DOGE Cuts Threaten To Send Social Security Into ‘A Death Spiral,’ Union Leader Says

Rich Couture, a union leader for Social Security Administration (SSA) employees, declared that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) cuts to the agency will send it into a “death spiral.”

Since the Trump administration took office in January, DOGE implemented massive budget cuts across federal agencies as Donald Trump hopes to reduce government spending.

The SSA, which pays benefits to almost 70 million Americans, totaling $1.6 trillion in benefits, was not spared.

Elon Musk, the head of DOGE, stated that the entire agency amounted to “a Ponzi scheme.” He recently added that Social Security is “the big one to eliminate.”

DOGE’s mandates include workforce reductions, the closure of internal departments, and changes to phone line services.

In late February, SSA acting commissioner Leland Dudek revealed that the federal agency would decrease its workforce from 57,000 down to 50,000 – a 12.2% reduction.

The SSA said that the “massive reorganizations” would lead to the “abolishment of organizations and positions, directed reassignments, and reductions in staffing.”

Couture, the President of the American Federation of Government Employees’ SSA committee, representing over 42,000 Social Security workers, told The Guardian that the cutbacks are creating a “negative feedback loop,” in which employees’ departures increase the workload on those who remain. This, in turn, lowers morale and prompts even more to leave “until the agency ends up in a death spiral with staffing, inducing office closures.”

“You’re going to see a wholesale collapse in the agency’s service structure. Call wait times will skyrocket, wait times for appointments, processing times, all of it going to skyrocket because there won’t be enough people to do the jobs, which opens the door to privatization.

“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 make 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.”

In late February, voters for Republican lawmakers lashed out at their representatives over the mass layoffs, slashing of federal funding and chaotic restructuring of government agencies conducted by DOGE.

Last month, the Department of Energy sent layoff notices to 325 employees of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Some layoffs were quickly rescinded, causing chaos in NNSA offices as workers were uncertain of their employment status.

Earlier reports discovered that the staffing cuts at the nuclear agency were part of a larger downsizing initiative by DOGE targeting the Department of Energy, with plans to eliminate 2,000 jobs. DOGE claimed the layoffs were limited to employees in “administrative and clerical roles.”