Social Security Employees are now on Trump's Chopping Block

 

Elon Musk has descended upon  Social Security with the same careless, ruthless abandon he has brought to every other Federal Agency.  An anonymous whistleblower stated the following actions have been taken against the Agency:

1.Probationary attorney-level decision writers who are responsible for assisting Administrative Law Judges were terminated and at a time when the agency has massive backlogs in cases at the Hearing level.

2. The new acting commissioner gloated about firing 14 employees as an "accomplishment" in his commissioner broadcast to the agency.

3. The entire office of Transformation, and its 60+ employees were dissolved. Their purpose was to promote agency-wide efficiencies and faster processing times through oversight over SSA systems and use of information technology.

4. The entire Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity and its 190 employees  were dissolved, including the Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner of Civil Rights.  OCREO conducts statutorily mandated requirements for employees and members of the public including the reasonable accommodation request process, the public facing discrimination complaint process, and the EEOC employment discrimination complaint process. The National RA Coordinator whose position was court ordered was also terminated.

5. Component heads and executives were told to draft plans to slash  Social Security Administration (SSA) by 50% and to reduce the total SSA workforce by seven to eight thousand.

6.SSA staff were sent an email threatening massive reorganization of SSA followed with significant workforce reduction.  The email pressured seasoned employees, even front-line employees, with monetary incentives to resign or take early retirement and threatened to fire employees for cause should they not retire or resign.

7. Executive staff responsible for overseeing regional field office operations were terminated. One region had all but 3 out of 72 staff members terminated and it is very likely that the other ten regions had similar terminations.  The regional executive offices oversee hundreds of field offices.

8. The Acting Commissioner sent out a memo to SSA staff indicating significant restructuring of the agency due to a "bloated workforce and organizational structure", even though staffing at SSA is the lowest it has been in 50 years. The reorganization includes taking the ten regions  that SSA serves and consolidating into four regions; and combining multiple  independent components together in an effort to "downsize"
 or "streamline."  This could potentially lead to massive closures in field offices, a reduction in services, and a significant number of terminations of agency employees.

9. Terminations are happening swiftly and often late in the day to avoid bringing attention to any media or congressional attention to their actions.

10.The trauma they are creating for SSA staff is unreal. According to the whistleblower at least three terminated SSA employees have committed suicide, one which the whistleblower personally knew.

 The Social Security Administration issued a Press Release on the Re-organization that claims a fifty percent workforce reduction is not accurate.  The press release which you can read  HERE  states that the SSA intends to reduce the workforce from 57,000 to 50,000 employees, a reduction of 7,000 jobs.

Budget Time in Washington! Hazzah!

 

House of Representatives Passage of Trump Budget/ Photo: C-SPAN

By Rick Fisher, Retired Town Manager,

When I was younger, I called myself a Blue Dog Democrat- strong on defense, supporting critical community services to serve the poor, the disabled, and our seniors, infrastructure improvements, support for our allies overseas, and all within a balanced budget.

In my experience in local government, our focus was often on roads maintenance, road improvements, storm-water controls, vehicle and equipment maintenance and replacement, and infrastructure improvements. We would donate to local non-profit community-based organizations, maintain our municipal structures,  serve the people, respond to their complaints, and find solutions to community problems.  We also had to deal with storms, floods, snow and ice, and the occasional natural disaster.

And we had to either get the job done within the approved budget, or have retained earnings to carry over in case next year is the natural disaster year.  If we couldn't make a budget that worked, costs too high, revenue dipping, we would have to raise taxes.   We could not run a deficit.  That is why preparing the budget was my favorite challenge.   And I succeeded over six years, in two different towns in two different states, to propose a balanced budget each year, with no new taxes, receive budget approval and then proceed to collect taxes that met expectations and run the government within the budget.

The citizens or their representatives in my communities could have taken it a step further and propose tax reductions.  But that requires a leap in human nature,  we don't want to trust our appointed officials that much and then end up holding an empty boot and an I.O.U. if they are wrong.  It is difficult for elected officials to stand up in front of their neighbors and admit they made a mistake on a critical line item.  That is why the challenge was so much fun and the result so rewarding.  

Budget numbers are not facts, but rather an estimate based upon factual expense data from previous years. They include an estimate of what the future needs might cost, and what new stuff we are planning to add to the budget. So we create 5 and 10-year plans for each area of expense, roads more elaborate than office administration.  Our elected officials cannot vote to raise the debt ceiling.

The citizens get involved as we hold public meetings on the budget.  The refrain No New Taxes dominated the meetings, and the request for more community services could also be heard.  Two competing forces, kind of like we see on the National stage between Democrats and Republicans.

Since I enjoy preparing budgets like some folks enjoy vanilla ice cream cones, I am going to take a deeper dive into the budget proposed by President Trump and approved by the  House of Representatives and share my budget thoughts with all of you.  I think it will be revealing, revolting, reviled, refreshing, and potentially something I can relieve myself upon.