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Ocelot II

(131,231 posts)
Tue Mar 18, 2025, 10:53 AM Mar 2025

Info about the DOGE clusterfuck at Social Security, from Pro Publica

Since the arrival of a team from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, Social Security is in a far more precarious place than has been widely understood, according to Leland Dudek, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration. “I don’t want the system to collapse,” Dudek said in a closed-door meeting last week, according to a recording obtained by ProPublica. He also said that it “would be catastrophic for the people in our country” if DOGE were to make changes at his agency that were as sweeping as those at USAID, the Treasury Department and elsewhere.

Dudek’s comments, delivered to a group of senior staff and Social Security advocates attending both in person and virtually, offer an extraordinary window into the thinking of a top agency official in the volatile early days of the second Trump administration. The Washington Post first reported Dudek’s acknowledgement that DOGE is calling the shots at Social Security and quoted several of his statements. But the full recording reveals that he went much further, citing not only the actions being taken at the agency by the people he repeatedly called “the DOGE kids,” but also extensive input he has received from the White House itself. When a participant in the meeting asked him why he wouldn’t more forcefully call out President Donald Trump’s continued false claims about widespread Social Security fraud as “BS,” Dudek answered, “So we published, for the record, what was actually the numbers there on our website. This is dealing with — have you ever worked with someone who’s manic-depressive?”

Throughout the meeting, Dudek made alarming statements about the perils facing the Social Security system, but he did so in an oddly informal, discursive manner. It left several participants baffled as to the ultimate fate of the nation’s largest and most popular social program, one that serves 73 million Americans. “Are we going to break something?” Dudek asked at one point, referring to what DOGE has been doing with Social Security data. “I don’t know.”

But then he said, in a more reassuring tone: “They’re learning. Let people learn. They’re going to make mistakes.”

https://www.propublica.org/article/recording-reveals-leland-dudek-thoughts-trump-doge-social-security
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Info about the DOGE clusterfuck at Social Security, from Pro Publica (Original Post) Ocelot II Mar 2025 OP
It would hurt a lot of people exboyfil Mar 2025 #1
Kick SheltieLover Mar 2025 #2
Having read the whole thing, Dudek is all over the place underpants Mar 2025 #3
But then he said, in a more reassuring tone: "They're learning. Let people learn. They're going to make mistakes". SamKnause Mar 2025 #4

exboyfil

(18,372 posts)
1. It would hurt a lot of people
Tue Mar 18, 2025, 10:59 AM
Mar 2025

But hypothetically what happens to the GOP if a large percentage of checks are delayed. Would their media control prevent the blowback?

underpants

(197,179 posts)
3. Having read the whole thing, Dudek is all over the place
Tue Mar 18, 2025, 11:18 AM
Mar 2025

but he is in the end always going to do what Trump (through DOGE most likely) tells him to do.

SamKnause

(14,945 posts)
4. But then he said, in a more reassuring tone: "They're learning. Let people learn. They're going to make mistakes".
Tue Mar 18, 2025, 11:19 AM
Mar 2025

Fuck you.

They are trying to destroy Social Security and every other government agency.

Have you ever been hired for a job with zero experience and zero training and just turned loose in the company ???

New employment always entails some form of training.

All of their so called mistakes are intentional.

They are nothing but hackers.

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