Gotta Eliminate That Waste, Fraud And Abuse

     From the Washington Post:

... The $1 spending limit on government-issued credit cards has also caused chaos at several other agencies since February, when DOGE began enforcing it. A Feb. 26 executive order imposing a “freeze” on these cards, with exceptions for “critical services,” cast the measure as an effort to ensure that “employees are accountable to the American public.”

Within parts of the Social Security Administration, the spending limit has for months left staffers unable to pay for phone bills, foreign-language interpreters and basic office supplies, according to several employees and records reviewed by The Post. That’s because less than a dozen people are responsible for approving most new purchases made by 1,300 offices.

One employee in an Indiana field office said that basic office supplies are running low, and managers have instructed staffers to ration paper and to avoid printing unless necessary. Some staffers have begun buying their own pens, but toner cartridges, at $200, are too expensive, the employee said.

In an email, a Social Security spokesperson said that the agency “is committed to operating with the highest level of financial control and efficiency.”

“We have a process in place to review all spending and eliminate wasteful or duplicative expenditures,” the spokesperson added. “It is critical that we protect taxpayer dollars so that we can effectively serve all those who depend on us.” ...

Delusional?

      From The Hill:

The new head of the agency responsible for administering Social Security and Medicare said Sunday he plans to make sure the agency survives well into the 2100s.

In a Sunday interview, Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano said the Trump administration and lawmakers plan to make major changes focused on cutting waste and fraud with the goal of keeping the trust funds behind Social Security and Medicare solvent. …

     There are at least three ways of looking at this. Maybe he really thinks he can “save” Social Security by cutting “waste, fraud and abuse.” That would  simply be delusional. There are no significant savings available. Any minor savings would require upfront funding which is out of the question and would be completely inadequate anyway. Still, I think the theory that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about is most likely.  A second possibility is that he plans to cut benefits in some way inconsistent with the law. That would have to be a huge illegal cut and extremely controversial, probably suicidally so. I’m not even entertaining the possibility that he thinks he’ll steer cuts in Social Security through Congress. The third possibility is that he’s simply spouting bull. Maybe, but Bisignano comes from the reality based world so I doubt that.

ALJs Available Dropping Rapidly

 

From Social Security. Click on image to view full size

Mass Layoffs Enjoined At Social Security

      A federal judge in California has enjoined the Trump Administration from mass layoffs and program closures at a couple dozen federal agencies including the Social Security Administration. The extent to which this may affect Social Security is unclear. Were mass layoffs in the cards anyway?

Most Popular Names For Babies In 2024

     From Social Security, the most popular names for boys and girls from 2024:

Boys	Girls
1. Liam	1. Olivia
2. Noah	2. Emma
3. Oliver	3. Amelia
4. Theodore	4. Charlotte
5. James	5. Mia
6. Henry	6. Sophia
7. Mateo	7. Isabella
8. Elijah	8. Evelyn
9. Lucas	9. Ava
10. William	10. Sofia

What Do You Think?

      From Michigan Live:

BAY CITY, MI — A Midland County man and self-described “patriot” is facing a federal felony for allegedly threatening to kill Social Security Administration employees.

Zachary Brown, 40 of Coleman, on Monday, May 5, appeared before U.S. District Judge Patricia T. Morris, who informed him he was charged with one count of threatening to assault, kidnap, or murder a U.S. official. The charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. …

      I can’t copy the whole article here. Read it for yourself. I doubt that this is a case for prosecution. It’s an IVC case — involuntary commitment.  

Who Needs A Guy Like This?

     From the Washington Post:

Edwin Jackson’s government work was finding jobs for military veterans and then making sure those vets succeeded. Like this:

Representing the Social Security Administration at a job fair in Maryland, Jackson meets a paralegal and steers her toward a position at his agency. Then she asks, “Can you help my husband, who’s active-duty military?”

Sure, Jackson says. The woman brings over her husband, whose body language reads, “This is pointless.”

“I can’t work for Social Security,” the man says. “You can’t give me work in my field.”

“What’s your field?”

“I’m a sniper.”

Jackson replies immediately: “Okay, I got a job for you.”

“You didn’t hear me; I’m a sniper.”

Jackson tells the man about his own Army service during the Vietnam War, when Jackson met sniper school graduates and saw how effective they were at designing and planning missions in intricate detail.

“You’re a project manager,” he tells the sniper. “You know the mission and lay it out in every detail needed to succeed.”

Jackson got the man a project manager position at a federal agency. And the government got itself an efficient worker even as it repaid its debt to the sniper for risking his life.

“He was going to count himself out,” Jackson told me. “Sometimes vets need an extra layer of help. You have to help them look at life through a different lens. We owe them that.” ...

 

It's About A Different Agency But You May Still Find It Interesting

     From Fast Company:

Sahil Lavingia has had just three jobs over a 15-year career in tech.

The first was as the second employee of Pinterest. The second was by founding the startup Gumroad, a successful, famously lean company that makes it easy for content creators to sell digital goods. The third? As an unpaid contractor supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs in a role facilitated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) ...

“The reason I [Lavingia] did it is, I think, the impact I can have,” he explains. Lavingia says that in the private sector, technical employees can have between six and seven figures of financial impact over their lifetime. If they’re a successful startup founder like he is, maybe that number is larger. “But in the government, I really believe that I can have billions of dollars of positive impact just by being technically minded.” ...

Now that he’s there, he says he finds himself surrounded by people who “love their jobs,” who came to the government with a sense of mission driving their work.

“In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [a buyout offer], then we wouldn’t have to do much more,” he says, implying software can replace departing employees. “We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening.”

Lavingia’s skills with automation, which have helped keep Gumroad lean, are what he hopes to bring to the VA. But when it comes down to it, what he’s found is a machine that largely functions, though it doesn’t make decisions as fast as a startup might.

 “I would say the culture shock is mostly a lot of meetings, not a lot of decisions,” he says. “But honestly, it’s kind of fine—because the government works. It’s not as inefficient as I was expecting, to be honest. I was hoping for more easy wins.” ...