New Social Security Bill is a Warning to D.O.G.E.

Congress irresponsibly expanded Social Security benefits last week. Its passage should alarm Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and all supporters of D.O.G.E., who should seek BRAC-like status.

Consistent with the Christmas season, Congress has long learned that it is better to give and to take away.

I know, I know, the adage is that “it’s better to give than receive.” But Congress being Congress™, they’ve figured, “Why not both?” But as if we’ve needed more evidence, Congress may never be in the mood to trim federal spending or make overdue reforms to keep Social Security retirement solvent for some 60 million current and millions more future retirees.

Congress’s overwhelming and bipartisan support last week for the misnamed Social Security Fairness Act, championed by retiring US Rep. and possibly my future Governor, Abigail Spanberger (D-VA), US Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA), and others, should alarm those leading and supporting the Donald Trump-blessed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. DOGE is a clever acronym that harkens to the “DogeCoin” a Shiba Inu-symbolized cryptocurrency largely inspired by Musk. As we all know, the abbreviation DOGE is a proposed presidential advisory enterprise led by Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual and former biotech entrepreneur, former Presidential candidate, and fellow billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. 

Neither has any inside government experience but has extensive experience dealing with government agencies, from the FDA to the FAA. They and dozens of others serve as volunteers—“high-IQ revolutionaries”—to eliminate or reform programs, functions, regulatory procedures, and even agencies not authorized or directed by Congress. From the dogegov.com website:

Our mission is to decentralize the narrative around government spending, giving power back to the people to hold government entities accountable for their financial decisions. We leverage the power and virality of memes, community and cryptocurrency culture, in an effort to make government transparency not only accessible but also engaging. Through awareness, education, and direct involvement, our community is our strength. Together, we will navigate towards a future where government efficiency is not just a goal but a standard.

DOGE has generated a lot of excitement from those of us fed up with bloated, indecisive, self-serving, and unaccountable government agencies and the minions who run and staff them. Caucuses have sprung up in the House and Senate, including one led by US Sen. Joni “Make ‘em Squeal” Ernst (R-IA), to coordinate efforts with Musk and Ramaswamy and help win support from recalcitrant colleagues for reforms that might need Congressional approval. A couple of Democratic House members have signed on.

Suggestions are pouring in from various quarters that some claim could save hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of taxpayer dollars over a decade, maybe less. Some are small potatoes - seemingly silly government studies - to big reforms, including our military procurement process and its historical penchant for $600 toilet seats and $7,000 aircraft coffee makers.

According to a Wall Street Journal op-ed penned by Musk and Ramaswamy, they are hanging their hat on a couple of recent Supreme Court decisions that trimmed the sails of the federal regulatory process, including Loper Bright vs. Raimondo, which eviscerated the infamous Chevron doctrine. That led to courts deferring to agency “expertise” when rules were challenged. No longer.

Even more important is West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency, a case successfully advanced by the Mountaineer State’s newly-elected Governor, outgoing Attorney General Patrick Morrissey (R). The Supreme Court agreed with West Virginia that federal agencies “can’t impose regulations dealing with major economic or policy questions unless Congress specifically authorizes them to do so.”

West Virginia Governor-elect Patrick Morrissey

As a side note, no state cast a greater percentage of its presidential vote for Donald Trump than West “By God” Virginia in 2024, over 22 percent higher than the national norm. 

Enter the Social Security Fairness Act, which Congress approved unanimously last week with tremendous support from entities such as the National Education Association and many government retiree groups. By the time you read this on Christmas Eve, Joe Biden or his auto pen will likely have signed it into law as a very lovely Christmas present to 2.4 million retired public employees, at your expense.

For Spanberger, it’s a sop to the Democratic base vote in government employee-rich northern Virginia, which should help her with any forthcoming primary contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2025. Incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) is in his last year and can’t run for reelection. Spanberger delivered, with GOP help, and now she hopes to reap the electoral benefit, starting with an estimated 50,000 grateful retired public employees in my Commonwealth.

As I wrote last month, the argument for the bill is that people who pay into Social Security should get the same benefit, regardless of prior public service exempt from the program. However, in 1983, as President Ronald Reagan and bipartisan congressional leaders worked to save Social Security from impending bankruptcy, they wanted to include government employees in a system they’d been excluded from. Public employee unions argued that their members were already paying into very generous pension programs and should be exempt from Social Security contributions.

So they devised a compromise: Public employees can remain outside of Social Security and not pay into the system, but any future benefits from contributions made while they worked elsewhere would be curtailed. Why? Because Social Security is an income transfer program. It’s not a “savings” program. There’s no “account” with your name on it. There never was. You’re just a number that helps track how much you’ve paid in and what you’re entitled to when you qualify for benefits. You must pay into the system for at least 40 “quarters” (10 years) supporting other retirees in order to qualify for retirement benefits. Some of us have paid into Social Security for much longer.

After years of running surpluses, Social Security and Medicare are now running big deficits.

So now, these public employees, who didn’t pay a dime into Social Security for years, if not decades, will get the same benefits as the rest of us who have, if they’ve launched a second career in the private sector. Meanwhile, that will hasten Social Security’s impending bankruptcy by at least one year. That makes the need for reforms even more urgent, if not more painful, as my friend Charles Blahous, a former Social Security and Medicare Trustee, testified before the House Ways and Means Committee in April.

Congress’s irresponsibility makes avoiding an immediate 23-25% cut in Social Security benefits for 60 million current retirees within a decade more likely and more challenging. This is a sad but fitting end to the dismal and failed 118th Congress. 

It should also inform Musk, Ramaswamy, and their DOGE colleagues that cutting and reforming programs with a constituency will be a considerable challenge.

How should they respond? Congress's forthcoming Budget and Reconciliation process should give DOGE BRAC-like powers, making it harder for politicians to protect wasteful spending.

Okay, that was a mouthful. Let’s unpack that with help from Wikiwand.

BRAC-like refers to the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act of 1990, which provided "the basic framework for the transfer and disposal of military installations closed during the base realignment and closure (BRAC) process.” The process was created in 1988 to reduce the pork-barrel politics with members of Congress that arise when facilities face activity reductions.

The most recent process began May 13, 2005, when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld forwarded his recommendations for realignments and closures to the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission. The BRAC is an independent nine-member panel appointed by the President. This panel evaluated the list by taking testimony from interested parties and visiting affected bases. The BRAC Commission had the opportunity to add bases to the list and did so in a July 19, 2005, hearing. The Commission met its deadline of September 2005 to provide the evaluated list to the President, who approved the list with the condition that it could only be approved or disapproved in its entirety. On November 7, 2005, the approved list was then given to Congress, who had the opportunity to disapprove the entire list within 45 days by enacting a resolution of disapproval. This did not happen, and the BRAC Commission's recommendations became final.

By adopting BRAC-like authority, with a few modifications, DOGE has a better chance of getting its reforms through Congress or at least past it. This would require giving DOGE legal status, as BRAC had, with “commissioners” appointed by the President.

This can only be done by including it in a forthcoming budget resolution and subsequent “reconciliation” bills (there can be more than one) to reconcile spending and tax issues. Under the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act, Congress expedites budget and “reconciliation” bills free of the Senate’s supermajority “filibuster” rule. There are limits on what can be included (no “policy” matters), debate (30 hours), amendments, and an up-or-down simple majority vote. The bills can’t dictate policy but must focus on appropriations and tax issues. A well-crafted DOGE provision with BRAC-like powers should qualify, focusing not on policy but on reducing expenditures.

Oh, one thing about the Senate’s rules with “reconciliation.” They can’t touch Social Security so that it may be off-limits to the DOGE crowd.

With his popularity at its highest, President Trump will reenter the White House with a Congress nominally controlled by Republicans. There are plans to move quickly on a budget resolution and reconciliation bill (or two). President Trump will launch the process under law with a proposed budget. He should ask Congress to include BRAC-like powers for DOGE and move quickly to appoint or nominate any “commissioners” needed to lead it. Musk and Ramaswamy can probably still direct the process from the outside free of being named to the commission.

Unless four Republicans join the Democrats in the Senate, they won’t be able to filibuster it. Without it, agency heads will implement whatever DOGE recommends at their whim and under the tender mercies of congressional appropriators.

It certainly is better to give than receive or “cut,” but a $36 trillion and growing federal debt being serviced at $1 trillion annually makes that adage beyond obsolete.