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While Elon Musk<\/strong> spent several months this year wreaking incalculable havoc<\/a> across the federal government, he took a special interest in the Social Security Administration, where, thanks to DOGE\u2019s handiwork, nearly half of the agency\u2019s senior executives, as well as thousands of rank-and-file employees, have left their jobs. At the same time, DOGE gained access to the sensitive data of millions of people, and the existing workforce has had to deal with understandably panicked Americans who are worried about continuing to receive benefits. In March, Musk claimed DOGE\u2019s work was necessary because fraud at the SSA was so bad that 40% of the calls to the agency\u2019s customer service line were coming from scammers. But surprise: That wasn\u2019t actually true, nor were a number of other justifications DOGE used to take a sledgehammer to the agency.<\/p>\n The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a> that shortly after Musk made his 40% claim\u2014and after journalists followed up with fact-checks\u2014SSA staffers began to prep a correction. Then they got a call from Stephen Miller<\/strong>\u2019s wife, Katie Miller,<\/strong> who insisted, \u201cThe number is 40%,\u201d adding, \u201cDo not contradict the president,\u201d as Donald Trump<\/strong> believed Musk was right\u2014and in an authoritarian regime, the president gets to decide what constitutes reality. But the members of Musk\u2019s team didn\u2019t just use untruths to justify their work at the Social Security Administration. They also used their own inability to analyze data, as well as massive hubris, to do so.<\/p>\n Per the Times:<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026in early February, a DOGE team stationed at the Treasury Department gained access to crucial federal data: the payments the Treasury processed on behalf of government agencies. Inside that system, DOGE members saw taxpayer funds flowing to people who appeared not to have Social Security numbers, according to an internal memo viewed by the Times<\/em> and people briefed on DOGE\u2019s analysis of the Treasury data. Other recipients seemed to be dead.<\/p>\n None of it was evidence of wrongdoing, Social Security employees would later explain to DOGE. Mr. Musk\u2019s team simply did not understand the data. But on X, Mr. Musk suddenly began accusing the agency of enabling \u201cmassive fraud,\u201d saying in a flurry of posts starting Feb. 9 that Social Security payments had been going to scammers and \u201cillegals<\/a>.\u201d At Social Security\u2019s sprawling, Baltimore-area headquarters on Feb. 10, Mr. Musk\u2019s team demanded action.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n Agency experts performed \u201cextensive analysis\u201d to explain to DOGE that the payments were, in fact, valid, but because said experts were career civil servants, they were apparently not to be trusted, according to the Times,<\/em> which spoke to people familiar with the matter. Instead, Team DOGE asked a 21-year-old DOGE hire to \u201cconduct his own analysis,\u201d which, yes, sounds a lot like the \u201cI do my own research\u201d people when it comes to whether they should vaccinate their kids. Anyway, the then acting commissioner pushed back on granting access to the personal data of millions of Americans\u2014which could include SSN numbers, addresses, dates of birth, and benefit amounts, among other things\u2014but, shocker, she was soon \u201cforced out\u201d of the administration.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Musk took to social media in mid-February to suggest that millions of people over the age of 120 were still being paid Social Security, despite the fact that, with rare exceptions, the agency stops making payments to anyone listed as older than 115. That little detail did not sway the richest man in the world, who instead chose to\u2026waste everyone\u2019s time:<\/p>\n Nonetheless, false notions about dead people in Social Security\u2019s database suddenly became a Trump administration priority. In total, a dozen DOGE members descended on the agency. DOGE leaders directed Social Security staff to set about marking people older than 120 as dead, court records show. On social media, Mr. Musk hailed the effort.<\/p>\n \u2026But an internal memo from DOGE officials\u2026acknowledged the cleanup project would not help the agency eliminate the relatively small number of payments to dead people, although it could aid anti-fraud efforts at other government departments that relied on Social Security data. \u201cIt will have no impact on benefits,\u201d stated the DOGE memo, a copy of which was reviewed by the Times.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n As for Musk\u2019s claim that 40% of calls were coming from scammers? That led to a proposed policy change wherein people would no longer be able to file for benefits or change account information over the phone, causing freaked-out retirees and people with disabilities to descend on overworked, understaffed field offices. In an interview with the Times<\/em> this month, Frank Bisignano,<\/strong> who was confirmed as SSA commissioner in May, acknowledged that the 40% figure was a fallacy, saying, \u201cWe\u2019re going to be a fact-based, rule-based organization that can count.\u201d\u00a0Later, the agency told the outlet: \u201cThe work that DOGE did was 100% accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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