{"id":1051984,"date":"2025-03-13T14:30:46","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T18:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1051984"},"modified":"2025-03-13T14:30:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T18:30:47","slug":"trump-and-musk-take-a-wrecking-ball-to-social-security-and-medicare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-and-musk-take-a-wrecking-ball-to-social-security-and-medicare\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and Musk Take a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to Social Security and Medicare"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are coming after seniors\u2019 hard-earned benefits. After Trump <\/em>shuttered<\/em><\/a> Social Security field offices and <\/em>limited phone services,<\/em><\/a> seniors are being left on hold for hours and face payment disruptions. His administration is also attacking Medicare and Medicaid innovation programs, <\/em>canceling<\/em><\/a> a project that would offer $2 generic drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump and his shadow president Elon Musk\u2019s plans are clear: <\/em>\u201celiminate\u201d<\/em><\/a> hard-earned benefits that serve millions of seniors while giving tax handouts to the ultra-rich and mega-corporations. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Washington Post<\/a>: \u201cSocial Security and White House officials said the administration will still move ahead with another far more limited element of the original proposal: Customers will no longer be able to change a direct deposit routing number or other bank information by phone. \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe changes \u2014 contemplated and enacted \u2014 threatened to disrupt Social Security\u2019s internal operations and limit its ability to serve the public, current and former officials warned, just as DOGE is targeting the agency for across-the-board staff cuts of more than 12 percent. \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe DOGE-driven proposal \u2026 would be likely to imperil millions of Americans\u2019 ability to receive their earned benefits. The field office staff is already facing DOGE-directed depletions as the Trump administration moves to cut 7,000 jobs at the agency and eliminate numerous field offices.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axios<\/a>: \u201cDOGE is taking its wrecking ball to the Social Security Administration, the agency responsible for overseeing retirement and disability benefits for 73 million Americans.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy it matters: The cuts underway could wind up breaking critical parts of a system that millions of the nation\u2019s most vulnerable citizens rely on, including nearly 90% of Americans over age 65. \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe agency also announced plans to shutter six of 10 regional offices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDOGE has also gained access to crucial systems,<\/strong> packed with private data that Flick and others said the group doesn\u2019t have the expertise to handle.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Axios<\/a>: \u201cThe Trump Medicare innovation center plans to cancel a half dozen trials to change the way health providers are paid by the end of the year<\/strong> \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCMMI will also not continue with two projects that had been announced but not yet started. One would offer $2 generic drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. A second aimed to incentivize drug manufacturers to complete confirmatory trials of accelerated approval drugs. \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe innovation center was created through the Affordable Care Act to test different ways to provide and reimburse for health services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are coming after seniors\u2019 hard-earned benefits. After Trump shuttered Social Security field offices and limited phone services, seniors are being left on hold for hours and face payment disruptions. His administration is also attacking Medicare and Medicaid innovation programs, canceling a project that would offer $2 generic drugs to Medicare […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTrump and Musk Take a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to Social Security and Medicare - Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-and-musk-take-a-wrecking-ball-to-social-security-and-medicare\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-13T18:30:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-13T18:30:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Black-Logo-White-Fill-For-Email.png?w=1024\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrianna Tomasello\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-and-musk-take-a-wrecking-ball-to-social-security-and-medicare\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/trump-and-musk-take-a-wrecking-ball-to-social-security-and-medicare\/\",\"name\":\"Trump and Musk Take a \u201cWrecking Ball\u201d to Social Security and Medicare - 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