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With less than 24 hours’ notice, about one hundred people showed up at the Social Security Administration (SSA) office on Covington Highway in DeKalb County to oppose Trump and Musk’s plan to gut Social Security.
Trump plans to reduce 50% of the SSA’s staff, which is already severely understaffed, and Musk plans to close field offices nationwide. Their reckless actions will make it harder for people to access their benefits and receive the help they need.
The Decatur office serves 344,000 customers daily and processes applications for retirement benefits, disability benefits, and Medicare coverage. They maintain and update the agency’s records and protect operations from waste, fraud, and abuse. They are essential workers who provide invaluable support to the most needy and vulnerable.
“But to Donald Trump and Elon Musk, Social Security is part of the so-called Deep State. And according to Marjorie Taylor Greene, they are worthless federal employees who don’t deserve to get paid,” Congressman Hank Johnson, who represents Georgia’s 4 District, said.
Today, one in five Americans rely solely on Social Security (SS) for their income, especially the elderly, who would live in extreme poverty and possibly be homeless without it.
Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, worth 400 billion dollars, jokes about using a chainsaw to wreck Social Security for some of the poorest people in America.
If they are allowed to fire Social Security workers, the backlog of applications from people needing retirement, disability, Medicaid, and Medicare will explode and become unmanageable. Monthly payments to beneficiaries may be delayed or never paid.
“We are here today to tell Donald Trump and his Co-President Elon Musk to keep your chainsaws away from our Social Security. We will not stand by while you try to destroy the system just so you can steal money from ordinary Americans to pay for tax cuts for you and your billionaire buddies”, Congressman Johnson said.
Martha Shockey, leader of Indivisible Georgia and a senior, said, ” I am concerned about my future and the future of my daughter, who is disabled, and my elderly neighbors, and about what is going to happen to people who have only Social Security as their income.”
People who have worked their entire lives and contributed to Social Security for their retirement may not receive it because Musk thinks it is a Ponzi Scheme.
“It is our money; it is not Musk’s money; it does not belong to him. What is happening here is that Elon Musk is trying to take our money and put it in his pocket. We’re here to take a stand today to protect our social security and the benefits we have paid into,” Shockey said.
Karla Drenner, representing the 85th House District in Georgia, warned about the federal budget proposals calling for $2 trillion in spending cuts, impacting Medicaid, Medicare, and other healthcare programs. “We must pay attention to that radical budget bill they just passed in the House of Representatives. They are going to defund Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security; we cannot stand for another massive tax cut for the top 1% in this country.”
Billy Mitchell, who represents Stone Mountain District 88, said, “A cut to the workforce is a cut to benefits. I’m disturbed when multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires try to make decisions for average working people just trying to survive.”
SSA and all federal employees fear being fired and losing their ability to pay for mortgages, rent, and other necessities. They are being mistreated, frightened, and traumatized by Musk and Trump’s rampage through the government. Like bulls in a china shop, they are breaking and destroying everything in the name of “Make America Great Again” for billionaires and Russian oligarchs.
“We have a fight to protect our people, Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, and our constitutional and civil rights,” Attorney Gerald Griggs, 13th president of the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the president of the Atlanta NAACP, said. “We are sending a message to the elected officials in this state and to the President of the United States: take your hands off our Social Security. We call on all freedom fighters of good conscience to join this movement. If it has not affected you yet, trust me, it will affect you.”
Trump and his cult are coming after hard-working immigrants, civil rights, disabled rights, LGBT rights, and women’s reproductive rights, and now they are coming after our social safety nets. “They are firing federal workers in all agencies, which will affect everyone. It is time to fight them in the streets, the suites, the Hall of Congress, the Georgia State Capitol, and the courthouse,” Griggs said.
Dom Kelly, President of New Disabled South, said that Republicans in Congress are trying to cut 880 billion dollars, which would decimate Medicaid. They want to deem Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (a US federal civil rights law offering protection for people with disabilities) unconstitutional.
“Donald Trump told his nephew that disabled people should die because they’re using resources. They don’t like disabled people, and if they defund Medicaid, they will have blood on their hands,” Kelly said.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump are obsessed with having superior genetics. Trump often brags about his superior genetics. However, he did not get the compassion and empathy gene but did get the narcissistic and sociopathic criminal gene.
Nazi Germany was also obsessed with genetics and breeding a master race. They implemented policies to sterilize and mass-murder those they deemed undesirable. Those considered “unworthy of life” included prisoners, degenerates, dissidents, people with congenital cognitive and physical disabilities, and the feeble-minded, according to Nazi eugenics.
The question was asked: whether Trump and Musk’s actions firing federal workers were treasonous and, if so, why they weren’t being charged.
“Donald Trump has outsourced the government functions to Elon Musk, a private citizen, and that is treasonous conduct. But the treason does not stop. It goes to the way Trump treats our allies. The President and the Vice President tried to shake down a leader (Zelenskyy) of a foreign nation under attack. One that Americans have supported and still support.
However, Trump and Musk are doing Putin’s bidding. They should be paying attention to the American people’s needs. Trump promised to lower costs but is doing everything to increase Americans’ costs.
We don’t have a House and Senate that will impeach and convict Trump for his numerous acts of treason. In the midterm election, we can take back the House and the Senate, and then we will impeach and convict Donald Trump,” Congressman Johnson replied.
Elon Musk and his DOGE team have used a chainsaw to trim government spending. However, Musk and his businesses have received approximately $40 billion in government contracts, loans, subsidies, and tax credits to help seed his $400 billion fortune, making him the world’s richest man.
So, Elon Musk, “the Welfare King,” has no problem cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits for the elderly, disabled, and poor people while he pockets billions for himself. Does Trump and Musk consider them “unworthy of life?”
written and photos by gloria tatum
Streets of Atlanta 