DOGE is Careless in Operation and Reckless in Reporting

Tyler Mitchell By Tyler Mitchell Feb19,2025 #finance

Let’s discuss viral nonsense on alleged Social Security fraud and a simple explanation.

86 million people views Musk’s idiotic rant. 94,000 people retweeted nonsense.

It would behoove DOGE to ask a few questions regarding something that looks ridiculously wrong before Tweeting it.

No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits

Wired reports No, 150-Year-Olds Aren’t Collecting Social Security Benefits

Elon Musk has repeatedly claimed that his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project had uncovered massive government fraud when it alleged that 150-year-olds were claiming Social Security benefits.

But Musk has provided no evidence to back up his claims, and experts quickly pointed out that this is very likely just a quirk of the decades-old coding language that underpins the government payment systems.

Musk first made the claims during his Oval Office press conference last week, when he claimed that a “cursory examination of Social Security, and we got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone that’s 150? I don’t know. They should be in the Guinness Book of World Records … So that’s a case where I think they’re probably dead.”

While no evidence was produced to back up this claim, it was picked up by right-wing commentators online, primarily on Musk’s own X platform, as well as being reported credibly by pro-Trump media outlets.

Computer programmers quickly claimed that the 150 figure was not evidence of fraud but rather the result of a weird quirk of the Social Security Administration’s benefits system, which was largely written in COBOL, a 60-year-old programming language that undergirds SSA’s databases as well as systems from many other US government agencies.

Because COBOL does not have a date type, some implementations rely instead on a system whereby all dates are coded to a reference point. The most commonly used is May 20, 1875, as this was the date of an international standards-setting conference held in Paris, known as the Convention du Mètre.

These systems default to the reference point when a birth date is missing or incomplete, meaning all of those entries in 2025 would show an age of 150.

That’s just one possible explanation for what DOGE allegedly found. Musk could also have simply looked up the SSA’s own website, which explains that since September 2015 the agency has automatically stopped benefit payments when anyone reaches the age of 115.

However, on Monday morning Musk doubled down, posting a screenshot of what he claims were figures from “the Social Security database” to X, writing that “the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!”

The figures suggested that over 10 millions people aged over 120 were collecting benefits.

“Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security,” Musk wrote.

The fact that the Social Security system contains millions of entries from people who are dead is likely distinct from a potential COBOL-caused error, and also not news. A report written by the SSA’s inspector general in 2023 found that 98 percent of those aged 100 or older in the Social Security databases are not in receipt of any benefits. The report added that the database would not be updated because it would cost too much money to do so.

“DOGE going into all these agencies with largely unfettered access with a wrecking ball and no understanding of the business logic and structure behind the code, database, and configured business logic, related payment systems, and integrated decision trees, poses real risks to the privacy and persona-level data of millions of people across all of those records,” Thomas Drake, a former National Security Agency executive-turned-whistleblower, tells WIRED.

Musk, during the Oval Office press conference which was attended by his son, claimed the payments to 150-year-olds was part of the billions, maybe even tens of billions, in corruption and waste that his DOGE effort had already uncovered.

But just like condom shipments to Gaza or payments to Politico, Musk’s claims of Social Security fraud seems to be a gross misrepresentation of what’s actually happening and why.

In the same press conference where he made the remarks about 150-year-olds collecting Social Security benefits, Musk said his DOGE project would be “maximally transparent” with all savings being made posted to its website.

But when the site came online last week, not only was it just a repurposed Twitter feed with terrible security, it also lacked any details in a section dedicated to savings.

Musk’s posts on X are still out there gathering suckers to retweet.

Rep Mike Collins was in on the act. So was Rapid Response, 4 hours ago with 697,000 followers and 208,000 views.

Donald Trump Jr. was in on the act with 4.3 million views.

“OMG!!! It’s so bad what’s been happening to our country and your money! Breaking: Musk says there’s people over 150-years-old collecting Social Security

Breaking911 got 487,000 views.

“THIS. IS. INSANE. @DOGE uncovers 395 million active Social Security numbers, exceeding the U.S. population by approximately 60 million. Shockingly, over 20 million of these are for individuals over 100, and more than 15 million are for those over 110.”

And “Trump tells the media all the deceased recipients of Social Security that DOGE has uncovered including a 360 year old man!”

Click on the above link for a video of Trump.

Benny Johnson got 1.8 million views for his shocking report “Karoline Leavitt says Elon Musk and DOGE have been sent to investigate DEAD PEOPLE receiving Social Security payments”

Too, Stupid to Believe

If it looks too stupid top believe, then perhaps it is.

All Musk had to do was ask the head of Social Security if there was a simple explanation.

Instead Musk suckered in millions of views for nonsense.

Contrary to Viral Nonsense, the Court Did Not Threaten Trump with Arrest

On February 12, I noted Contrary to Viral Nonsense, the Court Did Not Threaten Trump with Arrest

A post by @DesireeAmerica4 was viewed 10.8 million times. And the post by @amuse was viewed 18.3 million times.

People are shocked by something that never happened.

And now they are shocked again by something that never happened.

USAID Fiasco

On February 6, I noted USAID Cancellation by Trump, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Details

I am in favor of Musk digging.

But the results have been haphazard at best and the firing of nuclear workers was reckless.

And had DOGE gone about USAID properly, a judge would not have demanded the agency be put back online.

DOGE Makes Huge Mistake Firing Nuclear Workers, Now Seeks to Rehire Them

DOGE fired 350 people and now wants to hire back all but 35-50 of them after figuring out they accidentally fired people reassembling warheads, one of the most sensitive jobs across the nuclear weapons enterprise, with the highest levels of clearance.

Yesterday, I noted DOGE Makes Huge Mistake Firing Nuclear Workers, Now Seeks to Rehire Them

When you fire people without understanding what they even do, you make big mistakes.

What a clown show.

Tyler Mitchell

By Tyler Mitchell

Tyler is a renowned journalist with years of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, entertainment, and technology. His insightful analysis and compelling storytelling have made him a trusted source for breaking news and expert commentary.

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