“Numident” might be the most important federal database you’ve never heard of.
It’s the Social Security Administration’s master dataset, and it contains the personal information of every American ever registered with Social Security, including names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and the names of people’s parents. Think of it as proof of your existence.
This file is cross-indexed against other massive databases like the Master Earnings File, which documents lifetime data on people’s wages and employment history.
Now imagine all this information in the hands of a private company. Or a hostile foreign power. Or at the disposal of government officials bent on revenge against political enemies.
It may very well have happened already.
Earlier this year, a federal whistleblower alleged that a former employee of Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” uploaded sensitive Social Security data to a “personal device,” according to congressional investigators on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Worse yet, this former worker “may also have the ability to remotely manipulate millions of Americans’ Social Security data,” said ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia in a statement on the investigation.
This means, for instance, that employment histories could disappear or be altered, depriving people of benefits or causing problems with the IRS. The opportunities for identity theft are infinite. “It’s absolutely terrifying,” says the Brookings Institution’s Elaine Kamarck.
Unfortunately, this breach is just one of many instances of reckless and destructive behavior under DOGE, whose year-long rampage through the federal government could take decades to undo. In a recent report for Third Way, Kamarck documented half a dozen areas where DOGE has vastly undermined—or sabotaged—the federal government’s capacity to keep Americans safe.
This includes, for instance, firing spies on the lookout for terrorism, ending grants to make the grid more resilient, and eliminating weather balloons for tracking storms. Kamarck calls these “time bombs” that are ticking down toward the destruction of crucial government services.
In this week’s preview of the Monthly podcast, which you can watch here, Kamarck describes some of the arrogance and ignorance that have accompanied DOGE’s demolition derby. She also talks about her own work for a much better effort at bureaucratic reform in the 1990s, “Reinventing Government.”
In stark contrast to DOGE, “REGO” was thoughtful, systematic, and put citizens’ needs first. It also saved money, which DOGE has also failed to do. In fact, DOGE has so far cost taxpayers $135 billion, according to one analysis.
It’s turned out to be a very poor bargain.
Don’t miss at the Monthly…
American universities in decline. Conservatives’ relentless attacks on higher education are taking their toll on America’s pre-eminence. As The Hechinger Report’s Jon Marcus writes: “Top scholars are leaving. Fewer international students are coming. U.S. universities are slipping in international rankings. And American universities have failed to keep pace as other countries pour resources into their higher education systems.” Read here.
All in a name. The raging internecine battle between “centrist” Democrats and “socialists” could ultimately be mostly semantics. Large majorities of Democrats, regardless of their stated ideology—as well as much of the broader public—support many of the priorities that the progressive left advocates. But equally large numbers dislike calling any of these ideas “socialist,” writes Politics Editor Bill Scher. As a consequence, Bill argues, “there’s little reason for the Democratic Party to embrace the socialist label as they pursue progressive policies.” Rather, he says, “the more Democrats can focus on the vast terrain where liberals and moderates agree, the better off they will be come November.” Read here.
Will “Workforce Pell” deliver? One of the few (very few) bright spots in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by Congress last summer was the expansion of federal funding for short-term job training programs (i.e., “Workforce Pell”). It’s a potential boon for workers displaced by AI or who want to improve their prospects. But the program’s promises could prove hollow if states can’t build the systems the law requires to ensure that programs have value. “Workforce Pell is a genuine and overdue expansion of opportunity,” writes the Progressive Policy Institute’s Bruno Manno. “But a law built on high standards, handed to states without the infrastructure to enforce them, is a bet. It’s not yet a result.” Read here.
An inconvenient truth about Europe’s lack of AC. While unprecedented heatwaves have claimed the lives of thousands in Europe, right-wing media have been putting the blame on Europeans themselves, for their failure to embrace air-conditioning. Features Editor Gillen Tener Martin, based in Paris, puts the lie to claims that effete European “wokeism” is responsible for the lack of AC: “Europe is less air-conditioned because it didn’t used to be this hot.” Granted, practical reasons make the widespread adoption of AC in European more difficult than in the United States, but the real culprit for this summer’s deaths is climate change. Read here.
Plus…
- Nonprofit community land trusts could help tackle the problem of housing affordability, argues the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator’s David Uejio. “The model is simple,” he writes. “You own your home and get a conventional mortgage from a regular lender. A nonprofit community land trust owns the land underneath it.”
- Unmanned ground drones could be Ukraine’s next innovation in its defense against Russia, writes Kiev-based journalist Tamar Jacoby. The future of warfare could include “AI-guided ground robots that can find their own targets … kamikaze robots, remotely controlled grenade launchers, and automated machine-gun fire.”
- Some say you haven’t lived if your obit doesn’t make the New York Times. Contributing Editor Timothy Noah would disagree. He reviews a new book by the Times’ obituarist Sam Roberts, which promises to reveal the trade secrets of the craft but ends up exposing its biases.
- And in his second column of the week, Bill Scher cautions Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed against over-confidence, despite (or because of) rosy poll numbers showing him in the lead.
Coda (censorship edition)…
We all know information is power, and the Trump administration has had no qualms distorting, destroying, and manufacturing information to create its own reality. Here are a couple recent instances deserving of more attention:
- Destruction of federal data.
The nonprofit Dataindex.us now reports that nearly 400 federal databases have been deleted or altered—the result of the administration’s campaign to erase all data not aligned with its priorities. Take a look yourself at what’s been lost: databases tracking climate change, violence against children, hunger, pollution. The federal government is deliberately blinding itself to the needs of its most vulnerable citizens and magnifying threats to public health and safety. (For more on the importance of federal data, check out our interview with Dataindex.us’s Denice Ross, formerly the federal government’s chief data scientist.)
- Suppression of the press.
ABC took the bold move of suing the Trump administration this week over the FCC’s threat to review its broadcast licenses. But what’s especially startling is the complaint, which is worth reading for its catalog of the escalating threats levied against the company, beginning in 2020. “Over time, those attacks have escalated into express demands that ABC be stripped of its broadcast licenses because of its speech,” the complaint reads (emphasis in the original). “If the Administration gets its way, the message to every media company in the country will be unmistakable: tell only the stories the Administration deems favorable, or face the coercive machinery of the federal government. In such a world, the press could in no way be described as free.”
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Have a great week!
Anne Kim, Senior Editor
