When Social Security was set up, the oldest American still alive at the time was born around 1825-1835.
Now the question is, should taxpayer dollars go to hunting down the death certificates for people without a death date in the Social Security system who fall into these extreme ages?
I'd say no.
Yet the database should be cleaned up. I'd argue that this is an opportunity for volunteers, citizen genealogists and archivists, to be recruited by the Social Security Administration (and at the prodding of DOGE) to have some fun and make for a better system. Heck, recruit Henry Louis Gates Jr. as a public advisor! Other agencies such as the National Weather Service have volunteers, so why not?
This I think is the heart of the problem—bureaucratic thinking.
What matters is that the system accurately reflect those who are alive and presumably eligible to receive Social Security checks.
Does that mean a date of death MUST come from a death certificate? Not necessarily.
Perhaps a notification procedure can be used to look for “proof of life”. Presumably the records also have contact details—mailing addresses and perhaps even phone numbers.
Is there a next of kin indicated? Another contact point.
Or perhaps the lack of activity for a numberholder is sufficient to render the individual “presumed dead”.
Point being, just because one approach to cleaning up the data is costly and burdensome does not mean all approaches are costly and burdensome.
That all of this was known is not as important as it being well publicized now. A GAO or IG report is easily buried on page 12 or completely ignored. Musk putting it out to millions of voters on X cannot. Having Trump looking over everyone’s shoulders should provide all the impetus needed to affect real change.
The significance that this was known is that Congress especially should have known, and has no defense for not knowing.
People need to wrap their brains around the reality that as much as $521 Billion of fraud against the US government is perpetrated every year right under Congress’ noses.
They are the stewards of the public fisc. They hold the pursestrings. They have a legal, Constitutional, and moral duty to pay close attention to everyone who dips into the public purse, and they have not done so.
That should be a question posed to each and every one of the 535 members of Congress—why didn’t they know and why didn’t they do anything about it?
Exactly! Congress should be held accountable. And individuals, as agency heads, should be held accountable. Musk is right - start firing people for not doing their jobs properly. The rest of America’s workers get fired if we do our work as poorly as government employees have been doing theirs. No more excuses - fire them, restructure or eliminate agencies, clean everything out!
Term limits: yes! And we also need to pass laws regarding the lobbying system.
I have been dismayed that my generation has been blamed for so many things. I want to grab younger people by the collar and say, we DID vote for fiscal responsibility! We DID vote for smaller government, efficiency, better schools, etc. - but once in office, the politicians had to bow to lobbyists in order to be reelected. Whole books have been written about the ways that the lobbying system has undermined the voters’ will. Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Food, and so on have destroyed so much of what was great about America. I sure hope we’ve hit bottom now and can start to claw it all back. (And maybe that’s where you will really shine, Peter!)
One lobbying fact that really got me is that lobbyists have security badges that get them into places in the U.S. Capitol that are denied to average citizens! This should be stopped.
I have long advocated that lobbying should only take place within a Congressman's district. Make lobbyists physically travel to all fifty states, and all 435 Congressional districts.
That way lobbyists are physically in the same playing field as Constituents.
Excellent article. While the left goes apoplectic, they should be pissed at the real people accountable for this, the do-nothing Congress. They have outsourced their responsibility and accountability to unelected bureaucrats with lifetime appointments, failing to ensure legitimate and corruption-free use of the trillions which they have outsourced. No audits, no oversight. This outsourcing insulates them from accountability when the $h1t hits the fan, from which too many of them cruise unassailed, moving on to the next campaign funding event or overseas junket.
Given the apoplexy being exhibited by the Democrats, a case could be made that the outsourcing of accountability was intentional. That's one obvious implication of what we see in the GAO and OIG reports.
The potential that individual members of Congress are criminally involved in efforts to bilk the US taxpayer of trillions cannot be dismissed.
Exactly. My anger through all this is with the elected officials that were trusted to do this, and clearly have not. I just saw a post that Elon wants to look into elected officials worth millions who are only showing their governmental source of income. If that gets legs, we will have arrived at the bloodless revolution.
DOGE is many things, but it is not a law enforcement or criminal investigation entity.
When we start looking into the finances of members of Congress, we are out of the realm of the usual efficiency efforts to combat “waste fraud and abuse” and are in the realm of pursuing actual criminal investigations.
That means the Department of Justice has to see fit to open that investigation.
That investigation can happen—those of a certain age will recall the AbScam scandal of the 1970s and early 80s. But if/when it does it wll be Pam Bondi doing the commentary from the podium at the DoJ press room and not Elon Musk.
"While Musk’s tweet is not at all the proof of massive fraud that the Twitterverse has made it out to be, it is very much an indication of the sort of recordkeeping problems that facilitate fraud."
You can be SURE that if fraud is facilitated that it is indeed taking place.
The probability is extremely high. There is no question about that.
But all probabilities less than one mean that something “may” be taking place.
Proof means something undeniably “is” taking place.
Thus Musk’s tweets are not proof of fraud, but proof that the bureaucracy needs the audit equivalent of a colonoscopy to ascertain what fraud, how much fraud, and whom should be held liable for the fraud.
When Social Security was set up, the oldest American still alive at the time was born around 1825-1835.
Now the question is, should taxpayer dollars go to hunting down the death certificates for people without a death date in the Social Security system who fall into these extreme ages?
I'd say no.
Yet the database should be cleaned up. I'd argue that this is an opportunity for volunteers, citizen genealogists and archivists, to be recruited by the Social Security Administration (and at the prodding of DOGE) to have some fun and make for a better system. Heck, recruit Henry Louis Gates Jr. as a public advisor! Other agencies such as the National Weather Service have volunteers, so why not?
This I think is the heart of the problem—bureaucratic thinking.
What matters is that the system accurately reflect those who are alive and presumably eligible to receive Social Security checks.
Does that mean a date of death MUST come from a death certificate? Not necessarily.
Perhaps a notification procedure can be used to look for “proof of life”. Presumably the records also have contact details—mailing addresses and perhaps even phone numbers.
Is there a next of kin indicated? Another contact point.
Or perhaps the lack of activity for a numberholder is sufficient to render the individual “presumed dead”.
Point being, just because one approach to cleaning up the data is costly and burdensome does not mean all approaches are costly and burdensome.
That all of this was known is not as important as it being well publicized now. A GAO or IG report is easily buried on page 12 or completely ignored. Musk putting it out to millions of voters on X cannot. Having Trump looking over everyone’s shoulders should provide all the impetus needed to affect real change.
Bringing the receipts makes it real
The significance that this was known is that Congress especially should have known, and has no defense for not knowing.
People need to wrap their brains around the reality that as much as $521 Billion of fraud against the US government is perpetrated every year right under Congress’ noses.
They are the stewards of the public fisc. They hold the pursestrings. They have a legal, Constitutional, and moral duty to pay close attention to everyone who dips into the public purse, and they have not done so.
That should be a question posed to each and every one of the 535 members of Congress—why didn’t they know and why didn’t they do anything about it?
Anyone of the House Oversight committee should be removed and investigated, regardless of party.
Unless they can show that they were on the floor of the House calling these things out and demanding reform, absolutely.
Would there be anyone left?
Would there be any member of Congress left? Possibly not. Probably not.
The down side of that would be.....?????
Hmm... Ya gotta point there!
Exactly! Congress should be held accountable. And individuals, as agency heads, should be held accountable. Musk is right - start firing people for not doing their jobs properly. The rest of America’s workers get fired if we do our work as poorly as government employees have been doing theirs. No more excuses - fire them, restructure or eliminate agencies, clean everything out!
This should be a reason for voting out every member of Congress in both Houses when they are up next for re-election.
Term limits: yes! And we also need to pass laws regarding the lobbying system.
I have been dismayed that my generation has been blamed for so many things. I want to grab younger people by the collar and say, we DID vote for fiscal responsibility! We DID vote for smaller government, efficiency, better schools, etc. - but once in office, the politicians had to bow to lobbyists in order to be reelected. Whole books have been written about the ways that the lobbying system has undermined the voters’ will. Big Pharma, Big Ag, Big Food, and so on have destroyed so much of what was great about America. I sure hope we’ve hit bottom now and can start to claw it all back. (And maybe that’s where you will really shine, Peter!)
One lobbying fact that really got me is that lobbyists have security badges that get them into places in the U.S. Capitol that are denied to average citizens! This should be stopped.
I have long advocated that lobbying should only take place within a Congressman's district. Make lobbyists physically travel to all fifty states, and all 435 Congressional districts.
That way lobbyists are physically in the same playing field as Constituents.
Money talks. And opens doors.
Excellent article. While the left goes apoplectic, they should be pissed at the real people accountable for this, the do-nothing Congress. They have outsourced their responsibility and accountability to unelected bureaucrats with lifetime appointments, failing to ensure legitimate and corruption-free use of the trillions which they have outsourced. No audits, no oversight. This outsourcing insulates them from accountability when the $h1t hits the fan, from which too many of them cruise unassailed, moving on to the next campaign funding event or overseas junket.
Given the apoplexy being exhibited by the Democrats, a case could be made that the outsourcing of accountability was intentional. That's one obvious implication of what we see in the GAO and OIG reports.
The potential that individual members of Congress are criminally involved in efforts to bilk the US taxpayer of trillions cannot be dismissed.
Exactly. My anger through all this is with the elected officials that were trusted to do this, and clearly have not. I just saw a post that Elon wants to look into elected officials worth millions who are only showing their governmental source of income. If that gets legs, we will have arrived at the bloodless revolution.
That won’t happen.
DOGE is many things, but it is not a law enforcement or criminal investigation entity.
When we start looking into the finances of members of Congress, we are out of the realm of the usual efficiency efforts to combat “waste fraud and abuse” and are in the realm of pursuing actual criminal investigations.
That means the Department of Justice has to see fit to open that investigation.
That investigation can happen—those of a certain age will recall the AbScam scandal of the 1970s and early 80s. But if/when it does it wll be Pam Bondi doing the commentary from the podium at the DoJ press room and not Elon Musk.
"While Musk’s tweet is not at all the proof of massive fraud that the Twitterverse has made it out to be, it is very much an indication of the sort of recordkeeping problems that facilitate fraud."
You can be SURE that if fraud is facilitated that it is indeed taking place.
The probability is extremely high. There is no question about that.
But all probabilities less than one mean that something “may” be taking place.
Proof means something undeniably “is” taking place.
Thus Musk’s tweets are not proof of fraud, but proof that the bureaucracy needs the audit equivalent of a colonoscopy to ascertain what fraud, how much fraud, and whom should be held liable for the fraud.