Doge maven Elon Musk said he will draw Social Security’s record of profligate waste, fraud and abuse to an end.
Vowing to “do for Social Security what I’ve done for X and Tesla,” Doge maven Elon Musk said he will draw the agency’s record of profligate waste, fraud and abuse to an end.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) delivers retirement, survivor and disability benefits to 73 million or one-in-five Americans.
Foremost among the corrective measures conjured by the Doge SSA Task Force is the elimination of registering for benefits by telephone, mail or computer. Henceforth, said Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudeck, applicants will be required to travel “a maximum of 125 miles” to the nearest SSA field office.
According Dudeck, this requirement will “demonstrate a willingness on the part of the applicant to take the steps necessary” for securing benefits and “show their sincerity and genuine need for assistance.”
DOGE critics cite recipients’ missing needed benefit checks, a claim disputed by an unexpected source. Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick remarked recently that, if his 94-year-old mother-in-law were to fail to receive her check, “she wouldn’t call and complain.”
Lutnick, himself another Trump-era billionaire, suggested that “it is the fraudster who always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining.” He added that “old people should be seen and not heard.”
Critics say that Lutnick’s mother-in-law, unlike millions of other seniors, does not require her SSA check, inasmuch as she lives on the S. Carolina plantation-style estate owned by Lutnick and his wife Allison. “Not so,” says Lutnick, who notes that she lives not in “the Big House” with the Lutnicks, but rather occupies the old slave quarters at the west end of the grounds. She takes her meals alone, says Lutnick, subsisting on meager meals afforded her by SNAP benefits.
Recently the SSA advised its 60,000 full-time employees to expect “significant workforce retraction.” DOGE Czar Elon Musk has indicated that he expects to reduce government employment by as much as 90% across-the-board, which would severely curtail the agency’s activities at its 1,300 field offices and 37 Teleservice Centers.
Blind recipients under Social Security have likewise received updates on the steps they must take to register for benefits. Henceforth, applicants “claiming to be blind” are no longer allowed to apply by telephone but, like old-age, survivor and other disabled beneficiaries, must apply in person to complete a comprehensive, 16-page questionnaire, by-hand.
Further, owing to recent threats of violence lodged against local offices, applicants may no longer enter the premises bearing canes, walkers or service dogs. According to a DOGE spokesperson, “canes can be wielded as weapons, the hollow tubes of walkers can be packed with explosives and as for dogs–well, the president doesn’t like dogs.”
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