On today’s show: The top Social Security official exited after a clash with Elon Musk’s DOGE over data. The Washington Post’s Jacob Bogage explains what is happening. Are 150-year-old Americans receiving Social Security checks, as Elon Musk said? Poynter examines the claim. Trump proposed eliminating FEMA and putting states in charge of disaster response. Politico reports red states don’t like that idea. Counter-narcotics programs in Mexico are suffering because of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid. Reuters’s Laura Gottesdiener explains the reporting. Plus, Trump signs an executive order aimed at making IVF treatment more affordable. Israel and Hamas agreed to expedite a hostage and prisoner release by one week. And how did everyone survive the Delta plane crash in Toronto? Today’s episode was hosted by Shumita Basu.
Chapter 1: What recent changes are impacting the Social Security Administration?
But first, to the Social Security Administration, where the acting commissioner resigned over the weekend after members of Elon Musk's government efficiency team requested access to the agency's internal data. That includes things like employment information, financial data and medical records.
Jacob Bogage, The Washington Post's congressional economic correspondent, told us who has been tapped to step in and temporarily lead the agency. Leland Dudek, who managed Social Security's anti-fraud office.
By all accounts, Leland Dudek was very qualified to do what he did in anti-fraud protection and social security. But I've talked to folks in and around social security leadership about him, and their first question was, who are you talking to me about? Who is this guy? No one really knows.
The Post reports that Dudek had posted positive remarks on social media about Musk's efforts to cut costs at federal agencies before he was tapped for this role, which is, again, a temporary one. President Trump's pick to lead the agency long term, Frank Bisignano, still has to go through a Senate confirmation process.
The Social Security Administration is responsible for managing pension payments to more than 70 million Americans. Musk says he's uncovered widespread waste and fraud at the agency, though neither he nor the White House have yet shared evidence to support those claims.
During a press conference from the Oval Office last week, Musk said his team found examples of people receiving Social Security benefits when they shouldn't have been.
We've got people in there that are 150 years old. Now, do you know anyone who's 150? I don't. Okay. They should be on the Guinness Book of World Records.
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Chapter 2: Are 150-year-old Americans really receiving Social Security checks?
Bogach told us Musk is most likely misreading the agency's data because of a quirk in how birthdates are coded in its very old programming language.
And in the absence of a birthdate, it defaults to the year 1875, which is 150 years ago.
Chapter 3: Is Elon Musk correct about fraud in Social Security?
That was the year of an international standards-setting conference.
So if you had someone who maybe immigrated to this country and their birth date was in dispute or there wasn't accurate record keeping because maybe there was a home birth. Maybe those records weren't accurate or weren't immediately available when they were assigned a social security number. Their default age in some cases is 150.
The U.S. already has a policy, which has been in place for a decade, that blocks Social Security payments for anyone in the system recorded as being 115 years or older. The Social Security Inspector General released an audit last year that found from 2015 to 2022, the agency paid almost $8.6 trillion in benefits.
Of those, less than 1% of payments, which is just shy of $72 billion, were classified as improper. They typically involved Social Security recipients getting too much money.
As another round of brutal winter weather hits a large portion of the country, millions of people are preparing for potential disasters, especially in Kentucky, where a winter storm arrived last night on the heels of deadly flooding over the weekend that caused the deaths of at least 14 people.
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Chapter 4: What would happen if FEMA was eliminated?
That flooding prompted the Trump administration to authorize a disaster declaration for the state, which unlocked resources and funding from FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. President Trump floated the idea of eliminating FEMA altogether during a trip last month to areas in North Carolina damaged by Hurricane Helene.
I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think we're going to recommend that FEMA go away.
Trump stopped short of closing down FEMA altogether, but signed an executive order creating a council to review its operations. Trump has said disaster aid should be managed by states instead. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, who is a Democrat, says shuttering FEMA would be a very bad idea. His state has seen 12 federal disaster declarations since 2019 for tornadoes, flooding and storms.
Here's Beshear talking with CBS News on Monday.
Chapter 5: How is Kentucky preparing for disasters with FEMA support?
I've been outspoken on the need for FEMA. We've been through the worst tornadoes in our lifetime in 2021 that killed 81 Kentuckians. We've been through the worst flooding of our lifetime, worse than what you're seeing right now in 2022. We have suffered loss and we have suffered damage at a scale that I'm not sure a single generation of Kentuckians have ever seen. And FEMA's been there.
Does FEMA need to be fixed in many ways? Yes.
FEMA was created in 1979 by Jimmy Carter and became part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. The agency essentially works with states before and during disasters. Local officials can apply for disaster declarations, which a president has to approve. That then unlocks federal funds for things like emergency response, debris removal, and restoring infrastructure.
It also earmarks money for people who need help in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. FEMA has been somewhat of a maligned agency. It famously bungled relief efforts during Hurricane Katrina. And recently, similar criticisms have popped up over its response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, which hit North Carolina and Florida last year.
That prompted some residents in North Carolina to say they would be fine if President Trump did away with FEMA.
I mean, honestly, it didn't. It's not helped a lot of us around here. So even if he got rid of FEMA, it wouldn't hurt or help us in any way.
That's Emily Russell, whose home was badly damaged by Hurricane Helene, speaking to the Associated Press. She said she was quick to file for help from FEMA.
I thought we were going to be lucky and get help from them because I filed it right away. We had an inspector out here within the first two or three weeks.
But, she said, the process stalled, leaving parts of her claim pending or outright rejected.
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