has taken several extreme steps to downsize the agency and undermine its ability to properly serve Social Security beneficiaries. These actions include:
- Radically shrinking the agency’s workforce when staffing already is at a 50-year low;
- Accessing the sensitive personal data of millions of Social Security beneficiaries;
- Closing SSA field offices around the country;
- Restoring an old policy of clawing back up to 100% of beneficiaries’ monthly checks in the case of overpayments;
- Eliminating entire divisions of the agency by illegally removing staff “for cause” despite any performance appraisals to the contrary;
- Proposing to severely reduce customer service on the agency’s 1-800 phone line;
- Trying to make it harder for parents to register newborns for Social Security
The former acting Social Security Commissioner, Michelle King, resigned in protest over Musk and DOGE’s demands for access to highly sensitive SSA data without following long-established protocols. (So did her deputy, Tiffany Flick, who submitted a court affidavit about Musk/DOGE abuses.).
Haltzel says she was horrified at the violation of precedent — and federal law. “As a department head, I did not have the right to access beneficiaries’ private data on a regular basis,” while Musk’s young DOGE minions (mostly IT people with no experience in government or auditing) were rushed through a scant ‘security clearance’ process and granted full access to SSA’s database. “These people were not vetted the way they should have been,” Haltzel says.
She points out that any SSA employee who accesses Americans’ personal data without permission is subject to a maximum 5-year prison sentence and up to $5,000 in fines. Yet, Musk’s team of unqualified outsiders was granted access in a hurry, a move that Haltzel characterizes as illegal. She is deeply concerned about potential abuse of private data by DOGE.
According to Haltzel, Musk and DOGE’s chief tactic at SSA, as with other federal agencies they targeted, is intimidation of employees and sowing chaos to create an untenably stressful workplace — in hopes of driving out long-term workers and shrink the payroll. “There’s only one word for it: trauma,” says Haltzel.
“There was a daily barrage of conflicting directives… and we were constantly responding to deadlines by 5pm every day. It was hard to get real work done where every day you’re trying to comply with some new directive from the top, and then they would reverse course the next day. It created whiplash.”
Haltzel says that one person on her staff lost 20 pounds because they were sick to their stomach every day from uncertainty and “threatening emails essentially telling federal employees that they are worthless and disposable.” That staffer took up the administration’s offer of early retirement, according to Haltzel.
By Haltzel’s account, Musk and DOGE clearly have made the agency less efficient — even though their stated goal was to root out inefficiencies — along with supposed “waste, fraud, and abuse.” In truth, the Social Security Administration always has been one of the most efficient federal agencies, with overhead costs of about 1% of its operating budget.
Haltzel criticizes the leadership of acting Commissioner Leland Dudek, who took over after Michelle King resigned and appeared sympathetic to Musk and DOGE’s mission. In fact, before being promoted, Dudek reportedly had been placed on administrative leave for cooperating with Musk and DOGE’s requests for access to sensitive data. According to the Washington Post, Dudek told Social Security advocates at a closed-door meeting that Musk and Trump were “calling the shots” at SSA and he was merely implementing their policies.
She did not personally interact with Dudek, but Haltzel was told by colleagues that his personal style was “very mercurial and dismissive.” She says that Dudek seemed uncurious about the workings of the agency he had just taken over. When staffers would brief Dudek on their departments’ operations, Haltzel says, he would “cut them off after one minute and say, ‘I’ve heard enough.”
According to Pro Publica, Dudek defended himself by telling advocates, “I’ve had to make some tough choices, choices I didn’t agree with. But the president wanted it and I did it.”
When asked why she thinks Trump and Musk are trying so hard to disrupt the Social Security Administration, Haltzel said it is part of their effort to discredit the entire federal government. “There’s a narrative that they want to sell that government doesn’t work. Apparently, the best way to prove that narrative… is to make it so.”
She acknowledges that the administration also may be targeting SSA because of Musk’s apparent hostility to Social Security itself, which he recently called a “Ponzi scheme.” Musk told the media that there is $700 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in “entitlement programs,” and that he intends to slash spending by that same amount — even though his baseless claims about Social Security fraud have been thoroughly discredited.
Underfunded and understaffed, SSA already was struggling to provide adequate customer service to beneficiaries before Trump and Musk took over. DOGE’s raiding of agency resources will only worsen SSA’s ability to serve the public. “The reduction in customer service ironically reinforces the Musk/DOGE narrative of government dysfunction. It has the potential to become self-fulfilling prophecy,” says Haltzel.
While the media have quoted unnamed SSA staffers in reports about Musk/DOGE interference, no agency officials who were there at the beginning of the Trump administration have gone ‘on-the-record’ with their criticisms until today. Haltzel believes that by being outside the Agency now — and having freedom of speech — she has a special duty to ensure that she speaks on behalf of those still within SSA, for whom doing so would put their jobs at risk. Haltzel realizes that going public is a risk to herself and her family, though she notes that they have taken precautions against retribution by Trump and Musk’s supporters.
“I have taken the oath of office multiple times at multiple agencies. Just because I’m not a federal employee does not diminish the oath I took. It has no expiration date,” she says. “I believe you are either a person of integrity and speak up — or you are not. I will continue to be a person of integrity. I’m not going to change who I am.”
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.
“DOGE’s requests were unprecedented and reckless,” Flick stated in her affidavit. “They demanded immediate access to taxpayer data without completing standard security checks or following any established protocols. Ignoring these safeguards is more than just careless; it’s a direct threat to the privacy of millions of Americans.”
Tiffany Flick resigned her job as acting chief of staff at SSA at the same time as acting commissioner Michelle King quit in protest of DOGE’s requests for sensitive data. A former long-time SSA staffer who did not wish his name to be used in this article, says, “Flick’s principled approach, along with former acting commissioner Michelle King, shows courage and professionalism in the face of illegal and inappropriate access requests. She and Ms. King were quite brave and paid a heavy price to adhere to the rule of law.”
What Drove Her to Leave?
Flick’s resignation stemmed from repeated attempts by DOGE to gain unauthorized access to critical databases containing highly sensitive taxpayer information. These databases were safeguarded under strict protocols designed to ensure privacy and data security. When DOGE sought to bypass these safeguards, Flick and King pushed back, risking their careers for what they believed to be the right course of action.
The methods employed by DOGE were described by Flick as “unorthodox and alarming,” undermining established security procedures. The risks were too great for her to ignore, and rather than compromise the values she had built her career upon, Flick chose to step away. “It became clear that the safety and trust SSA relies on were deliberately being disregarded,” she noted in her affidavit.
An Agency Facing Growing Challenges
Since Flick’s departure, reports indicate that DOGE’s interference has only intensified. Acting Commissioner Leland Dudek has announced plans for radical downsizing (at an agency where staffing already is at a 50-year low), including firings, coerced early retirement, and the closure of field offices that service the public. Seniors’ advocates warn that these decisions could jeopardize the agency’s ability to serve its beneficiaries effectively, particularly those who rely on in-person assistance. Adding to these difficulties, many of Dudek’s decisions appear to be heavily influenced by DOGE. According to the Post, he admitted to advocacy groups that Musk and his team are “calling the shots” at SSA.
“This is about more than just internal disputes,” Flick declared in her affidavit. “It’s about whether the SSA can remain a trusted institution, or whether it becomes a tool for external agendas that put the public at risk.”
A Warning About the Risks
According to Maria Freese, senior Social Security expert at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare (NCPSSM), the ongoing interference and mismanagement represent a profound threat.
“What billionaire Elon Musk does not seem to understand is that accessing federal records is not a game. Security procedures are in place for a reason – the Social Security Administration collects Americans’ most personal and private information including Social Security numbers, banking information, work histories and in many cases, troves of personal medical records. The American people share this information with SSA because they have been assured that the government employees who have access to it have gone through rigorous screening to ensure they can be trusted.” – Maria Freese, NCPSSM senior legislative representative, 3/9/25
Musk claims all these employees have ‘security clearances,’ but Flick’s affidavit shines a bright light on the perfunctory process the DOGE staffers underwent before being cleared. “The process was clearly a ‘security clearance’ in name only – under intense pressure from Musk to approve his acolytes quickly – with little attention to whether they truly could be trusted to safely handle our personal information,” says Freese.
Freese emphasizes that any diminishment of the SSA’s ability to protect this information not only risks significant harm to individuals but also damages the trust that is fundamental to public support of Social Security. Compromising the system, she warns, is a direct threat to beneficiaries.
The Importance of Stability at SSA
Social Security serves as a vital safety net for retirees, disabled individuals, and families who rely on survivor benefits. Disruptions to this system could have devastating consequences for millions of Americans who depend on their earned benefits for financial Security. Former SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley warned that Musk and DOGE’s meddling in SSA could damage the system and result in missed payments “within 30 to 90 days.”
Tiffany Flick’s decision to speak out serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of integrity and courage when public trust is at stake. “The SSA’s mission is not a commodity to be traded for political convenience,” Flick stated in her affidavit. “It’s a promise, one that must be defended for the sake of Americans today and for generations to come.”
LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST here.
JOIN THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE here.