Image Source: Vivek Ramaswamy, via AI image generation – Public Domain

Yesterday the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that it was reversing plans to eliminate the option of providing service over the phone. This was a response to a public outcry over the proposed policy. The reason for the outcry was that many older people (the type most likely to get Social Security benefits) are distrustful and uncomfortable with the Internet. They therefore rely on telephone service for things like arranging direct deposit of their Social Security benefits. (SSA is still not allowing changes to direct deposit over the phone, contrary to what I wrote in an earlier version.)

SSA should be applauded for reversing an obviously wrongheaded policy, but it is worth asking how it ever came up with the idea of eliminating phone service to begin with. Apparently, this was one of the efficiency enhancing measures that the “super-high IQ” DOGE team developed. This is a great example of how the ostensible “efficiency” being pushed by Elon Musk and his DOGE team has little to do with actually promoting efficiency in government.

There are some simple and obvious points that we can say about government efficiency. First, we have a $7 trillion federal budget. That fact means that we can be absolutely certain that there is some waste, fraud, and abuse. We also can be sure that some of the 2.4 million workers employed by the federal government are lazy and/or incompetent, just as we can be certain that some of the 154 million workers employed in........

© CounterPunch