Promise broken: cutting Medicare and Social Security

[Winehole23]

the erstwhile third rail

sadistic Republicans want to hurt other Americans so rich people can have another tax cut



Howard Lutnick, Trump’s billionaire buddy turned commerce secretary, has confirmed that the administration was simply lying to MAGA supporters about not touching Social Security and Medicare.

“Back in October … I flew down to Texas, got Elon Musk to [set up DOGE], and here was our agreement: that Elon was gonna cut a trillion dollars of waste fraud and abuse,” Lutnick told (https://x.com/Acyn/status/1892382760649839014) Jesse Waters of Fox News Wednesday night. “We have almost $4 trillion of entitlements, and no one’s ever looked at it before. You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicaid and Medicare are wrong. So he’s gonna cut a trillion and we’re gonna get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against America and we’re gonna raise a trillion dollars of revenue.”

https://newrepublic.com/post/191740/trump-lutnick-cut-social-security-medicaid-medicare

[Thread]

the erstwhile third rail

sadistic Republicans want to hurt other Americans so rich people can have another tax cut

https://newrepublic.com/post/191740/trump-lutnick-cut-social-security-medicaid-medicare

"Sure, Jan."

[Winehole23]

your gleeful bloodthirstiness in other threads totally notwithstanding, I'm sure

[Thread]

your gleeful bloodthirstiness in other threads totally notwithstanding, I'm sure

Shoe is on the other foot now, Winester. And as long as it is I'm gonna party my ass off, son.

[Winehole23]

Shoe is on the other foot now, Winester. And as long as it is I'm gonna party my ass off, son.that's where you're wrong, everybody wears ass-kicking shoes, should they choose to use them

[Thread]

that's where you're wrong, everybody wears ass-kicking shoes, should they choose to use them

- "Promises, promises."

- Ernie "The Cat" Ladd

[Trill Clinton]

1893024546292224179

[Winehole23]

Trumplandia wants Americans to lose their shit so they can crack down

The abortive 2020 autocoup was just a warm up, this time they're waging war on regular Americans

[Winehole23]

Government allows us to get our arms around problems colletively that we couldn't individually

Even if inefficient, public administration is a per se good




Every day, they tackled complex issues with life-or-death stakes:


A failure to get donor organs to critically ill patients.


Tobacco products designed to appeal to kids.


Maternal and infant death.


They were hired after lawmakers and bureaucrats debated and negotiated and persuaded their colleagues — sometimes over the course of years — to make those problems someone’s job to solve.


Then, this month, they were fired as part of President Donald Trump’s widespread purge of federal workers. Suddenly, the future of their public health missions was in question.


The White House hasn’t released figures on how many have been fired, but news reports have begun to take stock: about 750 workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/02/18/trump-health-firings-fda-cdc/), which plays a central role responding to pandemics; more than 1,000 staffers at the National Institutes of Health (https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/17/nx-s1-5300052/federal-employees-layoffs-cdc-nih-fda), which funds and conducts life-saving research; dozens at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/regulatory/mass-layoffs-hhs-cdc-cuts-1300-probationary-workers-reports-say), which manages public health care and insurance programs; and scores of employees at the Food and Drug Administration (https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/19/nx-s1-5301216/federal-layoffs-fda-drug-safety-animals), which oversees the safety of food, drugs and medical devices.


Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to gut the federal health centers, stating “entire departments” (https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4976746-robert-kennedy-potential-role-trump-administration/) at the FDA should be cut. Neither the administration nor the federal agencies responded to ProPublica’s questions, but a White House spokesperson has previously said they were removing newer employees (https://www.reuters.com/world/us/federal-workers-were-fired-for-performance-their-records-say-otherwise-2025-02-20/) who were “not mission critical.”

“The implications for the health of the public are grave,” said Susan Polan, an associate executive director at the American Public Health Association, which is suing the Department of Government Efficiency (https://www.apha.org/-/media/files/pdf/advocacy/briefs/250120_doge_faca_complaint.pdf), the group leading the firings, for violating federal transparency laws. “It is unfathomable that anybody thinks these cuts have value and are doing anything other than being performative.”


ProPublica reporters have spoken with dozens of federal workers employed in roles safeguarding the American public from harm. They described losing critical positions they’d spent years training for. Many expressed fear at what would happen to the work they left behind.


ProPublica is recording the casualties of the purge, highlighting the scale of what is being lost as public health programs and seasoned experts are caught in the Trump administration’s blunt-force drive to shrink the federal government.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-federal-workers-public-health-hhs

[Winehole23]

I’m not going to tell you I will never touch Social Security

[Winehole23]

The president’s promise not to touch Medicaid aside, according to one analysis (https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/congressional-gops-proposed-medicaid-cut-could-cost-nevada-1-9-billion) Nevada is in line to lose $1.9 billion in funding as an estimated 300,000 residents lose their insurance.



The ripple effect will be deeply felt — and not only by the poor. With approximately 800,000 Nevadans using Medicaid health care access, much of the working class relies on it as well. Their physicians and related health providers will be hit hard, too.
The state already suffers from a shortage of doctors. Imagine what may happen when they stop getting paid.


And you know what happens when people don’t have health insurance. They get treated at the local emergency room and by first responder firefighter paramedics.


With all that, Lombardo is bound to be busy these days balancing the human needs, the financial costs and the political ramifications. That’s a lot to think about, and so when Ralston asked (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMu_n-z0ndQ) the question about the scale of the approaching crisis, he answered simply.


The cuts, he said, would be absolutely devastating.


“It’s almost like the pickle’s too big for the jar, right?” the governor began. “Godzilla. How can you plan for Godzilla? But you can’t put your head in the sand and hope it goes away, right?”
https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/opinion-governor-may-find-himself-with-a-godzilla-sized-pickle

[Winehole23]

cutting HUD by half could have drastic social and economic effects


HUD cuts expected to worsen America’s housing crisis, staffers sayThe Department of Housing and Urban Development is expected to be slashed in half, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/23/hud-cuts-doge-housing/

[Thread]

Trumplandia wants Americans to lose their shit so they can crack down

The abortive 2020 autocoup was just a warm up, this time they're waging war on regular Americans

...that's the rumor.

[Thread]

cutting HUD by half could have drastic social and economic effects

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/23/hud-cuts-doge-housing/

- "Prove it."

- "Shane" - "Shane"

[Winehole23]

According to Chris Murphy, Rs have enough vote in the House to cut $2 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid

~60% of Medicaid is home care services

Republicans will kill Americans wholesale to give the top 1% a new tax cut

[baseline bum]

That fucking nazi already defunded Social Security once, obviously he is going to do it again.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:a4wzpl7hpxvvntj6hatvuhlw/bafkreifsm7ha7xete5fjpxg3tjk7hijkuguzhn24idwwrjqlo rmq36bobi@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:lzfzawdilrmsfikvr4c6ytk4/bafkreifnmv2re3yellhzvims4gnowhw4wohbu7ajrxqr5pe4m pb52nsuau@jpeg

[Winehole23]

Trumplandia is gutting the rights of vulnerable Americans every day

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:e62gb2ushvtvjvqcbrxeaw2n/bafkreihtk5b4edrt5bg3rgu3sbrwlqeu4p7zrcmlzbbootsji yfruinoqu@jpeg

[Winehole23]

nut and bolts:

https://www.lawdork.com/p/social-security-admin-restructuring-email

[baseline bum]

Ugh have fucking paid into these systems for more than 25 years and Trump will fucking kill them off as he rebuilds our nation into early 1990s Russia.

[Thread]

Trumplandia is gutting the rights of vulnerable Americans every day

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:e62gb2ushvtvjvqcbrxeaw2n/bafkreihtk5b4edrt5bg3rgu3sbrwlqeu4p7zrcmlzbbootsji yfruinoqu@jpeg

Nothing more than a boondoggle. A waste of space, time, and money.

[Thread]

Ugh have fucking paid into these systems for more than 25 years and Trump will fucking kill them off as he rebuilds our nation into early 1990s Russia.

Quit mashing the panic button. He hasn't touched SS. If & when he does I'll side ya on-the-spot.

Now, go have luncheon.

[Winehole23]

wrecking the government's ability to collect revenue during tax season would seem to be contraindicated if the goal were to restore fiscal balance

the chainsaw gives it away, Musk/Trump are vandalizing public capacity


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trump-administration-orders-irs-workers-back-to-office-ignoring-union-contract/ar-AA1A2Jng

[Thread]

wrecking the government's ability to collect revenue during tax season would seem to be contraindicated if the goal were to restore fiscal balance

the chainsaw gives it away, Musk/Trump are vandalizing public capacity


https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/trump-administration-orders-irs-workers-back-to-office-ignoring-union-contract/ar-AA1A2Jng

Like I've said today:::it ain't gonna hurt to try it Trump's way for the next 4 years, Winester. You're gonna get the con back in 4 years no matter who wins!

If it's worked, whomever is elected will follow Trump's course. They'll have nary other choice.
If it's failed, whomever is elected will return to the fore...aka the last 80 years.

[baseline bum]

Quit mashing the panic button. He hasn't touched SS. If & when he does I'll side ya on-the-spot.

Now, go have luncheon.

Musk has called half of it fraud which is obviously setting up the excuse to slash it to hell. Trump also defunded it in 2020, showing as clear as day his intention to gut it. He was just smart enough to not run on it in 2024 after running on it in 2020 was a loser.

[baseline bum]

Like I've said today:::it ain't gonna hurt to try it Trump's way for the next 4 years, Winester. You're gonna get the con back in 4 years no matter who wins!

If it's worked, whomever is elected will follow Trump's course. They'll have nary other choice.
If it's failed, whomever is elected will return to the fore...aka the last 80 years.

Trump's way is getting rid of every useful part of government and inflating all the worst parts to grift from. What the fuck firing all these people doing useful work like cancer research, climate modeling, air traffic control, policing the banks, running our national parks, etc because it's too expensive and then blowing $200 million on commercials thanking him for 'closing the border'. Stop being such a fucking cuck.

[sickdsm]

Only conservative boomers give a shit about social security. I've been telling my 80 year old parents for 20 years don't worry we'll keep paying in so they can collect but realistically most my age knows they won't get anything. I'm ok with that. Conservatives make their own nest egg, liberals plan to live off the government anyway.

[Winehole23]

Only conservative boomers give a shit about social security. I've been telling my 80 year old parents for 20 years don't worry we'll keep paying in so they can collect but realistically most my age knows they won't get anything. I'm ok with that. Conservatives make their own nest egg, liberals plan to live off the government anyway.Bullshit, Dems won the richies, Trump won lower class voters this time

[Winehole23]

we'll see how well the boot-strapping lecture goes over when people stop getting their SS checks

[Thread]

Trump's way is getting rid of every useful part of government and inflating all the worst parts to grift from. What the fuck firing all these people doing useful work like cancer research, climate modeling, air traffic control, policing the banks, running our national parks, etc because it's too expensive and then blowing $200 million on commercials thanking him for 'closing the border'. Stop being such a fucking cuck.

I ain't changing my mind, bum. I'm going to see this thru all the way for 4 years. If it's a mistake at the end I will stipulate to that mistake out loud in front of the entire company. If it's not a mistake, if it successful I will cite that victory, endlessly.

[Thread]

we'll see how well the boot-strapping lecture goes over when people stop getting their SS checks

And if that happens you'll have your victory and I will stipulate to such, right here in broad daylight.

[Winehole23]

just out of curiosity, who's tracking the congressional appropriations that have been nuked by El0n? the costs of winding down US agencies?

what's happening to all that money?

[baseline bum]

If it's a mistake at the end I will stipulate to that mistake out loud in front of the entire company.

No you won't

[baseline bum]

And if that happens you'll have your victory and I will stipulate to such, right here in broad daylight.

What fucking victory? I'll have paid into a system for more than 25 years that I get nothing out of because Trump hit you in the feelings right?

[Thread]

No you won't

True, because he ain't ever gonna stop the SS checks, bum.

[SnakeBoy]

What fucking victory? I'll have paid into a system for more than 25 years that I get nothing out of because Trump hit you in the feelings right?

Whatever it takes

[baseline bum]

True, because he ain't ever gonna stop the SS checks, bum.

He literally defunded it in 2020 and ran on making that defunding permanent. You're such a low information poster.

[baseline bum]

Only conservative boomers give a shit about social security. I've been telling my 80 year old parents for 20 years don't worry we'll keep paying in so they can collect but realistically most my age knows they won't get anything. I'm ok with that. Conservatives make their own nest egg, liberals plan to live off the government anyway.

You're ok with being robbed as long as you get your emotionally fulfilling candidate in office, what a Stockholm Syndrome having cuck you are.

[SnakeBoy]

You're ok with being robbed as long as you get your emotionally fulfilling candidate in office, what a Stockholm Syndrome having cuck you are.

Just think of your ss payments as a tax and you'll feel better about having paid in

[Thread]

just out of curiosity, who's tracking the congressional appropriations that have been nuked by El0n? the costs of winding down US agencies?

what's happening to all that money?

...I'm quite confident (he) ain't touched it. It's all on paper.

[Thread]

He literally defunded it in 2020 and ran on making that defunding permanent. You're such a low information poster.

...that's too brutal, bum, but yes I don't hunt thru the weeds like you and most of our fellows here do, no. I get the headline, the gist, and go from there. The moment of absolutely certainty in this day & age rarely arrives.

[baseline bum]

...that's too brutal, bum, but yes I don't hunt thru the weeds like you and most of our fellows here do, no. I get the headline, the gist, and go from there. The moment of absolutely certainty in this day & age rarely arrives.

As pissed as I am at the boomers for this skeleton of a nation they have left us I don't want seniors dying in the streets like pre Social Security.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jgysjlql3r6m27bhjlmmfqlv/bafkreibxf6dejbw24xixgmp7ousasvzdmzxaverviwndrbdz3 qbksxpe2e@jpeg

[ChumpDumper]

Only conservative boomers give a shit about social security. I've been telling my 80 year old parents for 20 years don't worry we'll keep paying in so they can collect but realistically most my age knows they won't get anything. I'm ok with that. Conservatives make their own nest egg, liberals plan to live off the government anyway.

That sounds really centrist.

[baseline bum]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:jgysjlql3r6m27bhjlmmfqlv/bafkreibxf6dejbw24xixgmp7ousasvzdmzxaverviwndrbdz3 qbksxpe2e@jpeg

It and Medicare are the reason American seniors who can make it to age 65 have life expectancies well into the 80s. But fuck them all, Elon the robber baron nazi shitbag needs more than $350 billion.

[baseline bum]

That sounds really centrist.

It's ok for MAGA Daddy to bend sickdsm over as long as the libs have to take a raping too.

[ChumpDumper]

It's ok for MAGA Daddy to bend sickdsm over as long as the libs have to take a raping too.:lol how could fucking Joe Biden radicalize anyone?

[baseline bum]

:lol how could fucking Joe Biden radicalize anyone?

I can understand how he could radicalize the left since he is the reason we have Trump now thanks to Biden refusing to step aside in time for a primary when it was clear his brain was scrambled a year and a half ago. And thus letting the DNC hand pick a trash candidate no one but the donor class liked. Or assisting Netenyahu with his genocide of Palestine. But yeah radicalizing someone on the right? ROFL

[Thread]

I can understand how he could radicalize the left since he is the reason we have Trump now thanks to Biden refusing to step aside in time for a primary when it was clear his brain was scrambled a year and a half ago. And thus letting the DNC hand pick a trash candidate no one but the donor class liked. Or assisting Netenyahu with his genocide of Palestine. But yeah radicalizing someone on the right? ROFL

bum, tearin' ass indiscriminately.

[SnakeBoy]

bum, tearin' ass indiscriminately.

He's boilin' over

I'd say can't blame him except he's gonna fall right back in line come election time

[ChumpDumper]

As will you.

[sickdsm]

You're ok with being robbed as long as you get your emotionally fulfilling candidate in office, what a Stockholm Syndrome having cuck you are.

Nah. Resident cuck is Blake and your cool with him bent over on your side of the aisle. I'm not dumb, been minimizing SS paid in my entire adult life. Try throwing another blind dart thinking that decision about SS came about recently.

[sickdsm]

It's ok for MAGA Daddy to bend sickdsm over as long as the libs have to take a raping too.

Gay slurs are ok by the left when they are thrown the other side of the aisle. Is your party ok with you being a rampant homophobe?

[baseline bum]

Gay slurs are ok by the left when they are thrown the other side of the aisle. Is your party ok with you being a rampant homophobe?

Why are you ok with opening your asshole to Trump as long as everyone else has to take a turn too?

[baseline bum]

He's boilin' over

I'd say can't blame him except he's gonna fall right back in line come election time

Another cuck happily opening his asshole for Trump.

[Winehole23]

just out of curiosity, who's tracking the congressional appropriations that have been nuked by El0n? the costs of winding down US agencies?

what's happening to all that money?it is kind of weird that in this so-called cost cutting mission, none of the supporters seem to be concerned at all about what's happening to the money

[Winehole23]

What fucking victory? I'll have paid into a system for more than 25 years that I get nothing out of because Trump hit you in the feelings right?dude

a lot of people will have paid in for fifty years to get 800 bucks a month

[Winehole23]

or nothing

[Spurs Homer]

if only....if only someone had warned us....

[Thread]

if only....if only someone had warned us....

Trump President.

Not Clinton, not Biden, not Harris.

Trump President!

[Winehole23]

...I'm quite confident (he) ain't touched it. It's all on paper.O rly?

who's keeping track and how can we check?

[Thread]

O rly?

who's keeping track and how can we check?

Ain't nobody stopping you/them/loyal opposition. Call 911 and allege criminal activity, demand an investigation by law enforcement.

You're looking for a booger under the bed, Winester. It ain't there.

He caught ya's nappin' after that Biden debate. Steamrolled ya's comin' out, ya's shot him down in PA., and now he's righteously rabid.

You'll need better aim, and a more accurate stand down. Maybe a post teenager?

[Winehole23]

Ain't nobody stopping you/them/loyal opposition. Call 911 and allege criminal activity, demand an investigation by law enforcement.

You're looking for a booger under the bed, Winester. It ain't there.

He caught ya's nappin' after that Biden debate. Steamrolled ya's comin' out, ya's shot him down in PA., and now he's righteously rabid.

You'll need better aim, and a more accurate stand down. Maybe a post teenager?oh, just more sweet nothings

[Thread]

oh, just more sweet nothings

Nonetheless, Trump has the con. By proxy: so does Dale.

[Winehole23]

Nonetheless, Trump has the con. By proxy: so does Dale.he is going to fuck you too

nobody is immune

[Thread]

he is going to fuck you too

nobody is immune

Well, anything is possible, I've learned that in 70+ years, but, I believe her & I are safe.

[Winehole23]

Be well in that, I am powerless to influence it

[Winehole23]

O'Malley is the former SSA commissioner



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:mk6op2lazdcrplu2tbmnacfq/bafkreicc7k3cgth5vdf3qsmljrltnmqaqwllkc5phyvu3zrzd ic3nbn4ry@jpeg

[baseline bum]

O'Malley is the former SSA commissioner

link?

[SnakeBoy]

Well, anything is possible, I've learned that in 70+ years, but, I believe her & I are safe.

Your fine, whinehole maybe not, baseline is fucked for sure

[Winehole23]

link?sorry

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/01/doge-actions-may-cause-social-security-benefit-interruption-ex-agency-head.html

[Winehole23]

Your fine, whinehole maybe not, baseline is fucked for surehow so?

[baseline bum]

how so?

He's saying Trump won't rob seniors, only people in their 40s and younger. Though Trump has clearly shown he loves to rob his base too.

[Winehole23]

the idea that the damage El0n and Trump are doing and will do to America will be precisely politically targeted, is deluded

[Winehole23]

just out of curiosity, who's tracking the congressional appropriations that have been nuked by El0n? the costs of winding down US agencies?

what's happening to all that money?oh, that's right, Trump preemptively fired all the IGs

[Winehole23]

and replaced them with compliant political toadies

[SnakeBoy]

oh, that's right, Trump preemptively fired all the IGs

and replaced them with compliant political toadies

You gave him 4 years to plan out his project

[Winehole23]

You gave him 4 years to plan out his projectMe?

If I'd had my way, Donald Trump would be in the hoosegow for the rest of his natural life

[Winehole23]

it could still happen, if Trump survives his second term

[ChumpDumper]

You gave him 4 years to plan out his projectYou mean his health care plan and infrastructure week?

Trump just does what he's told.

[Thread]

Me?

If I'd had my way, Donald Trump would be in the hoosegow for the rest of his natural life

...or, stretched out in the Butler PA. morgue slabbed & tagged.

God: "Uh, uh. Get up. And get on with it. You'll be the first to know when I set you free."

[Thread]

You mean his health care plan and infrastructure week?

Trump just does what he's told.


Amen, Dumper>>>

God: "Uh, uh. Get up. And get on with it. You'll be the first to know when I set you free."

[Winehole23]

~40% of US births are paid for by Medicaid
~60% of home health care is paid for by Medicaid

it's last ditch help for people who are disabled and otherwise without health insurance

cutting it massively will lead straightforwardly to massive mortality

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreieizb2ufzbftjeuhrpnoaqv5d6li6vvtfwdyyoqfo57r lepyn7rou@jpeg

[Thread]

~40% of US births are paid for by Medicaid
~60% of home health care is paid for by Medicaid

it's last ditch help for people who are disabled and otherwise without health insurance

cutting it massively will lead straightforwardly to massive mortality


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:z6rujpf4u56jfie7aqic2nfg/bafkreieizb2ufzbftjeuhrpnoaqv5d6li6vvtfwdyyoqfo57r lepyn7rou@jpeg

Start by taking Medicaid away from millions of Nazi's in Ukraine and giving that Medicaid to Americans.

Pull out of Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, South Korea, Japan, all of Europe, et al and use that money to give Medicaid to Americans.

Take all aid that is being given to illegal people in America and give it to Medicaid for Americans.

You get the idea, blanket-head.

[Winehole23]

^^^Doesn't make any sense

(and I'm not Martin Pawley)

[Thread]

^^^Doesn't make any sense

(and I'm not Martin Pawley)

I'll boil it down for ya...Before we give another dime, or time to any other country we must take care of every single American.

That way when we start back up helping other countries we'll be secure in the knowledge that every single American has been taken care of first.

[Winehole23]

what horseshit, foreign aid is small, like ~1% of the budget

also, y'all have no intention of taking care of every single American

unless by "taking care of," you mean making us all poorer and less free.

[Thread]

what horseshit, foreign aid is small, like ~1% of the budget

also, y'all have no intention of taking care of every single American

unless by "taking care of," you mean making us all poorer and less free.

Then there should be no problem with sealing that 1% back to Americans.

Cut the MIC to 1% and work backwards: All troops come home. All military bases overseas are closed and destroyed. S. Korea is abandoned, military base closed and destroyed. Same with Israel. Same with Taiwan.

[Winehole23]

Then there should be no problem with sealing that 1% back to Americans.

Cut the MIC to 1% and work backwards: All troops come home. All military bases overseas are closed and destroyed. S. Korea is abandoned, military base closed and destroyed. Same with Israel. Same with Taiwan.Cut all ties rapidly with historical allies, what could go wrong?

No way Trump will give up the Israel beachhead.

No way all the troops will come home, Trump just declared terrorists in Syria and Somalia.

Trump isn't a peacemaker. Remember the first trump presidency? He bombed the shit out of three or four countries at least.

[Winehole23]

stealing from the people to give rich folks a tax cut


SSA’s budget comes out of the Social Security trust funds, not general government revenue. That means that when Americans pay into Social Security with every paycheck, they’re also paying for high-quality customer service.


That’s exactly what we would get — if Congress allowed SSA to spend just a few percentage points more of its $2.7 trillion surplus to hire and adequately train staff, open new field offices, and get wait times down. Instead, Donald Trump and Elon Musk are planning to utterly demolish Social Security’s customer service to pay for billionaire tax cuts.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/social-security-trump

[Winehole23]

why is the US budget out of balance fiscally?

Bush and Trump tax cuts, and 20 years of foreign wars funded partly off the books

we redistributed too much money to rich people in the last 25 years

[Winehole23]

the only reason so-called entitlement cuts are needed now, is to redistribute even more money to the top of the income scale

[Winehole23]

“Martin O’Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration, said the recent cuts made by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency at the agency could result in the ‘collapse’ of the Social Security system ‘within the next 30 to 90 days.’” — The Hill (https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5173332-social-security-cuts-risk-collapse/)

- - -
Internal memo from the Department of Government Efficiency

FACT 1: People pay into Social Security over their working lifetime and then withdraw from it when they hit their sixties, like an IRA that holds value even when the stock market crashes. This works as long as the number of people paying in is greater than the number of retired people. Stupidly, the forefathers assumed there would always be more working people (sixteen to sixty-seven years old) than there are retirees. This assumption is called a Ponzi scheme.

(https://store.mcsweeneys.net/t/categories/everything-else/deprints)FACT 2: Unfortunately, a bunch of people had sex all at once in 1945, and now those sex babies are retiring. Unless something intelligent is done, baby boomers will crash Social Security.

FACT 3: The government does not need to pay social security to dead people. Paying money to the dead is actually fraud.

FACT 4: DOGE has been tasked (by ourselves) to eliminate fraud.

FACT 5: We trained our AI on the previous facts, and it accurately pointed out that eliminating cancer research, ignoring pandemics, and stopping flu vaccines would significantly decrease the number of social security payments over time. This is because cancer and illness disproportionately claim the lives of old people. We only need to hasten the deaths of several million baby boomers to save the government $70 trillion over twenty years.

SECOND FACT 5: I have just saved the government $70 trillion. Therefore, that money should be applied to me.

PLAN OF ACTION: DOGE recommends taking that $70 trillion, plus all the other social security money, and investing it in my companies since the ROI will be excellent. For example, I recently turned $290 million, which I paid to get this job, into $70 trillion for myself.

TALKING POINT 1: That’s not corruption; it just shows that I’ll do anything for my shareholders, including mass murder, which is obviously the kind of business acumen you need in a CEO / world leader.

TALKING POINT 2: Retirees are a net drain on society because they do not work eighty hours a week. They merely provide free childcare to their grandchildren and pay for unnecessary hobbies like pickleball, contra dancing, and hospice.

(https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/yr-dead)TALKING POINT 3: Will baby boomers get mad if we try to kill them off? No, because our social media takeover means they won’t even notice, and in many cases, they will contribute to their own demise (via “alternative” therapies and mistrust of “Western medicine”).

PR PLAN: Flood social media with the message that we’ve turned Social Security into a new program, X-Security, that exclusively eXists to invest in companies with X in the title. Proposed taglines from AI are “As secure as giving your money to your X” and “X-Security: Life will never get better than this.”

MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT: X-Security is much smarter than the current system and is actually foolproof, because if our stock goes down, we can continue to adjust health care accordingly.

MESSAGE TO MEDIA OUTLETS: We have saved US taxpayers all the money that exists and eliminated fraud!

(https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/umbra)SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING VIA OUR ALGORITHMS AND INFLUENCERS: Vaccines are bad for you! It’s healthy to get sick! Horse dewormer cures cancer! (Be sure to include exclamation points for a sense of urgency.)

THIS ACTION PLAN IS A TOP PRIORITY: Please email me the names of five baby boomers you helped kill by Monday morning.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/killing-baby-boomers-will-save-the-united-states-government-trillions

[z0sa]

:lol believing the FF created social security

I got one point down and already SMH

[Thread]

Cut all ties rapidly with historical allies, what could go wrong?

No way Trump will give up the Israel beachhead.

No way all the troops will come home, Trump just declared terrorists in Syria and Somalia.

Trump isn't a peacemaker. Remember the first trump presidency? He bombed the shit out of three or four countries at least.

Of course not on Israel, and by not cutting them off he does himself wrong all across the spectrum. But I take what I can get...(cutting off Urk)...(backing Putin under the guise of securing peace)...threatening to retract from Germany/he won't, but at least he said he might.

We must end the 80 year security guarantee of the European Continent. Let Europe guarantee it's own safety.
Keep those billions of dollars of collected taxes here in the States and never let them out of the U.S. again.
Either shit, or, get off the pot on the Tariffs. Either give it a real shot (his Presidency), and then let the incoming President take it from there, OR, stipulate that "It can't be done, I was wrong." And return to the fore.
Do not let them (D's & RINO's) run Musk off. No-matter-what.

[Winehole23]

Allstate operates at 11 percent overhead as a big insurance company. Liberty Mutual operates at 23 percent overhead. When this agency operated well, Laura, they were allowed to operate at 1.2 percent overhead. I think people running agencies should learn and understand them before they go about dismantling them and crashing them.

For 90 years, they haven't missed a monthly payment, but now they're putting it — being put at great risk of doing that by being hollowed out and being gutted.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-social-security-cuts-could-put-millions-of-older-americans-at-risk

[Winehole23]

Leland Dudek shoved aside at SSA



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:svawqo4jxobyyuqmixplvcux/bafkreibyuwexlob3x27dfqf5wxhhuoqy6hzhshuuahpfi76aq l5gejsasu@jpeg

[Thread]

Leland Dudek shoved aside at SSA

Shoving good now!!!

[Winehole23]

is it fraud when the SSA makes a mistake and overpays you?

Trumplandia says yes


On March 7, the Social Security Administration also announced that people who inadvertently get too large a check through no fault of their own will lose 100 percent of their benefits (https://blog.ssa.gov/social-security-to-reinstate-overpayment-recovery-rate/).

[Thread]

is it fraud when the SSA makes a mistake and overpays you?

Trumplandia says yes

Because it's duly noted & stated that you must report any SS over payment immediately.

[Winehole23]

SSA is already well administered, improper payments are about 1%

Y'all been propagandized

[Thread]

SSA is already well administered, improper payments are about 1%

I agree. This action can & will only fortify existing rules & regulations.

[Winehole23]

Y'all ain't reforming it, you're wrecking it

[Thread]

Y'all ain't reforming it, you're wrecking it

Nonsense.

[Winehole23]

You're not paying attention

The workforce is getting chainsawed and the public facing offices are being closed -- buildings literally shut down

[Thread]

You're not paying attention

The workforce is getting chainsawed and the public facing offices are being closed -- buildings literally shut down

Good.

(We) haven't been able to go in (there) since COVID. By phone call only.

[Winehole23]

Good.

(We) haven't been able to go in (there) since COVID. By phone call only.we git AI for that now

good luck

[Thread]

we git AI for that now

good luck

Amen to that salutation. I'll need it.

Just remember, old horse; you & I agree on AI. And what's the other one we agree on?

[Winehole23]

I am slated to start getting my SS in September after waiting until the end of the window. The promised amount will be a substantial part of my retirement income. Ditto for my better half who will retire at the end of June. It better be there. I have paid into the system with every paycheck since I was 15 years old in the summer of 1971.https://www.wsj.com/economy/consumers/consumer-angst-is-striking-all-income-levels-ab32d5d5

[Winehole23]

Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID (https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-doge-rubio-usaid-musk-death-toll-malaria-polio-tuberculosis), the Treasury Department and elsewhere.


Throughout the meeting, Dudek made alarming statements about the perils facing the Social Security system, but he did so in an oddly informal, discursive manner. It left several participants baffled as to the ultimate fate of the nation’s largest and most popular social program, one that serves 73 million Americans. “Are we going to break something?” Dudek asked at one point, referring to what DOGE has been doing with Social Security data. “I don’t know.”

But then he said, in a more reassuring tone: “They’re learning. Let people learn. They’re going to make mistakes.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/recording-reveals-leland-dudek-thoughts-trump-doge-social-security?

[Winehole23]

Dudek denies dead people over 110 yo are receiving benefits


Dudek also more than once dismissed Trump’s claims about Social Security fraud, which the president amplified just hours after Dudek’s meeting in a speech to Congress (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSa68GrWmAc) in which he implied that millions of probably-dead people over the age of 100 are receiving Social Security benefits. There are indeed 110-year-old and older people in one of the Social Security databases that the DOGE team has been looking at, Dudek said, but those people are “not in pay status” — they’re not actually being paid benefits. “These are records we never bothered with,” he explained.

[Thread]

Dudek denies dead people over 110 yo are receiving benefits

- "Prove it."

- "Shane" - "Shane"

[Winehole23]

BlackRock was Trump's COVID relief administrator

Privatizing SS and exposing beneficiaries to fees, fraud and market risk is on the table


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hcqliwnspfpq2hrh7xl4rf2x/bafkreiaf64bcspqmjg6wexlhhtl4qa7unf3gjka36yr6pfbt2 fegmfeavy@jpeghttps://www.pionline.com/washington/social-security-has-been-politicized-preventing-necessary-discussions-larry-fink-says

[SnakeBoy]

BlackRock was Trump's COVID relief administrator

Privatizing SS and exposing beneficiaries to fees, fraud and market risk is on the table

https://www.pionline.com/washington/social-security-has-been-politicized-preventing-necessary-discussions-larry-fink-says

Hopefully it gets privatized someday. Make it a mandated individual retirement plan instead of a ponzi wealth transfer scheme.

[diego]

Hopefully it gets privatized someday. Make it a mandated individual retirement plan instead of a ponzi wealth transfer scheme.

Chile has had that for 40 years and it hasn't fixed anything, the companies have made more than the pensioners, the replacement rate is less than half of the promised 80% of salary, and these failings have required several attempts at fixing it including raising the salary percentage, government subsidy for special cases, etc etc but its still a flaming pile of shit. People actively avoid putting money there, despite a solid roi, the system is designed to leech you with hidden fees, the companies regularly suffer losses in their conservative accounts, they'll calculate your life expectancy to 120 years and pay out as little as legally possible and then some
There's a reason some things are best managed by the government... But some people just want to see the world burn

[SnakeBoy]

Chile has had that for 40 years and it hasn't fixed anything, the companies have made more than the pensioners, the replacement rate is less than half of the promised 80% of salary, and these failings have required several attempts at fixing it including raising the salary percentage, government subsidy for special cases, etc etc but its still a flaming pile of shit. People actively avoid putting money there, despite a solid roi, the system is designed to leech you with hidden fees, the companies regularly suffer losses in their conservative accounts, they'll calculate your life expectancy to 120 years and pay out as little as legally possible and then some
There's a reason some things are best managed by the government... But some people just want to see the world burn

That's not a mandated individual retirement plan

[Winehole23]

Hopefully it gets privatized someday. Make it a mandated individual retirement plan instead of a ponzi wealth transfer scheme.Even more fraud, waste and abuse that way tbh

[Blake]

Hopefully it gets privatized someday. Make it a mandated individual retirement plan instead of a ponzi wealth transfer scheme.

Right, make sure that anyone that's worked hard on minimum wage their whole life doesn't touch one of your nickels.

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:svawqo4jxobyyuqmixplvcux/bafkreih5qnlvict6ea4vdanlfttu6bi5crsssysz2jlzrnxrz e7azzncze@jpeg

[Winehole23]

Ned Johnson is alive


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:57bqie4tmct4zn6eb6izfsx3/bafkreibrhvfykxfau4eozobi6g4m267v6vdxivm4eixbarc65 fyosocvzq@jpeghttps://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/heres-a-dead-person-on-social-security-in-seattle-with-plenty-to-say/

[SnakeBoy]

Right, make sure that anyone that's worked hard on minimum wage their whole life doesn't touch one of your nickels.

The wealth transfer of SS is from young to old, not rich to poor

and no one works hard for minimum wage their whole life

[Blake]

The wealth transfer of SS is from young to old, not rich to poor

and no one works hard for minimum wage their whole life

Make sure it stays that way.

Pretty sure I've seen old custodians and 80 year old Walmart greeters. I'll change it to "minimum standard of living wage" if that helps you

[Winehole23]

chickenshit ID requirements, mass firing and and closing public facing offices will have the same practical effect as cancelling people's benefits


An SSA source told Popular Information that there are "no significant concerns about fraud at intake" because no benefits are being distributed. And there are already multiple layers of identity verification in place before a claim is approved. The source said they believe the new ID verification steps are an effort to "create additional hurdles to filing claims and overwhelm the system."


The memo acknowledges that the policy changes would create increased "challenges for vulnerable populations." This seems to concede that many elderly and disabled people are physically unable to travel to an in-person office. It is unclear how these populations will be able to receive benefits at all.
The combination of fewer workers, fewer offices, and a massive increase in the demand for in-person services could sabotage the Social Security system — effectively denying many Americans the benefits they are due.


All of this is directly acknowledged in the Diaz memo. The memo predicts "service disruption," "operational strain," and "budget shortfalls." It also says preventing people who cannot use the internet or travel to an in-person office from receiving benefits could result in "legal challenges and congressional scrutiny."



https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:s teep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4f8b35 b-4064-498a-82f0-295eec631719_1600x333.png
(https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa4f8b35 b-4064-498a-82f0-295eec631719_1600x333.png)
https://popular.info/p/exclusive-memo-details-trump-plan

[Winehole23]

hardship for rural citizens and the mobility impaired, or for anyone who can't get verified online


She estimated that 75,000 to 85,000 customers per week — or up to 4.4 million per year — would be diverted to local field offices, which have lost staff members in recent weeks because of retirements, resignations and buyouts.https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/18/social-security-musk-trump-doge/

[Thread]

hardship for rural citizens and the mobility impaired, or for anyone who can't get verified online

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/18/social-security-musk-trump-doge/

Good. Now they have to open the offices again. Excellent.

[Winehole23]

Good. Now they have to open the offices again. Excellent.ha, you wish

[Thread]

ha, you wish

True. It will still be like pullin' teeth.

[Winehole23]

SS brings down the national poverty rate by six points

Trumplandia wants granny and gramps to be poor and die faster

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:pnx2fjuannbdpy3337ggthpp/bafkreifesrhbh4ojzzeriixjyntmoor3rd7k2nd7q4v6c2rvn n4eenvqba@jpeg

Source: US Census/ASEC

[CosmicCowboy]

LOL @ Whineholes fear mongering on social security payments being eliminated. I dont agree with everything Trump is doing but watching Whinehole losing his shit in here and inventing problems that don't exist is fucking hilarious.

[Winehole23]

I'm doing just fine

I've always been a frequent poster, there's a lot to talk about right now

[Winehole23]

CC minimizing Trump's authoritarian rampage is about right, he's a cowardly go-along to get along

[Winehole23]

DOGE wanted access to all the sensitive PI information at SSA, but couldn't explain why they need it, and said it was shielded from having to give any information about what it wants the information for or what it plans to do -- it wouldn't even disclose the names of its agents assigned to SSA -- because DOGE is not a US agency

Judge Hollander ruled that DOGE is an agency and subject to FOIA




https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:65vkd7kbacss37t7uj75g2qt/bafkreifcw6c4zo6qjzpi6h4nl6v3tl5i3vij3qunecbb3xerx ntzucgif4@jpeg
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:65vkd7kbacss37t7uj75g2qt/bafkreidostef5iuohl3mesc32q6ld74weioblyrilxeu7iy45 qgowd2k34@jpeg
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:65vkd7kbacss37t7uj75g2qt/bafkreiempcxbtiashqkmkhrdj3nndyfabrdkzz6gluvosmx2g 54blt7sc4@jpeg
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:65vkd7kbacss37t7uj75g2qt/bafkreichmo34wntxxhjj5wvppypicv75zxpmvuayjbrfpxn7k 7o4qf3gya@jpeghttps://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321/gov.uscourts.mdd.577321.49.0.pdf

[ChumpDumper]

LOL @ Whineholes fear mongering on social security payments being eliminated. I dont agree with everything Trump is doing but watching Whinehole losing his shit in here and inventing problems that don't exist is fucking hilarious.

Why does Elon need all your personal information, CC?

[Thread]

Why does Elon need all your personal information, CC?

Well, Dumper, he did give us that computer system so Ukraine could withstand Russia. Remember fellow? You said he wouldn't give it to 'em and then Musk gave to 'em and you started calling everybody, and their sister "moron."

[Winehole23]

Why does Elon need all your personal information, CC?none of the Trumpies want to talk about what's happening with the data or the money.

[Winehole23]

such is their worldly wisdom

head in the sand, total assumption of bona fides

[Blake]

LOL @ Whineholes fear mongering on social security payments being eliminated. I dont agree with everything Trump is doing but watching Whinehole losing his shit in here and inventing problems that don't exist is fucking hilarious.

List one of the problems you think he's inventing

[Winehole23]

List one of the problems you think he's inventingTrump literally threatened to shut down SSA to a skeleton crew for demanding information from DOGE about why they needed PI information for their job.

The probable result of that is people not getting their SS payments.

[Winehole23]

The level of semen shielding for destroying the public capacity of the US republic is off the charts

Decades of Congressional and popular will being annhilated

[Winehole23]

Trump is fucking up America and immiserating Americans on purpose.

[Winehole23]

while Trumpies cheer

[Thread]

LOL @ Whineholes fear mongering on social security payments being eliminated. I dont agree with everything Trump is doing but watching Whinehole losing his shit in here and inventing problems that don't exist is fucking hilarious.

It's the red line that the Winester is hoping, praying that Trump will cross...they/MSM/D's are hoping for as well.

[Thread]

Trump is fucking up America and immiserating Americans on purpose.

Ya's shouldn't a shot him, and then the worst part? You know it, dad...you missed...now he's in
a state in which an individual becomes intoxicated with rage (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rage),,,

---aka blood drunk---

He's never dealt with that Pennsylvania afternoon's events until now...rendering (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=rendering) his enemy fucked up beyond all recognition (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=recognition).

[Winehole23]

It was a deluded Republican who shot at him, not one of us.

You're projecting blame tbh

[Winehole23]

It's the red line that the Winester is hoping, praying that Trump will cross...they/MSM/D's are hoping for as well.The line has already been crossed. El0n/Trump are gunning for SS

[Thread]

It was a deluded Republican who shot at him, not one of us.

You're projecting blame tbh

But this gov't, this SS stood down.

Sadly, the stubborn SOB old man refuses to dismiss the SS and have the Marine's come to the WH and guarantee his safety.
You can lead a horse to water, but...blah, blah, blah. He too will fuck around and most likely find out.

[Winehole23]

Not afraid of leading with a straight lie

The brazenness stands out, they're not afraid of getting caught, so the lying is now generalized in Trump 2.0


Wow, Wyden catches the SSA nominee Frank Bisignano in a lie in his first question (https://bsky.app/profile/ddayen.bsky.social/post/3ll7je2bkrs2u). He asked Bisignano if he was involved in discussions about DOGE? Bisignano said no. But Wyden has a statement from a senior official that Bisignano insisted "on personally approving DOGE hires at the agency."

[Winehole23]

@sanders.senate.gov (https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:upw5n2uwhzubjajdtqaufsek)

to Frank Bisignano, Trump's nominee to run Social Security:

"You've just acknowledged that the error rate in Social Security is less than 1%. (https://bsky.app/profile/socialsecurityworks.org/post/3ll7ma56nkc25)

Do you think that President Trump was trying to undermine Social Security, or was he just grossly uninformed about the reality?"

[Winehole23]

$100 million in fraud represents about 0.00625% of the $1.6 trillion the government sends out each year in Social Security benefits.

Only around half of that $100 million was lost to phone fraud in 2024, according to a person familiar with Social Security fraud who attended a meeting last year where data on the issue was shared, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.

https://www.axios.com/2025/03/20/doge-social-security-deposit-fraud

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:nztbvvo2gl4227zuxjf7gog3/bafkreidxq65bo65x4m6vnlvwwheez5o5755me36qvmklzyfpp ilx6s7kn4@jpeg


But that doesn't mean Bisignano couldn't outsource the IT or other support services for SSA to his own company.prospect.org/health/2025-... (https://prospect.org/health/2025-03-26-trumps-fox-in-the-social-security-henhouse/)

[Winehole23]

not a great track record


In 2022, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Rohit Chopra made remarks (https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/director-chopras-opening-remarks-to-the-community-bank-and-credit-union-advisory-councils/) to community bankers in which he cited figures showing that core providers had only a 5 percent net satisfaction rating from community banks. “In a market where small financial institutions need to compete head-to-head with big players, I am concerned that the core services providers that small players rely on have too much power in the system,” Chopra said.


Smaller lenders, who depend on core providers for their livelihoods, have complained (https://www.wsj.com/articles/small-banks-rebel-against-the-most-important-tech-firms-you-have-never-heard-of-11554975000) about complex, expensive long-term contracts (some totaling large shares of a bank’s annual profits) and substandard services that Fiserv and its competitors offer. Fees are apparently charged for implementation and upgrades, as well as for early termination of contracts. And multiple lawsuits allege that renewals for core provider services were coerced. “Executives at some small banks say they feel like they are becoming franchises of the core providers because they are so reliant on their technology,” the Journal reported in 2019.

[Winehole23]

is this weaponization?


The acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration admitted this week that he specifically targeted Maine after watching Gov. Janet Mills clash with President Donald Trump during an event at the White House.

“I was ticked at the governor of Maine for not being real cordial to the president,” Lee Dudek told the New York Times.

Dudek directed the agency to cancel a decades-old program that allows parents to register their newborns for a social security number while at hospitals.

The mandate only applied to Maine (https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/07/social-security-reverses-course-will-allow-maine-parents-to-register-their-newborn-at-hospital/) and required new parents to show up at a Social Security office in person to register their newborns.
https://www.pressherald.com/2025/03/25/social-security-official-ended-program-for-maine-newborns-because-he-was-ticked-at-mills/

[Winehole23]

RIP Article I of the US Constitution



NEW: Top Republicans say they're out of the loop as DOGE downsizes Social Security Administration

CHUCK GRASSLEY, chair of the Senate subcommittee on Social Security, wasn’t consulted on office closures and staffing cuts:

“I have not been.”

www.nbcnews.com/politics/con... (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/republicans-loop-doge-social-security-administration-rcna198102)

[Winehole23]

Medicaid cuts will drive millions of people out of their own homes

Medicaid is ~60% of home health care funding


Republicans in Congress are looking to cut massive funds from the federal budgets to pay for President Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy, and these cuts are widely expected to come out of Medicaid funding. The GOP’s budget legislation in the House, adopted in late February, says the House Energy and Commerce Committee must find $880 billion in cuts over the next 10 years. Elon Musk, the unelected head of the Department of Government Efficiency, claims (https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/03/fact-check-president-trump-will-always-protect-social-security-medicare/) that “entitlement programs,” like Medicaid and Medicare, could be cut up to $600-700 billion, alleging fraud and improper payments. In 2023, Medicaid spending totaled around $890 billion from the federal government, and any reductions would be a huge blow to those who benefit, given that federal dollars account for nearly 70% of the programs’ funding, with the rest funded by states.

Republicans appear to be trying to drive through cuts even though Medicaid is popular among members of the public. A recent KFF Health Tracking Poll found (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/poll-finding/kff-health-tracking-poll-public-views-on-potential-changes-to-medicaid/) that fewer than one in five adults wants Medicaid funding to be reduced.

Murphy and other disabled, Medicaid recipients worry that these cuts will take the form of disqualifying them from receiving coverage or cutting down the amount of home healthcare hours they are allotted in order to live, forcing them into nursing care facilities or impacting their ability to live independently in their own homes.
https://workdaymagazine.org/what-medicaid-cuts-would-mean-for-disabled-people-and-homecare-workers/

[Winehole23]

El0n already fucked it up

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vxkxu65awa3ocjpiqmmrxnt2/bafkreiglojerl4kpvnltzxsw2pabcbadbkdpldiexqr4iyhfg kkftd5bgy@jpeg

[Thread]

El0n already fucked it up

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vxkxu65awa3ocjpiqmmrxnt2/bafkreiglojerl4kpvnltzxsw2pabcbadbkdpldiexqr4iyhfg kkftd5bgy@jpeg

This is old news from COVID days when they closed the SS offices and went to phone only.

[Knoxxx]

I think we should just cut all SS/Medicare/Medicaid for a certain 77.3 million people.

[Thread]

I think we should just cut all SS/Medicare/Medicaid for a certain 77.3 million people.

I think you didn't make President and should sit quiet.

[Winehole23]

Unfortunately you live in a country where people are still used to speaking their minds, the president ain't shit tbh. Other people are doing everything for him this time.

Co-president El0n

Co-president Miller

Co-president Susie Wiles

[Thread]

Unfortunately you live in a country where people are still used to speaking their minds, the president ain't shit tbh. Other people are doing everything for him this time.

Co-president El0n

Co-president Miller

Co-president Susie Wiles

"But I'm President...and their not."

[Winehole23]

*TILT*

[Winehole23]

DOGE could wreck Social Security for good if they do this

but maybe that's the point


The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/

[Winehole23]

the stove is made of thermite, tbh


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dps5knuqjkybgklyaixbptsq/bafkreige5angdhoymqfcn54autxqueg3zkpu56if2oxjy2ng7 t4ekknice@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:555c53zqgqs55yh6gvttf5uv/bafkreigh3ji6kpetfzhixxalncmsrtctz7fbkq5igifamw4dg qe5be6kpq@jpeg

[Winehole23]

Unfortunately you live in a country where people are still used to speaking their minds, the president ain't shit tbh. Other people are doing everything for him this time.

Co-president El0n

Co-president Miller

Co-president Susie WilesCo-president Rubio

Co-president Vought

Co-president Bondi

Every officer is just an extension of the leader, who is the living embodiment of the law

Everything Trump says is law, and everything Trump's officers do under his command is law too

[Thread]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:555c53zqgqs55yh6gvttf5uv/bafkreigh3ji6kpetfzhixxalncmsrtctz7fbkq5igifamw4dg qe5be6kpq@jpeg

That was during COVID-19 you silly SOB, you.

[Thread]

Co-president Rubio

Co-president Vought

Co-president Bondi

Every officer is just an extension of the leader, who is the living embodiment of the law

Everything Trump says is law, and everything Trump's officers do under his command is law too

You bet your Aunt Edna's sweet ass, Winester.

By planned design, my friend. This was nary accident, and you know it. There ain't a Bolton, McMasters, Kelly, et al in the entire Cabinet/staff. Not 1 fuckin' plant, nor false flag, nor duplicitous character. A GD genuine miracle. I should have applied. Can you imagine it...me in there somewhere...janitor, male muse, sandwich maker, personal gopher to the nearest McDonald's, keeper of the flame, chief wisenheimer, prompter about that PA. hit, hit list updater.

Manoshevitz.

By God & Sonny Jesus that old man learned his lessons and took 'em to heart. Yep, ya's gonna have to stand down again to get him to stop.

[velik_m]

Social Security employee warns ‘people could be out of benefits for months’ as staffers who fix payment glitches exit

,,,
Those with top software skills are leaving the Social Security Administration to get high-paying jobs in the private sector, he added.

As a result, several software updates and modernization processes that were supposed to be completed soon will likely miss their deadlines, and many of the experts who fix glitches that can stop payments are now exiting, the report said.

“That has to get cleaned up on a case-by-case basis, and the experts in how to do that are leaving,” the Baltimore employee told the Post. “We will have cases that get stuck, and they’re not going to be able to get fixed. People could be out of benefits for months.”

Former Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley previously warned of a “system collapse” that could halt payments, saying changes that the Department of Government Efficiency is making to the agency have already caused IT system outages.

On Friday, Wired reported that DOGE is forming a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s computer systems off the archaic COBOL programming language in a matter of months.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration also plans to phase out payments via paper checks, but that will affect nearly half a million Social Security recipients.
,,,



https://fortune.com/2025/03/29/social-security-benefits-payment-systems-doge-cuts-paper-checks/

[Thread]

https://fortune.com/2025/03/29/social-security-benefits-payment-systems-doge-cuts-paper-checks/

They haven't permitted "paper checks" for almost a decade Little v.

[sickdsm]

DOGE could wreck Social Security for good if they do this

but maybe that's the point

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/
Good

[ChumpDumper]

Good

Why?

[Winehole23]

El0n is wrecking the good shit...he is gonna kill somebody's granny and gramps in addition to making everyone poorer and sicker


The press release from HHS also announced the dismantling of the Administration for Community Living, which oversees vital programs and services for disabled and aging people. It includes independent living centers (https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2024/07/states-could-help-disabled-people-survive-climate-change-by-involving-them/) and protection and advocacy (https://acl.gov/programs/pa-programs) agencies, which were established by Congress and perform important tasks such as investigating claim (https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/drc-advocacy/investigations)s (https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/drc-advocacy/investigations) of abuse in group homes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities; in 2022, ACL also unveiled a National Strategy to Support Family Caregivers (https://acl.gov/CaregiverStrategy). In a LinkedIn post (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7311036930291355648/), former ACL acting administrator and Assistant Secretary for Aging Alison Barkoff said that ACL “has been incredibl[y] effective, with lean staffing and programs with incredible returns on investments.” Its dismantling, Barkoff wrote, was “yet another” move that hurt disabled and older adults, in addition to ongoing attacks on Medicaid (https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/trump-republican-medicaid-cuts-health-disability/)h​ttps://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/03/hhs-rfk-layoffs-cuts-acl-health/

[Winehole23]

great article on COBOL and why is foolish for El0n to try to replace it quickly


The other thing about COBOL is that it was fast. It had been designed specifically to do mammoth amounts of “transactions” really quickly. If you’re a retail chain, you need to count up your sales and recalculate your inventory every night. And you don’t have much time to do it — perhaps a couple of hours in the evening, after your business day ends, while your computer staff works late.

Banks, too: During the day, they’re frantically accepting transactions, requests from customers to take money in and out of their accounts. At night they have a few hours to balance all those books. If you’ve wondered why a check you’ve deposited won’t clear for a while, it’s partly because both banks need to run their mammoth COBOL jobs after the day staff has left. At Citibank, Teplitzky’s code ran through a huge center with 248 mainframe computers.
“You have a six-, eight- hour window where you have to do, if you’ll pardon the expression, a shitload of work — you have to do all transactions in a certain order,” he tells me. “It takes big, big iron to run a billion transactions through a six-hour batch window. It’s a screamer.”

COBOL was optimized for precisely that task: processing gazillions of transactions. Computer languages often have a sort of cognitive or creative bias; they were each created with a particular type of task in mind. Python is excellent for data science and AI; Fortran was created to render math formulas in code; JavaScript was created to help programmers make websites interactive.

COBOL? It was customized for working on those mainframe computers, which themselves were designed specifically to crunch bazillions of transactions, reading and writing data streams at a brisk pace. It was like a high-octane fuel designed specifically for a sports car. Over the years, COBOL “compilers” — the software that takes the English-like syntax of computer code and transforms it into the ones and zeros that a computer chip can execute — were refined more and more, so that COBOL’s “compiled code” became exceptionally speedy. Which means that part of the reason COBOL underlies so many crucial things we do is because it’s actually pretty good at it.

“They’ve had 50 years to get this right,” notes Bill Hinshaw, who runs COBOL Cowboys, an agency that provides COBOL programmers.

The sheer age of those COBOL systems is, oddly, actually something that works in their favour. Because they’re old, they have been relentlessly debugged. When a program is first written, it inevitably has problems. Sometimes it’s a typo, a misplaced command; other times, the user does something the programmer never expected, and things crash. When you get a new app, if it’s buggy and crash-prone, this is why: the creators sent it out into the world with lots of these little flaws. It can take days, weeks, or years to discover all the problems.

But those COBOL programs that run the world? They’ve had decades for coders and users to uncover all the problems, and to fix them.
https://www.wealthsimple.com/en-ca/magazine/cobol-controls-your-money

[baseline bum]

Why?

Because he likes getting robbed by daddy if we all do too

[Winehole23]

this used to be called a Kinsley gaffe -- when a politician accidentally tells the truth


Sen. Bill Cassidy: "Is there some way that we cut Medicare so that it's-- excuse me, reform Medicare."

[koriwhat]

The outcry of crocodile tears by weak white men for kamala is hilarious!

Where were these tears for all the stolen money from both Medicare and ss that's gone to all the illegals?

Yall aren't to be listened to you fucking retards!

[ChumpDumper]

The outcry of crocodile tears by weak white men for kamala is hilarious!

Where were these tears for all the stolen money from both Medicare and ss that's gone to all the illegals?

Yall aren't to be listened to you fucking retards!

Why do you want to steal benefits from legitimate SS/Medicare/Medicaid recipients?

What does it get you?

[Spurs Homer]

Why do you want to steal benefits from legitimate SS/Medicare/Medicaid recipients?

What does it get you?

if one looks at the bright side;

the sooner trump and his project 2025 destroys the usa, takes everyones medical care, allows pandemics to kill a bunch of anti-vaxxers, etc...

the sooner the cult spell will finally be broken -and then whomever of the 340 million muricans are left...can move on from this cult fuckery and treason and betrayal...

just looking at the bright side of all this.

[koriwhat]

Lmfao at you retarded mentally ill weak leftist "males"!

Oh and CumDummy, KYS! :tu

[koriwhat]

if one looks at the bright side;

the sooner trump and his project 2025 destroys the usa, takes everyones medical care, allows pandemics to kill a bunch of anti-vaxxers, etc...

the sooner the cult spell will finally be broken -and then whomever of the 340 million muricans are left...can move on from this cult fuckery and treason and betrayal...

just looking at the bright side of all this.

You're so fucking dumb and mentally ill. :lol

[ChumpDumper]

Lmfao at you retarded mentally ill weak leftist "males"!

Oh and CumDummy, KYS! :tuYou weigh 90 pounds.

[koriwhat]

No one cares what you have to say bitch boy, CumDummy. Take my advice already and KYS! :tu

[ChumpDumper]

No one cares what you have to say bitch boy, CumDummy. Take my advice already and KYS! :tu

Nope. Eat a sandwich.

[Winehole23]

it was never about waste, fraud and abuse

all that is just a fig leaf for bullying and hurting people


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:tnlhrgmbce34nvpyti46miej/bafkreibxpp5ddth4cluuvlovon56ppaowhmr2tqcn4o5kvxjk d2dlfqlva@jpeghttps://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/04/02/maine-governor-trump-transgender/

[Winehole23]

it's the sadism

Trumplandia has no positive policy vision, they just wreck shit and hurt people

[Thread]

it's the sadism

Trumplandia has no positive policy vision, they just wreck shit and hurt people

...we've learned that tact from masters.

[SnakeBoy]

1901447909029097835

[koriwhat]

it was never about waste, fraud and abuse

all that is just a fig leaf for bullying and hurting people

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/04/02/maine-governor-trump-transgender/


Bullying is what kept you nerds in check. Now it's revenge of the nerds and we're not putting up with it any longer so cry as much as you'd like.

[ChumpDumper]

1901447909029097835

Yeah, Medicare Advantage is mostly a waste. Get the private sector out of it.:tu

Welcome to reality.

[baseline bum]

1901447909029097835

So DOGE is getting rid of scam ass Medicare Advantage?

[Winehole23]

Bullying is what kept you nerds in check. Now it's revenge of the nerds and we're not putting up with it any longer so cry as much as you'd like.you're not making very much sense, boss

[koriwhat]

you're not making very much sense, boss

What, nerd?

[ChumpDumper]

What, nerd?

He said you're not making much sense.

[Winehole23]

Trump's war on accessibility is just one prong of his war on the US government and civilization as we know it


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreifwdghw2u2jjhp3pl2ta3pwwlecd6av7tzof2ki6ogqe wasplfomm@jpeg
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:36eqtmzysqf7wsslczw4uxcd/bafkreiaioipmovyyvl3qc4a2vxyc6hatemxs7w576suqu74wq yobrsefiq@jpeghttps://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.279104/gov.uscourts.dcd.279104.2.1.pdf

[Thread]

Trump's war on accessibility is just one prong of his war on the US government and civilization as we know it

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.279104/gov.uscourts.dcd.279104.2.1.pdf

Bend over. I'll give ya a fuckin' prong.

[Winehole23]

"death spiral"



The SSA website has crashed (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/25/social-security-phones-doge-cuts/) several times this month. Wired reported (https://www.wired.com/story/doge-rebuild-social-security-administration-cobol-benefits/) Doge staff want to migrate all social security data and rewrite code in months, which could cause system collapse and further outages.

The agency plans to eliminate the jobs of 7,000 workers at the agency through voluntary buyouts, resignations or firings, though the union representing SSA employees anticipate even more firings beyond cutting staff to 50,000 workers.

Acting commissioner Leland Dudek has acknowledged (https://www.propublica.org/article/recording-reveals-leland-dudek-thoughts-trump-doge-social-security)to staff that Doge are making the decisions at the agency. Musk, Donald Trump (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/donaldtrump) and others have claimed action is being taken to tackle widespread fraud at the agency.

Dudek was appointed acting commissioner after he reportedly secretly shared (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/06/doge-is-driving-social-security-cuts-will-make-mistakes-acting-head-says-privately/) information with Doge staff. He has threatened (https://socialsecurityworks.org/2025/03/21/trump-admin-threatens-social-security-shutdown/)to shut down the agency in response to a court order barring Doge from accessing the data.

“It’s just been a lot of craziness, a lot of foolishness. Until they get rid of Doge and the person in office right now, and the Republicans actually get a backbone and stand up for something for once in their lives, things are just going to be complete chaos. That’s really the best word to describe SSA right now, just complete, utter chaos,” the worker added. “They couldn’t understand the coding, so everything they said SSA was doing illegally, they weren’t. Common sense is something they lack. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Rich Couture, a spokesman for the American Federation of Government Employees’ Social Security Administration general committee, the union representing roughly 42,000 social security workers, said Doge’s public targets for cuts make no sense.

Why are they cutting 7,000 jobs, asked Couture. “It has never been explained with any degree of clarity how they came up with that figure. What’s being served by that by a loss of 7,000 jobs? How does any of that supposedly makes this operation more efficient? How does it improve service? How does it improve productivity? Our position is that losing 7,000 people doesn’t do any of those things,” he said.

“I don’t think they’re going to stop at 7,000 people lost. If they lose 10,000 or 12,000, they’re running up their high score. They’re able to brag about it.”
Departments at the agency have been closed and reorganized, with workers forced to take reassignments or risk firings, and all workers have been ordered to return to the office five days a week.

Couture noted the return to office order occurred a day before a buyout offer was set to expire, in violation of union contract agreements, and the offices were not prepared or equipped to handle it, as many workers had no desks or equipment to work.

Phone services for the public have also been cut (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/03/25/social-security-phones-doge-cuts/), and field and regional offices are slated for closure (https://apnews.com/article/social-security-offices-closures-doge-trump-b2b1a5b2ba4fb968abc3379bf90715ff) around the US.

“There is no safe office in this country,” added Couture. “It’s a concerted attack on the legitimacy of social security itself. The promise that this country has made to the public with respect to income security is being broken.”

The cuts come as staffing is already at a 50-year low despite the agency serving a record number of recipients (https://www.ssa.gov/oact/STATS/OASDIbenies.html) as the US population above the age of 65 is growing (https://www.census.gov/topics/population/older-aging.html#:~:text=Featured&text=The%20U.S.%20population%20age%2065,increase%2 0in%20just%2010%20years.&text=Learn%20about%20age%2C%20sex%2C%20and,%2C%20c ounties%2C%20and%20census%20tracts.).

The office of the inspector general at SSA (https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2024-08-08-record-breaking-backlog-increases-improper-payments-by-over-1b/#:~:text=As%20a%20backlog%20of%20payment,%241.1%20 billion%20in%20improper%20payments)reported (https://oig.ssa.gov/news-releases/2024-08-08-record-breaking-backlog-increases-improper-payments-by-over-1b/#:~:text=As%20a%20backlog%20of%20payment,%241.1%20 billion%20in%20improper%20payments) in August 2024 that a record backlog of payment actions impacting social security beneficiaries was due to lack of staffing, increased workloads, and decreased funding for the agency, driving improper payments because staff weren’t available to update records.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/06/musk-doge-social-security

[Winehole23]

"take that, you worthless leeches"


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ccrabc6xdnjx4l7btvynnng4/bafkreifo6qp645gzzwjq6eskioop3ikqqil2ultyiiky3tzb3 zbll7kslm@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rdz6gqhny7u42rhoh2riy34v/bafkreibzcpnf3ciem6u55e723i6m7cxomg22v2mo3ktlg2jau hfz6rtlyi@jpeg

[Winehole23]

(SS is pre-funded by employers too, hence the latent resentment)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kuvl2yuy2ikhn2l2szsvxvxa/bafkreie7ncfo2nf72r5ifqzbpjdbiqfubqngb67y52k3jpnto myq2v6dvi@jpeg

[Thread]

(SS is pre-funded by employers too, hence the latent resentment)

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:kuvl2yuy2ikhn2l2szsvxvxa/bafkreie7ncfo2nf72r5ifqzbpjdbiqfubqngb67y52k3jpnto myq2v6dvi@jpeg

Then quit howlin' about Musk cutting it.

[Winehole23]

gutting NIOSH fits with Trumplandia's war on civilization

https://www.lpm.org/news/2025-04-01/black-lung-researchers-among-hundreds-laid-off-from-federal-health-agency

[Winehole23]

completely optional civilizational deterioration


At a time when the world is down to a single drug that can reliably cure gonorrhea, the U.S. government has shuttered the country’s premier sexually transmitted diseases laboratory, leaving experts aghast and fearful about what lies ahead.

The STD lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a leading player in global efforts to monitor for drug resistance in the bacteria that cause these diseases — was among the targets of major staff slashing at the CDC this past week. All 28 full-time employees of the lab were fired.
STD clinicians and researchers were flummoxed, both because most of the other infectious diseases functions of the CDC were spared in this round of cuts, and because of the critical nature of the work the lab performed.
https://www.statnews.com/2025/04/05/cdc-sexually-transmitted-diseases-laboratory-closed-by-trump-administration/

[Thread]

gutting NIOSH fits with Trumplandia's war on civilization

https://www.lpm.org/news/2025-04-01/black-lung-researchers-among-hundreds-laid-off-from-federal-health-agency

Bottom line? Ya's shouldn't a shot him, A. & B. ya's shouldn't a missed.

That will be forever...the breaking point.

[Winehole23]

I am turning America into an empire of chickenshit

When I destroy public capacity, people lose benefits they're entitled to and that's my intention: to exclude qualified beneficiaries


Americans seeking retirement or survivor benefits from the Social Security Administration (https://www.npr.org/2025/03/22/nx-s1-5320263/social-security-administration-changes-identity-office) will no longer be able to apply over the phone, starting on Monday.

Instead, they will have to seek services online or travel in-person to a local Social Security field office, which a new analysis (https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/abruptly-eliminating-social-security-phone-services-threatens-access-to) from the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, or CBPP, found amounts to a "45-mile trip for some 6 million seniors."

The group wrote this change "will close off an important mode of service for millions of people" who are eligible for services. changes are worrying advocates (https://www.npr.org/2025/03/22/nx-s1-5320263/social-security-administration-changes-identity-office)
"More than 4 in 10 retirees apply for their Social Security benefits by phone, as do most spouses who are eligible for benefits," researchers wrote. "So do the substantial majority of bereaved family members who are eligible for benefits following the death of a worker."https://www.npr.org/2025/04/08/nx-s1-5356476/social-security-new-rules

[Winehole23]

Trumplandia's war on the social safety net is a war on the elderly as well


But suddenly, you get a call that granny had a stroke, and from that moment onwards life changes pretty quickly. Now you may find yourself skipping class to drive to doctors’ appointments, and furiously searching “Medicaid Eligibility” to untangle the complicated, and frankly inaccessible, system that is long-term care in America. When grandma’s future rides on whether she can access affordable, high-quality care and services, it is scary and often isolating. I experienced this with my own grandmother and many of my peers have as well. This experience is happening to more of us than we realize — especially as politicians are actively pushing to eliminate the very programs and institutions that make care and services for older adults possible in the United States.https://www.teenvogue.com/story/trump-healthcare-policies-older-americans-gen-z

[Winehole23]

Make no mistake: these political moves do not just puncture the safety net for older Americans and people with disabilities, but they break down the system that millions of families, including an estimated 3.6 million youth caregivers (https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2024/new-study-reveals-millions-of-young-americans-provide-essential-care-to-adults#:~:text=The%20study%20reveals%20that%20an,o f%20their%20respective%20age%20groups.), rely on daily. While these decisions are painted as purely budgetary, they extend far beyond the financial. They are value judgments about who deserves dignity and who should be left by the wayside. And young people must pay attention, because we will not only be impacted, but will be left cleaning up the mess.

[Thread]

Either everybody gets Medicaid, or, nobody gets MedicaidPERIOD

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:rtsa65yj6j6azdkmatuckxec/bafkreibfe5cjmdt4s6lzmifgeziomgbuhfzupqp2cdimc5m3i csjcyta2a@jpeg

[Thread]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:rtsa65yj6j6azdkmatuckxec/bafkreibfe5cjmdt4s6lzmifgeziomgbuhfzupqp2cdimc5m3i csjcyta2a@jpeg

No. Absolutely not. If we can give Medicaid to the Jews in Israel and the Nazi's in Ukraine we can certainly give it to Americans in America. But it must be for every American in America, or, nobody in AmericaPERIOD

[Winehole23]

if Medicaid cuts come close to the advertised $600 billion, that would likely eliminate 8 million beneficiaries

Trump take health care to give rich folks a tax break

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vgoqwcb5lcn4z227mfntg5eb/bafkreih5dmmbbigi7iq7llbv6jlr77xddy6j4rw4qtxunwctn mpl3bwpqe@jpeg

[Winehole23]

“A noisy contingent of corporatist Republicans — call it the party’s Wall Street wing — is urging Congress to ignore all that and get back to the old-time religion: corporate giveaways, preferences for capital and deep cuts to social insurance,” Hawley, a Missouri Republican, said in a New York Times op-ed Monday (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/12/opinion/josh-hawley-dont-cut-medicaid.html). “This wing of the party wants Republicans to build our big, beautiful bill around slashing health insurance for the working poor. But that argument is both morally wrong and politically suicidal.”

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:n74wy26n6klbv7xgrndeog7s/bafkreie42dttbl6s2uccpnoqle2waj5hrvdkbvvqyz7kdmf3y fcd6wqz7u@jpeg

[Winehole23]

Dan Crenshaw's claim that only able-bodied layabouts will be affected by Medicaid cuts is bullshit



https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:qflat3rea6nghjn7cfgw7ofi/bafkreiaq5dv7jt77rlwtmbqdazpgckxcpnj5k5juph5ug3lsw bgt6dpj4u@jpeg

[Winehole23]

this is a shrewd point


Its just fascinating to me that Medicaid fraud is treated like its SNAP fraud or benefits fraud when its one of the few welfare cases in which the person doesn't receive the cash from the government, the -provider- does, but all of the cuts are -patient- centric

[Winehole23]

*cough*

- nursing homes -

[Winehole23]

Freedom Caucus votes present to advance the GOP murder budget out of committee


The four Republican holdouts who had tanked the vote Friday (https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5304115-gop-budget-committee-trump-bill-vote/) — Reps. Ralph Norman (https://thehill.com/people/ralph-norman/)(S.C.), Chip Roy (https://thehill.com/people/chip-roy/)(Texas), Andrew Clyde (Ga.), and Josh Brecheen (Okla.) — voted present to allow the bill to go forward, with Roy revealing there was progress on moving up the start date for new Medicaid work requirements and speeding up the phaseout of green energy incentives.htps://thehill.com/homenews/house/5306895-republicans-budget-committee-vote-trump-bill/

[Winehole23]

amazing tax relief


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ekts44pfepbmryv2h633onqu/bafkreigxlqwbqeiz2pahzrxnzrds5qazevgkebmfpx3ggih7z nl7gc2qz4@jpeg

[Winehole23]

estate tax exemption, should the language survive




The sprawling tax and spending bill before the House of Representatives would cut more than $200 billion from food assistance, potentially affecting 4 million children and 7 million adults (https://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/expanded-work-requirements-in-house-republican-bill-would-take-away-food), while providing an estate tax cut costing roughly the same amount (https://www.jct.gov/publications/2025/jcx-22-25r/) to a few thousand people who will leave behind more than $7 million to their heirs.

The bill would increase the estate tax exemption to $15 million for single people and $30 million for couples in 2026 and allow it to rise with inflation moving forward. In other words, a couple could leave $29.99 million to their heirs in 2026 without paying a cent of estate tax.https://itep.org/house-tax-bill-would-encourage-dynastic-wealth-hoarding-by-further-weakening-the-estate-tax/

[Winehole23]

the poor, sick and elderly are in the crosshairs of the Republican murder budget

lots of Americans will suffer and die so rich folks can have some more treats


More than 7 million Americans over 65 are enrolled in Medicaid, and 11 million adults between the ages of 50 and 64 receive health care coverage through Medicaid, according to the program’s website (https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/eligibility/seniors-medicare-and-medicaid-enrollees#:~:text=Medicaid%20provides%20health%20c overage%20to,are%20also%20enrolled%20in%20Medicare .).

Medicaid also provides health insurance coverage to about 5 million disabled Americans.

Medicaid is also a major funder of nursing home care. Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans 65 and older, only covers short nursing home stays. Medicaid will often pay for Longer-term nursing home stays and at-home care for low-income Americans who qualify.

The program pays more than 60 percent (https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/medicaid-nursing-home-payments-care-mandate/) of long-term care residents in nursing homes, according to reporting from KFF Health News.https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5312979-gop-bill-fears-of-major-reduction-home-care-seniors-disabled/

[Winehole23]

Trump hates Americans. He wants wants to hurt us so he can have more power and money.


White House adviser David Sacks (https://www.thedailybeast.com/president-trumps-crypto-czar-david-sacks-gets-into-catfight-with-larry-summers-live-on-podcast/) admitted over the weekend that the GOP’s tax bill will include significant cuts to Medicaid (https://www.thedailybeast.com/keyword/medicaid/), despite claims from his boss and other MAGA loyalists (https://www.thedailybeast.com/cbs-host-margaret-brennan-grills-mike-johnson-on-trumps-big-beautiful-bill/) that it will not.

Sacks, who is President Donald Trump (https://thedailybeast.com/keyword/donald-j-trump/)‘s AI and crypto czar, said plainly on the All-In (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEZWyC-jJa4&t=4s) podcast: “This bill cuts $880 billion from Medicaid over a decade.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-adviser-david-sacks-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-on-medicaid-cuts/

[Winehole23]

Trumplandia hates Americans and wants them to suffer

SS is prepaid, I wonder if Mike Collins is thinking of stealing $$$ from SS beneficiaries


“Get off of Social Security. Get back into the workforce.”

[Winehole23]

RIP Article I of the US Constitutionhadn't seen this guy yet, apparently he's posted up in front of Congress


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gexyzhqlp5r7kart7lw4jgzb/bafkreibu4p2aq2rhh2thguiygepcrhchxsqxzxupaz3jrywl2 owh27nevu@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:bakpz2bfxm33tuzckwi46ixu/bafkreigvumlrd7dv4hb3lguavtkwuonawayiakwmkrwz7t3xy o73ekfqiy@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/bafkreiasueubcq2jwhhx26xfp6zmucc4znztdiwsiynt7otgc qaasfsymq@jpeg

[Winehole23]

dangerous radical activists arrested in the Russell Senate Building today

yesterday, Mitch McConnell said he hears people back home complaining about Medicare/Medicaid cuts, "but they'll get over it"


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:duz7q77cuiv6whm772dnnksj/bafkreia6zsivqywe4asfdopq7o3honliq33xxgt7vzg6jzydx 2eqxteuny@jpeg

[Winehole23]

(death is the last physician, Republican policy tends to hasten the appointment)

[Winehole23]

https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.OgfRjA5YrdsiVDITQw5VQgHaHa?pid=ImgDet&w=178&h=178&c=7&dpr=1.5&cb=idpwebp2&o=7&rm=3

[Dod01]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5o6k7jvowuyaquloafzn3cfw/bafkreiasueubcq2jwhhx26xfp6zmucc4znztdiwsiynt7otgc qaasfsymq@jpeg

He's not perfect (no one is, really), but Bernie is a dang near unicorn in politics.

[SnakeBoy]

(death is the last physician, Republican policy tends to hasten the appointment)

All that blubber is doing more to hasten it

[Winehole23]

He's not perfect (no one is, really), but Bernie is a dang near unicorn in politics.

from March this year

https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/who-is-the-most-popular-us-elected

[Winehole23]

All that blubber is doing more to hasten itTrump is filled with satanic inspiration, he may outlast his body

[Dod01]

from March this year

https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/who-is-the-most-popular-us-elected

Yupp, definitely figures! Of course the dumber comments on there are from the Spite-Wingies.

[velik_m]

Protesters in wheelchairs cuffed with zip-ties during Capitol demonstrations against Medicaid cuts

A group of protesters, some in wheelchairs, were arrested and zip-tied on Capitol Hill and dragged out by police officers as they demonstrated against proposed cuts to Medicaid in Republicans' massive spending package.

Proposed cuts could mean that some 10 million low-income Americans would lose coverage over the course of the next 10 years. The legislation would also put in place additional work requirements for those using the program.

At least 33 people were arrested for “illegally demonstrating” inside the Russell Senate Rotunda, a Capitol Police spokesperson told The Independent on Wednesday.

The group was arrested for “crowding, obstructing, and incommoding,” police said.

...



https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/protesters-wheelchairs-cuffed-medicaid-capitol-b2777036.html


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5c2xdtH410

[Winehole23]

Trump is going to cause an elder care crisis


https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ornpixmpy5ts36lh7hmi7wkp/bafkreicqycjxpokh2pksj6yh75fumeptaiscdailhvnifoeqo ehnzvtxpe@jpeg

[Winehole23]

A recent study (https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2023.00881) in Health Affairs led by postdoctoral research fellow, Hankyung Jun (https://hcp.hms.harvard.edu/people/kate-jun), and co-authored by Professor of Health Care Policy, David Grabowski (https://hcp.hms.harvard.edu/people/david-c-grabowski), examined the prevalence and effect of the growing immigrant workforce in nursing home care. They examined national and state-level trends in the percentage of immigrant CNAs working in nursing homes using data from 2000 to 2021 and used pre-pandemic data to determine how a higher share of immigrant workers affected patient care.


The study found that the share of foreign-born CNAs increased from 13.6 percent in the 2000s to 19.1 percent during the pandemic, which can be explained by a decrease in the number of native-born staff. The share varied substantially across states, from less than 1 percent in West Virginia to more than 70 percent in Hawaii. Additionally, nursing homes in regions with a higher share of immigrant CNAs were associated with better patient care; high percentages of immigrant CNAs resulted in more direct care staff hours per resident day and better overall nursing home quality performance.
https://hcp.hms.harvard.edu/news/study-finds-immigrant-caregivers-essential-growing-population-need-care

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:evzmobrnzmf6d6bn7m25obr4/bafkreibluwh3vftmuoiqj3e4z3l54oerrevywfhwxshfze3gw ikknyrkn4@jpeg

[Winehole23]

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:e6n7jxtu2qrhwvp3j6ib6sq6/bafkreibl5wgmutgullgxzr5urgjcdihx3ipkeubjsniv5z5wo o2fquxdkm@jpeg

[Winehole23]

"There will be no amnesty. The mass deportations continue, but in a strategic way. And we move the workforce toward automation and 100% American participation, which with 34 million able-bodied on Medicaid we should be able to do fairly quickly."

[Winehole23]

offsetting tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the neediest people imaginable


The Trump Administration is preparing to propose a rule to cut Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits and strip eligibility for hundreds of thousands of low-income older people and severely disabled adults and children.[1] (https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/trump-administration-poised-to-cut-ssi-benefits-for-nearly-400000-low#_ftn1)



Under the rule, nearly 400,000 SSI beneficiaries living with family or friends experiencing their own financial struggles likely would have their benefits cut — typically by hundreds of dollars per month — or lose eligibility altogether.[2] (https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/trump-administration-poised-to-cut-ssi-benefits-for-nearly-400000-low#_ftn2)
https://www.cbpp.org/research/social-security/trump-administration-poised-to-cut-ssi-benefits-for-nearly-400000-low

[Winehole23]

by passing a bill that adds trillions of dollars in new deficits, cuts to Medicare will be automatic unless Congress acts


The federal budget deficits caused by President Donald Trump’s tax and spending law (https://apnews.com/article/what-is-republican-trump-tax-bill-f65be44e1050431a601320197322551b) could trigger automatic cuts to Medicare if Congress does not act, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (https://apnews.com/article/cbo-big-beautiful-bill-trump-republican-deficit-debt-d432b67a965790e4a26de46ea8db1266) reported Friday.


The CBO estimates that Medicare, the federal health insurance program for Americans over age 65, could potentially see as much as $491 billion in cuts from 2027 to 2034 if Congress does not act to mitigate a 2010 law that forces across-the-board cuts to many federal programs once legislation increases the federal deficit. The latest report from CBO showed how Trump’s signature tax and spending law could put new pressure on federal programs that are bedrocks of the American social safety net (https://apnews.com/article/trump-big-bill-medicaid-cuts-snap-ed0d2c7c20b43c54265dbc9cb215b647).

Trump and Republicans pledged not to cut Medicare as part of the legislation, but the estimated $3.4 trillion that the law adds to the federal deficit over the next decade means that many Medicare programs could still see cuts. In the past, Congress has always acted to mitigate cuts to Medicare and other programs, but it would take some bipartisan cooperation to do so.
https://apnews.com/article/cbo-medicare-cuts-trump-bill-health-insurance-8d16a42771bc8d5d2bcc99654c8a7547

[Winehole23]

GOP to special needs kids: eat shit and die


Trump’s budget includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts (https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=how+much+medicaid+cuts&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) to Medicaid, which funds a wide swath of services to disabled children, including speech, occupational and physical therapy, wheelchairs, in-home aides and medical care. All children with physical, developmental or cognitive disabilities – in California, nearly 1 million – receive at least some services through Medicaid.


Meanwhile, at the U.S. Department of Education, Trump has gutted the Office of Civil Rights, which is among the agencies that enforce the 50-year-old law granting students with disabilities the right to attend school and receive an education appropriate to their needs. Before that law was enacted, students with disabilities often didn’t attend school at all.


“We have a delicate web of services that, combined, support a whole child, a whole family,” said Kristin Wright, executive director of inclusive practices and systems at the Sacramento County Office of Education and the former California state director of special education. “So when the basic foundational structure is upended, like Medicaid, for example, it’s not just one cut from a knife. It’s multiple.”
https://calmatters.org/education/k-12-education/2025/12/students-with-disabilities/

[Winehole23]

(putting subforum MAGAs down for being cool with the neediest kids imaginable eating shit and dying)

[Winehole23]

DOGE merely tenderized Social Security, Trump is breaking it

Makes sense that otherwise sekrit internal data is tending to leak


The federal agency that provides millions of vulnerable Americans with retirement and disability benefits is drowning in up to 6 million pending cases and 12 million transactions after months of turbulence under President Trump.


The Social Security Administration (SSA) started Trump’s second term with what The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/12/29/trump-social-security-cuts-customer-service/) described as a “hostile takeover,” with Elon Musk, 54, and the Department of Government Efficiency slashing their way through the $15.4 billion agency that serves roughly 74 million beneficiaries.


Now, according to internal data and interviews cited by the Post, retirement and disability services for millions of Americans have been delayed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-data-exposes-true-scale-of-social-security-chaos-under-donald-trump/

[velik_m]

Congress blocks Obamacare subsidies after shutdown fight, premiums set to surge

Lawmakers fought over Obamacare subsidies tooth and nail for the latter part of the year, and ultimately, neither side won.

Senate Democrats thrust the government into the longest shutdown in history in an effort to refocus the narrative in Congress on healthcare, and Republicans agreed to talk about it in the open. And both Republicans and Democrats got a shot to advance their own, partisan plans. Both failed.

Now, the subsidies are set to expire on Wednesday, sending price hikes across the desks of tens of millions of Americans that relied on the credits.

...



https://www.foxnews.com/politics/congress-fails-save-obamacare-subsidies-after-shutdown-fight-premiums-set-surge

[velik_m]

More Than Half of ACA Marketplace Enrollees Live in Republican Congressional Districts

Since the enhanced tax credits became available, ACA Marketplace enrollment has soared, more than doubling to 24.3M people since 2020. While nearly all states’ Marketplaces grew since the introduction of the enhanced tax credits, some red states stand out as having a larger share of their population enrolled in ACA Marketplaces.

Nearly six in ten Marketplace enrollees (57%) live in congressional districts represented by a Republican. Generally, enrollment in ACA Marketplace coverage by congressional district is largest in the South. At least 10% of the population is enrolled in ACA Marketplace plans throughout all congressional districts in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina, along with almost all in Texas and Utah.

...



https://www.kff.org/quick-take/more-than-half-of-aca-marketplace-enrollees-live-in-republican-congressional-districts/

[Winehole23]

Trump and congressional Republicans are wrecking Medicare so rich folks can have tax cuts


Recent policy changes and economic shifts have slashed 12 years off the projected life span of the trust fund that pays for Medicare Part A, according to a newly updated report (https://www.cbo.gov/publication/62165) from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund is now slated to be entirely exhausted by 2040, even though the balance generally increases through 2031, as spending will begin to outstrip income in the following year.https://fortune.com/2026/02/23/how-trump-wiped-out-12-years-of-medicare-funding-cbo-one-big-beautiful-bill/

[Winehole23]

impounding Medicaid funds doesn't stop fraud and endangers very vulnerable people

"public health is a scam" is the basic gist of this psyop

executive impoundment is 100% illegal


The Trump administration has signaled a willingness to halt billions of dollars in federal health payments to multiple states, mirroring moves they made against Minnesota.

The specific target is Medicaid (https://www.kff.org/medicaid/cms-new-approach-to-federal-medicaid-spending-in-cases-of-potential-fraud/), the public health insurance program that pairs state and federal money. Federal officials have announced unprecedented actions in Minnesota this year, declaring they could withhold over $2 billion in payments slated for the state and claw back nearly $260 million from last year.The actions in Minnesota came as part of the administration’s declared crackdown on fraud, but critics have likened them to using a bludgeon instead of a scalpel, probably harming patients who rely on Medicaid for care but are not responsible for fraud in the program.

“It’s going to hurt a lot of people if they end up going through with this,” said Sumukha Terakanambi, a 27-year-old who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy and works as a public policy consultant with the Minnesota Council on Disability.

“Of course we support going after fraud,” Terakanambi said, but “this overly aggressive action is missing the point. It’s not punishing fraudsters. It’s punishing the people.”
Longtime Medicaid observers also doubt the federal actions will achieve their purported objective.

Jocelyn Guyer (https://www.manatt.com/jocelyn-a-guyer), a senior managing director with the consulting firm Manatt, recently told reporters (https://georgetown.zoom.us/rec/play/Vux6Vz6WzRL2XWQHofhGERqGIW6M8YYn0nkrUvSF6RptbBB0zm BlzyLuDSVapyk3JZDJzECH_AGv_pg5.YoqU6L28vBt7NemC?ea gerLoadZvaPages=sidemenu.billing.plan_management&accessLevel=meeting&canPlayFromShare=true&from=share_recording_detail&continueMode=true&componentName=rec-play&originRequestUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fgeorgetown.zoom.us% 2Frec%2Fshare%2FuE6UCfqzUcmx2b9fj7voZbom_yMQaFSbtp 9YUhENTuiL576qQkbjGFlZJbgCJTW_.eP13pQT740jpO1mB) that actions of this magnitude by the federal government are unprecedented, partly because punitive measures against states have “really never been an effective way to address fraud.”
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/medicaid-fraud-dr-oz-minnesota-california-maine-new-york-florida/