DOGE's purpose isn't to cut waste, fraud, and abuse - it's simultaneously a messaging organization, and Trump's attempt to destroy the civil service without having to go through Congress, pass laws, and all that other stuff.
On the messaging front, DOGE is there to make a lot of noise and distract Trump's supporters (strong and weak) from recognizing that prices aren't going down, we have a bird flu problem that threatens to devastate America's poultry, beef, and dairy markets, and Trump is running the most corrupt administration seen yet. (And let's not even get into all the planes falling out of the sky...) They are there to "do something" and their organizational and authoritative "haziness" is there so that they can be chucked to the side when they finally piss off enough Americans, and Trump can pretend that Musk hoodwinked him (about the same time Musk's net worth shrinks to a point where he's no longer more valuable than Bezos or Zuckerberg).
On the civil service front - DOGE is INTENTIONALLY ignorant of the relevant laws (that Trump is not enforcing) and cutting with a wide scythe to dismantle the civil service. After all the wrongful termination and union lawsuits are finally adjudicated, we'll be lucky if DOGE doesn't end up costing more than doing all of this through the proper channels. We've seen this playbook with Twitter and other Silicon Valley companies where they cut folks until stuff stops working, then beg the employees to return.
The first payout occurred in 1940, for 65 year olds - putting them at "born in 1875". That was of course done in paper records, which then were converted to digital. The missing piece in all this misinformation about the database is that there's missing death info (in what's called the numident) because they died prior to electronic death records.
Fortunately, the IGs have gone over this before (most recently in 2015 and 2023) - and almost every SSA number holder over 100 doesn't get a payout at all. In 2023, of the 6.5mil active accounts that were aged 112 or above only 13 received a payment.
There has been a quoted cost to fix this information in the database - $5-10mil.
So: is it worth $5-10mil if almost none of those are being paid out? If data integrity is your primary concern then yes. If cost is your concern, no - especially when there appears to be zero waste associated with the issue.
I think at this point it's pretty clear that the primary goal is executive consolidation of power, secondary is an ideological purge. I'm sure Elon is also gathering reams of advantageous information for his private interests.
More speculative, but... what are the chances a 19-year-old hacker named Big Balls and his pals are passing up this opportunity to bug the hell out of federal networks and systems?
I'm sure the DOD budget deserves a lot of attention as you suggest but the Federal government is the only source for that protection. Tax collection and foreign relations are also constitutional roles but that doesn't necessarily mean funding circumcisions in Zimbabwe. Everything else mentioned can be done by some other means.
DOGE's purpose isn't to cut waste, fraud, and abuse - it's simultaneously a messaging organization, and Trump's attempt to destroy the civil service without having to go through Congress, pass laws, and all that other stuff.
On the messaging front, DOGE is there to make a lot of noise and distract Trump's supporters (strong and weak) from recognizing that prices aren't going down, we have a bird flu problem that threatens to devastate America's poultry, beef, and dairy markets, and Trump is running the most corrupt administration seen yet. (And let's not even get into all the planes falling out of the sky...) They are there to "do something" and their organizational and authoritative "haziness" is there so that they can be chucked to the side when they finally piss off enough Americans, and Trump can pretend that Musk hoodwinked him (about the same time Musk's net worth shrinks to a point where he's no longer more valuable than Bezos or Zuckerberg).
On the civil service front - DOGE is INTENTIONALLY ignorant of the relevant laws (that Trump is not enforcing) and cutting with a wide scythe to dismantle the civil service. After all the wrongful termination and union lawsuits are finally adjudicated, we'll be lucky if DOGE doesn't end up costing more than doing all of this through the proper channels. We've seen this playbook with Twitter and other Silicon Valley companies where they cut folks until stuff stops working, then beg the employees to return.
RE Social Security rolls:
The first payout occurred in 1940, for 65 year olds - putting them at "born in 1875". That was of course done in paper records, which then were converted to digital. The missing piece in all this misinformation about the database is that there's missing death info (in what's called the numident) because they died prior to electronic death records.
Fortunately, the IGs have gone over this before (most recently in 2015 and 2023) - and almost every SSA number holder over 100 doesn't get a payout at all. In 2023, of the 6.5mil active accounts that were aged 112 or above only 13 received a payment.
There has been a quoted cost to fix this information in the database - $5-10mil.
So: is it worth $5-10mil if almost none of those are being paid out? If data integrity is your primary concern then yes. If cost is your concern, no - especially when there appears to be zero waste associated with the issue.
I have a whole post from this angle which will run either tomorrow or Thursday.
Useful thread, perhaps: https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1891859374311707001
Good point.
I just saw the link to the OIG report after publication. Here it is for anyone interested.
https://oig.ssa.gov/assets/uploads/a-06-21-51022.pdf
Of interest...
https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/1890817980289712613?mx=2
Firstly: https://x.com/kylascan/status/1891852990082064590
Secondly: get Congress to put a bill together doing so. The GOP controls POTUS/Senate/House/SCOTUS - it should be no problem!
Perfect article.
I think at this point it's pretty clear that the primary goal is executive consolidation of power, secondary is an ideological purge. I'm sure Elon is also gathering reams of advantageous information for his private interests.
More speculative, but... what are the chances a 19-year-old hacker named Big Balls and his pals are passing up this opportunity to bug the hell out of federal networks and systems?
A lot of good questions deserving answers. I believe you might be spending more words pre-supposing the answers than asking more questions like what the hell is this about. https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/icymi-administrator-lee-zeldin-announces-epa-found-billions-dollars-parked-outside
I'm sure the DOD budget deserves a lot of attention as you suggest but the Federal government is the only source for that protection. Tax collection and foreign relations are also constitutional roles but that doesn't necessarily mean funding circumcisions in Zimbabwe. Everything else mentioned can be done by some other means.
I'm assuming it's regarding this: https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/electric-power/040424-us-epa-awards-20-bil-to-community-lenders-for-climate-clean-energy-projects
Coud be but why the hokey financing arrangement in January 2025?
Sounds pretty normal to me, but then you could always ask Congress about it.
The main takeaway I have is that the administration cannot be trusted to tell the truth - whether due to outright lying or by omitting context.