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Re: Trump's claims about 100+ yr olds scamming social security



Well, the Musk rats are coders. Why don't they just fix the COBOL code? > From: Noelle <noelle> > Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2025 06:59:28 -0800 (PST) > > “We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable > fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our > seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, > government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from > people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from > ages 110 to 119. I don't know any of them. I know some people that > are rather elderly, but not quite. 3.47 million people from ages 120 > to 129, 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139, 3.5 million people > from ages 140 to 149. …” > > This is false. Trump’s riff continued until he got to the end —“one > person between the age of 240 and 249 and one person listed at 360 > years of age.” His numbers roughly mirrored figures posted on social > media by billionaire Elon Musk, who is slashing government programs > with a shock team of assistants that has been dubbed the Department > of Government Efficiency. > > As The Washington Post has reported, this is largely a coding issue. > The Social Security Administration maintains its databases using > COBOL, a nearly 70-year-old computer programming language that > doesn’t have a standardized way to store and work with dates. Often > a default date is chosen, most commonly May 20, 1875, if no birth > date is known. > > As is often the case with Trump’s claims, there is an existing > government report that would have cleared up matters. > > A 2023 report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector > general found that virtually every beneficiary who lacked a birth > date had died. Of the 18.9 million people with Social Security > numbers born in 1920 or earlier with no record of their deaths, the > report said “approximately 18.4 million (98 percent) number holders > are not currently receiving SSA payments and have not had earnings > reported to SSA in the past 50 years.”


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