A Scalpel, Not a Hatchet

As a retired surgeon who is now on Social Security and Medicare, I know the difference

I suggest you avoid reading this post and simply view the video above. It is certainly worth the 38 minutes of your time it will take and you owe to yourself to get the real story from DOGE itself.

The crying and gnashing of teeth from the democrats is over the top, even by their lofty standards. We have a parade of Senators sounding off regarding the Department of Government Efficiency, now universally referred to as DOGE (pronounced like “dowzh”). You would think we are witnessing the rise of a faceless bureaucratic entity- think IRS, USPS- but one that is an existential threat to our country, democracy, and humanity in general. Heck, a threat to the universe as we know it!

Chuck Schumer (net worth: $81 million) says, “I’m here to sound the alarm on their (DOGE) plan to cut Social Security in New York to the bone. This administration is intent on slashing Social Security so they can get more tax breaks to their billionaire buddies. It’s outrageous, the callousness, the meanness, the viciousness of what they are doing. Their goal is clear: destroy Social Security from within.”

Ellizabeth Warren (net worth: $8 million) decries closure of Social Security offices and long lines with only a couple of government employees to handle the load. But wait! No offices have been closed so far, so things are running as they usually do, lines and all. Rather than just closed, some offices will be consolidated into others or moved in local federal facilities. Remember, the “E” in DOGE stands for efficiency. “What Elon Musk and Donald Trump, our co-presidents, are doing right now is effectively cutting the benefits that people were promised and they are making people suffer all across this country. It is wrong.”

The DOGE team presents an appalling picture of government waste and inefficiency, including an astounding revelation that retirement of government employees is still managed by paper stored in a mine in Pennsylvania (6:15 in the video) which has remained unchanged for over 70 years! You have to hear this.

With respect to Social Security, listen to Aram Moghaddassi, a DOGE soft-ware engineer talk about the government computers that manage social security and the inefficiency of the phone system for recipients. He relates that an astounding 40% of calls to Social Security to change direct deposit information are from fraudsters. (9:00 in the video).

Much has been made of the 15 million people on the Social Security rolls who are over 120-years-old as confirmed by Steve Davis, Chief Operating Officer of DOGE (12:25 in the video). The democrats, the left, and all who decry DOGE claim that this is absurd and DOGE is exaggerating or simply making this up. Surely, they say, the government is not providing benefits to this many people of this age. They miss the point. DOGE is not claiming this many people listed as over 120-years-old are receiving Social Security payments. The actual number of persons over 115 in the world, much less the US is measured in the tens, not millions. The problem with such slipshod record keeping is that all those 15 million Social Security numbers remain active, even if no benefits are being given. They can be used by hackers and fraudsters to open bank accounts, apply for credit cards, and seek refunds on tax returns, among other nefarious uses. That these persons have been on the rolls since 2008 is beyond incompetence.

Opponents of DOGE claim that the Trump administration is going through the agencies like a bull in a China shop or, as the left is fond to point, with a chain saw. The video of Musk hoisting a chain saw at a rally is presented as something other than political showmanship. Anthony Armstrong, DOGE, Office of Personnel Management stated unequivocally, “President Trump was very clear- scalpel, not hatchet, and that’s the way it’s getting done.”

I just don’t get it. I did not come from money. I worked hard as a physician for over forty years to provide for my family. I saved and invested to give my wife and me a comfortable retirement. We deferred vacations, lived on a budget, bought used or medium price cars, and paid off a mortgage over twenty years. I put three children through college and two through graduate school and they all paid some of their way. I paid my taxes without fail. I have known all of my adult life that the federal government is inefficient and wasteful, and often uses my taxes for things I do not approve of. Even so, as a citizen I accept that no government is perfect and taxes are a fact of life. When I learn of the billions, even trillions, of our tax dollars that are wasted on things that have nothing to do with running our country competently and efficiently, I see red (no pun intended). To learn that my tax dollars are funding things so absurd that nobody with a smidge of common sense could justify them, I cannot understand the insane, virulent pushback against DOGE. For the first time in my life, a president is actually trying to keep his promise to his voters to reign in profligate spending and DOGE is doing an amazing job. Musk admits mistakes will be made, but promises to own up to them and, more important, correct them.

Finally, as to the indiscriminate firing of federal employees, most are not fired but rather offered early retirement, including deferred retirement, severance with long term benefits to assist them in finding other work. So far, only 0.15% of federal employees have been released. Once the decisions are made, there is a “focus on being generous, being caring, being compassionate, and treating everyone with dignity and respect. (17:30 in the video)

The efforts at transparency as evidenced by the real time data posting on http://doge.gov are unprecedented.

DOGE opponents would have you believe the DOGE team consists of a bunch of twenty-something nerds in cargo pants with ball caps on backwards toting their skateboards and Red Bulls to work, happily accessing sensitive information, and discarding programs and firing people indiscriminately. Take at look at the persons around Musk in the interview, listen to them, and tell me he has not assembled a crackerjack group of brilliant people who have willingly given of their time and talents to help make our country great again. I wish them Godspeed and all success.

Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS

My book, The Making of a Plastic Surgeon- Two Years in the Crucible Learning the Art and Science, is now available on Amazon in eBook or paperback. It provides a unique glimpse into a fascinating and misunderstood medical specialty.