DOGE and the gang of teenage mutants descended on the Social Security Administration demanding control of all the SSA records. Almost every man, woman and child in the United States has a Social Security number. These records contain identifying information i.e. Social Security number, name, date of birth, place of birth, parents, work history, the amount that you have paid into the system in addition to the payment records of over 70 million people drawing Social Security and Supplemental Security income. This information could be used to set up bank accounts, drain your bank accounts, obtain credit cards, obtain loans and commit a multitude of frauds with your information.

Michelle King, acting commissioner of Social Security, refused to give up this valuable information and was forced to resign. The Trump administration replaced her and it is not sure if DOGE obtained the information. Ms. King was simply following the oath that she took to protect the privacy of all records. When I was hired by SSA in 1968, I took the same oath to keep private the information that I learned about the lives of the people that I interviewed.  In my job I found embarrassing information about people, but I never discussed this with anyone including other SSA employees.

Undeterred, Musk continued his assault on the truth by saying that there are 20 million people over 100 years old drawing Social Security – over 3 million were 145-150 years old. In addition, he stated checks are being sent to millions of dead people. In 1996-99, a list of people over 100 years old was sent to each Social Security manager. We were required to interview these folks and publish stories about their lives. Some of my articles were published in this paper. Most of the centenarians were in nursing homes or living with relatives but all were under the care of doctors and were using Medicare and Medicaid. The conclusion was if they were over 95 years old and no history of medical treatment within six months – RED FLAGS WENT UP.

Also, SSA worked out an agreement with each state to interface the state death records with SSA records. If someone died the information was sent to SSA and SSA checked the Social Security Number against entitlement records. There are many more checks by SSA. There may be a few that slip by these checks and many more that SSA performs but not millions as claimed.

It is amazing that a large portion of the population will accept the Musk/DOGE claims as facts simply because he is multi-billionaire and never check to see if any of this is true. Think for yourself and as my Mama told me – use your head for something besides a hat rack.    

Sherman Meadows

Columbus