Elon Musk ’s Department of Government Efficiency ( DOGE ) is plan to migrate the Social Security Administration ’s data processor systems from the COBOL computer programing language to something more modernistic , according to a unexampled report fromWired . And while it ’s not yet clear what Musk’sband of dipshitsplans to do exactly , Wired reports they aim to do it within “ a few months , ” a laughably bodacious timeline for such a task .
Everything from the codification that come out Social Security numbers to the payment schedule are written in COBOL , which was create in the 1950s , but the DOGE squad seems to believe it can make a snap transition with the assist of artificial intelligence , agree to Wired . The DOGE team has already been reportedly running highly sensitive government activity data through AI , as the Washington Post reportedlast calendar month , so why not apply it to cheat - code your direction to a more New computer programing language ? The reason , of course is the risk of cascading failure during any hurry - job that might mean missed payments or beneficiary info getting wiped from the organisation entirely .
As Wired notes , the Social Security Administration had actually planned on migrate aside from COBOL under a more realistic five - year timespan in the late 2010s , but that effort was derail by the covid-19 pandemic , which disrupted countless plans in 2020 . More than 65 million Americans receive Social Security benefits , and any hiccups would be annihilating for people who rely on the program to stick around active .
Elon Musk speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on 8 December 2024.© Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently told the All - In podcast that if Social Security halt did n’t go out one month , his mother - in - law “ would n’t call and quetch . ” Lutnick exact , “ a fraudster have the garish noise , ” paint a picture that only masses who are fraudulently receiving Social Security would be concerned about requital stopping .
breakage : Trump ’s billionaire Commerce Secretary say that senior wo n’t care if they do n’t get their Social Security check — and that anyone who does quetch is a fraudster .
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— Social Security Works ( @socialsecurityworks.org)March 21 , 2025 at 11:19 AM
Lutnick ’s logic does n’t hold in water , obviously . jillion of hoi polloi who ’ve pay into Social Security their intact life have a perfectly fairish anticipation that they ’ll receive the money they were promised . And Lutnick ’s mother - in - law hypothetically would get help from her billionaire Word - in - law if she did n’t get her chit any given month . Most Americans who swear on Social Security do n’t have a hyper - rich relative to bail them out .
The Social Security overhaul by DOGE is being led by Steve Davis , accord to Wired , who is often described in word reports as the real twenty-four hour period - to - day leader of the pseudo - government agency . Davis unite SpaceX in 2003 and went on to become the header of Musk ’s Boring Company in 2018 before being wreak to Twitter in 2022 and then running Musk ’s political action commission America PAC during the 2024 presidential election . Davis is seen as extremely firm to Musk , with another top lieutenant of the Musk empire , Jared Birchall , quote as saying “ If Elon ask Steve to bound out of a window , he would do it , ” according to the 2024 bookCharacter Limit .
Wired ’s study does n’t name any of its sources within the Social Security Administration , but the tidings wall plug has been faithfully reporting on some of the DOGE squad ’s most galling swing since Musk set forth carry a chainsaw to the Union government activity . Musk , who ’s previously call Social Security a “ ponzi schema , ” was given enormous king by President Donald Trump to unilaterally shorten anything he want , a nakedly illegal powergrab that continues to this day , despite several motor inn challenges . Congress has yet to properly challenge Musk ’s tampering with their power of the purse , but there are rumblings that some Republicans may finally be growing a spine . Sen. Susan Collins of Maine , for model , signed on to a letterThursdayobjecting to the Trump regime withholding $ 2.9 billion of funding allocated by Congress .
Musk and several people from DOGE were interview onFox Newsby Bret Baier on Thursday Nox in a rather transparent endeavor to tranquillise fear over their on-going devastation of the government . One of the DOGE staff , Joe Gebbia , talked about digitalise the records for retreat in the government , something that makes sense if done responsibly . But the DOGE squad seems to call up the ground government systems are so archaic are that nobody ever thought of updating them before . The veridical cause are two - fold . First , it takes large sums of money to transmigrate systems decently without disruption , which brings us to the second intellect : Any disruption means millions of people could see vital services upend .
The Fox News interview was at times incoherent , as Musk promised that the great unwashed getting Social Security would getmore moneyafter he was done rooting around in the scheme .
“ In fact , what we ’re doing will help their benefits , ” Musk said . “ lawful people , as a result of the workplace of DOGE , will invite more Social Security , not less . I desire to accent that . As a upshot of the work of DOGE , legitimate recipients of Social Security will obtain more money , not less money . ”
Musk even said he wanted people to “ check into back ” on his claim in the future .
The call that hoi polloi would be getting more money from Social Security in the future simply work no good sense , and it ’s hard to figure out why he ’d rag say such a affair . Only Congress can fiddle with how much money would be paid out to benefactive role . But Musk ’s many lie have rarely had any real consequence .
IT expert Waldo Jaquith , who used to work for the U.S. government ’s 18F department ( which was recently get rid of ) , wrote on Bluesky that Musk ’s plans for Social Security computer systems were a really bad melodic theme . “ This is profoundly stupid and will decidedly fail , and it ’s just a question of whether our societal security scheme flush it along with it , ” Jaquithwrote .
Jaquith went on to excuse that there did n’t come along to be any tangible reason for this rushed push away from COBOL , especially if people are getting their Social Security payments reliably and on - metre justly now , as they have for decades .
“ I can not think of a exclusive legitimate ground for DOGE to do such a modernization , especially on such a time scale . A lot of my work is around helping agencies triage how to deal with old systems . If the old organization works , * go away it alone * ! set out with stuff that ’s broken ! ” Jaquith continued .
Jaquith hypothesize that the veridical goal in migrating to a Modern organisation was to “ make a technological chokepoint for the flow of money to allow individual or groups to be punished extralegally , ” saying that it ’s all likely just “ a fig leaf covering the tangible end of fascism . ”
Protesters are expected at more than200 Tesla locationsaround the world on Saturday as a peaceful show of force against Musk ’s illegal power grab . But not all of the protests against Musk have been peaceful . Federal authorities charged a 36 - yr - one-time man in Nevada just yesterday for allegedly setting fervour to multiple Tesla vehicles at a Collision Center in Las Vegas . That man has been charged with bothstate and federal crimes , with no less than Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel weigh in to say that Tesla franchise will be fight against “ terrorism ” by the Union political science .
“ As promise , acts of violence and malicious mischief will not be tolerated , and today law enforcement personnel behave speedily to catch an person on electric charge including fire-raising , ” Patel said in a statement Thursday . “ Under Attorney General Bondi ’s leading , we will go along to pursue these investigations with the full force out of practice of law and will convey to justice anyone responsible for these attack . ”
COBOLDOGEElon MuskSocial Security
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