Latest news with #IDRS
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Musk and his DOGE operation eye the Social Security Administration
If his social media feed is any indication, Elon Musk has been thinking about Social Security a lot lately. In fact, Donald Trump's biggest campaign donor and the head of the quasi-governmental DOGE operation, keeps tweeting bizarre claims about alleged fraud and 'inconsistencies' he thinks he's identified in the Social Security system. Those claims have invariably collapsed under scrutiny, necessarily raising questions about whether the billionaire is genuinely confused about the basics or content to mislead the public. Either way, the bottom line remains the same: Musk and his team have arrived at the Social Security Administration. For those concerned about the integrity of the system and its future, that doesn't appear to be encouraging news. The Washington Post published this striking report on Saturday, for example: Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service is seeking access to a heavily guarded Internal Revenue Service system that includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country, according to three people familiar with the activities, sparking alarm within the tax agency. According to the Post's report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, the DOGE operation is positioned to gain access to the highly sensitive Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), 'which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts — including personal identification numbers — and bank information. It also lets them enter and adjust transaction data and automatically generate notices, collection documents and other records.' The IRS, the Post added, is 'under pressure from the White House' to make this happen. It's against this backdrop that NBC News reported that the interagency dispute became so severe that Michelle King, the top official at the SSA, 'left her position this weekend after she refused a request from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to access sensitive government records at the agency.' For advocates of the Social Security system, and those concerned about privacy rights, these developments raise all kinds of red flags. But in terms of the political implications, it's worth appreciating the fact that White House officials have also made public comments about Musk, DOGE and Social Security benefits. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that Musk and his surrogates 'suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.' There is no reason to take such a figure seriously, and no one at the White House has even tried to substantiate the claim with evidence. As part of the same on-air appearance, the president's chief spokesperson added, 'Rest assured to all of the people watching your show tonight, if you paid into the system honestly, you will continue to receive your Social Security checks.' But that wasn't quite as reassuring as Leavitt probably intended. Whether he understands the basic governing details or not, Musk is already claiming that many Social Security beneficiaries are receiving checks they're not entitled to. Such comments suggest the Trump administration is likely to go after the alleged irregularities, which may or may not exist. With this in mind, the White House press secretary effectively told Fox viewers that if Trump and Musk believe you paid into the system honestly, 'you will continue to receive your Social Security checks.' What could possibly go wrong? Even most congressional Republicans tend to see Social Security as a political third rail to be avoided at all costs to prevent an electoral backlash. Keep this in mind as DOGE arrives at the SSA, and Musk makes highly dubious claims about Social Security checks. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Groups file lawsuit challenging DOGE access at IRS
A coalition of unions, tax and small business groups sued late Monday to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal taxpayer data at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The groups claim such access violates federal privacy and tax laws, and the case adds to more than a dozen existing lawsuits challenging DOGE's structure or its examination of confidential systems across the federal government. 'DOGE will also have access to tax records of Mr. Musk's business competitors, which are held by the IRS. No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,' the new lawsuit states. Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit comes as the DOGE team is reportedly seeking access to a sensitive IRS system, known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), that the agency uses to see taxpayer accounts. It has become the latest part of the federal bureaucracy to be targeted by Elon Musk's DOGE, which has rapidly implanted itself at agencies across the government as part of ambitious plans to slash trillions of dollars in spending. 'While the DOGE playbook at the IRS appears to mirror every other agency it has entered, the systems at issue, and the laws that govern access to them, are not,' the lawsuit states. The case was brought by the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communication Workers of America. They are represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation, a left-leaning legal organization that has brought a dozen lawsuits against President Trump since his inauguration. Musk's efforts have quickly sparked lawsuits from Democratic state attorneys general, government employee unions and other private groups. Earlier Monday, a judge declined to block DOGE from accessing student borrower data at the Education Department. On Friday, another judge declined to block DOGE's access to the Labor Department, Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Judges are expected to rule soon on other lawsuits that seek to block DOGE at seven federal agencies and extend a block on DOGE accessing the Treasury Department's payment systems. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE and Musk: The 5 biggest controversies so far
(The Hill) – Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has caused uproar almost from the moment of its inception. DOGE is not an official government department, despite its name. Only Congress can create new departments. But DOGE is an effort by President Trump and Musk to radically reform — and reduce — the size of government. At one time, Musk had suggested it was possible to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. More recently he has indicated that half of that figure would be more realistic. But even accomplishing $1 trillion in cuts would require massive cuts to government services and to its payroll. The idea is welcomed by fiscal hawks, MAGA supporters and Musk's own legion of fans. But critics say DOGE is going to hurt millions of Americans by axing programs that they need, or the personnel that support them. They also express concern about conflicts of interest, given that Musk's companies have billions of dollars in federal contracts. Here are the five biggest controversies so far. Perhaps no single DOGE-related furor has captured the public imagination so much as his team's access at the Treasury Department. The issue is whether Musk and his acolytes have access to individual taxpayer data, which is subject to strict disclosure rules. At its most basic, the question is, 'Can Elon Musk see your tax returns?' The row has grown more intense in recent days after several news organizations reported that DOGE personnel had sought access to a specific system — the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS — which is home to some of the most sensitive information. The Washington Post referred to IDRS as a system that 'includes detailed financial information about every taxpayer, business and nonprofit in the country.' The Post also noted that the system 'enables tax agency employees to access IRS records — including personal identification numbers — and bank information.' A Trump administration official told the Post this effort was being carried out 'legally and with the appropriate security clearances' in the name of bringing 'much-needed efficiency' to the federal government's workings. This is only the latest development in the saga of DOGE and the Treasury Department. Last week, U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas extended an earlier restraining order curtailing DOGE's access to the Treasury Department's payment systems. Musk had previously targeted another judge who ruled against his quasi-department in the matter, calling for U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer's impeachment. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is a shell of its former self after DOGE got to work. The agency's management of roughly $40 billion was a particular target of Musk, who contended that far too much of the money went astray, either through fraud or because of misplaced priorities. Musk has said that USAID is 'beyond repair,' 'a ball of worms' and an agency that he had spent one weekend 'feeding … into the wood chipper.' Musk also contended in early February that he had gotten Trump's agreement to 'shut it down.' An official shutdown would be a matter for Congress to decide. But the Trump administration has done everything short of that to neuter the agency. Until recently, USAID had about 14,000 employees. It is now projected to have fewer than 300. USAID's defenders argue that the moves to hollow out the agency are both callous and shortsighted. Samantha Power, who led the agency under former President Biden, wrote in a New York Times op-ed that the de facto collapsing of USAID is set to be 'one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in U.S. history.' Power also contended that Musk and his allies had 'imperiled millions of lives, thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars of investment in American small businesses and farms while severely undermining our national security and global influence — all while authoritarians and extremists celebrate their luck.' The administration's actions on USAID are the subject of several legal challenges. The Trump administration's offer to buy out federal employees officially emanates not from DOGE but from the Office of Personnel Management. But it has Musk's fingerprints all over it — even in the way the subject line of the email that made the offer, 'Fork in the Road,' echoed a similar email he sent to employees of the social platform X soon after taking over the company. In the government case, federal workers were offered payment of their salaries and retention of their benefits until the end of September if they swiftly committed to resigning. The administration has said about 75,000 employees took the offer before it closed on Feb. 12 — roughly 4 percent of the federal workforce. Labor unions had sought to stop the program in the courts, but in the end they only briefly froze it. Opponents argue that it's not even guaranteed the workers will get their money, as Congress has not appropriated funding for that long or for the purpose of a buyout. The buyout email had warned of forced cutbacks to come, telling government workers in a related document that 'the federal workforce is expected to undergo significant near-term changes.' So it has proven. Reuters reported that the administration began firing thousands of workers last Thursday. The news agency reported that the Department of Veterans Affairs had laid off more than 1,000 employees who were in their probationary period and that the U.S. Forest Service was on the cusp of firing 3,000. There has been little official word on how many workers have been fired in total, but the latest figures available, from roughly one year ago, indicated that around 220,000 federal workers were at less than 12 months on the job at that point. Probationary workers appear to be the first group targeted for layoffs. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) grew out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis, intending to put financial institutions under greater scrutiny and to guard the interests of their customers. But it was swiftly put under DOGE's scrutiny instead, with Musk at one point posting on social media 'CFPB RIP.' In short order, DOGE helped to halt the bureau's work. The official move came from Russell Vought, a Trump loyalist who now presides over the Office of Management and Budget. Vought instructed CFPB employees earlier this month to simply stop performing 'any work tasks.' The bureau has an unusual funding arrangement — its money comes from the Federal Reserve, not from a specific congressional appropriation — but Vought said that the next tranche of funding would simply not be drawn down. Putting a stop to the CFPB's work could have a payoff for Musk's businesses, as critics were quick to note. X has recently advanced plans for its own mobile payments service, apparently to be called an 'X Money Account.' According to NPR, this service 'would be directly regulated by the [CFPB] under expanded oversight powers it had finalized late last year.' In other words, Musk's team was in effect rendering impotent an agency that had the power to regulate elements of his business. As if he hadn't made enough headlines with many of the moves listed above, Musk suggested on Monday that he would be putting Fort Knox under the microscope. The Kentucky facility is synonymous with the vast amount of gold reserves stored there. 'Looking for the gold at Fort Knox,' Musk wrote on X on Monday. Keying off a post from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) about allegedly being denied access to Fort Knox, Musk added, 'Who is confirming that gold wasn't stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it's there, maybe it's not. That gold is owned by the American public! We want to know if it's still there.' Fort Knox famously does not allow visitors. It was unclear exactly what Musk meant by his social media postings — whether he would demand some kind of auditing of the gold held in Kentucky or whether he was merely indulging his penchant for stirring controversy and publicity. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
18-02-2025
- Business
- The Hill
Groups file lawsuit challenging DOGE access at IRS
A coalition of unions, tax and small business groups sued late Monday to block the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from accessing personal taxpayer data at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The groups claim such access violates federal privacy and tax laws, and the case adds to more than a dozen existing lawsuits challenging DOGE's structure or its examination of confidential systems across the federal government. 'DOGE will also have access to tax records of Mr. Musk's business competitors, which are held by the IRS. No other business owner on the planet has access to this kind of information on his competitors, and for good reason,' the new lawsuit states. Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit comes as the DOGE team is reportedly seeking access to a sensitive IRS system, known as the Integrated Data Retrieval System (IDRS), that the agency uses to see taxpayer accounts. It has become the latest part of the federal bureaucracy to be targeted by Elon Musk's DOGE, which has rapidly implanted itself at agencies across the government as part of ambitious plans to slash trillions of dollars in spending. 'While the DOGE playbook at the IRS appears to mirror every other agency it has entered, the systems at issue, and the laws that govern access to them, are not,' the lawsuit states. The case was brought by the Center for Taxpayer Rights, Main Street Alliance, the National Federation of Federal Employees and the Communication Workers of America. They are represented by the Democracy Forward Foundation, a left-leaning legal organization that has brought a dozen lawsuits against President Trump since his inauguration. Musk's efforts have quickly sparked lawsuits from Democratic state attorneys general, government employee unions and other private groups. Earlier Monday, a judge declined to block DOGE from accessing student borrower data at the Education Department. On Friday, another judge declined to block DOGE's access to the Labor Department, Department of Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Judges are expected to rule soon on other lawsuits that seek to block DOGE at seven federal agencies and extend a block on DOGE accessing the Treasury Department's payment systems.
USA Today
18-02-2025
- Business
- USA Today
Trump abdicated power to Musk. And now a 25-year-old may get access to your tax return.
Hear this story I'm guessing when you cast your ballot in the 2024 presidential election, you weren't voting to give a 20-something acolyte of billionaire Elon Musk unfettered access to your tax information or your business' finances. Well, oops. As you read this, a young software engineer named Gavin Kliger from the largely imaginary Department of Government Efficiency either has or will soon have access to wildly sensitive taxpayer information via one of the Internal Revenue Service's most heavily guarded computer systems, according to CNN. You likely don't know Kliger, nor should you, and 0% of Americans voted to hand control of the U.S. government to a billionaire chaos agent like Musk. But President Donald Trump has largely abdicated his job and handed power to President Musk. So now we're on the precipice of a 25-year-old mucking about in our tax returns and having access to the kind of data most people work hard to keep private. Why should a 25-year-old with no IRS experience access taxpayer data? According to The Washington Post, the Trump White House asked the IRS to give Kliger access to 'the Integrated Data Retrieval System, or IDRS, which enables tax agency employees to access IRS accounts – including personal identification numbers – and bank information. It also lets them enter and adjust transaction data and automatically generate notices, collection documents and other records.' Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle. NO, THANK YOU! I don't know Kliger. He might be a perfectly decent fellow, though Reuters recently reported that in 'social media posts between October 2024 and January, Kliger has voiced controversial views and reposted content from white supremacist Nick Fuentes and self-described misogynist Andrew Tate.' So … you know … I have questions. Opinion:Trump bans AP and words he doesn't like. 'Free speech' was never about First Amendment. But the main issue here is that the federal government is considering granting a young person with zero IRS experience, someone whose vetting I know zilch about, permission to see everybody's tax returns and all the personal and financial data that go with them. Our 'incredibly personal' taxpayer data is in jeopardy, thanks to Musk Former IRS internal consumer watchdog Nina Olson told The Post: 'The information that the IRS has is incredibly personal. Someone with access to it could use it and make it public in a way, or do something with it, or share it with someone else who shares it with someone else, and your rights get violated.' Opinion:Trump thinks he's above the law. Republicans will ignore it until it's too late. Yeah. What she said. When it comes to data privacy, this is a five-alarm fire on a swiftly sinking ship. Two Democratic senators raise 'serious concerns' about DOGE Democratic Sens. Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Douglas O'Donnell, acting commissioner of the IRS, on Monday saying that Musk and Co.'s request for access raises 'serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.' The senators noted there are statutes in place that 'have long prevented political appointees in previous administrations from accessing the private tax records of hundreds of millions of Americans, and allowing DOGE officials sweeping access these systems may be in violation of these statutes.' Taxpayers should know exactly who is handling their personal information Responding to all this, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said: 'Waste, fraud and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.' OK, but again, I have questions. Who's the kid you're tasking with finding all this waste, fraud and abuse, and what are his exact qualifications to do so? Shouldn't he be vetted publicly so Americans can feel better about who will have access to their bank account numbers? How exactly will any personal taxpayer data be handled, will any of it be transmitted electronically and, if so, how do we know it will be secure? At this point, the answer to any and all questions is basically: 'Oh, don't worry, the unelected billionaire who somehow became president, the one whose electric cars and rocket ships occasionally burst into flames, has everything under control. Trust Elon!' Let me state very emphatically that I do not trust Elon. I do not think President Musk has my best interests at heart, or yours, and I do not think his little buddy does, either. Unless you voted for President Musk, consider voicing your concerns If you're OK with these unelected, not-approved-by-Congress goobers accessing your tax returns and everything else, fine. I have a subprime mortgage you might be interested in, and I can also get you a great deal on a bridge owned by a friend of mine who was once a Nigerian prince. But for those out there who didn't ask for any of this, regardless of how you voted, it might be time to let your voice be heard. Tell your elected representatives they need to put a leash on Musk and his bros, quickly. Before it's too late. We don't know much of anything about these intrusive DOGE fellows. But they're poised to know virtually everything about us. Follow USA TODAY columnist Rex Huppke on Bluesky at @ and on Facebook at
