Whatever you do, Katie bar the gate! Don’t let 2025 back in no matter what!
I mean, seriously! Republicans could screw up the simplest things and did, in spades. Social Security was cruising along with its usual issues and along came Trump and DOGE, then Bam!
The Social Security Administration — the sprawling federal agency that delivers retirement, disability and survivor benefits to 74 million Americans — began the second Trump administration with a hostile takeover.
It ends the year in turmoil. A diminished workforce has struggled to respond to up to 6 million pending cases in its processing centers and 12 million transactions in its field offices — record backlogs that have delayed basic services to millions of customers, according to internal agency documents and dozens of interviews.
Long-strained customer services at Social Security have become worse by many key measures since President Donald Trump began his second term, agency data and interviews show, as thousands of employees were fired or quit and hasty policy changes and reassignments left inexperienced staff to handle the aftermath. (How Social Security has gotten worse under Trump, Dec. 30, 2025, Washington Post).
So many people depend on Social Security the problems seem unlikely to continue forever. Citizens will demand better before it gets too late. At least that is the hope.
Late last year I contacted the U.S. Institute of Peace seeking a speaker for our Armistice Day event in Iowa City. They were in terrible disarray because the president wanted to eliminate the organization. We had to find someone else, but Bam!
Next thing you know the courts ruled he couldn’t close it, yet still, he plastered his name on the building.
There are other examples but you get my point. If the worm is turning on the Trump Administration, like many believe it is, we need to be ready to step up and do what we can to run Republicans out of the U.S. Capitol. For me, that means getting my physical condition back to where it needs to be, conserving resources, and then getting involved in the rapidly approaching midterm elections.
Our world is changing and all hands will be needed on deck. I have seven words for today: The day we took our country back. Fit reason to celebrate the new year.
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