The GOP-lead Congress needs to wake up and stop ducking responsibility for the current chaos that has spread across the federal government. Republican Congressmen have been passive and afraid claiming “there is nothing they can do…” to reign in a renegade President at town halls. They are sitting on their hands hoping the problem does not get worse.
An article in today’s Guardian, quotes Martin O’Malley – a former Maryland governor and Baltimore mayor who headed the SSA from 2023 until last year.
He had warned earlier that as a result of mismanagement and firings of the Social Security workforce (7,000 of the 57,000 were let go so far) , the “system faced catastrophic failure.”
He said,
“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits, he told CNBC in March. “
“I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.’”
In addition, the above article states that such failure is partly a result of DOGE ‘s mismanagement of software and failure to properly test their rapid changes to Social Security’s software system.
So far, such “technical glitches resulted in many of the 7.4 million adults and children receiving anti-poverty support under the supplemental security income support program (SSI) being greeted with a message saying that they were “currently not receiving payments.”
This attacks the poor and most vulnerable first which is standard practice for the right wing. But the attack will no doubt expand to include others if there is not major push back.
If much or most of the Social Security system fails, I predict there will be a mass protest that will make the recent #50501 protests look like a child’s birthday party.
As with the Republican mismanagement of the economy that lead to the Great Depression in 1929, the public’s support for the President (now between 39% and 44%) will crater when Social Security checks stop coming.
The timid Republican Congress will be dragged down with him to such an extent that the entire GOP establishment will fall into a sinkhole so large that it could take decades to recover (as it did following the Great Depression).
The Republican dream of eliminating or drastically cutting Social Security that they have had ever since it was instituted in the 1930’s by FDR (by labeling it an “entitlement”, a government giveaway, a scam, or a Ponzi Scheme) will almost certainly become their worst nightmare.
