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The Effect Elon Musk’s Social Security Office Closures - Senator Raphael Warnock · 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 Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden Urb
• 0:16
  Warnock. Thank you, Chairman Crapo.
• 0:19
  Mr. Bizikmano, welcome to you and to your family present
• 0:22
  today. Congratulations on your
• 0:26
  nomination. Thank you for meeting with me in
• 0:27
  my office a couple weeks. Ago I enjoyed that and.
• 0:30
  Thank you. I look forward to continuing our
• 0:33
  our conversation. I want to follow up on some of
• 0:34
  the issues that we discussed in my office when we met.
• 0:38
  I shared with you my strong view that retirees in Georgia who
• 0:42
  rely on Social Security deserve reliable, timely delivery of
• 0:46
  their full benefits with world class customer service.
• 0:51
  And you've got a long record of delivering that in in the
• 0:55
  private sphere. That's why so many Georgians and
• 0:58
  I were alarmed looking at what's happening last month when
• 1:02
  several news outlets reported that Elon Musk and his Doge team
• 1:07
  announced on their own website plans to permanently close 5
• 1:14
  Social Security customer service offices throughout Georgia.
• 1:20
  These closures in Brunswick, Columbus, Gainesville,
• 1:24
  Thomasville, and Vidalia would give Georgia the highest number
• 1:29
  of planned Social Security office closures of any state.
• 1:32
  Those five cities represent 5 counties with over 136,000
• 1:39
  people who rely on Social Security benefits.
• 1:43
  But since I raised the alarm, since I made some noise about
• 1:48
  this, though, just suddenly out on XI, guess that's what you
• 1:52
  call the platform now denying the closures that it posted on
• 1:57
  his own website. They they posted those closures
• 2:01
  on their website. And now no one seems to know
• 2:05
  what's true or whether or not these announced closures will
• 2:07
  affect Georgians access to their benefits or other services.
• 2:12
  So, Sir, I I know that you aren't currently at the Social
• 2:14
  Security Administration, and perhaps you can't speak to the
• 2:20
  plans hatched by Elon Musk or Doge without you, but if you're
• 2:26
  confirmed to lead the agency, Americans deserve to know who
• 2:31
  will actually be in charge of their benefits.
• 2:34
  I think we heard an answer from you a moment ago from my
• 2:38
  colleague, but I'm going to ask you again for the record, where
• 2:41
  will the buck stop on this decision, specifically with
• 2:45
  respect to office closures? As someone who represents the
• 2:48
  state where they announced 5 closures, I made noise about it.
• 2:53
  It was on their website. Then they withdrew them and
• 2:55
  acted like I made it up. They put it on their website.
• 2:59
  I just need to know when it comes to office closures, who's
• 3:03
  going to be making that decision?
• 3:04
  You are Elon Musk. Me.
• 3:07
  That's, that's a good answer. And so I I hope to be able to
• 3:10
  follow up with you. And I'm 100% available for you,
• 3:13
  Sir. What was that?
• 3:14
  I'm 100% available for you. Thank.
• 3:17
  I, I appreciate that. And and, and and not with, you
• 3:20
  know, I appreciate that, but it's but so that the seniors in
• 3:23
  my state, those are the folks I'm concerned about.
• 3:28
  Yeah, my own. Two of us.
• 3:30
  And others will will you commit to keeping all field offices in
• 3:34
  my state open for Georgia seniors?
• 3:37
  You know, I, I, I asked this question more than one time
• 3:41
  today and what I will commit to is that there will be no
• 3:46
  decision made without you knowing about it.
• 3:49
  I have no intent to close field offices, but I've studied
• 3:52
  nothing on the topic, so it's a little hard to commit to
• 3:56
  something. What's?
• 3:57
  I think study is a good thing. And what we've seen so far is no
• 4:01
  study, no real knowledge about what's going on, just an effort
• 4:07
  to close offices to be able to announce that you're addressing
• 4:11
  waste, fraud and abuse. And we all know this is true
• 4:15
  regardless of whether they're Democrats or Republicans,
• 4:17
  because then they had to go back and rehire some of the people
• 4:20
  they fired. And you're a businessman, Sir.
• 4:23
  And you said earlier you you wouldn't operate in in this way.
• 4:26
  The reason I'm asking about these field offices and these
• 4:30
  announce changes because it could lead to an increase of 7
• 4:34
  million visits to field offices per year across the country.
• 4:38
  The fact that they're now not allowing you to call on the
• 4:41
  phone an estimated 200,000 additional visits in Georgia
• 4:46
  alone, which is why, frankly, I think that it's a that is a
• 4:49
  terrible idea. But if confirmed, will you
• 4:52
  commit to increase staffing at Georgia field offices to account
• 4:55
  for this massive expected increase in appointments and to
• 4:59
  help ensure Georgians can easily and efficiently make
• 5:02
  appointments? Let me be clear about what I'm
• 5:04
  asking you, you if, if, if you're no longer able to call on
• 5:07
  the phone, which is a decision that's already been made and you
• 5:11
  got to go online or go to the office and actually have it an
• 5:16
  in person appointment, you're going to have a backlog.
• 5:19
  So I want to know what's the answer to that?
• 5:21
  How is it that I can assure the seniors in my church that their
• 5:26
  lines are going to get longer and longer?
• 5:27
  I disagree with the Commerce secretary who said, well, if his
• 5:31
  mother-in-law missed a check, she wouldn't worry about it.
• 5:34
  I guess she wouldn't. Her son in Will you make sure
• 5:42
  that they have access to find out what's going on with the
• 5:45
  benefits that they have earned? Senator, first of all, thank you
• 5:50
  very much. You know, I've spent my career
• 5:54
  overseeing financial institutions and today I serve
• 5:58
  3500 financial institutions in America and that means we have
• 6:04
  community banks, rural banks and I know what it means to have to
• 6:10
  serve neighborhoods and also serve rural communities.
• 6:16
  You know, my commitment is that it will be a fact based, rule
• 6:22
  based organization. We run that, we will ensure we
• 6:27
  have the staffing to get the best level of service for our
• 6:31
  constituents. So I'm, I'm giving you a longer
• 6:34
  answer, but we will have the talent that we need to get the
• 6:38
  job done at a service level better than today's.
• 6:42
  I I appreciate the answer. I'm just trying to get Georgia
• 6:45
  residents, senior citizens, the benefits that they have earned.
• 6:50
  No one's giving them anything they've paid into the system.
• 6:53
  Thank you so much. Thank you.
• 6:54
  Appreciate it. Thank you.
• 6:56
  Senator Blackburn. Thanks for listening to the Elon
• 6:59
  Musk Podcast today. I appreciate your support and I
• 7:02
  appreciate you spending the time here with me today.
• 7:05
  Now, if you could take a second and hit the subscribe or follow
• 7:08
  button on whatever podcast platform you're listening on
• 7:10
  right now, that would be amazing and it would help the show
• 7:13
  tremendously. So thank you for that.
• 7:15
  Also, please take care of yourselves and each other and
• 7:19
  I'll see you in the next one.