17 hours Ago
“You know he never comes here, right?” Aaron Eberhart, District Director, tells me, referring to our 1st District Congressman, Brad Finstad. “I don’t know why you all are here.” It is 11 a.
m. on April 8 and a group of 20 protesters are organized outside the Rochester office. It is hard to get together midday on a Tuesday, but these are the office hours.
Here, shift workers and retired folks are holding the line. Today, we are in Finstad’s office because we are worried about the fate of Social Security. For a 30-something like myself, the promise of Social Security is far away.
For my parents, however, and other baby boomers like them, Social Security is the lifeline that they earned paycheck-by-paycheck for over 50 years. ADVERTISEMENT It was reported recently that Elon Musk and DOGE are completely rewriting the programming code responsible for sending out payments. According to experts, including a veteran IT professional who is in Finstad’s office with me, rewriting the code safely would take years.
DOGE is doing it in a matter of weeks and they are rewriting it LIVE, mostly with AI. It is not a matter of if DOGE breaks Social Security, but when. This comes at the same time as the administration has cut thousands of workers, including 40% of Rochester SSA staff.
In response, Eberhart asks, “Has any senior not gotten their check this month?” If so, then Congressman Finstad will make it a priority. Kris Anderson , Rochester.
