Summary
Despite Donald Trump’s promise to avoid Social Security cuts, recent signals from the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, suggest reductions may be forthcoming.
The department, aimed at streamlining federal spending, has sparked concern among advocates worried about potential impacts on the program.
Trump’s mixed messaging and DOGE’s focus on cost-cutting have intensified scrutiny as officials prepare policy recommendations.
The writing has been on the wall for a while now. All retirement planning I’ve done is based on the assumption that SSA won’t be around by the time I retire. The fact that we can’t even remove the taxable maximum to retain some degree of financial solvency is proof enough.
I think the most likely course of action is that we will get some portion of our contributions back, but not the full amount. I just hope that they don’t raise the retirement age so much to try to retain the illusion of being able to get a full payout. I’d rather get a fraction of my contributions back at 67 than need to risk living to a much older age but receiving full benefits.