DOGE cuts - where to start?

[AZRedhawk44]

While chopping EARNED benefits

You didn't earn it, you just fell for it like everyone else before you.  Ida May and her ilk suckered you.

Not to be a dick, but SS in it's current form is not an earned benefit.  It is a Ponzi scheme

https://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html

The First Social Security Beneficiary

Ida May Fuller was the first beneficiary of recurring monthly Social Security payments. Miss Fuller (known as Aunt Ida to her friends and family) was born on September 6, 1874 on a farm outside of Ludlow, Vermont. She attended school in Rutland, Vermont where one of her classmates was Calvin Coolidge. In 1905, after working as a school teacher, she became a legal secretary. One of the partners in the firm, John G. Sargent, would later become Attorney General in the Coolidge Administration.

Ida May never married and had no children. She lived alone most of her life, but spent eight years near the end of her life living with her niece, Hazel Perkins, and her family in Brattleboro, Vermont.

Miss Fuller filed her retirement claim on November 4, 1939, having worked under Social Security for a little short of three years. While running an errand she dropped by the Rutland Social Security office to ask about possible benefits. She would later observe: "It wasn't that I expected anything, mind you, but I knew I'd been paying for something called Social Security and I wanted to ask the people in Rutland about it."

Her claim was taken by Claims Clerk, Elizabeth Corcoran Burke, and transmitted to the Claims Division in Washington, D.C. for adjudication. The case was adjudicated and reviewed and sent to the Treasury Department for payment in January 1940. The claims were grouped in batches of 1,000 and a Certification List for each batch was sent to Treasury. Miss Fuller's claim was the first one on the first Certification List and so the first Social Security check, check number 00-000-001, was issued to Ida May Fuller in the amount of $22.54 and dated January 31, 1940.

How breezy and quaint.  It fails to tell the whole story though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_May_Fuller

Fuller worked under Social Security just shy of three years from the spring of 1937 to November 1939 and paid a total of $24.75 (equivalent to $494 in 2023) in Social Security taxes.
<snip>
During her retirement, Fuller collected a total of $22,888.92 (equivalent to $497,793 in 2023) in Social Security benefits.

Paid $24.  Collected $23,000. 

Took a LOT of dupes and rubes to pay for her.  Who then looked for another whole generation of dupes and rubes.  A lot of people with a lot of disrespect and hatred of their progeny out there.

[Northwoods]

You didn't earn it, you just fell for it like everyone else before you.  Ida May and her ilk suckered you.

https://www.ssa.gov/history/imf.html

How breezy and quaint.  It fails to tell the whole story though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_May_Fuller

Paid $24.  Collected $23,000. 

Took a LOT of dupes and rubes to pay for her.  Who then looked for another whole generation of dupes and rubes.  A lot of people with a lot of disrespect and hatred of their progeny out there.

Most people aren't smart enough to want dupe the next generation of rubes.  Even my parents, both PhD scientists (real science, peptide chemistry and molecular biology, not some cultural Marxist pseudo science) honestly think it's a benefit they paid into and have earned the right to collect, no different from a pension.

[RocketMan]

AZRedHawk, I would assume you are also paying unavoidable SS taxes at this point in your life.  Kind of makes you a dupe and a rube, too.  Being so vehement about this issue, why aren't you pounding on the doors of your federal representatives demanding the repeal of the relevant SS legislation?

[AZRedhawk44]

Dude, I'm a libertarian anarchist.  No politicians listen to me or like me, except maybe old Ron Paul and his son Rand.  Defunding SS is a "third rail" that will kill the career of any politician because of entitled sentiment of retirees that can't be bothered to actually math out the problem.

But yes, I've been vocal (even been a GOP precinct committeeman and been to a State convention) in the past.

For full context, I support 100% cutting SS taxes and benefits, even if it happens while I am retired rather than paying.

[RocketMan]

Dude, I'm a libertarian anarchist.  No politicians listen to me or like me, except maybe old Ron Paul and his son Rand.  Defunding SS is a "third rail" that will kill the career of any politician because of entitled sentiment of retirees that can't be bothered to actually math out the problem.

But yes, I've been vocal (even been a GOP precinct committeeman and been to a State convention) in the past.

The bolded part is precisely why SS has not been killed, and will likely never be killed, at least in our lifetimes.  Working to make it happen is a fool's errand.  And it is precisely why "boomers" like me who are philosophically opposed to SS but have been forced to pay into it all of our working lives, believe we are entitled to the benefits.  Given a choice, I would have much preferred to put my SS contributions into a high paying 401[k].  My retirement would have been far more comfortable.
And your insults against us "boomers" and retirees are not appreciated.  You too will be in our shoes one day. Think about that.

[AZRedhawk44]

You're happy and content to leave this problem for your progeny to solve?  You're running up a credit card that your great grandchildren have to pay.

[RocketMan]

You're happy and content to leave this problem for your progeny to solve?  You're running up a credit card that your great grandchildren have to pay.

You yourself said little can be done to fight the "third rail" aspect of SS legislation.  You want me and others like me to beat our collective heads against the wall to no result, as well?  What practical good would that do?
And really, it's small potatoes compared to the overall $35 trillion debt we've collectively let the out-of-control congress critters run up over the last 75 years or so.  We're all to blame for that problem, not just "boomers". 

[HankB]

Ida May Fuller is irrelevant to current payees and beneficiaries - the program JUST started back then, so it would clearly have been impossible for a retiree back then to meet today's eligibility requirements, which include decades of contributions.

Fortune magazine used to have a column called Keeping Up, usually on the last page. Several decades ago the author compared SS benefits to individual investments. He ran some numbers - assuming someone that year was retiring at 65 and had paid the maximum each year (matched by their employer) into SS since they'd turned 21, they'd get a certain benefit. If on the other hand the money had been invested to yield a real rate of return of 3%, they'd have a lump sum big enough to buy an annuity that would pay 75% more than the maximum SS benefit.

Time has passed and I don't know what annuities cost these days, but I thought those numbers were very telling.

[Northwoods]

Ida May Fuller is irrelevant to current payees and beneficiaries - the program JUST started back then, so it would clearly have been impossible for a retiree back then to meet today's eligibility requirements, which include decades of contributions.

Fortune magazine used to have a column called Keeping Up, usually on the last page. Several decades ago the author compared SS benefits to individual investments. He ran some numbers - assuming someone that year was retiring at 65 and had paid the maximum each year (matched by their employer) into SS since they'd turned 21, they'd get a certain benefit. If on the other hand the money had been invested to yield a real rate of return of 3%, they'd have a lump sum big enough to buy an annuity that would pay 75% more than the maximum SS benefit.

Time has passed and I don't know what annuities cost these days, but I thought those numbers were very telling.

I have run the numbers on my own contributions vs expected benefits.   Had mine and my employers contributions been literally stuffed under a mattress as actual cash, earning 0% interest, i would be able to take a higher payments from 67 (my FRA) to my actuarial life expectancy than SS will pay.

[Bogie]

Well, I just thunked a thought...
 
Offer free plane tickets to anyone who wishes to relocate outside the horrible USA. In the fine print, which they won't/can't read, the recipients renounce USA citizenship, and cannot return.
 
At the same time, close the damn borders, and reward any current illegals who wish to enter a program where they can work to earn citizenship.
 
Stop using the funds to pay off inner city residents.

[dogmush]

Best DOGE move:


Let the .gov close this Friday and don't reopen it till the new Congress and/or Executive is sworn in.

[Bogie]

Just thunk a coupla...
 
Looking at NASA is gonna be interesting... And then there's the DOT stuff, NHTSA, and so on...

[Cliffh]

Just thunk a coupla...
 
Looking at NASA is gonna be interesting... And then there's the DOT stuff, NHTSA, and so on...

Hot Damn, I'm looking forward to seeing what DOGE finds at NASA!    

[HankB]

Hot Damn, I'm looking forward to seeing what DOGE finds at NASA!   

I want to know if NASA still thinks their primary mission is Moslem outreach like Obama directed . . .

[Ben]

Nancy Mace has a good breakdown on this latest so-called CR debacle. The SEP CR was 21 pages long compared to the 1500+ pages of this one. The former is more in line what a CR should be.

I read that in this one, for every dollar of "CR money", there was over $0.60 of new spending. I still remember the CRs that I have been under. I remember I couldn't even do something like buy batteries for my gov issue flashlight, yet this one has a massive pay increase for Congress. Oh, and also a section guaranteeing that Congress doesn't have to go on Obamacare.

I also like how everyone on the left is blaming Elon for doing this a "shadow President". He literally only provided a platform (X), where review of the 1500+ pages was crowdsourced to find all this ridiculous stuff in them. Were it not for the platform of free and uncensored information, this would likely have passed in the dead of night with the "You have to [pass it to see what's in it" methodology.

https://twitchy.com/brettt/2024/12/18/rep-nancy-mace-calls-out-some-of-the-orwellian-wordplay-in-the-cr-n2405418

[WLJ]

Eric Daugherty
@EricLDaugh
🚨 NEW: Senator Rand Paul suggests electing Elon Musk as House Speaker to "disrupt the swamp."

Is this a good idea?

https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1869736881996652904

[AZRedhawk44]

Elon can't speak.  Stutters more than an autist with a pound of sugar in his bloodstream.

[MechAg94]

Elon can't speak.  Stutters more than an autist with a pound of sugar in his bloodstream.

Yes, we need a good smooth talking speaker we can trust like Dan Rather. 

[Bogie]

Espresso machines in the hallway then!

[WLJ]

'Elon On The Shelf' Installed In All Congressional Offices To Remind Lawmakers To Be Efficient
https://babylonbee.com/news/elon-on-the-shelf-installed-in-all-congressional-offices-to-remind-lawmakers-to-be-efficient

[zahc]

SS, like many federal programs, COULD be run competently as a national retirement pension. The fact that it's not is not surprising because our government is dysfunctional. But it doesn't mean SS itself is as irredeemable as it in fact is.

Healthcare is similar. There's nothing fundamentally wrong about our healthcare system. It's just not run competently. And all the people who think if we change to a completely different system it will get better are probably wrong, because that one won't be run any better. If you are unable to reform the current system, that indicates you will fail any other system. And late stage America seems unable to reform anything.

[Ben]

SS, like many federal programs, COULD be run competently as a national retirement pension.

Sure, if Vanguard or whoever ran it, SS would possibly be at a surplus. I've given Vanguard way less of my money than I have SS and make way more than social security pays me. They would have to be able to run it as an investment fund though.

[Ben]

Seems like bad timing for dem staffers to be demanding a 32 hour work week. As many of the comments mentioned, they might even be able to negotiate themselves to a zero hour work week.

https://twitchy.com/grateful-calvin/2025/01/17/how-about-zero-hours-capitol-hill-staffers-demand-a-32-hour-work-week-n2406763

[Bogie]

Hmmm... Cut at least one layer of "management" across the board in every agency - I'm guessing that would boost efficiency right there.

[HankB]

Hmmm... Cut at least one layer of "management" across the board in every agency - I'm guessing that would boost efficiency right there.

I worked for a company that did that by promoting all supervisors to manager level.