John Hale and Terri Hale own The Hale Group, advocating for older Iowans and people with disabilities. John worked for the Social Security Administration for 25 years in its Baltimore headquarters, Kansas City regional office, and in multiple Iowa field offices. Contact: terriandjohnhale@gmail.com

The Social Security program is 89 years old. Seventy-two million Americans currently receive a monthly benefit. Some 185 million Americans pay into the system and plan to receive benefits someday.

According to the Social Security Administration, some 687,630 Iowans receive monthly Social Security benefits, which total more than $1.2 billion ($1,235,464,000 to be precise) every month—in Iowa alone.

Americans depend on Social Security to be there for them. Recent events raise serious questions about whether it will be.

Here’s a recap:

Efforts are underway to discredit the system.

Elon Musk claimed that millions of Americans over the age of 100, 200, or even 300 are getting monthly Social Security benefits. News organizations and the Social Security Administration itself have debunked those claims.

President Donald Trump amplified those false claims in his March 4 speech to a joint session of Congress, saying they indicated “incompetence” in the Social Security program.

Musk recently called Social Security the “world’s biggest Ponzi scheme.”

The leadership of the Social Security Administration is in turmoil.

The agency is on its fourth commissioner since November, with a fifth pending confirmation.

The first commissioner, who left in November, is raising alarms about a potential “systems collapse” and “eventual interruption of benefits.”

Another commissioner, who left in February, did so because she refused to allow Musk’s DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) team to access top-security data bases that contain personal information on almost every American.

The current acting commissioner, a mid-level Social Security employee elevated by the president, had been placed on administrative leave by prior agency leaders due to allegations of “multiple inappropriate actions” dealing with the Musk team.

Implications of a shrinking workforce:

The Social Security Administration is in a death spiral. Its workforce has dwindled from a high of 80,000 in the 1980s to a projected 50,000 this year. While resources have shrunk dramatically, workloads have ballooned, largely due to the retirement of Baby Boomers and increasing life spans.

The result is poorer service to the public: less access to humans for personal assistance, longer telephone wait times, delays getting appointments at local offices, more difficulty in getting clear answers to non-routine questions, unacceptable holdups in getting decisions on applications for disability benefits, etc. 

What the heck is happening here?  

We believe there’s a plan at work. All the disruption at Social Security is designed to cause the program to eventually collapse.

Here’s the scenario: Continued declines in service lead to public frustration and anger. Citizens come to believe what they’re being told: the government can’t do anything well. People lose faith in the system and become ready to accept radical change.

In other words, break it to fix it.

And the fix? Privatize the system. Let banks and financial firms run it. Turn Social Security contributions into investments in stocks, bonds, crypto, or whatever. End guaranteed benefits and instead have every American responsible for their investment return, with some people succeeding and some failing.

President George W. Bush wanted to do this back in 2005. His plan failed because Americans liked Social Security and had confidence in it. It also failed because enough members of Congress were independent-minded and wouldn’t go along.

Times are certainly different now. But this train can and should be stopped.

Iowa’s members of Congress must stand up and speak out.

Representatives Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-01), Ashley Hinson (IA-02), Zach Nunn (IA-03), Randy Feenstra (IA-04), and Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley should call for hearings, get answers, and insist on greater transparency and accountability from DOGE and leaders of the Social Security Administration.

Our elected representatives will take those actions only if constituents tell them to.

Advocacy organizations for workers, older Iowans, and people with disabilities should raise their voices. Iowans of all ages should call, email, and visit their representative’s offices. Express concerns. Ask if they support the existing Social Security system, and what they will do to improve it. Insist on clear answers.

Remind them that while millionaires and billionaires may not depend on Social Security, ordinary people leading real lives do.

Frustrated? Scared? Then make some noise. It’s time to end the chaos and make Social Security secure again.

---

Top image is by Jason Raff, available via Shutterstock.