The Associated Press went to West Virginia to try and determine what effect new Social Security requirements will have on some of the nation’s oldest and poorest citizens.

The new requirements taking effect on March 31 say Social Security recipients will have to access key benefits online or in person at a field office. Telephone calls won’t get the job done.

So let’s take a look at how those requirements will affect Veronica Taylor,  73, of Welch, West Virginia. The AP said Taylor doesn’t know how to turn on a computer, let alone use the internet.

Taylor talked about the changes while eating with a group of retirees at the McDowell County Senior Center. She talked about having to go to the Social Security office.

“If that’s the only way I had to do it, how would I do it? I would never get nothing done.”

Taylor can’t drive and is mostly housebound. There are many places she wants to go and can’t get to. None of her grandkids live nearby, her daughter lives in Roanoke, Virginia, and her 39-year-old son, who used to live in the Welch area near her, died. And the walk from her house to the Social Security Office is six miles.

Taylor said, “If I ask people more than two times to take me somewhere, it’s like begging. And I don’t beg nobody to do nothing for me. I’m independent like that. I don’t beg nobody for nothing.”

Donald Reed runs a local nonprofit that operates two senior centers. He’s worried about how the changes will affect those his group serves.

“I’m not anti-Trump — let me say that,” he said. “I think the general public greatly supports looking for waste in government. I do not think the general public understands the consequences of the current actions of the government.”

Reed is correct when he says those he serves don’t understand the rushed firings and cost cutting jobs being done by Elon Musk and what they are doing to much of America. And Musk has no idea of how much panic he is causing.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that there are “long waits, waves of calls, and website crashes” at the Social Security Administration.

One in three people in McDowell County live in poverty. Around 30% of the population receives Social Security benefits and 20% lack broadband access. People already face huge challenges in accessing basic needs like food and clothing.

Nonprofit groups like The Commission on Aging receive money from the federal government to provide rides to the grocery store, medical appointments and free lunch at the county senior center. Reed said he in theory could add the local Security Security office as another stop.

Unfortunately grant money isn’t sufficient to meet the needs. Reed ran out of money during the last three months of the fiscal year. Then, last Friday, he found out the commission had lost an almost $1 million grant he expected, again because of the federal government’s cost cutting.

Many seniors in the county are Trump supporters. Every county in West Virginia supported Trump in three presidential elections. Yet those seniors agreed that the recent flurry of executive orders had been difficult to follow and they aren’t sure what effect those orders will have on their lives.

Like many other counties in this country, seniors lost a valuable news  source when the county’s last local newspaper shuttered.

Mary Weaver, 72, said she doesn’t approve of Trump giving Musk so much leeway to cut and change services, and she doesn’t see those measures helping McDowell County.

“He gone run for president, and he’s going to get the presidency, but he’s going to let someone else tell him how to run the country?” Weaver asked.

The AP said other residents aren’t concerned. Barbara Lester, 64, said she wishes she could sit down with Trump and Musk and tell them they’re doing a fantastic job.

“And with all the money they’re saving from the fraud, they could afford to give their senior citizens an increase,” Lester said.

Yes, they could, but Lester had better not hold her breath waiting for her increase.

People like Veronica Taylor might also want to sit down with Trump and Musk. But something tells me it wouldn’t be to praise them but to tell them how much turmoil they have created for her and others like her.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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