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Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - DOGE's Supreme Court victory is a huge loss for Americans' privacy
The six justices comprising the far-right majority on the Supreme Court just radically endorsed a sweeping intrusion into the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans by the Department of Government Efficiency or 'DOGE,' without so much as the pretense of a justification. One must seriously wonder what their endgame really is, because it's not about upholding the law. With the exception of a reference to the Treasury Department, the Constitution says nothing about federal agencies. Congress creates them pursuant to its Article I powers to legislate. But Congress did not pass any legislation creating the Department of Government Efficiency. It was declared into existence by President Trump via executive order when he took office in January. What's more, for the real federal agencies that Congress actually creates, Article II of the Constitution mandates that their officers — the agency heads or 'secretaries' — must be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. The outgoing 'head' of DOGE, Elon Musk, was neither. Congressionally created agency heads are also confined to the job descriptions established under a governing statute for each particular agency. For DOGE, Trump directed the actual federal agencies to create 'DOGE Teams' to 'coordinate their work' with Musk and to 'advise their respective Agency Heads on implementing the President's DOGE Agenda.' This kind of uber-power over agencies is constitutionally unprecedented. The point of mandating Senate confirmation of agency heads is of course to enable elected representatives of the people to gather information about a candidate's qualifications and possible disqualifying characteristics, such as conflicts of interest that would make it difficult or impossible for an officer to neutrally exercise the duties of their office. According to an April report from Senate Democrats, Musk and his companies faced upwards of $2.37 billion in legal liability stemming from 65 pending or potential federal investigations, regulations and litigation across 11 agencies relating to his companies — including Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reported in February that Musk would simply 'excuse himself' if a conflict of interest arose. That cynical strategy failed. In firing tens of thousands of federal employees, including over a dozen inspectors general, Musk managed to muck around with numerous agencies that regulate him — such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is now nearly defunct, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is grossly inappropriate self-dealing. A lawsuit filed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees complained that Musk's DOGE team members were violating a slew of federal laws, including the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Social Security Act, the Tax Revenue Act of 1976 and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Privacy Act protects citizens' sensitive data unless government access is 'for a necessary and proper purpose' and mandates that 'adequate safeguards' be in place 'to prevent misuses of this information.' Information cannot even be shared between agencies without the consent of the people whose personal data is implicated. In April, a federal judge in Maryland agreed that Trump's unfettered data-collection effort was legally dubious, finding that the pretense that it was necessary to detect 'fraud, waste and abuse' was not enough to overcome the myriad statutory protections for individual Americans' private data. The judge issued an order temporarily enjoining DOGE from harvesting unlimited amounts of information from the Social Security Administration — which may include birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, drivers' license numbers, tax return information, bank account information, credit card numbers, employment and wage histories, citizenship and immigration records, and detailed medical records. Trump's executive order requires agencies to give the DOGE teams 'full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems.' The lawsuit is thus a standoff between Trump's roving DOGE snoops and the rule of law itself. In a terse order issued without full briefing or oral argument, Chief Justice Roberts — on behalf of the six conservative justices in the majority — sided with DOGE, reversing the district court's temporary injunction and allowing Musk's minions to access a treasure trove of personal data while the district court's decision is on appeal. Normally, when a district court issues an order, that order holds while it is appealed (absent some finding of exceptional circumstances). In this case, DOGE was positioned to possibly get what it wants down the line, either from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit or from the Supreme Court in due course, while the case makes its way through the system. In the meantime, the status quo of keeping statutory protections in place for regular Americans would stand — just like it has under every president before Trump. Instead, Roberts found that it is DOGE — not the American people — that would irreparably suffer if the legal questions are given time to percolate on appeal. DOGE gets the goods immediately. If the plaintiffs manage to secure a ruling affirming the district court on appeal many months from now, thus undoing the Supreme Court's stay, the damage will already have been done. The data is already breached. There is no longer a remedy. To justify his decision, Roberts properly cited the four-part test for granting a temporary stay of an injunction: Trump must show that he will likely win under the various federal laws that otherwise protect the data, that he'd be irreparably damaged without a stay, that the stay will not 'substantially injure' other parties (like Americans who want their personal data to remain secure) and that a stay is in the broader public interest. The wrinkle is that Roberts didn't bother to actually analyze any of these factors. He just summarily concluded they were satisfied. Too bad for the plaintiffs — and too bad for the American people, whose personal data is now in the hands of DOGE and anyone else it cares to share it with. Roberts simply reasoned that the DOGE team must get access to the records 'for those members to do their work.' In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that 'the 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.' The majority nonetheless is 'jettisoning careful judicial decision-making and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.' Since the landmark 1803 decision Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court's job has included holding the other branches of government accountable to federal statutes. By baldly eschewing its constitutional role while hiding behind a veneer of legitimacy, today's conservative majority is much like DOGE, the entity it put above the law: a fake. Kimberly Wehle is author of the book 'Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works — and Why.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
10-06-2025
- Business
- The Hill
DOGE's Supreme Court victory is a huge loss for Americans' privacy
The six justices comprising the far-right majority on the Supreme Court just radically endorsed a sweeping intrusion into the privacy of hundreds of millions of Americans by the Department of Government Efficiency or 'DOGE,' without so much as the pretense of a justification. One must seriously wonder what their endgame really is, because it's not about upholding the law. With the exception of a reference to the Treasury Department, the Constitution says nothing about federal agencies. Congress creates them pursuant to its Article I powers to legislate. But Congress did not pass any legislation creating the Department of Government Efficiency. It was declared into existence by President Trump via executive order when he took office in January. What's more, for the real federal agencies that Congress actually creates, Article II of the Constitution mandates that their officers — the agency heads or 'secretaries' — must be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. The outgoing 'head' of DOGE, Elon Musk, was neither. Congressionally created agency heads are also confined to the job descriptions established under a governing statute for each particular agency. For DOGE, Trump directed the actual federal agencies to create 'DOGE Teams' to 'coordinate their work' with Musk and to 'advise their respective Agency Heads on implementing the President's DOGE Agenda.' This kind of uber-power over agencies is constitutionally unprecedented. The point of mandating Senate confirmation of agency heads is of course to enable elected representatives of the people to gather information about a candidate's qualifications and possible disqualifying characteristics, such as conflicts of interest that would make it difficult or impossible for an officer to neutrally exercise the duties of their office. According to an April report from Senate Democrats, Musk and his companies faced upwards of $2.37 billion in legal liability stemming from 65 pending or potential federal investigations, regulations and litigation across 11 agencies relating to his companies — including Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reported in February that Musk would simply 'excuse himself' if a conflict of interest arose. That cynical strategy failed. In firing tens of thousands of federal employees, including over a dozen inspectors general, Musk managed to muck around with numerous agencies that regulate him — such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is now nearly defunct, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is grossly inappropriate self-dealing. A lawsuit filed by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees complained that Musk's DOGE team members were violating a slew of federal laws, including the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, the Social Security Act, the Tax Revenue Act of 1976 and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The Privacy Act protects citizens' sensitive data unless government access is 'for a necessary and proper purpose' and mandates that 'adequate safeguards' be in place 'to prevent misuses of this information.' Information cannot even be shared between agencies without the consent of the people whose personal data is implicated. In April, a federal judge in Maryland agreed that Trump's unfettered data-collection effort was legally dubious, finding that the pretense that it was necessary to detect 'fraud, waste and abuse' was not enough to overcome the myriad statutory protections for individual Americans' private data. The judge issued an order temporarily enjoining DOGE from harvesting unlimited amounts of information from the Social Security Administration — which may include birth dates, addresses, Social Security numbers, drivers' license numbers, tax return information, bank account information, credit card numbers, employment and wage histories, citizenship and immigration records, and detailed medical records. Trump's executive order requires agencies to give the DOGE teams 'full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems.' The lawsuit is thus a standoff between Trump's roving DOGE snoops and the rule of law itself. In a terse order issued without full briefing or oral argument, Chief Justice Roberts — on behalf of the six conservative justices in the majority — sided with DOGE, reversing the district court's temporary injunction and allowing Musk's minions to access a treasure trove of personal data while the district court's decision is on appeal. Normally, when a district court issues an order, that order holds while it is appealed (absent some finding of exceptional circumstances). In this case, DOGE was positioned to possibly get what it wants down the line, either from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit or from the Supreme Court in due course, while the case makes its way through the system. In the meantime, the status quo of keeping statutory protections in place for regular Americans would stand — just like it has under every president before Trump. Instead, Roberts found that it is DOGE — not the American people — that would irreparably suffer if the legal questions are given time to percolate on appeal. DOGE gets the goods immediately. If the plaintiffs manage to secure a ruling affirming the district court on appeal many months from now, thus undoing the Supreme Court's stay, the damage will already have been done. The data is already breached. There is no longer a remedy. To justify his decision, Roberts properly cited the four-part test for granting a temporary stay of an injunction: Trump must show that he will likely win under the various federal laws that otherwise protect the data, that he'd be irreparably damaged without a stay, that the stay will not 'substantially injure' other parties (like Americans who want their personal data to remain secure) and that a stay is in the broader public interest. The wrinkle is that Roberts didn't bother to actually analyze any of these factors. He just summarily concluded they were satisfied. Too bad for the plaintiffs — and too bad for the American people, whose personal data is now in the hands of DOGE and anyone else it cares to share it with. Roberts simply reasoned that the DOGE team must get access to the records 'for those members to do their work.' In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson noted that 'the 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes.' The majority nonetheless is 'jettisoning careful judicial decision-making and creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans in the process.' Since the landmark 1803 decision Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court's job has included holding the other branches of government accountable to federal statutes. By baldly eschewing its constitutional role while hiding behind a veneer of legitimacy, today's conservative majority is much like DOGE, the entity it put above the law: a fake. Kimberly Wehle is author of the book 'Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works — and Why.'
The Hindu
30-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
What is DOGE? Exploring its journey and the impact of Elon Musk's exit
'It is probably the Manhattan Project of our time,' U.S President Donald Trump said as he announced the creation of DOGE- The Department of Government Efficiency- under Elon Musk's leadership. As Elon Musk steps away from DOGE, announcing his departure via X, we examine the DOGE journey so far. To “implement the President's DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.â€� And at its helm, in effect - Elon Musk, the world's richest man. The DOGE service has a USDS Administrator reporting to the White House Chief of Staff- subsequent reports have identified the acting administrator to be Amy Gleason.(Not who was designated a special government employee.) Additionally, the order established the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, 'to advance the President’s 18 month DOGE agenda,' with a termination date of July 4, 2026. It was this unknown entity which was converted into the United States DOGE Service with the signing of the executive order on January 20, 2025. Its mission statement: to use design and technology to deliver better services to the American people. It collaborated with public servants across agencies to improve critical services, for example, offering better user design for the Social Security Administration website. The United States Digital Service, a small technological unit within the Executive Office of the President, was created in 2014 to help streamline government services. These teams were to include, at the very least, one DOGE Team Lead, one engineer, one human resources specialist, and one attorney. each agency head was directed to establish a DOGE team with four employees, selected in consultation with the USDS administrator. Click on each of the photos of the employees shown below to know more about them DOGE has not been very forthcoming about its employees, and works without Congressional oversight. However, recent media investigations have revealed several of the key figures in the shadowy DOGE ecosystem, which is structured quite unlike other federal agencies, whether now or in the past. On March 11, Musk said he planned to double the size of his staff in DOGE, from the current 100-odd to 200. Which was then further reduced to $1 trillion (around 14.8% of the government's expenditure) Before Trump's inauguration, Musk promised the American public cuts of $2 trillion, which accounts for roughly 29.6% of the US Government's expenditure in fiscal year 2024 (cuts shown in the graphic are for reference.) In 2024, discretionary spending formed $1.8T, which is around 26.4% of the total. It is discretionary funding unrelated to military, immigration enforcement (and other heads specified via an executive order) which DOGE has chiefly targeted. Most of these DOGE cuts have come from non-military discretionary spendings. Broadly, the U.S federal budget is divided into 3 sections: mandatory (outlays for benefit programmes mandated by law-- like social security), discretionary (those Congress can earmark for a purpose through the budget or legislation), and interest. It has slashed DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusivity and Accessibility) programmes across departments, nixed most of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), cancelled grants pertaining to climate change and health and targeted the Department of Education- just some of many of its slash-and-burn actions. The Department of Government Efficiency says it is achieving its goals through eight measures: fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes and regulatory savings. The following graphic shows the major cuts (in contracts and grants) which took place across different departments and agencies, as per DOGE's website as of April 20, 2025. Layoffs The strength of the federal government, excluding military personnel, is around 2.4 million. Recent reports indicate that at least 12% of this has been cut. At least 140,000 more reductions are planned. For example, DOGE plans to cut down at least 90% of staff at the Social Security Administration. There are also reports that a Workforce Reshaping tool- a revamped version of a formerly developed Automated Reduction in Force (AutoRIF) tool- may be used to automate the process of cuts. Explore the layoffs by date below: Layoffs also took place at the following agencies on these dates, but the specifics remain unascertained. As of May 1, 2025, at least 1,400 had been laid off from the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) according to a report by Politico E&E In the near future, further layoffs are expected in multiple agencies. An April 22 report said that 15% of the staff at unspecified agencies in the Department of State are at risk of losing their jobs. The 20 agencies or departments where highest number of employees were laid off are as follows: Several of those laid off were probationary employees, terminated before their probations were up (some were reinstated by court orders). In February, Office of Personnel Management targeted all 220,000 probationary employees who were part of the federal government. In addition to this, federal employees across agencies received “fork-in-the-roadâ€� emails offering them the option to resign and receive full pay for a specified period. For example, everyone at the CIA was offered the chance to resign. More than 75,000 people have reportedly taken these buyouts. At least one-quarter of the 100,000 initially fired workers have been rehired at full pay, most of them after judges ruled that their firings were illegal. Some were rehired after it was found that DOGE had “accidentallyâ€� fired workers responsible for nuclear weapons safety and aviation safety, and researchers involved in the response to bird flu and Ebola. DOGE’s actions were met with resistanceâ€' even internally. On February 27, 21 DOGE employees reportedly resigned in protest, writing in an anonymous letter that they would not use their skills as technologists 'to compromise core government systems, jeopardize Americans' sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.' Their concerns about data stemmed from DOGE employees seeking- and obtaining- access to tranches of sensitive data, some of which was usually given to officials with high security clearance, often on a need-to-know basis. Legal challenges Around 200 lawsuits and appeals have been filed against actions taken by the Trump administration, and around 30 implicate DOGE. Some of these deal with the status of DOGE, questioning Mr Musk’s position in the government and the constitutional basis for the creation of the department. One of these - J. Does v. Musk â€' has been filed by state attorneys general and retired government officials, and alleges that Mr. Musk’s role required confirmation by the Senate, given the authority he was wielding. A multi-State suit â€' New Mexico v. Musk â€' raises similar contentions. The lack of transparency has given rise to lawsuits alleging violation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Department of Interior, Public Citizen v. Trump). A protestor waves an inverted American flag, known as a symbol of distress, at City Hall during a Hands Off! protest in Los Angeles, California on April 5, suits have questioned the dismantling of agencies or their boards by DOGE. Brehm v. Marocco deals with the shuttering of the African Development Foundation, while at least two suits relate to the actions taken by DOGE at the United States Institute of Peace (Pippenger v. DOGE, United States Institute of Peace v. Kenneth Jackson). The decision in the second lawsuit, ruling that DOGE’s actions at USIP were unlawful , has been appealed. Layoffs and cuts have also been challenged in court. A Maryland judge ruled on March 13 that the government should rehire probationary employees who were fired without cause (in State of Maryland v. United States Department of Agriculture ), but this has been appealed by the government. Some complaints are making their way through administrative bodies which serve appellatory functions. Several citizen organisations and non-profits all came together in Japanese American Citizens League v. Musk , alleging that DOGE and Musk's actions were ultra vires the constitution and causing harm to the public. Actions cited by them included the firing of federal employees in departments such as the Department of Education and National Park Service, and the cutting of funding for scientific research. The biggest tranche of suits involving DOGE perhaps is those alleging violation of privacy laws by permitting access to sensitive government information such as social security numbers and tax information. This includes those brought by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Alliance for Retired Americans and the American Federation of Teachers. On March 20, a temporary restraining order blocked DOGE from accessing social security records. Conflicts of interest A major concern about DOGE raised by detractors was the fact that Mr. Musk may have several conflicts of interests in his role, as a technocrat with multiple government contracts. Over the years, Musk’s business has benefitted from at least $38 billion in funding from the US government, in the form of government contracts, loans, subsidies and tax creditsâ€' particularly those aimed at boosting the electric vehicle industry. Some of these contracts are ongoing. For example, SpaceX has multiple contracts with several US departments, including the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Defense and NASA. It has been developing spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, which comes under the ambit of the Pentagon. It continues to participate in bids for government contracts: a Washington Post article reported that internet satellite service Starlink, which comes under SpaceX, and Verizon were in competition for a $2.4 billion FAA contract. Demonstrators protest against Elon Musk and Department of Government Efficiency cuts outside a Tesla dealership, Saturday, April 12, 2025, in Kansas City, Mo. (Charlie Riedel/AP Photo) DOGE cuts may also, directly or indirectly, aid Mr. Musk’s businesses. For example, the EPA, which saw major reductions and cuts, has in the past cited Tesla for hazardous waste mismanagement and pollution. A division in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which saw cuts was tasked with the oversight of autonomous vehiclesâ€' a major component of Tesla’s business. The now-dismantled USAID had been investigating government ties with Starlink. Some employees at the Food and Drug Administration who had been reviewing Mr. Musk’s neurotech company Neuralink had been firedâ€' and later rehired DOGE’s access to sensitive data, including those pertaining to labour, was another issue. Elon Musk is, or was, a special government employee. Such employees are subject to relaxed financial reporting and conflict of interest laws such as the Ethics in Government Act and criminal conflict of interest provisions. Additionally, the White House informed the press that Mr. Musk would police his own conflicts of interest. There is a dearth of oversight particularly after the widespread layoffs. In early February, Mr. Trump fired the Director of the Office of Government Ethics, the department that would oversee potential conflicts of interest. And in January, he had fired 17 Inspectors-General, who perform a watchdog function for various departments. Protests Several anti-government protests have taken place across the United States since the start of Donald Trump’s second term. This includes Hands Off rallies protesting administration policies and planned events under the 50501 movement â€' a decentralized campaign that began on Reddit and got its name from a February 5 push for '50 protests in 50 states in 1 day.' Protesters attend a Hands Off rally to demonstrate against U.S. President Donald Trump near the Washington Monument on the National Mall on April 5, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo bySome protests and criticisms have expressly targeted Elon Musk and his involvement with DOGE. In a poll released in May, 58% of those surveyed said they disapproved of how Mr. Musk was handling DOGE’s work, and 60% disapproved of Mr. Musk himself. He demonstrated a net favourability rating of -14.4 in another poll released on May the dismantling of USAID, Mr Musk was criticised by fellow billionaire Bill Gates. 'The picture of the world’s richest man killing the world’s poorest children is not a pretty one,' Mr. Gates said in an interview with The New York Times. Along with Democrats, Republicans too have expressed reservations over the speed and scale of DOGE’s work. 'These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages ... It's a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well,' Senator John Curtis (R-Utah), is reported to have said. Tesla itself has borne the brunt of anti-Musk sentiments. Several Tesla locations have seen anti-Musk demonstrations, with slogans like “Musk Must Goâ€� and “Block Fascism Now.â€� Tesla cybertrucks and charging stations have also been destroyed, in cities like Seattle and Boston. A website called DOGEQUEST was created to pinpoint owners of Tesla and their addresses, specifically to target them. The public ire has also translated to a poor performance for Tesla on the stock market. Reports indicate that, at one point, share prices dropped by 71% post the Presidential election. On May 28, Tesla's stock prices were $356.9, which was just over 16% less than its price when assumed office. Tesla investors such as Ross Gerber, a wealth manager and longtime Tesla supporter, criticised Musk’s government role, and in April, Mr. Musk assured his investors that he would significantly scale back his government responsibilities to focus on his corporate ones. This is even as some media outlets reported that it would be difficult to see DOGE cuts pass muster in Congress. The White House is sending some proposed rescissions, a mechanism used to cancel previously authorised spending, to Capitol Hill to solidify some of DOGE’s cuts, The end of the road for Musk? On March 27, Elon Musk said he was disappointed by the 'big, beautiful bill' mooted by President Donald Trump and passed by House Republicans last week. The Bill is yet to pass in the Senate. 'I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill, frankly, which increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing,' Mr. Musk said in an interview with CBS News. In a post on X on May 29, he announced his departure:
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Elon Musk Helped Democrats Get Their Act Together, But What If He Goes Away?
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) got a big response when he said 'fire Elon Musk' into a bullhorn at a rally outside the U.S. Department of Labor in February. It was cold, cloudy and several other Democrats had already spoken, but the crowd of worried federal workers cheered loudly for the idea of firing Musk, the architect of President Donald Trump's efforts to gut the federal workforce, and did a little call-and-response chant with Casar. It was a moment of clarity for the second-term Democrat and new chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 'In that moment, when there were just hundreds of union workers who just couldn't stop chanting and yelling and stomping their feet after I said just those three words, after that, I knew that this is the direction we all had to go,' Casar told HuffPost. (The only lawmaker who got a louder response that day was Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). His applause line? 'Fuck Elon Musk.') Musk has done a remarkable job causing unnecessary chaos in federal agencies while shredding his own public image, with national polls putting him 10 points less popular than the president, and his high-profile intervention on behalf of a Republican candidate seemingly helping a Democrat win a Wisconsin Supreme Court race earlier this month. Democrats weren't always united around villainizing Musk, who, not too long ago, was an admired figure known more for building space-age cars and rockets than for sharing conspiracy theories and blindly slashing critical government programs. Now, he's a critical part of their plans for seemingly every race between now and the midterm elections, 19 months away. But there's a potential hiccup on the horizon: Musk's relevance could decline sooner rather than later. For one thing, he's a temporary employee of the White House, and DOGE is supposed to wrap up by next July, according to Trump's executive order establishing his '18-month DOGE Agenda.' Trump has hinted at Musk's eventual departure, Musk has been feuding with Trump's trade advisor over tariffs, the president's signature economic policy, and the White House has pulled back on Musk's controversial anti-fraud work at the Social Security Administration. Musk is unlikely to disappear completely ― his social media usage is borderline compulsive and he's already suggested he wants to spend $100 million more backing Trump's agenda ― but the tariff-centric past week has shown how quickly even the world's richest man who also happens to be a top White House adviser can disappear from the news cycle. 'There is some concern in some quarters that Trump's going to kick him to the curb, and then we spent all this time sort of building this guy up as a focal point, but he's gone,' Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) told HuffPost. Ivey said Trump himself, and the economic damage he's doing with tariffs are fine targets for Democrats: 'We just need to kind of remind people it's there and kind of point it out.' Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) is a veteran lawmaker who has served in the House since 1999. He remembers the second-term overreach of a previous Republican president, George W. Bush, whose bid to privatize Social Security propelled Democrats to a massive victory in the 2006 House midterm elections. Rather than pick a villain, Larson said Democrats should maintain their focus on Trump's threats to Social Security and federal health programs. 'The very things that they're after in trying to attack Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are going to remain the core base ― that is the numero uno Democratic policy, the banner issue of which Franklin Delano Roosevelt took us out of the Depression into modern day politics,' Larson said. Musk's DOGE team has caused havoc at the Social Security Administration and pushed for mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees Medicare and Medicaid. Trump has vowed not to support actual benefit cuts in those programs, but Democrats have staged multiple press conferences to highlight the turmoil, especially at Social Security, and insisted it's all a prelude to privatization. Now, even lawmakers such as Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who had praised the prospect of Musk taking on government waste, especially in the bloated defense budget, told HuffPost they're disappointed in his 'Department of Government Efficiency' project. 'If the goal is to combat waste, inefficiency and bureaucracy, that is a noble goal,' Sanders said. 'The way DOGE has operated is totally illegal, outrageous, and counterproductive. What they're doing now to Social Security, to the Veterans Administration, is totally disgraceful.' But Khanna still doesn't agree with making Musk into a villain, saying, 'We should keep it to the issues.' Other rank-and-file Democrats have their doubts, too. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) said Democrats need 'a positive vision for the future' and to admit they were wrong about border security during Joe Biden's presidency. Casar said Democrats should get off their old Social Security talking points. In his view, there's no replacement for a good villain. 'If we're willing to say, 'Fire Elon Musk, because he's stealing Social Security dollars to enrich himself, and after we fire Elon Musk, we need start taxing billionaires like him so we can expand Social Security for every single senior In this country,' then people might actually hear us,' Casar said. The preference for a more combative public relations strategy is common among younger Democrats like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Jasmine Crockett (Texas), and a contrast with former president Joe Biden's nostalgic musings about his friendships with Republican senators. If Musk does go away, Casar said Democrats would celebrate the win and remind voters at the midterms, much like they did before retaking the House in 2018 in Trump's first term. 'When Democrats saved the Affordable Care Act during the first Trump administration, we still were able to campaign on the fact that we saved the Affordable Care Act when Republicans were trying to take people's health care away,' Casar said. 'If we fire Elon Musk, we're still gonna be able to say that, yeah, we're against billionaires stealing your money for themselves.' Democrats Hope DOGE Will Bite The GOP In Virginia Elections Elon Musk's Stunning Claim That DOGE Is 'The Most Transparent' Gets Blunt Fact-Check DOGE's Latest Chaotic Move May Make It Harder To Receive Your Social Security Benefits Democrats Say DOGE Will Lead To Social Security Benefit Cuts, Privatization
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
47 Social Security offices are targeted for closure this year. What about in Florida?
President Donald Trump's nominee to run the Social Security Administration, Frank Bisignano, faced some hard-hitting questions Tuesday during a Senate confirmation, including ones about Elon Musk's DOGE. Some senators grilled the CEO of Fiserv on his thoughts on the administration's recent job cuts and closed offices. According to CBS News, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, asked Bisignano to 'tell the American people whose side he is on' and if he would 'lock DOGE out' of Social Security databases. 'I'm going to do whatever is required to protect the information that is private information,' Bisignano said, saying he didn't know what "lock DOGE out" meant. Social Security, which dates to the 1930s and former President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal social programs, uses funds collected from workers' paychecks to pay small monthly benefit checks to retirees, disabled Americans, and others. More than 70 million Americans currently depend on it. The Department of Government Efficiency was established back in January to implement Trump's DOGE Agenda by "modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity." The advisory group is headed by Musk, who operating as a "special government" employee. On its website, it lists 47 Social Security Administration offices set to close this year. Are any in Florida? According to a list published by The Associated Press, the Social Security Administration office at 4740 Dairy Road in Melbourne will close on May 16. Its closure will result in a total savings of $263,660 as a result of cancelling the $59,697 annual lease on the 1,415 square-foot property, according to numbers provided by DOGE's website. Grady Strickland, one of the property owners who leases the NASA Boulevard offices to the SSA, claimed to Florida Today that only the smaller property on Dairy Road is slated for closure. Services provided at that location could be incorporated into the larger office on NASA Boulevard. Some informal discussions to that end have already been underway, Strickland said. DOGE has recently been tasked with cutting US government jobs and other spending to reduce the nation's debt, which stands at $36 trillion. Trump said its savings goal is $2 trillion. Trump's executive order last month specifically directs the federal government to implement a "workforce optimization initiative" created by DOGE, which has been moving rapidly from one department to another to slash spending, gut programs and lay off workers. Some of these cuts include the Department of Education, the National Park Service, NASA, NOAA and the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the Social Security Administration. According to a Newsweek tracker, an estimated 222,000 job cuts have been announced this year, with more expected as federal agencies implement budget reductions. No. However, recent actions by the Trump administration have caused some unease among Americans. It was announced last month that a reorganization will take place at the agency that will result in 'significant workforce reductions,' SSA said in a release. The agency planned to cut 7,000 jobs from its then 57,000 — the lowest staffing in 50 years while dealing with the most Americans. "These steps prioritize customer service by streamlining redundant layers of management, reducing non-mission critical work, and potential reassignment of employees to customer service positions," SSA said. Trump had said Social Security won't be touched, telling a Fox News host: "Other than if there's fraud or something — we're going to find it; it's going to be strengthened — but won't be touched. Medicare, Medicaid, none of that stuff is going to be touched." However, Musk criticized Social Security in a recent podcast interview with Joe Rogan, labeling the program a "Ponzi scheme." "There are fewer babies being born," the billionaire said on the podcast, "and you have more people who are retired that live for a long time and get (Social Security) payments." Musk previously claimed that tens of millions of dead Americans are receiving benefits, but The Associated Press found his comments were "overstated and misrepresent Social Security data." Under DOGE's real estate tab on its website, it displays "657 lease terminations totaling 7,919,726 square feet and $350M in lease savings." Here's what some of them are and their annual leases: Department of State, Miami - $112,278 Defense CounterIntelligence and Security Agency, Jacksonville - $27,616 Defense Contract Management Agency, St. Augustine - $78,878 Small Business Agency, Melbourne - $8,862 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Seffner - $21,855 Bureau of Indian Affairs, Hollywood - $79,365 U.S. Agency for Global Media, Miami - $1.5 million Rural Housing Service, Ocala - $120,502 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Key Largo - $252,011 Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fort Walton Beach - $427,700 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Sunrise - $51,429 Employee Benefits Security Admin, Plantation - $731,478 Forest Service, Tallahassee - $316,799 Food and Drug Administration, Plantation - $414,703 Food and Drug Administration, Tallahassee - $39,290 National Park Service, Naples - $115,035 To find the nearest SSA office and for office hours, visit the SSA field office locator at USA TODAY contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Social Security Administration: Are any Florida offices closing?
