With DOGE, the hits just keep coming.

Elon Musk has used his formidable communications reach to highlight DOGE's discovery that Social Security, which is going broke, seems to be paying a whole lot of people who shouldn't be drawing any money at all. With the agency's solvency window shrinking every year, as fewer and fewer workers contribute while more and more draw benefits, that's a critical mission

Economist Steve Hanke highlighted the problem:

Here's a second problem, which seems to be not a new one, but this video has "surfaced" of an unnamed whistleblower at about this time:

Got a headache? Got lower back pain? Sign right here.

Seems the demand for supplicants on SSI disability benefits exceeded supply, so bureaucrats got busy, seeking out illegals to fill out the disability rolls -- for lifetime benefits.

The bureaucrats were actually incentivized to put this population onto the public benefits gravy train, filling out the rolls as Social Security itself for those who paid into the system for years rapidly goes bankrupt.

Now Musk is clashing with Social Security officials, some of whom are resigning on claims of data privacy concerns -- which rings hollow because unless DOGE can find out whether the 150-year-olds are cashing checks, there is no way to control costs for fraud.

According to Google AI, the picture is grim:

No, Social Security is not going bankrupt, but it may need changes to remain financially stable. 

The Social Security Administration (SSA) projects that the OASI Trust Fund will be able to pay full benefits until 2033.

However, the SSA also acknowledges that long-range projections are uncertain.

The SSA may need to adjust rules to balance income and payments over the long term.

Possible changes to Social Security:

 

• Congress could change Social Security benefits and revenue sources.

• Congress could increase payroll taxes, the income limit, or the age at which taxpayers can claim benefits.

How to prepare for potential changes

While Social Security is unlikely to disappear, you can take steps to prepare for potential changes and protect your future retirement income.

What they mean by "changes" is an automatic 38% across-the-board cut in benefits for everyone dependent on Social Security, which is mandated by law when taxes cannot cover the payouts.

That's a major risk for people who have paid into the system for decades, and who manage to retrieve a whopping 1% return on their investment paid, if not a negative return as some of the younger recipients are bound to get.

It highlights something that ought to have been discussed seriously years ago, the need for a system of private savings accounts to replace Social Security, even on a voluntary basis. Chile and around 50 other countries which copied Chile's successful and innovative example have done this and aren't seeing the waste and fraud DOGE is uncovering. Those nations aren't facing bankruptcy or ruin from fraudsters, chiselers and illegals, let alone garden variety waste and inefficiency, such as DOGE is uncovering.

But it didn't happen, so instead of looking at puffed up private accounts for savings, DOGE is chasing down stolen money after the fact.

That's what this absence of serious talk about the depleting trust fund and other Social Security programs is doing. One can only hope that Musk and his computer geniuses can advance this argument to the public with all the fallout from this round of waste and fraud they've uncovered.

Image: Screen shot from X video