Interview with Martin O'Malley, Social Security Administration former commissioner under the Biden administration, conducted by Scott Harris May 13, 2026 Soon after moving into the White House for his 2nd term in January last year, Donald Trump recruited tech billionaire Elon Musk to lead an unofficial government initiative called DOGE, or the Dept. of Government Efficiency, to hunt down federal agency waste, fraud and abuse. Musk and his team of young engineers failed to find any significant waste, but set in motion mass terminations of federal employees, the closure of entire agencies, deep cuts to agency budgets, and cancellation of critical domestic and foreign aid health programs, which led to dozens of lawsuits and claims of unlawful, chaotic cuts. The Social Security Administration was on the DOGE hit list, where Musk and his team disrupted the agency’s operations by firing 11% of its employees and closing 26 field offices, leading to widespread customer service problems and long wait times.  These initiatives aimed at reducing agency costs and modernizing technology have instead caused critical failures in services for many of the 75 million people who depend on Social Security to receive their earned monthly benefits. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Martin O’Malley, Commissioner of the Social Security Administration under the Biden administration, who also served as Maryland’s two term governor and mayor of Baltimore. Here he talks about how the Trump – Musk downsizing of the Social Security workforce has impacted critical customer service, and how to fairly address the projected 2033 shortfall of the Social Security Trust Fund. For more information, visit Social Security Works at socialsecurityworks. org and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare at ncpssm.org. Subscribe to our Weekly Summary Previous Interview Progressive, independent analysis Squeaky Wheel Productions, Inc. is a tax-exempt 501(c)3 community media organization. Our weekly radio newsmagazine, Between The Lines, is supported by contributions from our listeners, and distributed to over 50 community radio stations and webcasting outlets. Please do your part to keep these voices and viewpoints on the air!