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Elon Musk's DOGE Cuts Delayed Social Security Payments And Harmed Customer Service · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:01
  Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:04
  Podcast. This is a show where we discuss
• 0:07
  the critical crossroads, the Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The
• 0:11
  Boring Company, and Neurolink. I'm your host, Will Walden.
• 0:16
  Are there further in there, Senator Van Holland?
• 0:18
  Thank you, Madam Chair, It is. I have an amendment that I think
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  will be distributed on the Social Security Administration
• 0:25
  as it's handed out. I just want to thank Senator
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  Baldwin for her efforts to provide funding in this bill for
• 0:33
  public radio and the Corporation of Public Grad Class
• 0:36
  Broadcasting. I was glad to see there may be
• 0:39
  an effort to put something in before the bill gets to the
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  floor that I think would be very important.
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  This is an amendment that deals with the challenge which is
• 0:50
  identified in the the bipartisan committee report regarding
• 0:54
  service delivery at the Social Security Administration and the.
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  I'm just going to read what the committee found.
• 1:00
  The committee notes that there are significant service delivery
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  challenges at SSA that are impacting critical services that
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  millions of Americans rely on. This amendment would help
• 1:13
  address that issue by providing $90,000,000 to help strengthen
• 1:19
  our customer service. It's very clear that this
• 1:24
  function has been under resourced for a long time.
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  That's been the testimony we've received from folks at the
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  Social Security Administration. The situation was made much
• 1:35
  worse. I think we all recognize during
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  the early days of the Elon Musk Doge effort and there were
• 1:44
  efforts to essentially take a chainsaw at Elon Musk's
• 1:49
  metaphor, not mine. 2 important services there and the results
• 1:55
  were a denial of important customer service to millions of
• 1:59
  our constituents who were seeking answers regarding Social
• 2:03
  Security and other benefits. There was a huge drop in the
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  number of calls even answered. Those that were answered had
• 2:13
  very long wait times. Then you may remember they had a
• 2:17
  issue with the website crashing. Then they tried to assign people
• 2:22
  from different regional officers to fill the gap.
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  So there's a real need to make sure our constituents can get
• 2:30
  answers regarding their benefits.
• 2:33
  The $90,000,000 comes from OMB and I want to take one second
• 2:39
  just to explain this. As part of the fiscal year 26
• 2:42
  request that we're reviewing here, Fische will review Russ
• 2:46
  both the director of OMB, while he's calling for cuts to all the
• 2:51
  other agencies, is asking for a 13% increase in his budget.
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  While he's calling for people to be fired from other agencies,
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  he's asking for more people at OMB.
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  That will be a decision this committee reaches with respect
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  to fiscal year 26. But on top of that, on top of
• 3:11
  that, in the reconciliation bill, there was something we'd
• 3:14
  never done before. There was a mandatory spending
• 3:19
  of $100 million to OMB, which is almost double its current
• 3:25
  budget, almost double its current budget.
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  No explanation for what this was going to be used for, why it was
• 3:33
  needed. We all ask questions.
• 3:34
  So what this amendment does is in order to help our
• 3:38
  constituents get better service delivery through the Social
• 3:42
  Security Administration, which took a big hit because of the
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  Elon Musk operation, that we take monies from this
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  unaccountable fund at OMB to make sure that we address that
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  purpose. And I asked my colleagues for
• 3:57
  their support and I asked for a roll call though.
• 4:00
  Senator Capito. Thank you.
• 4:02
  And I want to thank Senator Van Holland.
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  I know I've heard him speak on Social Security more than a few
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  times, and I know he is offering this out of his great concern.
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  And so I think Senator Baldwin and I reflect that concern in
• 4:17
  our bill, in our fiscal 2026 labor age bill, in its current
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  form, it provides adequate funding.
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  We believe, I believe Social Security for administrative
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  expenses, it's $100 million more than it was last year.
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  This the report also includes language to note that the PERT
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  in the in the language part of the bill to note that the
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  purpose of this funding is to support staffing needs at the
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  agency. In other words, we don't want to
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  see it diverted even though it is a big question over there
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  diverted to to exclusively IT. So I think this amendment
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  basically duplicates steps that we are taking in the in the base
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  bill. And so I would urge my
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  colleagues to vote against the amendment.
• 4:56
  Are there other comments? Just very.
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  Very briefly, this is an account I think we've all paid attention
• 5:02
  to for a while. It is chronically underfunded.
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  All you have to do is talk to former Social Security
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  Administration O'Malley administrator.
• 5:12
  So I, I do appreciate the steps the committee's taking, but
• 5:16
  given the hit that this function and mission took early on,
• 5:21
  there's a lot of damage to be repaired.
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  And I think that they need the $90,000,000 a lot more than the
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  OMB needs an additional slush fund outside their normal fiscal
• 5:32
  year budget. So I would ask for the vote.
• 5:35
  Are there any other comments? I will just make one quick one
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  and that is said very much appreciate the additional
• 5:42
  funding that has been put into the bill to improve customer
• 5:47
  service at SSA. This has been a terrible problem
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  in the state of Maine and the additional funding in the
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  subcommittee bill clearly is needed.
• 6:00
  I look forward to reviewing very carefully OM BS budget as part
• 6:06
  of the FSGG subcommittee bill that is produced for many of the
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  reasons that the Senator from Maryland has said the 13 percent
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  increase at a time when other budgets are being cut in on top
• 6:22
  of the money that was in the reconciliation bill.
• 6:27
  But I do think that the chair and.
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  Ranking Member have. Have invested in customer
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  service by adding the $100 million.
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  I believe it is in the underlying bill.
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  Any other comments if not Senator Murkowski?
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  Just for point of information, how much is this increase that
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  you that is included in the bill is what what are we above the
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  President's budget on this? President's budget was level and
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  so we are 100 million above the President's budget.
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  So substantial. With that, the clerk will call
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  the roll. Senator McConnell.
• 7:15
  No. By proxy.
• 7:17
  Senator Murkowski, Senator. Graham No by proxy.
• 7:21
  Senator Moran? No by proxy.
• 7:23
  Senator. Hogan No by proxy.
• 7:25
  Senator. Bose No by proxy.
• 7:27
  Senator Capito. Senator.
• 7:29
  Kennedy. No by proxy.
• 7:31
  Senator Hyde Smith, Senator. Haggerty, No by proxy.
• 7:36
  Senator Briggs. No by proxy.
• 7:38
  Senator. Mullen No by proxy.
• 7:40
  Senator. Fisher No by proxy.
• 7:42
  Senator Round No by proxy. Senator Murray.
• 7:45
  Aye. Senator Durbin?
• 7:47
  Aye, Senator Reid. Aye.
• 7:50
  Senator Shaheen. I about proxy.
• 7:53
  Senator Merkley. I about proxy.
• 7:55
  Senator Coons. I about proxy.
• 7:57
  Senator Schatz, I about. Proxy.
• 7:59
  Senator Baldwin, Senator Murphy. Senator Van Holland.
• 8:06
  Senator Heinrich. Senator Peters.
• 8:09
  Hi by proxy. Senator Gillibrand.
• 8:12
  Hi by proxy. Senator Assad, Chair Collins.
• 8:17
  No. On this vote, the ayes are 14,
• 8:33
  the nays are 15. The amendment is not agreed to.
• 8:43
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• 8:44
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• 8:46
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• 9:02
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