DOGE Risking Social Security System Collapse

In yesterday’s video, I talked about how Trump signed an executive order this week that will require the Treasury Department to phase out paper checks by September 30th of this year. Despite the aggressive six-month deadline, the order was scant on details.

Today there is a report on Wired.com that very well could be related to the executive order Trump signed, and I have to admit that the article is not only very unsettling, it’s downright scary to a lot of us.

The article details how DOGE plans to rebuild the Social Security Administration’s database in a matter of months, a rushed timeframe that experts predict could lead to benefits not being paid and even a system wide collapse.

I’m going to quote a few paragraphs from the article, but I know that these text-heavy videos aren’t the easiest to watch, so there’s also a link below to the article itself in case you’d like to read it in full – which I highly suggest you do.

Before I begin, I want to say that the article does make it clear that what DOGE intends to do is unlikely to start before June, but that is still only two months away, so we do have to be prepared for what might happen here. Here are some quotes from the story.

“Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years – DOGE wants it done in months.”

“The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.”

“The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.”

“Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.”

“‘Of course one of the big risks is not underpayment or overpayment per se but not paying someone at all and not knowing about it. The invisible errors and omissions,’ an SSA technologist tells WIRED.”

“SSA’s core ‘logic’ is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.”

“Sources within SSA expect the project to begin in earnest once DOGE identifies and marks remaining beneficiaries as deceased and connecting disparate agency databases.”

“In a Thursday morning court filing, an affidavit from SSA acting administrator Leland Dudek said that at least two DOGE operatives are currently working on a project formally called the ‘Are You Alive Project’ targeting what these operatives believe to be improper payments and fraud within the agency’s system by calling individual beneficiaries. The agency is currently battling for sweeping access to SSA’s systems in court to finish out this work.”

“In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED”

“‘This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,’ the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. ‘The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.’”

Now, unfortunately I can’t give any specific advice that would apply to all of us, other than to say we should be ready for what potentially could happen this summer. Get a list of contingency plans in place in case you don’t get your Social Security payments. We have about two months.

We should also remember that it probably won’t help to go to your congressional representative, because they don’t have any power in this, and most of congress have already admitted that they’re in the dark when it comes to DOGE.

The sad truth is that many of the people in the Trump administration are billionaires and multi-millionaires. They simply are unable and perhaps unwilling to have sympathy for anyone who is in a situation of depending on their monthly Social Security check for rent and food.

For example, just last week Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who is a billionaire, said that if Social Security didn’t send out their checks this month, his own 94 year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t call and complain.

“She’d think something got messed up, and she’ll get it next month. A fraudster always makes the loudest noise, screaming, yelling and complaining. Anybody who’s been in the payment system and the processes, who knows the easiest way to find the fraudster is to stop payments and listen, because whoever screams is the one stealing. Because my mother-in-law’s not calling, come on, your mother, 80-year-olds, 90-year-olds, they trust the government.”

Obviously, what he’s not saying is that one reason his 94 year-old mother-in-law wouldn’t call and complain is that her son-in-law is a billionaire. She is almost certainly NOT dependent on her monthly social security check to survive.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this video, the report that DOGE intends to rebuild the Social Security Administration’s database in just a matter of months also seems to tie in with Trump’s executive order for stopping paper checks by September 30^th, just six months from now.

It would appear that September 30^th is a target date for a new payment system to take hold throughout the federal government, and by extension, impacting every single American.

One last thing I’ll mention is that I know that some of you believe that there is a plan to deliberately crash the system in order to do a great financial reset. But I want to emphasize that it doesn’t have to be deliberate.

They are going to move everyone onto the new payments system, most likely by September 30^th, and if the old system crashes in the meantime, and people are unable to get their payments for a few months, so be it. It simply doesn’t matter to them. ♦