Recently much has been said about the impact DOGE is having on the Social Security Administration. Bloomberg reported back in March that Musk had tapped three individuals representing private equity firms to assist him in this effort.
Privatization of SSA has been a goal since 1996, and now private equity has gained a beachhead at the SSA. Additionally, the incoming nominee who has no experience in this area, billionaire Frank Bisignano, is known as a Wall Street “fixer” and cost cutter.
SSA is anything but wasteful with less than one penny of every dollar spent on administration, an efficiency unheard-of in the private sector. Yet despite this the agency is enduring a smear campaign by The White House.
We have seen what private equity acquisitions have done to hospice and nursing homes where these takeovers resulted in 20,000 premature deaths over a 12-year period, according to a 2023 paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Labeling the SSA full of fraud, closing offices and firing employees who assist the public is a red herring concocted by the administration and enacted by DOGE. Perhaps the goal is to damage the agency to such an extent that the push to privatize will be that much easier, the same as what is happening with the U.S. Postal Service.
Where is the efficiency if the American public pays more but gets less? But then maybe that was the plan all along and we are just now really getting to see it.
Pam Rule
Montrose
