Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O'Malley warned that while President Donald Trump has said he "won't touch" the country's retirement benefits, he is actually destroying them.
MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Monday read a recent report from a former SSA official who revealed that millions of taxpayers' data was exposed thanks to the aides at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency initiative.
When he came into office, Trump created DOGE by executive order. That initiative has been behind the upheaval and dismantling of government agencies, including SSA. Websites, grants, programs, and employees have been cut or frozen under the promise that Trump will save taxpayers trillions.
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"They are driving employees out of Social Security as fast as they possibly can," said O'Malley, a former Maryland governor and presidential candidate. "Mass firings of entire divisions of social security. The entire office of civil rights and equal opportunity, the entire office of customer service transformation, telling people they're all being fired for cause. Get a cardboard box. Get out today. No, you can't be assigned anyplace else."
He added that approximately 40 percent of SSA employees are eligible for retirement and are being offered the opportunity to be paid until the end of the year if they leave immediately.
"No need for knowledge transfer. No need to tell us what you understand about how the architecture of this place is put together. Leave now. I truly believe that they are trying to crater this agency, and that they are driving it to a total system collapse," O'Malley said, sounding the alarm. "That is going to happen a lot sooner rather than later."
As of Friday, appointments to review social security information claims were about a 30-day wait. If a citizen was waiting for information about a disability, it will take 200 to 230 days, the automated recording said, for those waiting in the queue.
See the clip below or at the link here.
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