A District Court in Maryland has issued a preliminary injunction forbidding DOGE access to non-anonymized Social Security records.
A District Court in Maryland has issued a preliminary injunction forbidding DOGE access to non-anonymized Social Security records.
9 comments:
Great; someone has some sanity
DOGE should eliminate DOGE.
Shortly before last fall's presidential election, Elon Musk breezily estimated that a second Trump administration could reduce annual federal spending by "at least" $2 trillion. At a press conference in February, the billionaire entrepreneur, who at that point had been unofficially overseeing the cost-cutting project known as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) for a few weeks, cut that estimate in half, saying he expected that DOGE would find about $1 trillion in annual savings by attacking "waste and fraud." During a Cabinet meeting last Thursday, Musk downgraded his target again, saying, "We anticipate savings in FY26 from reduction of waste and fraud [of] $150 billion."
Musk, who credited President Donald Trump's "fantastic leadership," "this amazing Cabinet," and "the very talented DOGE team," said he was "excited to announce" that figure. But it amounts to 93 percent less than his original estimate, 85 percent less than the goal he thought was realistic two months ago, and about 2 percent of federal spending last fiscal year. That is quite a comedown, especially since this seems to be all that Musk expects to accomplish: DOGE sunsets on July 4, 2026, a few months before the end of FY 2026. Worse, it is doubtful, given the numerous errors that have been found in data reported by DOGE, that even the new, much more modest projection can be trusted.
"They're just spinning their wheels, citing in many cases overstated or fake savings," Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, told The New York Times a few days ago. "What's most frustrating is that we agree with their goals. But we're watching them flail at achieving them."
Isnt it already too late? You think once they got access they didnt make a copy? Seriously?
Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency wants to combine your Social Security number into a massive multi-agency federal database, which could violate current law and DISRUPT benefits.
That’s according to U.S. Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, in an Thursday letter to the Social Security Administration’s assistant inspector general for audit. The letter, first reported by Axios, calls for an investigation into DOGE’s information-technology changes at the agency, based on whistleblower information.
Changes by DOGE at the Social Security Administration, such as replacing old information-technology systems and creating a master database across federal agencies, has the potential to disrupt beneficiaries’ Social Security payments, the letter said.
Connolly said DOGE “is putting at risk Social Security Administration (SSA) operations, Social Security benefits and the sensitive personal data of all Americans.”
“The whistleblower information obtained by the Committee (on Oversight and Government Reform), combined with public reporting, paints a picture of chaos at SSA as DOGE is rapidly, haphazardly and unlawfully working to implement changes that could disrupt Social Security payments and expose Americans’ sensitive data,” Connolly said in the letter.
They’ll just ignore this court like they’ve ignored all the others. Democracy, separation of powers, and checks and balances are so 20th century.
Two top operatives with Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative have been transferred from the Social Security Administration to the Justice Department’s immigration enforcement unit as part of a widening White House effort to use personal data to target undocumented immigrants, according to officials briefed on the move.
The operatives, Jon Koval and Payton Rehling, have been working on an embedded team from the Department of Government Efficiency that has tried to gain access to highly sensitive Social Security data with the purported goal of reducing government waste. So far, that effort has fallen short of its cost-cutting predictions.
So? And your point is? Like they'll stop? HAHA.... I'll believe it when I see it. The Whitehouse is not participating in judges rulings right now, in fact, they are going after them in retaliation. You know as well as I do that DOGE'S fingers are still in SSA's computers in one way or another.
A declaration submitted in court by a reduction-in-force employee at CFPB alleged that Musk minion Gavin Kliger yelled at members of their team and forced them to rush to get pink slips out to all fired workers by Thursday.
“DOGE member Gavin Kliger managed the RIF. He kept the team up for 36 hours straight to ensure that the notices would go out yesterday,” the declaration read Friday. “Gavin was screaming at people he did not believe were working fast enough to ensure they could go out on this compressed timeline, calling them incompetent.”
That employee used a pseudonym out of fear of retaliation, but the declaration was submitted under the penalty of perjury. The worker added that Kliger told staffers to ignore the court-ordered individual-by-individual assessment requirement.
Kliger is a 25-year-old “internet edgelord” who claims to have ditched seven figures in Silicon Valley to work at DOGE. He is a 2020 Berkeley graduate and “has boosted white supremacists and misogynists online,” Reuters reported.
Leland, you’re good!
President Trump on Friday said that career government employees working on policy matters for the administration will be reclassified "Schedule Policy/Career," – or at will employees – and will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda.
"Following my Day One Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees," the president wrote on Truth Social Friday afternoon.
He added, "Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance."
Post a Comment