Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 27, 2026 at 10:11 PM

310,000 messages later, this Republican is willing to investigate DOGE

John, Last fall, a brave whistleblower revealed that Elon Musk’s DOGE put the entire Social Security database on an insecure private server, for unknown reasons. Because the Senate is in Republican hands, we need Republican Mike Crapo (R-ID) to initiate a Congression…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 25, 2026 at 5:15 PM

Re: SIGN: Protect Social Security!

This is about more than a building―it erases the true history of our Social Security system. This is consistent with the patchwork of lies that Donald Trump and his allies have spread about Social Security throughout his 2nd term, part of a renewed push toward privatizing the last pillar of ec…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 24, 2026 at 3:25 PM

Save the Sistine Chapel of American Art

This is about more than a building―it erases the true history of our Social Security system. This is consistent with the patchwork of lies that Donald Trump and his allies have spread about Social Security throughout his 2nd term, part of a renewed push toward privatizing the last pillar of ec…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 23, 2026 at 6:48 PM

The Washington Post

Trump is undertaking an Orwellian campaign to erase Social Security’s history, hoping that by uprooting it from our collective memory, he will have more success handing it over to Wall Street privatizers. John, from the Washington Post to New York artworld bible Hypera…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 22, 2026 at 7:38 PM

The Washington Post

Trump is undertaking an Orwellian campaign to erase Social Security’s history, hoping that by uprooting it from our collective memory, he will have more success handing it over to Wall Street privatizers. John, Our campaign to stop the demolition of the Wilbur J.…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 21, 2026 at 10:16 PM

RE: BREAKING: Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data

John, Nearly a year ago, Elon Musk’s DOGE forced out Social Security’s acting commissioner after she refused to hand over the American people’s private Social Security data. Unions and advocates quickly filed a lawsuit to bar DOGE from accessing the data, but the Sup…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 20, 2026 at 11:05 PM

BREAKING: Trump administration concedes DOGE team may have misused Social Security data

John, One year ago today, Donald Trump took the oath of office once again and gave the richest man on earth carte blanche access to our government. We know that Elon Musk’s DOGE forced out 7,000 of the Social Security Administration workers who had made sure that Soc…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 18, 2026 at 4:43 PM

Re: DENIED entry!

John, Our Social Security system was built by generations of Americans over nearly a century. Each of us makes it stronger with every paycheck, and it has been a wild success. Before Social Security was enacted, half of seniors lived in poverty. Today, fewer than 10%…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 17, 2026 at 4:35 PM

DENIED entry!

John, It’s a chaotic time. Donald Trump is seizing unprecedented powers to wage war, to murder civilian protestors, and to further entrench American oligarchy. In times like these, it’s hard to get people to focus on historic murals. But this is bigger than art―…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 16, 2026 at 5:11 PM

Re: Save the Sistine Chapel of American Art.

John, The Sistine Chapel of American Art--the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, which is a veritable cathedral of New Deal art--survived the holidays, despite Trump's plans to demolish it. But we can't rest. Trump's Orwellian plot to erase the history of Social Securi…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 15, 2026 at 11:26 PM

Save the Sistine Chapel of American Art.

John, The Trump administration is undertaking an Orwellian plot to erase the history of Social Security, setting the stage for the utter destruction of the program. After reducing the East Wing of the White House to rubble and etching his own name onto the Kenne…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 12, 2026 at 10:14 PM

Re: Social Security needs full staffing ― not a scheme destined to failed

John, I want to be sure you saw Nancy's message. This is why Trump is trying to erase the history of Social Security: To usher through the utter destruction of our Social Security system. Republican politicians want to build a wall between you and the benefits you ea…

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  Nancy Altman, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 11, 2026 at 3:12 PM

Social Security needs full staffing ― not a scheme destined to failed

John, Before Donald Trump was elected in 2024, the number of Social Security beneficiaries was at an all-time high, while staffing to administer our earned Social Security benefits was at a fifty-year low. So how did the Trump administration respond? It forced o…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 10, 2026 at 4:47 PM

Re: StopTheDemolition.org

John, Our Social Security system was built by generations of Americans over nearly a century. Each of us makes it stronger with every paycheck, and it has been a wild success. Before Social Security was enacted, half of seniors lived in poverty. Today, fewer than 10%…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 9, 2026 at 7:15 PM

Outside the Wilbur Cohen building

John, It’s a chaotic time. Donald Trump is seizing unprecedented powers to wage war, to murder civilian protestors, and to further entrench American oligarchy. In times like these, it’s hard to get people to focus on historic murals. But this is bigger than art―…

See More from Michael Phelan, Social Security Works

  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 7, 2026 at 7:14 PM

Re: Save the Sistine Chapel of American Art

John, The Sistine Chapel of American Art--the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, which is a veritable cathedral of New Deal art--survived the holidays, despite Trump's plans to demolish it. But we can't rest. Trump's Orwellian plot to erase the history of Social Securi…

See More from Michael Phelan, Social Security Works

  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 6, 2026 at 6:36 PM

Save the Sistine Chapel of American Art

John, The Trump administration is undertaking an Orwellian plot to erase the history of Social Security, setting the stage for the utter destruction of the program. After reducing the East Wing of the White House to rubble and etching his own name onto the Kenne…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 4, 2026 at 2:52 PM

Red tape & Bureaucracy are cuts by another name

John, Dr. Mehmet Oz, the TV host that Trump put in charge of Medicare and Medicaid, is piling bureaucracy and red tape onto Medicaid recipients. States across the country are now overwhelmed by new administrative hurdles, unclear federal guidance, and rapidly ch…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 3, 2026 at 5:58 PM

Billionaires will take everything we own

John, Greedy Wall Street billionaires want nothing more than to take your money and gamble it on the stock market, extracting fees along the way. They have been trying to get their hands on our earned Social Security benefits for decades. In fact, they created 4…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 2, 2026 at 3:15 PM

This is DANGEROUS

John, Donald Trump has nominated a conspiracy theorist as Surgeon General. Casey Means, the nominee in question, is an “influencer” who built a brand promoting supplements and wellness products on Instagram. She is an anti-vaxx quack whose policies will put sen…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

January 1, 2026 at 5:09 PM

Re: Monday morning

Happy New Year, John, Michael told you last night that Nancy and I would be reviewing our 2025 fundraising on Monday morning. It’s true that if we miss our goals, we’ll have to scale back our plans for 2026. We’ll be fighting like hell no matter what, but the more tim…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 31, 2025 at 9:32 PM

Nobody wants to think about meetings on New Year's Eve

John, On Monday morning, our Executive Director Alex Lawson and President Nancy Altman are going to sit down and review our fundraising from 2025, and either give our 2026 campaigns to fight back a red light or a green light. Will we be able to make the next No …

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 31, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Re: Billionaires HATE Social Security.

John, Did you see Michael’s email? Trump’s assault on Social Security for 2026 has already begun. He’s building a government by the billionaires, for the billionaires, and if we don’t fight back now, it will be too late. Trump is proposing to eliminate half of all v…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 30, 2025 at 3:40 PM

American Oligarchy

John, Donald Trump wants to construct an American oligarchy. He threw everything he had against Social Security this year, and it’s still standing. We sounded the alarm early and often: Trump’s administration is a vehicle to achieve a nearly century-long plot to dis…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works PAC · [email protected]

December 29, 2025 at 3:22 PM

If Democrats re-take the House in 2026…

John, Nobody in the House of Representatives fights harder for Social Security than Rep. John Larson. Rep. Larson worked with Social Security Works to draft and introduce the Social Security 2100 Act, the landmark Social Security bill that increases benefits across t…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 28, 2025 at 3:10 PM

We’re ensuring the media and our elected officials can’t look away

For nearly five months now, our allies at the Workers Circle have been organizing a weekly vigil outside of the ICE black site detention camp known as Alligator Alcatraz, deep in the Florida Everglades. Week after week, we’ve sung, prayed, shared stories – and made it clear that people are wat…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 27, 2025 at 4:55 PM

Re: 2026 membership.

John, I wanted to make sure you saw Alex’s message about how important our members are to the work we do. Alex is the Executive Director, so he builds our strategy, and my job as Deputy Director is to open up our bank account every day and tell him whether or not we …

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 26, 2025 at 3:19 PM

2026 Membership

John, Social Security Works isn’t like other non-profits. We are a lean operation that raises the bulk of our budget from small-dollar donations, solicited through emails like this one. We don’t have big, institutional funders with competing agendas. Instead we …

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 23, 2025 at 4:39 PM

Re: Trump is seeking to destroy Social Security in the dark.

John, I wanted to make sure that you saw Nancy’s email yesterday. It was a long one…but only because Donald Trump did so much to attack our Social Security system in 2025. In order to fight back in 2026, we need to know where things stand. This is a rough time for So…

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  Nancy Altman, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 22, 2025 at 3:26 PM

Long, but important:

John, The walls of the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building, which lies blocks from the U.S. Capitol, are decorated with stunning New Deal-era murals. The most famous of these murals, The Meaning of Social Security, depicts life before and after Social Security. On …

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 21, 2025 at 3:08 PM

Holiday food affordability

There’s still time to reverse this―but Congress needs to act NOW. Earlier this year, Donald Trump and Republicans enacted the largest cut to SNAP’s food benefits in the program’s history in order to pay for their gigantic tax cut for the rich. That means while we…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM

We need more than an extension…

John, Health care is a human right. But in America, we treat it like a privilege. One person dying because they can’t afford care is an outrage. That our country allows thousands to die every year is an abomination. The health care crisis is about to get even w…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM

Take Action to Protect Social Security offices!

John, New internal documents at the Social Security Administration reveal plans to shutter Social Security offices, and drive 15 million people away from in-person service, and onto their AI-powered phone system. In the Daily Beast’s words:1 Send a message to…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 18, 2025 at 7:54 PM

Unions built our Social Security system

Amazon is a $2.3 trillion corporation. It made over $36 billion in profits last year alone. Its founder is the 2nd richest man on Earth. Yet, Amazon treats its workers as disposable. John, Billionaires like Donald Trump and Jeff Bezos want us feeling isolated and…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 17, 2025 at 5:16 PM

Re: It’s not just the East Wing

John, The Trump administration wants to roll back the entire New Deal. They’ve been chipping away at Social Security and Medicare all year, and they’ve already slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid. We’re fighting to restore the Social Security Administration and ensure …

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 16, 2025 at 10:58 PM

This is more than a building

John, While the country faces a myriad of crises, Donald Trump is focused on remodeling. He isn’t just destroying the East Wing of the White House―he’s racing to bypass legally required procedures in order to speed up the demolition of the Wilbur Cohen Federal Buildi…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 14, 2025 at 4:51 PM

ART for Christmas:

No Kings! Dear John, We are thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership that captures the spirit of our fight: an exclusive print of the stunning painting "No Kings" by Mark McMahon, son of the legendary artist-journalist Franklin McMahon. This powerful ima…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works PAC · [email protected]

December 13, 2025 at 3:20 PM

Re: The real Republican plan is to take health care away from non-billionaires to give tax cuts to billionaires.

Everyone needs to see this: Social Security Works PAC will make sure voters in these Senators’ states know this truth before they vote in the midterms. Can you chip in to fund our outreach efforts? If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, you…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 12, 2025 at 8:05 PM

Health care update.

John, Over and over, Republicans keep saying they are about to release a health care plan. But they never release anything remotely adequate to meet the American people’s needs. That’s because they don’t want to say their real plan out loud: Take health care away…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM

Re: Take Action: Protect Social Security offices!

John, did you see Alex's message? The Trump administration is making moves to close Social Security offices--and we need to stop it! Send a message to Social Security commissioner Frank Bisignano: Protect Social Security offices! Take Action! John…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 10, 2025 at 9:21 PM

Donald Trump wants you to spend your retirement waiting on hold.

John, New internal documents at the Social Security Administration reveal plans to shutter Social Security offices, and drive 15 million people away from in-person service, and onto their AI-powered phone system. In the Daily Beast’s words:1 Send a message to…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 8, 2025 at 4:55 PM

Medicare, not MedAIcare.

John, When you go see your doctor, your care shouldn’t be overruled by an algorithm. It seems obvious―but to big corporate for-profit insurers, any opportunity to deny care faster is a welcome innovation. Several major Medicare Advantage providers—privatized fo…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM

Trump wants to drag Social Security into his immigration dragnet

John, The Trump administration has forced out 7,000 Social Security employees this year, sending wait times spiking and slowing down claims processes. Now, instead of fixing what they broke, the Trump administration could derail Social Security into his mass dep…

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 6, 2025 at 3:13 PM

NO KINGS

Dear John, We are thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership that captures the spirit of our fight: an exclusive print of the stunning painting "No Kings" by Mark McMahon, son of the legendary artist-journalist Franklin McMahon. This powerful image is more…

See More from Alex Lawson, Social Security Works

  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 4, 2025 at 4:59 PM

Re: LEAKED: Trump wants to halve people who get Social Security services next year

New internal documents at the Social Security Administration reveal plans to shutter Social Security offices, and drive 15 million people away from in-person service, and onto their AI-powered phone system. Did you see Michael's message yesterday? Trump's war on senio…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

December 3, 2025 at 9:44 PM

LEAKED: Trump wants to halve people who get Social Security services next year

New internal documents at the Social Security Administration reveal plans to shutter Social Security offices, and drive 15 million people away from in-person service, and onto their AI-powered phone system. John, New internal documents at the Social Security Administ…

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  Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, Social Security Works PAC · [email protected]

December 2, 2025 at 4:50 PM

Today: Phonebank for this critical congressional special election

I’m holding a virtual phone bank today to Get Out the Vote! John, Yesterday, I wrote to you about Aftyn Behn, a Social Security champion from Tennessee who is running for U.S. House in a special election. That election is today — and recent polling puts Behn within ju…

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  Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, Social Security Works PAC · [email protected]

December 1, 2025 at 8:45 PM

She’s running to Save Social Security

Protecting Social Security is a top priority for Aftyn. This spring, she organized a #HandsOffSocialSecurity rally to protest the Trump administration’s cuts. John, Aftyn Behn is a social worker, community organizer, and member of the Tennessee House of Representative…

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  Michael Phelan, Social Security Works · [email protected]

November 30, 2025 at 4:32 PM

Re: Social Security Works isn’t like other non-profits.

John, I wanted to make sure you saw Alex’s message about how important our members are to the work we do. Alex is the Executive Director, so he builds our strategy, and my job as Deputy Director is to open up our bank account every day and tell him whether or not we …

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  Alex Lawson, Social Security Works · [email protected]

November 29, 2025 at 3:08 PM

2026

John, Social Security Works isn’t like other non-profits. We are a lean operation that raises the bulk of our budget from small-dollar donations, solicited through emails like this one. We don’t have big, institutional funders with competing agendas. Instead we …

See More from Alex Lawson, Social Security Works