It didn’t get as much attention as questions about how a reporter got into a high-level group chat about U.S. military strikes in Yemen, but a U.S. Senate hearing this week with the new nominee to lead the Social Security Administration brought a fresh warning for the White House.
On display was bipartisan concern about Social Security customer service as senators heard from Wall Street veteran Frank Bisignano, President Donald Trump’s pick to run the agency.
It was clear that lawmakers aren’t sure they like what Elon Musk’s budget-cutting team is doing, as officials from his Department of Government Efficiency initiative have moved to close some Social Security offices, cut staff and reduce phone service options.
There is a reason Social Security is known as the third rail of American politics. And to many, DOGE’s actions are not a recipe to improve customer service for America’s seniors.
Credit: NYT
Credit: NYT
“I think common sense would suggest that when it’s bad now, you don’t lay off half your staff,” said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
It was a GOP senator who most effectively drove home that point.
U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., detailed how one of his staffers called the Social Security help line just to see what service was like.
It didn’t go well.
“They were disconnected twice,” Daines said. On the third call, the staffer was on hold for an hour — listening to bad elevator music — before being disconnected again.
“You can’t make this up,” Daines said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., pressed Bisignano on office closures, registering his opposition to an earlier DOGE announcement that it would shut down as many as five Social Security offices in Brunswick, Columbus, Gainesville, Thomasville and Vidalia.
“They posted those closures on their website, and now no one seems to know what’s true,” Warnock said, raising the question of who is really calling the shots about what’s next for Social Security.
“When it comes to office closures, who’s going to be making that decision?” Warnock asked. “You or Elon Musk?”
If there is a political history lesson that lawmakers and Trump administration officials might want to review, they should go back to 1988, when Congress approved an overhaul of Medicare designed to reduce the risk among the elderly who suffer illness-related catastrophic financial losses.
Lawmakers thought they were doing something fantastic. But seniors hated the changes, protesting so loudly that Congress repealed the law the next year.
From the outset, Democrats have been worried about Musk’s work inside Social Security after he falsely claimed that “tens of millions” of dead people were still receiving benefits.
Social Security’s internal systems can certainly be improved. But if you break things, don’t be surprised if there is a backlash.
Watch out for that third rail.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and Congress from Washington, D.C., since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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