DOGE Wants to Dismantle Our Right to Retire

I don’t want to work until the day I die. Like all Americans, I think that after a lifetime of contributing and grinding, retirement is a right, not a privilege. Thank god for Social Security, which makes this hope possible.

It wasn’t always. In 1935, at the height of the Great Depression, half of all American seniors had fallen into desperate poverty. There was no national guarantee that after a lifetime of hard work, seniors would be taken care of. Franklin D. Roosevelt built the Social Security system to end what he called “poverty-ridden old age.” It worked. Today, 73 million Americans rely on Social Security. It is the most valuable retirement asset that most Americans have. And it is also the only thing standing between millions of Americans and being forced to work until they die.

But Social Security is now in the crosshairs of the Trump oligarchy. Billionaire donor Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) hackers have hijacked the Social Security Administration (SSA), unleashing so much chaos that the system is starting to break down. None of us would take our retirement savings to the casino, but the wealthiest man in the world is doing exactly that, gambling with the  ability of working-class Americans to access the benefits they have earned.

First, DOGE is degrading basic customer service functions that will cut people off from their benefits. New requirements that people must fill out certain paperwork in person and a complicated new PIN code system to access Social Security accounts will force nearly 2 million seniors and people with disabilities to visit Social Security offices each year. These requirements take effect right as DOGE plans to fire 12 percent of the agency’s already understaffed workforce and shutter dozens of Social Security offices, forcing people in rural and tribal communities to travel long distances to get help. Meanwhile DOGE is cutting off the paper checks that half a million Americans still rely on. The result of these chaotic closures and haphazard changes has been soaring wait times and crashing websites.

Second, DOGE is launching a reckless plan to reprogram the entire codebase for Social Security over just a few months—a project that if done responsibly would take years. Social Security technologists themselves are saying this could risk payments not going out.

Third, DOGE is endangering our privacy and safety, seeking permission from the Supreme Court to rifle through “some of the most deeply personal information held anywhere by the federal government.” Lower courts have tried to halt these attempts, calling them a fishing expedition. The inspector general who might have protected our privacy has been fired.

And now, the Trump administration is weaponizing the Social Security system against immigrant communities. SSA has begun falsifying records to list immigrants who had lawfully obtained Social Security numbers as dead to ‘terminate their financial lives’ and pressure people to “self-deport.” The agency is apparently aiding the administration’s increased surveillance of immigrant communities, including sharing home addresses with ICE.

The potential for a catastrophic collapse of the Social Security system is growing. The previous Social Security Commissioner predicted we have just 30 to 90 days until the system collapses. Any disruption in benefits would be a national disaster. About 7 million Americans who receive Social Security lack enough savings to withstand even a one-month delay in benefits.

The Trump administration has tried to justify this chaos with a smear campaign, repeating debunked lies that Social Security has rampant fraud. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse laid out DOGE’s scheme: Discredit a popular public good, create enough chaos to declare an emergency, and hand over the system to “tech bros and private equity folks” to finally achieve the longtime conservative goal of privatizing Social Security.

Let’s be clear. DOGE isn’t attacking the bureaucracy—it’s attacking us. Social Security is ours. Our money, our sacrifices, our long hours and graveyard shifts, our faithful contributions that built this system.

You know who didn’t build this system? Billionaires like Trump and Musk, who are sheltered from paying a fair share into Social Security by an outrageous payroll tax cap, and who are profoundly out of touch with the economic reality of working-class families. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, another billionaire political donor and former Wall Street executive, said in March that only “fraudsters” would complain about their Social Security checks not coming in the mail, adding that “the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing.”

Now, the Senate has confirmed Trump’s nominee, Frank Bisignano, to run the agency. Bisignano, who was until recently the CEO of the largest private payment processing company in the country, calls himself “fundamentally a DOGE person.” In confirming him for the job, Senate republicans have appointed a fox to run the henhouse. Bisignano’s own company could benefit enormously by privatizing the system. We should not let our government be handed over to would-be corporate raiders.

Social Security is more than just a financial lifeline for millions. It is the lifeblood of our democracy. FDR knew this. “We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence,” he said in 1944. Poverty, said FDR, is “the stuff of which dictatorships are made.” That warning has never been more urgent as our democracy is threatened by Trump’s oligarchs. We cannot be full and free citizens of this country if the government is threatening to cut off our basic dignity and security and sell our safety net to the highest bidder.

We have to demand that Social Security be protected. The public outcry has already forced the administration to backtrack on some of their worst plans, and we must keep the pressure up.

But defending the status quo is not enough. We need a bigger national imagination for retirement, because not working until you die should be the bare minimum. The truth is that even with Social Security, 1 in 10 seniors still live in “poverty-ridden old age.” Americans have shorter life expectancies than in other comparably wealthy nations, and our elders face a national epidemic of loneliness and isolation. The fastest-growing segment of the homeless population is seniors, people who are pushed out of their homes because their Social Security checks didn’t keep pace with the rising cost of living.

Progressives need a new vision for Social Security of the 21st Century that’s as bold as FDR’s New Deal plan was in 1935. Instead of just fighting off DOGE’s attacks, we should be arguing for a Social Security system that builds the power of our people  and protects our democracy. A system that tackles inequality and helps Americans retire earlier, live longer, and be full and vibrant citizens. We have the power to build this system. We can start by wresting it from the hands of oligarchs.

If you ask Eleanor

“I have been brought up on the theory that social security applies to us all and therefore we all share in building the fund from which benefits are paid. I carry a social security card just as does my secretary and my cook. We all join with the government and whoever employs us to put in our share toward whatever type of social service all of us are receiving.”

– Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day  (May 4, 1981)