During the campaign, when you tried to explain to seniors that Trump and his administrations would mess with social security, they didn’t believe you. The biggest issue is that I have sympathy for what is about to happen to people on social security, I won’t have any empathy. Especially since it’s considered a “sin” by the evangelical right. DOGE (which I pronounce “doggy”) and Emo Musk will be trying to migrate social security from COBOL, which is the oldest computer program to something along the lines of Java. Yes, DOGE is tasked to fix social security. In a matter of months. What could possibly go wrong?
In a story by Wired, DOGE will be tasked to migrate tends of millions of lines of code into a more modern code. Previously, in 2017, the government was requesting millions of dollars to update the core system. However, when COVID happened, they moved away from the plan to focus more on public-facing projects. At the time, it was expected to take FIVE YEARS to complete the task.
The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED.
DOGE to fix Social Security?
“Of course one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se but [it’s also] not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,” an SSA technologist tells WIRED.
Emo Musk has released information about people receiving benefits that are older than 150 years old. Which is completely untrue. I have had experience with dealing with social security in the nineties. Recently, and it is faster than anything to stop benefits.
The biggest issue is Musk’s crack team of programmers will include a number of young and inexperienced engineers. For example, Luke Farritor and Ethan Shaotran. At the time, sources told WIRED that the DOGE operatives would focus on how people identify themselves. Which allows them to access their benefits online.
Recently, there are reports of people being declared dead by DOGE and have their benefits stopped. It has taken a lot of time to prove yourself living to resume benefits. In some cases, those people had other financial benefits to help them, but the average citizen will not. Thus leaving them in dire financial straights.
You will be sure this won’t be the last you hear of this.