Cut the Bureaucracy, Save Social Security

: Armstrong Williams on Apr 10, 2025

Millions of Americans know the frustration of dealing with the Social Security Administration -- endless hold music on the phone, months of waiting for a simple benefit decision, and confusing paperwork. Even before the latest reforms, the SSA's customer service -- in an agency delivering checks to 70 million Americans -- was a mess. The culprit is decades of bureaucratic mismanagement.

The current service crisis at SSA is the product of years of bureaucratic bloat and inefficiency. As retiree numbers surged with the baby boom generation, the agency failed to modernize. The result? Long lines at field offices, jammed phone lines and ballooning backlogs. The average hold time on Social Security's main phone line now hovers around 40 minutes -- a frustrating eternity for seniors and disabled Americans left in the lurch by a sluggish system.

Instead of modernizing, officials just threw more staff and paperwork at the problem, treating symptoms while ignoring the disease. This complacency and red tape eroded public trust. The agency became more preoccupied with its own processes than with serving the people.

Now, under President Donald Trump's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, a long-overdue course correction is underway at the SSA -- a prime example of wasteful bureaucracy. As part of its review, the agency is cutting needless staff positions, limiting some in-person and phone services, and closing underused field offices. These are tough but necessary steps.

Importantly, not a single earned benefit is being cut, as Trump has vowed. The reforms target waste, not checks. Moving more services online and focusing staff on complex cases lets SSA do more with less -- if we can bank and shop online, we can handle Social Security online too. Modernizing SSA will save taxpayers money and ultimately deliver faster, more reliable service. There may be some growing pains during the transition, but those inconveniences will be worth it for a far more responsive system.

A key focus of the reform push is fighting fraud and abuse. Elon Musk, appointed to lead DOGE, alleges that fraud in Social Security and other entitlements exceeds $100 billion a year. He points to insider data indicating payments to people with no valid Social Security number total over $100 billion annually, about $50 billion of that clearly fraudulent.

Stopping these scams protects the system's integrity, ensuring every dollar goes to a deserving beneficiary rather than a fraudster. Stricter verification and enforcement will safeguard Social Security for the hardworking Americans who paid into it.

Whenever Social Security reform is raised, a chorus of political fearmongering erupts. Opponents scream that any Social Security reform means "throwing Grandma off a cliff." Nonsense -- the real threat isn't reform, it's doing nothing. On our current course, Social Security's trust fund will run dry by 2033, triggering an automatic 25% benefit cut for everyone.

Yet establishment politicians treat Social Security as a "third rail," using scare tactics to foster a culture of dependency that hurts the public. In reality, modernizing SSA protects seniors -- both today's and tomorrow's retirees.

By demanding efficiency and accountability, these reforms put people over paperwork. Every tax dollar will go to its proper purpose -- paying genuine benefits, not padding bureaucracy or lining fraudsters' pockets.

America's seniors and workers deserve a Social Security system worthy of their trust. Respecting working-class Americans means insisting their government deliver results. Streamlining Social Security now is the only way to preserve it for generations to come. It's time to cut the bureaucracy and save Social Security, so this vital program serves the people -- not itself.

Armstrong Williams is manager/sole owner of Howard Stirk Holdings I & II Broadcast Television Stations and the 2016 Multicultural Media Broadcast owner of the year. To find out more about him and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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