Chicago [US], April 17: Former US President Joe Biden has criticised the Trump administration's handling of the Social Security Administration, CNN reported. He did not mention Trump's name directly in his remarks. However, he warned against cuts and changes taking place at the Social Security Administration and accused the current administration of taking a "hatchet" to the organisation.
In his first remarks since leaving office in January this year, Biden said, "Look what's happened now. Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so - done so much damage and so much destruction. It's kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon."
A massive reorganisation, including slashing staff and changing policies - led by tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is underway at the agency. People of the US concerned that their benefits are at risk have been flooding Social Security's phone lines and field offices.
Biden said, "There's 7,000 employees, 7,000 out the door in that time. Including the most seasoned career officials. Now they're getting ready to push thousands more out the door," CNN reported.
Without mentioning Musk's name, Biden criticised a culture he compared to "tech startups" in the new administration. He said, "They're following that old line from tech startups - the quote is, 'move fast, break things.' Well they're certainly breaking things. They're shooting first and aiming later. And as a result, the result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights."
In his remarks, Biden called for unity and warned that the nation has "never been divided" and included a sharp criticism of a "30 per cent" of the US that he said has "no heart."
He said, "We can't go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are. I said I've been doing this a long time, it's never been this divided. Granted it's roughly thirty percent, but it's a thirty percent that has no heart. It's what we see in America. It's what we believe in. Fairness. And that's the America we can never forget or walk away from."
Speaking at the national conference of Advocates, Counsellors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) in Chicago, Biden alternated between forceful condemnation of Republican policymaking and defending the entitlement program, which gives benefits to over 73 million people with disabilities, retired Americans and others.
He slammed the effects of the personnel cuts at the agency, saying that "already we can see the effects, for example, thousands of people who use the Social Security website every single day to check on their benefits and submit their claims. But now, the technology division of the Social Security administration has been cut in half. And so the website's crashing. People can't sign onto their accounts. What do you think it does?"
Former US President accused Republicans of intentionally wrecking the agency so that can "rob" the trust fund of Social Security to secure funding for an extension of tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration, CNN reported.
"You've got to ask yourself, why is this happening? Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?" he questioned. Biden said, "They want to wreck it so they can rob it."
He further said, "And why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That's going to cost USD 5 trillion. Where are they gonna get $5 trillion to pay for it. Well they're going to continue to run the deficit up. What they always do, by running up the national debt, number one. And then by taking the money from someplace else."
In response to Biden's remarks, the Social Security Administration accused him of "lying" to Americans in a series of posts on X. The agency said that Trump has "repeatedly promised to protect Social Security" and seeks to end taxation on benefits to boost seniors' income. It denied that half of its technology team has been laid off and said it invested USD 16.5 million to modernise phone services.
The Social Security Administration said that the agency's inspector general found USD 72 billion in improper payments between fiscal years 2015-2022 and that over 2 million "illegal aliens" were assigned Social Security numbers in the most recent fiscal year.
Source: Times of Oman
