As billionaire Trump advisor Elon Musk continues to fire staff, cancel contracts, and eliminate office leases across the federal government, retirees, Social Security advocates, and Democratic politicians are fretting about what could happen to the agency that delivers cash benefits to some 73 million Americans each month—one charged with paying out $1.5 trillion in benefits annually, or over 20% of the federal government's total budget.
In a lawsuit filed late last week, a coalition of unions and retirees sued the Social Security Administration (SSA) to halt what they call an "unprecedented, unlawful seizure of personal, confidential, private and sensitive data" by the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The coalition, led by the nonprofit Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is just one set of advocates ringing alarm bells about the billionaire's access to Americans' financial and medical data and personal addresses that are housed in SSA databases.
