DOGE plans to rebuild the Social Security Administration COBAL code base in months. Doing so is a danger to benefits and could cause a system collapse. [More inside] (archive.ph)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by InevitableSwing@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.

65 million people in the US currently receive Social Security benefits. They're considering Java as a replacement.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.

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SSA’s core “logic” is also written largely in COBOL. This is the code that issues social security numbers, manages payments, and even calculates the total amount beneficiaries should receive for different services, a former senior SSA technologist who worked in the office of the chief information officer says. Even minor changes could result in cascading failures across programs.

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[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 18 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Today I saw a post by a dem house rep and he said Hegseth "must resign". It was laughable. What Hegseth and others did was clearly a crime. That chat was just one example and the public happened to learn about it by chance. Plus Trump and company are clearly using Signal to hide their activities as they commit crimes all over the place and as they plan who-knows-what.

When it comes to Social Security - if Doge does even a bit of what they say they plan to - the results will be catastrophic. It will have a direct and crushing impact tens of millions of Americans. Yet even here the dems are abject and pathetic. The dems are not an opposition party. They aren't even a political party. They are just a group of entitled idiots who keep saying what "must" happen. They are Uvalde cops.

I hope one day a post goes viral and Americans in large numbers finally learn the term "the controlled opposition".

[-] Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida@hexbear.net 11 points 5 days ago

Dems only care about Trump making mistakes in not doing imperialism respectably because they're a party of neocons. Just like the Bush Administration, they want to get rid of Social Security but, have enough tact left in them to let someone else take the blame for doing so.

[-] Llituro@hexbear.net 10 points 5 days ago

For a second they seemed like they wanted to be bratty sub opposition but now they're just squarely set to be whiny voyeurs.

[-] InevitableSwing@hexbear.net 8 points 5 days ago

I'm imagining a scene in a small DC rock/punk club.

"Hey, everybody! We're all Democratic party aides... But don't hold that against us. Haha. In all seriousness this is our very first gig. Please be kind. We are Bratty Sub Opposition..."