President Donald J. Trump’s initiatives to cut administrative costs by closing a list of “non-core” locations of government buildings now includes the regional office on North Main Street where retirees and people with disabilities receive aid, said Auchincloss. Social Security he said, is “the most important program for retirement security for American elders, and the most important anti-poverty program for American children, as well.”
Mayor Paul Coogan thanked Auchincloss for defending residents' access to benefits, saying Auchincloss stepped in to “fight the good fight.”
Auchincloss, who represents the 4th Congressional District in Massachusetts, including Fall River, Attleboro, and Taunton, outlined a 3-part “attack” that he claims Trump, billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, and other government officials have been following to dismantle the reliability of SSA benefits while eroding public trust in the government agency.
He said 150,000 of his constituents receive benefits, a figure that is magnified to 1.3 million across the state.
“First, they try to degrade the quality and the service…. They’re doing that by cutting off phone service for constituents who rely upon it,” Auchincloss said. “They do that by coming after the leases of field offices, like the one here in Fall River,” he added.
Already 404 field offices nationwide have been deemed “non-core” assets, he said.
Secondly, Auchincloss said, the national administration makes “fraudulent claims” about who is “wrongfully” benefitting. Auchincloss vouched for Social Security’s “very low rates of fraud, waste, abuse.”
Third, Auchincloss claimed the Trump administration intends to privatize the Social Security Administration’s work.
According to an April 15 Reuters article about former President Joe Biden defending Social Security, "the SSA pays out $1.4 trillion in benefits to 73 million elderly and disabled Americans annually. Members of the DOGE team have been inside the agency since February, where leadership has pledged to cut at least 7,000 staff and shutter offices, triggering fears of longer lines, longer wait times and benefit disruptions."
