If you think that they aren’t going after Social Security, think again:
he newly installed caretaker at the Social Security Administration acknowledged this week that Elon Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service is calling the shots as the agency races to slash thousands of jobs and shrink its budget, telling a group of advocates, “Things are currently operating in a way I have never seen in government before.”
In a meeting Tuesday with his senior staff and about 50 legal-aid attorneys and other advocates for the disabled and elderly, acting SSA commissioner Leland Dudek referred to the tech billionaire’s cost-cutting team as “outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs,” according to a meeting participant’s detailed notes that were obtained by The Washington Post.
“DOGE people are learning and they will make mistakes, but we have to let them see what is going on at SSA,” Dudek told the group, according to the notes. “I am relying on longtime career people to inform my work, but I am receiving decisions that are made without my input. I have to effectuate those decisions.”
His remarks to skeptical advocates came on Dudek’s 12th day in a role that the White House rewarded him with after he secretly shared information with DOGE, which stands for the Department of Government Efficiency. His short tenure — while President Donald Trump’s nominee to permanently run the agency waits in the wings — has been consumed by a whirlwind downsizing of the staff in charge of the safety-net program used by 73 million retired and disabled Americans.
Dudek is the data guy who replaced the former commissioner after she was fired for reprimanding him for helping DOGE. It doesn’t look like he’s long for the job either.
If you think this isn’t a plan to destroy the system you aren’t paying attention. Musk says it’s a Ponzi scheme and that empathy is a weakness. He wants to end it. Period. And the GOP trained seals are just standing there letting it happen.
The Social Security Administration wrote in a Thursday morning email that employees can no longer read news websites on work devices.
If they don’t read the news they won’t know that Trump and Musk are destroying the country. I guess that’s good.