After the governor of Maine publicly challenged, Trump threw the state’s social security in chaos

On February 21 /

This is what happened next. Among the Blue, the Trump administration canceled a contract that allowed parents in the state to apply for social security numbers for their newborns once checking a hospital box – the method made by parents in all fifty states for decades, said the Social Security Administration.

Change means that new parents will have to bring their children to one of eight field social security offices in Maine, and sometimes by traveling for hours, and exposing newborns to infectious diseases in public places.

I am absolutely meaningless to do so.

Dr. Joe Anderson, the American Academy of Pediatrics

This Thursday happened. The change, which came without any explanation, created an immediate uproar between social security advocates and health care providers in Maine.

Dr. Joe Anderson, head of the call department for the Maine branch at the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that eliminating the program “creates many unnecessary and unnecessary burdens for families.”

Anderson told Portland Press Herald. “I don’t see any logical explanation for forcing parents and newborns – with 11,000 children born in Maine every year – to sit in a crowded waiting room, when we did it easily, safely and efficiently for decades.”

As often happened with political decisions that cannot be thought in the White House, these decisions were reflected after a day.

Lee Dudik, Acting Social Security Commissioner, issued a press release on Friday, noting that the contract that allows parents to apply for social security numbers for their newborn baby through the Maine Health Care Agency, along with another side of the Maine state authorities the death of the state of Maine to the Social Security Department.

Read more: Commentary: Trump, the Republican Party and the Wajouj their attack on social security. You should start worry now

“In the past, I realized that the end of these contracts created an unjustified burden on the people of Maine, which was not the intention,” Dudik said. “Therefore, I apologize and ordered to return both decades immediately.”

If the stinking bomb was not thrown into the “intention” state, what was it? No one said in the administration. I asked the Social Security Administration more interpretation, but she did not receive a response.

For social security advocates, the intention was clear. “It challenges the proper logic and includes neutral motives …. Why does the administration on the ground want to make parents difficult for parents to register their children for social security unless the goal is to reduce the size of the program?” Said Max Richman, Chairman of the National Committee for the Preservation of Social Security and Medical Care.

Social Security works had the organization of the same impression. “The abolition of these contracts is the creation of waste, abuse of use, and at least the possibility of fraud,” said Nancy Altman, Executive Director. “There is no political reason for its abolition, and many reasons for politics against it. The only explanation is political revenge against Min Janet Mills.”

Trump said he “does not touch” social security, but the verbs speak with a louder voice.

A few points about the census in the birth policy, which allowed parents from Maine, like all other countries, to register newborns through their government agencies, almost immediately after birth.

Read more: The column: The richest Americans finished paying social security taxes last week. Most of us will be paid throughout the year

The Social Security Administration website is recommended for new parents the simplicity of the process:

“When your child’s birth certificate request will be completed, you will be asked if you want to apply for SSN [Social Security Number] Your child. If I said, “Yes, you will be asked to submit SSNS to parents. If you don’t know SSNS for both parents, you can still apply for SSN to your child.”

This procedure has been in effect since the 1980s, and it has covered all the fifty states since 1997. The Social Security Administration says 99 % of all children born in the United States get social security numbers in this way. Since about 3.5 million children are born in the United States every year, this is many children.

Getting a social security number shortly after birth has become more important over the years. There is a need for parents to be able to claim tax credit for the child if they are eligible, or they demand the birth that they adopt, open a bank account or buy savings bonds for the child, and to satisfy public health care programs, 529 savings plans in the college, and other services.

Parents’ demand to bring their children to the field office, as Dodik confessed, a burden – and is dangerous besides it. This is especially true, as he mentioned DOGE budget provinces that explode through social security management their intention to reduce the customer service budget in the agency, partly by closing the field offices.

The so-called website of the Ministry of Government, where the contracts that were canceled and valued are listed by the census contracts listed in five states-Mariland, Arizona, Michigan, New Mexico and Rod Island (but not Main)-totaling about 8 million dollars. However, these cancels were aimed at stripping the elements of diversity, equality and comprehensiveness of the state’s policies, and not to force parents to record newborn personally.

A few days ago, I reported the tremendous ignorance of social security attacks by Trump and Elon Musk, Duji Al -Qaisar. Musk described the social security as the “Ponzi scheme”, which is completely incorrect, and Trump has distributed allegations that the regime is suffering from fraud – also is not true.

This recent failure confirms how lowly their knowledge of social security and their care. They aim at the most popular public program in America, and the best anti -poverty program in its history.

Certainly, their intervention produces a huge political reaction. Perhaps they were able to stay away from this last trick, but they seem to have read on the wall. However, the idea they tried was angry and embarrassing, and perhaps most importantly, very frightening.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.