Former President Joe Biden sharply criticized the Trump administration's handling of the Social Security Administration in his first major public remarks since leaving office. Speaking Tuesday at the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) national conference in Chicago, Biden accused President Donald Trump's team of jeopardizing the benefits of millions of Americans through severe staffing and policy cuts at the agency.
Biden pointed specifically to the recent elimination of approximately 7,000 Social Security Administration positions, including many experienced career officials, arguing the moves could severely disrupt benefit delivery and customer service. "There's 7,000 employees, 7,000 out the door in that time. Including the most seasoned career officials. Now they're getting ready to push thousands more out the door," Biden stated.
He further alleged the administration's changes had already undermined the agency's technical capabilities, directly impacting beneficiaries. "Thousands of people who use the Social Security website every single day to check on their benefits and submit their claims...now, the technology division of the Social Security administration has been cut in half. And so the website's crashing. People can't sign onto their accounts," Biden said.
Though he never explicitly named Trump or Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk, Biden criticized what he termed a tech startup-inspired approach of "move fast, break things," stating it has resulted in "a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights." He argued these policies were deliberately damaging the agency to justify diverting Social Security trust funds to support broader fiscal initiatives.
"They want to wreck it so they can rob it," Biden said, quoting former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley. "Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations...They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts which overwhelmingly benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations."
In response, the Social Security Administration sharply refuted Biden's remarks, accusing him of misleading the public. The agency defended its recent actions, highlighting a $16.5 million investment to modernize phone services and denying substantial reductions in technology staff.
"SSA is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public," the agency stated in posts on X. Officials also referenced a report from the agency's inspector general citing "$72 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022" as justification for implementing reforms.
Biden, recognized at the conference for his contributions to disability advocacy, repeatedly emphasized unity while condemning the political divisiveness he attributes to the current administration. "We can't go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are," Biden remarked, describing a faction of about "thirty percent" of Americans as having "no heart."
