DOGE Catch-All | RIP DOGE

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nycfan said:


“… For all the controversy DOGE has generated, its time at the Social Security Administration has not amounted to looming armageddon, as some Democrats warn.

What it’s been, as much as anything, is a missed opportunity, according to interviews with more than 35 current or recently departed Social Security officials and staff, who spoke on the condition of anonymity mostly out of fear of retaliation by the Trump administration, and a review of hundreds of pages of internal documents, emails and court records.

The DOGE team, and Bisignano, have prioritized scoring quick wins that allow them to post triumphant tweets and press releases — especially, in the early months, about an essentially nonexistent form of fraud — while squandering the chance for systemic change at an agency that genuinely needs it.

They could have worked to modernize Social Security’s legacy software, the current and former staffers say. They could have tried to streamline the stupefying volume of documentation that many Social Security beneficiaries have to provide. They could have built search tools to help staff navigate the agency’s 60,000 pages of policies. (New hires often need at least three years to master the nuances of even one type of case.) They could have done something about wait times for disability claims and appeals, which often take over a year.

They did none of these things.…”
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Because DOGE was never about actually saving money or improving efficiency or the other things they claimed. It was about a taking a meat cleaver to welfare programs and other agencies that conservatives have despised for decades (environmental regulation agencies, education agencies, regulatory agencies) and gutting them so they are either abolished or no longer capable of doing their jobs. DOGE was there to carry out Project 2025, not to make the government work better or save money. Ironically, they wasted a good deal of money while cutting programs. And sadly, they were quite successful in their brief reign of terror. And even though DOGE may be out of favor, the gutting of the government continues, it's just by different Trumpers now.
 
nycfan said:


“… For all the controversy DOGE has generated, its time at the Social Security Administration has not amounted to looming armageddon, as some Democrats warn.

What it’s been, as much as anything, is a missed opportunity, according to interviews with more than 35 current or recently departed Social Security officials and staff, who spoke on the condition of anonymity mostly out of fear of retaliation by the Trump administration, and a review of hundreds of pages of internal documents, emails and court records.

The DOGE team, and Bisignano, have prioritized scoring quick wins that allow them to post triumphant tweets and press releases — especially, in the early months, about an essentially nonexistent form of fraud — while squandering the chance for systemic change at an agency that genuinely needs it.

They could have worked to modernize Social Security’s legacy software, the current and former staffers say. They could have tried to streamline the stupefying volume of documentation that many Social Security beneficiaries have to provide. They could have built search tools to help staff navigate the agency’s 60,000 pages of policies. (New hires often need at least three years to master the nuances of even one type of case.) They could have done something about wait times for disability claims and appeals, which often take over a year.

They did none of these things.…”
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“… He [SSA Commissioner Bisignano, who was confirmed in May] has repeatedly told staff that Social Security should be run more like Amazon, with AI handling more customer interactions. But disability claims are more complicated than ordering toothpaste, according to SSA officials and experts, and Social Security’s customer base is older and more likely to have an intellectual disability than the average Amazon Prime member.

Bisignano has also fixated on how much time it takes to reach an agent on the SSA’s 800 number. In a July press release, he claimed that the average was down to six minutes, an 80% reduction from 2024. He achieved this in part by reassigning 1,000 field office employees to phone duty. That means initial calls are getting answered faster, but there are significantly fewer staff members available to handle complex, in-person cases.

And “reaching an agent” turns out to mean speaking to a human being — or an AI bot. Internal SSA statistics obtained by ProPublica reveal that Bisignano’s estimate treats cases in which beneficiaries interact with a chatbot and opt for a callback as “zero-minute” waits, skewing the average.

If you actually stay on the line, USA Today has found, it often takes over an hour to reach a live representative….”
 


“… Lutnick, in an interview published Friday with Axios co-founder Mike Allen, said Musk “got caught up in other people’s objectives,” suggesting the billionaire got ahead of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet secretaries in his efforts to slash the number of federal employees. Lutnick said that going forward he expects government-cutting efforts to focus more tightly on identifying waste rather than broad reductions to the workforce, which accounts for a relatively small percentage of government spending.

“The focus should have been on cutting the waste, fraud and abuse, and the people you could do over time,” Lutnick said. “I thought he got that backward.”

… Lutnick said he ultimately expects DOGE to be effective, though “less effective than I would have hoped.”“
 
nycfan said:
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“… Pushback to GSA’s dumping of its portfolio was swift, and both initiatives have been dialed back. More than 480 leases slated for termination by DOGE have since been spared. Those leases were for offices scattered around the country that are occupied by such agencies as the IRS, Social Security Administration and Food and Drug Administration.

… Meanwhile, GSA embarked on massive job cuts. The administration slashed GSA’s headquarters staff by 79%, its portfolio managers by 65% and facilities managers by 35%, according to a federal official briefed on the situation. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, provided the statistics on condition of anonymity.

…
As a result of the internal turmoil, 131 leases expired without the government actually vacating the properties, the official said. The situation has exposed the agencies to steep fees because property owners have not been able to rent out those spaces to other tenants.

The public may soon get a clearer picture of what transpired at the agency.

The Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, is examining the GSA’s management of its workforce, lease terminations and planned building disposals and expects to issue findings in the coming months, said David Marroni, a senior GAO official.“
 
WaynetheDrain said:
Doge served its purpose. And its purpose was to be the carrot Trump dangled in front of Elon to fund his campaign.
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It did get Elon to help fund Trump's 2024 campaign, but although its existence was brief, DOGE was successful in gutting many government agencies and making it far harder (or even impossible) for them to do their jobs, just as was intended by Project 2025 and plutocrat tech lords. DOGE also hurt a lot of good, hard-working public servants and wrecked their careers - I know, because I know a couple of them personally, and one is still scrambling to find permanent full-time work after losing a job she loved. So good riddance, although of course this doesn't mean the right-wing assault on government agencies or the professional classes is going to stop. They'll just carry on their woefully misguided crusade through other means and other malevolent minions, like McMahon at Education or RFK, Jr. at HHS. Project 2025 is far from finished, imo.
 
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