Rally for Social Security at SF Federal Building

Photos: Leon Kunstenaar

A few days ago I received an email from the Trump appointed Social Security commissioner Frank Bisignano. The title was: "Social Security Celebrates 90 Years of Service to the American People"

My first reaction: Damn!, he knows my email address. Since Bisignano was appointed by Trump, I rest assured that he must be an incompetent unfit for his job. We know from all available evidence that Trump only appoints incompetents. This is because because any capable administrators might generate supporters and admirers from outside his circle, making Trump look bad by comparison. There is an additional requirement for women. Long hair and short skirts.

Until the Trump years, my experiences with the Social Security Administration were beyond excellent. When I had to help my parents who lived in Europe to get their benefits I went to the San Rafael office. The wait was about five minutes and the aged armed guard who must have been appointed by FDR himself was friendly. The agent I spoke to quickly grabbed a form, filled out a few items and I was on my way in ten minutes. The first payment was in my parents' Well Fargo account a week later. Note: this was before Well Fargo became infamous for funding planetary destruction and genocide.

When my mother passed away, I notified the local office by letter. A few days later an agent phoned me to thank me for the notification and expressed condolences.

When my wife and I applied for our benefits by phone the agent found a problem while he verified that we had duly paid into the system for thirty years. There was gap in my wife's record. The agent put us on hold and went off to check. A few moments later he reported that in a couple of returns over twenty years ago, her social security number had a couple of digits accidentally transposed. He made the fix and all was well. We got our benefits.

----------------------------------------------

Letter from the New Social Security Administration: Lies in orange

Social Security Celebrates Years of Service to the American People

Today, the Social Security Administration (SSA) proudly commemorates its 90th anniversary, marking its unwavering commitment to the financial security and dignity of millions of Americans. Since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on August 14, 1935, the program has grown into one of the most successful and trusted institutions in American history.

“For 90 years, Social Security has stood as a promise kept, ensuring that older Americans, people with disabilities, and families facing loss have the support they need,” said Commissioner Frank J. Bisignano. “As we honor this legacy, we are also building a future where service is faster, smarter, and more accessible than ever before.

Through President Trump’s vision, we are protecting and preserving Social Security by delivering extraordinary customer service through technological improvements and enhanced process engineering.”

In an open letter to the American people, Commissioner Bisignano emphasized the importance of Social Security, his commitment to strengthening the agency, and the significant improvements to customer service achieved in his first 100 days in office.

------------------------------------

link to Commisioner Bisignano's letter:
https://www.ssa.gov/agency/commissioner/assets/materials/COSS-Open-Letter-90th-Anniversary.pdf

Reply to Commissioner Bisignano's Letter:

He starts by pointing out Franklin D. Roosevelt's great achievement in creating Social Security as not only as a tool for relief, but as a foundation for recovery and long-term resilience, a program that would grow stronger with time. He lauds Social Security as having evolved and adapted in "in the shared commitment of the American people to look out for one another."And furthermore "Ninety years in, we are proud stewards of that legacy."

Nothing to not like about that, all of which was accomplished mostly by Democrats before Trump.

The letter goes on to say that Social Security will be additionally funded as necessary. However no Republican has uttered a word about strengthening Social Security funding. Currently the Social Security tax only applies only to the first $176,100 in salary. This is a wildly regressive tax. People with multi-million dollar salaries pay not a penny more than those earning less that $176,100). Also, most billionaires and millionaires get their money in stock grants, bonuses, and stock manipulations far from the public eye.

When Elon Musk was paid $76 billion (yea with a "b", not a typo), he did not have to contribute a nickel to social security. Requiring the wealthy to pay into Social Security at the same rate as an ordinal worker would massively fund Social Security for approximately forever. Do not expect any Republicans to breath a word about this.

Regarding Trump's claim that Social Security Income will no longer be taxed, the new rules are convoluted and confusing. Social Security is still 85% taxable. The reduction is in the form of a deduction dependent on many other factors. According to the Tax Policy Center, roughly half of all Social Security beneficiaries will still pay federal income taxes on their benefits. The SSA’s claim that “90% will no longer pay tax” is based on optimistic projections that don’t match reality. Furthermore, the new rule will expire in 2028. Smoke and mirrors.

----------------------------------------------

Fact-Check From American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Council 220

Claim vs. Reality: Service Improvement

What Bisignano Claims:

"Delivering faster, smarter, and more accessible service... reducing wait times, modernizing phone systems, and expanding online access."

The Reality:

Wait time statistics are misleading. The agency changed how it calculates call wait times, excluding the hours that 70-90% - the vast majority of callers - wait for callbacks or to speak to a live agent. Real wait times to speak to agents remain unknown because they removed comparative data.

Field office service has deteriorated dramatically. Previously, walk-in customers could get business handled on the spot. Now, like the DMV, you're triaged into appointments months away—if you can even get an appointment with calendars full due to understaffing.

One employee now serves 1,480 beneficiaries—over three times the ratio from 1967, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 99.9% of claims must be processed by a human social security worker. Claims completion is stagnating and field office backlogs increasing under Bisignano's new policies.

Claims vs. Reality: Technology Solutions

What Bisignano Claims:

"Thanks to a focus on innovation, the integration of new technologies..."

The Reality:

Most technology improvements were implemented in 2024, not during Bisignano's tenure. AI chatbots don't process claims or prevent overpayments—workers do. Technology cannot replace the human expertise needed for complex disability determinations, fraud prevention, claims processing, records maintenance to prevent overpayments and one- on-one compassionate customer service..

SSA eliminated its Office of Transformation, which had been successfully expanding digital services and reducing red tape, and handed responsibility to DOGE staff with "insufficient knowledge of SSA's programs." Therefore systems crashes are now the norm and a "break it and fix it later" policy changes approach is causing a lot of chaos and confusion and production standstill with staff and the public..

Misinformation on fraud is causing public distrust. Fraud was less than 1% at SSA prior to January. Most of the waste are in overpaid funds due to understaffing which has gotten worse and increased exponentially with too few workers to maintain record changes.

Claim vs. Reality: The Employee Morale Crisis

A Three Year Decline at Rock Bottom

For the last three years, SSA was ranked the worst in the federal government based on annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey results from the previous year. The agency has hit an all-time new low in worker satisfaction and morale since January and specifically under new leadership.

Progress Under Previous Leadership

Significant gains were made under former Commissioner O'Malley to improve morale and service through:
• Improving the technology we use daily
• Hiring and training more staff
• Implementing policies that supported both workers and service delivery

Overnight Deterioration Under New Leadership

Since this new leadership began, employee morale has gotten much worse. Commissioner Bisignano took punitive measures that devastated worker trust:
• Ended flexible work arrangements overnight
• Reassigned workers away from their field office work and communities
• Touts statistics and improvements void of the reality we face daily

Broken Trust and Increased Burdens:

We have lost trust in our employer. This agency has:
• Increased our workload with fears of non-existent fraud
• Implemented policies that prevent us from doing our job with efficiency and accuracy
• Left us to face the brunt of public frustration as people experience longer service delays and benefit processing time

The Human Cost:

Since the change in leadership this year workers feel like failures in our 90-year mission to pay the right check to the right person at the right time. Until leadership can define and prove reality as it exists, end the political grandstanding, reverts us back to an independent agency, and connect with our needs by engaging with the union to improve conditions, morale will continue to plummet.

We became public servants to help Americans access their earned benefits—not to be scapegoats for policy failures that we warned against from the start.

The Staffing Crisis: By the Numbers

What's REally Happening

• 50 year staffing low going into January as hiring has not kept up with attrition and growing rate of beneficiaries
• 7,000 employees eliminated in 2025—the largest cut in SSA's 90-year history
• 2,000 field office workers lost through buyouts, hitting front-line service hardest
• 40 field offices have lost 25% or more of their staff in March
• 10 regional offices cut to 4, eliminating critical support for field operations
• Additional 2000 full-time equivalents were reassigned out of community based field
offices since July.

The Hidden Cost

• Claims processing has stagnated as field staff are reassigned to the 800 number
• Backlogs are increasing as we "rob Peter to pay Paul".
• Walk-in service reduced in many communities.
• End-to-end service delivery has "worsened substantially".

Union Response What Workers Are Saying

Jessica LaPointe, AFGE SSA Council 220 President: "SSA is at its lowest staffing levels in nearly 60 years while taking care of more Americans than ever. Any staffing cuts will ultimately hurt the public and undermine delivery of Social Security benefits as technology improvements alone have proven to fall short—void of data surrounding customer choice analysis, satisfaction, and proven like-for-like comparisons from previous years."

From field workers: "Field office staff are struggling to process their workloads due to understaffing and to resolve the most difficult cases, due to disproportionate losses and reassignments in SSA's regional offices, which provide daily support to their colleagues by answering complex policy questions and troubleshooting system problems."

The Real Story Behind the Statstics

Commissioner Bisignano touts reduced lobby wait times, but this tells only part of the story. When you reduce walk-in service and force everyone into appointments, of course lobbies are emptier, but the public is still waiting for their earned benefits and services longer. When you reassign field workers to answer phones, call statistics might improve temporarily—but at what cost? Local community based services and staffing levels are deteriorating - rapidly.
The agency paid thousands of experienced staff not to work through the buyout programs while paying premiums to less experienced replacements. This isn't efficiency—it's chaos.

What's at Stake

SSA has never missed a benefit payment in its 90-year history. That streak is now in jeopardy not because of employee or technological failures, but because of misguided workforce policies that prioritize arbitrary staff reduction targets or insignificant fraud chasing over mission-critical service delivery.

The Union Position

The union stands ready to work with SSA leadership on genuine efficiency improvements, but not at the expense of the workers and beneficiaries we serve. Real transformation requires:

• Adequate staffing to handle workloads that grow by 10,000 new beneficiaries daily
• Investment in worker hiring, training and retention, not elimination
• Strategic planning based on operational expertise, not arbitrary outside mandates
• Honest metrics that reflect real service delivery, not statistical cherry picking
• Restoration of worker trust through genuine engagement and respect for frontline
expertise

On this 90th anniversary, let's honor Social Security's legacy and the workers that have had this country's back for generations by ensuring it has the resources—especially the dedicated workforce—needed to serve Americans for the next 90 years.

========================================================

Trump's Proclamation:

90TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT

On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Social Security Act — a monumental legislative achievement that protects our seniors, uplifts our citizens, and sustains the livelihoods of hardworking Americans who devoted their professions to bettering our country. On the 90th anniversary of the establishment of this historic program,

I recommit to always defending Social Security, LIE

rewarding the men and women who make our country prosperous, and taking care of our own workers, families, seniors, and citizens first.

To this day, Social Security is rooted in a simple promise: those who gave their careers to building our Nation will always have the support, stability, and relief they deserve. NOT FROM TRUMP

Thanks to my Administration’s efforts, Social Security now stands stronger and more resilient than ever before. A TOTAL LIE

Following the passage of the historic One Big Beautiful Bill last month, the vast majority of seniors who receive Social Security will pay zero tax on their Social Security benefits [A LIE]— the largest tax break for seniors in the history of our country. ANOTHER LIE

On this 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act, we recognize the countless contributions of every American senior who has invested their time, talent, and resources into our Nation’s future. On this momentous milestone, we recommit to strengthening our retirement system, protecting programs like Social Security and Medicare against fraud and abuse, and ensuring that every future generation of American citizens has the income security they need and earned.LIES, LIES ,AND MORE LIES

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 14, 2025, as the 90th Anniversary of the Social Security Act. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fiftieth. DONALD J. TRUMP

See all high resolution photos here.