At rally, Larson pans Trump-Musk cuts at Social Security

Rep. John Larson (D-CT01) says budget slashing by President Trump and his adviser Elon Musk isn’t about achieving efficiency, as they claim. He says it’s about paying for the extension of Trump’s multi-trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy.

A longtime booster of Social Security, a program which he says is already undermanned and underfunded, Larson and supporters from labor and retirees’ groups rallied at the Social Security Administration’s office in East Hartford Friday. They’re opposing job cuts that could reportedly eliminate 50 percent of the SSA’s staff. Several of the agency’s other offices have already been shuttered.

“This has nothing to do with efficiency, and everything to do with finding $2 trillion to make a tax cut to the wealthy permanent,” Larson told the few dozen people on hand.

Bette Marafino, president of the Connecticut Alliance for Retired Americans, says her constituents are frightened:

“All of them get Social Security. They are just absolutely worried, ‘Will Social Security be there?’ Some of them who rely on it, that’s their only source of income. Will they be able to get their checks on time?”

President Trump has claimed Social Security benefits will not be cut, although the program faces financial trouble down the road. More immediately, the recipients are concerned about retaining easy access to those benefits. Marafino says retirees already face long waits to reach the SSA on the phone.

Democrats in Washington are left to wonder how to stop the SSA cutbacks and many other controversial executive actions by Trump and Musk, who don’t seem to be bound by the fact that the programs and spending they’re cutting were approved by Congress and previous presidents.

Larson says with the close margin in the House, it would take only 3 Republicans siding with Democrats to pass legislation to protect SSA from the cuts:

“The genius of Franklin Delano Roosevelt still lives on, but what it needs is Congress to step up and take a vote not just to protect Social Security, but to expand its benefits and its workforce so we’re reaching the very people we need to serve.”

The projected cuts have cast a pall over the SSA workforce, according to an Army National Guard veteran who works there. Ryan Dugan says he and fellow staffers have received numerous intimidating e-mails from management.

“I mean, it’s heartbreaking for me and for all the federal employees that do this job because they really love the American people and love what this country stands for in taking care of each other,” says Dugan, of Branford, a member of AFGE Local 1164.

Like many veterans who proudly continue their careers in the federal government, Dugan is hurt by the prospect of losing his job.

“We expect to able to continue our service when we get out of the military. The administration in the past has actively tried to hire veterans… but, right now the way that they’re treating people, they’ve let veterans go that were on probation. It’s very sad and hard for people who are getting out of the service.”