We are often treated to hallucinatory storylines by the legacy media and their allies the Democrats. This one I have not understood at all. We have been told for years by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that our federal government has experienced immense fraud annually of $300 billion or more. That was accelerated by the money flushed out by COVID packages and the trillions of dollars handed out by the Biden Administration. We have a $2 trillion annual deficit yet the attempts to stop the hemorrhaging are perceived as dangerous or authoritarian.
President Trump asked this generation’s premier business leader to aid in the fight. Elon Musk was branded the evilest person on the planet. Stories were told of Musk using 20-year-old shock troops to terrify our wonderful public employees and cut programs that were causing death and destruction around the planet.
That narrative changed completely on March 27th. Bret Baier, who anchors Fox News’ nightly news show, Special Report, interviewed Elon Musk and seven of his DOGE team leaders. Each leader has a proven track record in business and left significant positions in private industry to help in this effort. One of them — Tyler Hassan, Basin Energy CEO — said he had been running five separate companies and decided to step away to help.
The others were 1. Steve Davis, Boring Company President; 2. Joe Gebbia, Airbnb Co-Founder; 3. Aram Moghaddassi, NeuroLink Software Engineer; 4. Brad Smith, Russell Street Ventures CEO; 5. Anthony Armstrong, Morgan Stanley Banker; and 6. Tom Krause, Cloud Software Group. They are working in distinct areas of our government and told their own stories.
One of the overarching themes was the government’s archaic and dysfunctional technology systems. Brad Smith is assigned to work with the Department of Health and Human Services. It has the largest budget with 25.4% of our $7 trillion budget. He stated there are 700 different IT systems just at the National Institute of Health, and they do not communicate with each other. There are 27 different centers created over time and each one has their own Chief Information Officer.
Mr. Smith has a particular goal in mind regarding university scientists receiving grants. Today, out of every $100 received, the scientist receives $60 to do their work and the university receives the other $40. That cut could be considered for “overhead” or perhaps their “vig” (share). Smith wants to change that split to 85% for research and 15% for the vig to the Deans at the university.
The Democrats have repeatedly accused DOGE of attacking Medicare and Social Security. Chuckie Schumer stated, “The goal is clear, destroy Social Security from within.” Aram Moghaddassi is working at SSA. One of the things that is occurring is related to people receiving social security benefits which are almost exclusively direct deposited into the beneficiary’s bank account. Every day people contact the SSA to change their direct deposit information. Forty percent of the changes are made by fraudsters. Forty percent. The SSA doesn’t have proper controls to stop this. I ask you: who is trying to destroy social security — DOGE or Schumer? Even the Washington Post stated the SSA website crashed four times in ten days this past month.
You may have heard there were a lot of really old people on the social security website. Steve Davis stated more than 15 million people over the age of 120 years old listed as “alive.” He verified that it is an accurate figure. Whether any or all are receiving benefits is not clear, but maybe they should clear the deadwood (so to speak).
The Social Security database is used to verify who is filing their tax returns. You cannot file an electronically filed tax return (the method predominantly used) without matching the exact name and birth date of all people on the return. But the database is not used for other proper purposes. This is because the dysfunctional computer systems do not speak to one another.
For example, the Small Business Administration gives out loans and does not verify whether the people are proper individuals to receive those loans. DOGE found that over $300 million in SBA loans were given out to people under the age of 11 years old. There has been another $300 million given to people over the age of 120 years old. The youngest recipient of a loan is nine months old. That baby will have a defaulted SBA loan on their credit report for a long, long time.
There are so many other loans that were given out to fraudsters that have not yet to be determined. Anthony Armstrong stated the problem is the government has multiple computer systems that don’t interact. If they did, they would be able to eliminate a large amount of this fraud. Musk said the failure to communicate between computer systems allows for a fraudster to potentially get unemployment and disability using a deceased person’s name.
The discussion then lurched into the financial structure. Tom Krause, a former CFO of a major tech company, found there is one bank account that writes all the checks for 580 agencies. There are basically no standard business-like controls for sending out a check. As seen with how various different individuals are getting checks, just think how larger checks are going out to major entities without proper review.
Possibly the most stunning story was the one told by Steve Davis. There were 4.6 million credit cards for 2.3 million federal employees. Wrap your head around that. Davis stated DOGE has successfully whittled that down to 2.3 million. That means, in effect, that every janitor and security guard have a credit card. One might say they are the only people who should have credit cards. Do you think the expenditures on those credit cards are being reviewed for propriety? Don’t bet your house on that. DOGE has shown there is still a lot of work to do.
I believe these people and their fellow volunteers have just begun to scratch the surface. There were more stunning stories just from this 30+ minute interview. As Musk stated, the people who are whining the most about the process are typically the fraudsters. If you want to see what is being done to keep our country from financial destruction you can follow yourself at https://doge.gov/ .
