Dear Rusty:
Re: Your column posted May 21, 2025, entitled “Will ‘DOGE’ Hurt our Social Security or Medicare Benefits?”
As National Social Security Advisor at the AMAC Foundation, the non-profit arm of the Association of Mature American Citizens, you present your mission as: “answer all inquiries from anyone with questions about Social Security and enrollment in Medicare.”
I have questions, based on your column.
You say, “The important thing to remember is that DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) is seeking only to discover fraud and government waste.”
Question: “When you say ‘ONLY,’ do you mean DOGE are (were) not authorized to ACT on the information they uncover, like letting government employees go, firing them, cancelling contracts, withholding authorized funds, and shutting down offices? And if DOGE WAS NOT authorized, who did these things?”
You say, “Everything we have seen thus far indicates that DOGE’s efforts have identified opportunities for reducing fraud and waste at the Social Security Administration.”
QUESTION: “In that ‘everything’ you’ve seen, does that include a listing of indictments for fraud, since defrauding a government institution is ILLEGAL? If you have that information from DOGE, can you share it? Because I have not seen ONE instance of a person being charged for waste, fraud, OR abuse in ANY of the government entities DOGE has examined.”
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION: “In the FRAUD (and/or waste and abuse) that DOGE has supposedly uncovered, is this only by government employees, or does it include SS and Medicare recipients who have been defrauding the government? When will we see these criminals be prosecuted?”
You say, “Our expectation is that DOGE’s efforts will tend to help the Social Security Administration become more efficient but not endanger anyone’s Social Security benefits.”
QUESTION: “Do you at AMAC consider that drastically cutting staff and eliminating departments like those handling SS calls and inquiries does not “endanger” any benefits? Is it true, or fake news, that DOGE eliminated VA suicide crisis lines? Can you guarantee/assure us that DOGE had not gathered personal private information on all Social Security and Medicare ‘customers,’ and will not share that information with any other entity?”
You say, “DOGE is very transparent and posts everything they find on this website: www.doge.gov.”
QUESTION: “FIRST, the site says “We are working to upload all of our receipts.” This means, no “transparency” as of yet. SECOND, a great many of DOGE’s line items are marked “unavailable for legal reasons,” again, far short of “transparency.” THIRD, the bottom line lists a total savings of $175 Billion. When Elon Musk first took on the management of DOGE, he told us that he was confident he would “save” over $2 Trillion by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse from government. Even so, the less than 10% of the goal performance should have yielded hundreds if not thousands of cases of fraud. Where is DOGE’s accounting for all this crime??”
You say, “The reality is that our government is over $36 trillion in debt, and that debt is growing, which is an unsustainable financial path for our country.”
QUESTION: “Is AMAC not just a “watchdog” for Social Security and Medicare, but also experts in all spending and revenue policies?”
You say, “Rest assured that here at the AMAC Foundation we are watching all current DOGE efforts…”
Honest answers to my questions will help us “rest assured.”
Jeff Harrison
Buffalo, TX
