some in the agency took that to mean that maybe they are going to privatize elements of the ssa. that could potentially be one of the goals. what impact would that have if they moved to privatize sections of the agency? martin: the notion that somehow you can fire all of the public employees and automatically five at sector will step up, how are they going to do that? allstate operates at 11% overhead as an insurance company. liberty mutual operates at 23% overhead. when this agency operated well, they were allowed to operate at 1.2%. i think people running agencies should learn and understand them before they go about dismantling them and crashing them. for 90 years they haven't missed a monthly payment but now they are putting it at great risk of doing that by being hollowed out and gutted. private sector solution, sure, bring them on but there is no way to serve ever-growing customer bases with ever reduced staffing. laura: you recently said quote, people should start saving now. why are you issuing that warning? ? martin: i learned a lot about the systems. the agency's all pe

they told ssa to draw plans to cut staff by 50% and their hand-picked acting commission sharon radzyminski proudly declaring he wants wants to cut at least 7,000 social security administration workers and trump and elon are now pushing all social security administration employees out the door. they are threatening their employees with future firings and force reassignments while offering financial incentives to leave. that is an offer that went to everyone at the agency. i want to make sure everyone understands a few things. 90% of the ssa staff work across the country outside of the agency's headquarters at 1200 field offices to make sure that they're available to help people in every part of our country. staff who are not providing direct service support perform critical work that keeps the agency and social security system operational including supporting the agency's it infrastructure. elon and i doge are positively grateful in touting the staff -- about the staffing reductions and they are working to close as many social security offices that they can get away with. doge has proudly l

people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at ssa,without my input. i have to effectuate those decisions. things are currently operating in a way i have never seen before in government. comforting stuff right? dudek himself has slashed jobs at the agency, which has led to strained staff and delays in processing claims. already, washington post reports this, quote employees at a field office in indiana have been forced to pick up calls for other offices, according to one employee, and they are fielding phone inquiries for an area covering two thirds of the state. the phone quote never stops ringing now, the employee said. phone backups have prevented the staff from processing retirement claims. quote, morale is in the toilet, the employee said. we all know what doge wants to do, which is just break us so they can privatize us, end quote. joining our conversation, federal reporter for the washington post, lisa ryan, whose byline on that great piece of reporting from the post. tell us more. >> hi, nicole. well, first thing. >> to say. >>

staffing nationwide by. >> 50%, she. >> organized this rally. >> we made campbell. >> ssa. that was in nashville, tennessee yesterday. some local coverage of that local protest. standing up for social security. we've also been looking today at local news reports about brand new little grassroots groups springing up in places like central minnesota. they're going to be protesting tomorrow in saint cloud. another one expected from a coalition of small local groups in muskegon, michigan, this weekend. republicans are now trying to sell the line that it is only paid protesters professional, full time protesters, funded by shadowy globalists. who are the people who are criticizing what trump is doing. they are trying to say that none of these protests are real americans, and any criticism of trump is somehow inauthentic. that is just i mean, i understand why they might want to say that for political effect, it is absolutely belied by what we are seeing every single day all over the country. it's honestly hard to keep track of the numbers of different ways and different places an

is filled with, quote, outsiders who are unfamiliar with the nuances of ssa programs.o wrong? >> i are okay. >> 7000 people. so we they've decided that these 7000 people have basically just been functionaries in the government and don't do anything. they just show up and sit at a desk all day long and refuse to answer phones. is that is that basically what they're saying? >> well, unless you're in. >> oklahoma, because there was a congressman who has social security administration offices in his district who petitioned to doge and the federal government and said, no, no, no, don't close these in my district. these are jobs that my constituents need. and then he posted on his social media on the site formerly known as twitter that, oh, thanks to conversations with doge, i have saved the, you know, social security administration office in this particular district. and i think it was chris murphy that made the point that this is the problem with what is going on with this administration and why he talks about the threat of our losing our democracy. you have to bend the kn

the data ssa houses about millions of americans. now, doge says that they are looking for instances of fraud and abuse. we'll be watching this ruling quite closely. and it also comes as doge is looking to take aim at the social security administration workforce, slashing positions there. frederica. >> all right. betsy klein, thanks so much. all right. with growing pushback over the power doge has been wielding over federal agencies, democrats have a new star for their political ads. elon musk. democrats are seizing on the tech billionaires role in slashing government jobs to motivate their voters. and donors our housing unaffordable, our benefits. >> cut also, billionaires can reap the benefits. >> and where's. >> delegate david owen when we need him? following the leader. >> all right. with me now is cnn politics. national political writer frederica scouten. great to see you, frederica. it's always so weird saying our name, but i love it, too. hi. all right, so democrats in wisconsin and virginia have utilized these advertisements

and we heard ssa is up on the list next. elaine kamarck, thanks so much for being with us. we'll take a quick break. we'll be back. >> amid upheaval and. >> sweeping changes. >> the president. >> of the united states. >> trump heads. >> to. >> capitol hill. >> to share what's next. follow cnn for complete coverage. and in-depth analysis. >> of the. presidential address to. >> congress tuesday at eight on cnn. with fatigue and lightheadedness, i knew thing s wrong. then i saw my doctor. >> and found. >> out i have a fib. and that. means there's about a five times greater risk of stroke. symptoms like irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or lightheadedness can come and go. but if you have afib, the risk of stroke is always there. if you have one or more symptoms, get checked out. making that appointment can help you get ahead of stroke risk. this is no time to wait. hi. >> i'm premium. >> wireless. >> $15 a month at. >> mint mobile when i premium wireless for $15 a month i think. >> why not premium wireless for $15 a month? >> who am i

and also, you know, yesterday, for a time, the portal that allows people to check their my ssa accountyou're going to see more of that for longer durations. you're already seeing the wait times, the lines all going again in the wrong direction after they were made to go in the right and more timely direction by the end of last year, they're all going in the wrong direction, and then you're going to see all of those things having a cascading effect. because just because that base of the it system, that old cobol system is old, doesn't mean that it doesn't have to be maintained. and the people that know how to maintain it get this are being paid for an entire year. if they will leave now and not let the door hit their backside on the way out, that's the waste. >> and i see that, you know, as sort of the linchpin to a lot of this. it is not about the functionality of the system. it is about a clearing of the decks. we want these people out. if this system collapse, certainly that's that's going to be a devastating thing. how then do you get things up and running again? i mean, at some poi

was at a rally here in florida, and people were saying that they were getting locked out of their my ssaount. so you're going to see those things happen with greater frequency. and then because they're literally paying people to leave now, they'll pay them for a whole year if they're retirement eligible to get out and to get out now, no knowledge transfer. so what that's eventually going to lead to is a cascading effect that i believe we'll see manifest itself in an interruption of benefits sometime in the next 30 to 90 days. >> at this rate. >> and i was about to ask you about that because on march 1st on cnbc, you said that benefits are likely to be interrupted in 30 to 90 days. and you said, quote, people should start saving now. i missed a little bit of what you said, but do you stand by that forecast that so that 30 to 90 days or less? >> i do. i mean, you're already seeing you're already seeing some of the, you know, some of the precursors of that. jonathan, there is an office ■in social security which i had the honor to lead last year. dedicated people. there's an office called th

nearly 73 million people get monthly payments from the ssa. and it's not the only agency announcing cuts. cnn's rene marsh has more for us. rene. good morning. >> well, victor, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, or noaa, laid off some 800 employees thursday. and by this weekend, it's possible that that number could grow to 1000 employees terminated. now, the agency employees, scientists and specialists in weather, climate and other research. but there are exemptions to the firings, including those who oversee life threatening disaster forecasting roles, including hurricanes and severe thunderstorms. it is worth noting that noaa has been understaffed for years, even as the climate crisis accelerates and extreme weather just becomes way more frequent. but these and these terminations will certainly be a blow to the agency. now, these latest firings are coming as all government agencies are readying plans for large scale layoffs. that could mean entire divisions being cut. the office of personnel management has said nonessential

and they're already doing it, cutting 7,000 employees from ssa is a benefit cut. closing field offices and eliminating customer service staff is a benefit cut. and i'm alarmed this only might be the beginning. i yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the clerk: ms. alsobrooks. mr. barrasso: mr. president. the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. barrasso: thank you, mr. president. i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. barrasso: mr. president, the american people know that our government is too big and it spends too much. the american people want to see an end to this wasteful washington spending. they want washington to work for them, not for washington. president trump shares those views, and he wants government to work both efficiently and effectively. he is putting a stop to waste, to fraud, and to abuse. democrats in this body are now, believe it or not, threatening a shutdown, a shutdown of the government of the u