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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Though Trump claims he'll "always protect Social Security," his Admin indiscriminately pushed out 7K+ SSA workers — the largest staffing cut in agency history — compromising access to earned benefits for seniors, bereaved families & people with disabilities. #CBPPSOTU www.cbpp.org/research/soc...

cbpp.org

Reassignment Won’t Fix the Largest-Ever Social Security Staffing Cut

The Social Security Administration will have fewer and less experienced staff on the front lines serving the public with significantly less support, leading to worse outcomes for people who rely on So...

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

Today's the last day for 150K+ feds who took the "Fork" (deferred resignation program), including 800+ at the Social Security Administration. The experience at SSA demonstrates 3 things about the DRP: 1. It's the tip of the iceberg 2. It wasn't really voluntary 3. It hurts service to the public

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Sarah Lueck @sarahl202.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

You can’t cut hundreds of billions from #Medicaid without harming people. New CBO analysis confirms proposals House Republican have floated would leave millions uninsured, each slashing billions from Medicaid w/ $170b-$472B in cuts coming from lower enrollment . www.cbo.gov/system/files...

cbo.gov

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

The threat to judges and their families is appalling.

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

"We find that 11 percent of current Social Security beneficiaries, or 7.4 million people, do not have enough savings to replace their benefits if their Social Security checks were delayed for one month."

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Justice in Aging @justiceinaging.org · 02/04/2025

Breaking: Today, we filed a lawsuit against the Social Security Administration and DOGE for creating roadblocks that prevent Americans from getting their retirement and disability benefits. 🧵Thread

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

SSI recipients are currently only allowed to save $2,000 (for individuals) or $3,000 (for couples). After that they lose their entire monthly benefit. We need to update the rules so that people can save enough to meet their needs

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Our new fact sheet highlights the importance of Social Security to the economic stability of over 70 million older adults, people with disabilities, and their families. Urge your members of Congress to reverse the dismantling of SSA and protect Social Security justiceinaging.org/wp-content/u...

justiceinaging.org

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Thanks to KFF Health News and many others for reporting on this issue. SSA's decision to reverse a policy designed to prevent beneficiaries from losing their entire monthly income when repaying mistakenly issued benefits is extremely disappointing. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

kffhealthnews.org

Under Trump, Social Security Resumes What It Once Called 'Clawback Cruelty' - KFF Health News

Last year, the government stopped cutting off people’s monthly Social Security benefits to claw back overpayments. Last week, under President Donald Trump, it reversed that change.

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

SSA is in complete chaos. Buried in this article is a service worker noting that "the phone never stops ringing" and **retirement claims aren't being processed**. Hard to overstate the significance of that. End goal is to privatize the agency. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

washingtonpost.com

DOGE is driving Social Security cuts and will make mistakes, acting head says privately

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner said members of Elon Musk’s cost-cutting team are outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of the agency’s programs.

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

Excellent point. Long before Musk got to town, federal agencies have worked with state & local law enforcement to prosecute rare cases of fraud (see link). Musk claims he’s uncovering massive fraud …so why are we not seeing a single prosecution? 🤔 oig.ssa.gov/cdi/

oig.ssa.gov

Office of the Inspector General

The Office of the Inspector General is directly responsible for meeting the statutory mission of promoting economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of Social Security Administratio...

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Jack Smalligan @jsmalligan.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

In over thirty years of working on the Social Security Administration (SSA) and its programs at the White House Office of Management and Budget and now the Urban Institute, I have never been more concerned about the agency than I am today. 1/9

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Tracey Gronniger @traceygro.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

These office closures and "consolidation" actions are barriers to access that are effectively a benefit cut.

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Sydney Gordon @sydneyg.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Well that's my cue. ✨NEW WP✨ What happens when SSA downsizes field office staff, even if the offices stay open? Fewer people end up enrolled for benefits. 🧵

Employee Exodus: The Impact of Government Downsizing on
Benefit Access
Sydney Gordon
Last Updated: February 26, 2025
Abstract
The U.S. Social Security Administration is responsible for administering retirement, disability, and low-income safety net programs to approximately 64 million people, supported by their
network of field offices providing in-person customer service. While closing field offices has been shown to decrease take-up for disability benefit applicants, it may be enticing to instead reduce
costs by keeping offices open but reducing staffing levels. I use employee microdata in the context
of a period of exogenous, drastic staffing decreases during the Reagan administration and analyze the impacts across the various programs that SSA administrates. Using a long differences approach, I find that a 10% decrease in field office employees in a county led to a 0.06% decrease
in benefits enrollment for OASDI and 0.32% decrease in supplemental security insurance (SSI) enrollment, driven primarily by disability beneficiaries and low-income old-age SSI beneficiaries. I find no significant impact on traditional retirement benefits but a marginally significant impact on old-age SSI benefits, suggesting OASDI has a lower administrative burden or recipients pursue alternative methods of interacting with the agency. I do back-of-the-envelope calculations
to determine the total effect size and find that the downsizing translates to a shortfall of 79,027 people nationally (47,285 OASDI, 31,742 SSI) who counterfactually would have enrolled by the end of this period. I then propose a new measure of administrative cost per marginal beneficiary
to benchmark across welfare programs.

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Ty Jones Cox @tyjonescox.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

With #SNAP benefits averaging only $6.20 per person per day, I appreciate Chair Thompson's interest in avoiding benefit cuts. But it's not possible to cut $230B+—which would be a more than 20% cut to SNAP—without cutting benefits, eligibility, or both. www.politico.com/live-updates...

politico.com

Thompson: No SNAP cuts in reconciliation

The House Agriculture chair said there would be no cuts to food aid benefits for low-income Americans in reconciliation or the farm bill.

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum.wsocial.eu · 13/02/2025

The Department of Government Efficiency isn't interested in efficiency. Or transparency, or cutting costs. It's real goal is to destroy the federal civil service. In other words, regime change. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

theatlantic.com

There’s a Term for What Trump and Musk Are Doing

How regime change happens in America

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Kathleen Romig @kathleenromig.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

OPM’s “deferred resignation” email to federal employees this week triggered more chaos & uncertainty. If it hollows out the civil service, it will harm ppl’s ability to access benefits & services-even those the Trump Admin purports to protect. Case in point: the Social Security Administration. 1/

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Reposted by Tracey Gronniger

Margot Kushel MD @mkushel.bsky.social · 31/01/2025

NIH Office of Research On Women's Health. At top: Putting science to work for the health of women. Just below that: Page not found. The link: dead. I guess....improving the health of women is...no longer a priority. Or, even allowed?

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