Fearing Social Security cuts, over 400 South Floridians gather for town hall with ex-agency head

Fearing cuts to their Social Security benefits, hundreds of South Floridians gathered at a Fort Lauderdale church Saturday morning for a rally and town hall with Martin O’Malley, the agency’s former commissioner under Biden.

The biggest questions on their minds: What is going to happen to them and what can they do about it?

O’Malley, who helmed the Social Security Administration for about a year until last November, has been traveling throughout Florida to speak out against the Trump administration’s cuts to the program, led by Elon Musk, and answer residents’ questions in a series of events organized by the advocacy group Save Social Security and Medicare Now. Thousands previously gathered in Central Florida and the Tampa area to hear him speak, according to the organization.

At Fort Lauderdale’s Christ Church on Saturday, over 400 people, many in their 60s and older, sat in pews to listen to O’Malley speak, waving signs that read “Stop Elon Musk’s plan to steal our Social Security.”

Though the White House has said in recent statements that Trump will not cut Social Security or Medicare benefits, Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has already begun slashing the agency’s workforce. In defending the cuts, Musk has claimed widespread fraud within the agency, and in a recent podcast with Joe Rogan, he called the program “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

O’Malley rejected that comparison Saturday, explaining to residents that the program intentionally draws from a surplus, invested in U.S. Treasury notes, to make up the difference between what it pays out in benefits and what it takes from people’s paychecks.

“This is far from a Ponzi scheme,” O’Malley said. “It’s a pay-as-you-go scheme.”

The agency was already overwhelmed by the surge in baby boomers seeking benefits and a simultaneous reduction in staffing over the last 10 years, O’Malley said. Its staffing is the lowest it has been in 50 years. But O’Malley said he and others were working to turn that around, and more recently had managed to cut down wait times by several minutes.

“Then the election happened,” he said, and much of that progress has been dismantled as leaders are reassigned or fired and rank-and-file employees exit the agency in droves. Now, many people who rely on the agency are waiting hours on hold to even get someone on the phone.

During the question-and-answer session, South Floridians aired concerns and asked questions about what they could do. Some made suggestions on ways to combat the Trump administration, including one woman who proposed emulating the general strikes in France.

In his responses, O’Malley sought to strike an optimistic tone. Later, after the session, he pulled out a guitar and led the room in singing “This Land Is Your Land.”

Matt Till, a millennial in his 40s, asked how people in his generation who already are “skeptical of this system” could defend it when they are told it won’t be there for them when they retire.

O’Malley said it was important for older generations to have those conversations with their younger family members.

“When I was in high school and college they told me it wouldn’t be there for me either,” he said.

Several attendees expressed dissatisfaction with both Republican and Democrat members of Congress for not doing more to stand up to Trump and Musk. One person yelled, “Where’s Jared Moskowitz’s rep?” when local members of the Democratic Party, including a woman on Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s team, were introduced in the audience.

“Democrats don’t seem to have any plan right now, which is disappointing,” Peter Lynch, 66, of Pompano Beach, told the Sun Sentinel. “At least (O’Malley’s) going out talking about it.”

“What should we do besides calling our congressmen?” Alice Simon asked O’Malley. “We need a plan of action and strategy, that’s what I’m asking.”

O’Malley encouraged people to continue “showing up,” referencing a recent town hall in which protesters brought in a cardboard figure of a congressperson. Calling congresspeople can make a bigger difference than people realize, he added, because they extract data from those calls to determine the issues that matter to their constituents.

David Lieberman, 62, of Hollywood, runs a senior placement agency and is a couple years away from retiring.

“I’m kind of scared to ask the question, but I think we need to hear the answer,” he told O’Malley. “… We’ve been talking about the current state. You’ve been teaching us about the current state. Look two years ahead and, in stark terms, tell us what this would be like for someone applying and for someone getting these benefits.”

“Who can predict the future? I don’t know,” O’Malley replied. “… I feel lucky and blessed to be able to be one of the Americans that gets to fight this fight right now for this agency.”

Asked how he felt about O’Malley’s response, Lieberman told the Sun Sentinel, “I understand why he tried to focus on the positive, but I’m still concerned about what happens.”

Another attendee, Jackie Rodriguez, used to work as a technical assistant for the Social Security department. She loved her job, she said, but retired recently due to what she saw as a “sinking ship.” As Rodriguez stood at the microphone Saturday, she got choked up.

“I answered those calls,” she said, “and I served those people.”

Originally Published: March 22, 2025 at 4:50 PM EDT