As sailors and pirates used to say, “dead men tell no tales.” But they do draw Social Security benefits. At least that’s what billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have uncovered as they continue their plunge into the data of various federal entities looking for signs of waste, fraud, and abuse.
Musk took to the social media platform he owns, X, on Sunday evening where he revealed that there are hundreds of thousands, potentially millions, of Americans who are listed in the Social Security database as being alive when they’ve probably been dead for quite some time.
The database that’s been examined by DOGE included 1.3 million people who are listed as being between the ages of 150 and 159, well beyond the normal human lifespan. Another 122,000 between the ages of 160 and 169, and shockingly 6,000 between the ages of 170 and 179.
And yes, believe it or not, there are also a few thousand who are listed as being between 180 and 229 years old. Guys, this means these individuals would have to have been born before the Civil War.
“According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!” Musk said in his post while sharing a screenshot of the data. “Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security.”
According to the Social Security database, these are the numbers of people in each age bucket with the death field set to FALSE!
Maybe Twilight is real and there are a lot of vampires collecting Social Security 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/ltb06VX98Z
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 17, 2025
“There was one person listed on the Social Security rolls between 240 and 249 years old, and another between 360 and 369 years old,” The Western Journal reported. “That means there is supposedly one American alive who saw the earliest days of the republic, and another who started his life squarely during the colonial era.”
“For the record, the oldest person to ever live in modern history was Jeanne Calment, who lived just over 122 years, according to the Guinness Book of World Records,” the article said. “She was born in 1875 and died in 1997. There are a handful of others who lived to such a ripe old age.”
This is insanity.
While Musk did not come out and say these individuals are receiving payouts, he’s not very optimistic about what DOGE’s findings say about the current condition of our bureaucracy. I’d say it’s critical and with one foot in the grave.
“There are FAR more ‘eligible’ social security numbers than there are citizens in the USA,” Musk continued. “This might be the biggest fraud in history.”
The Western Journal notes that this could indicate that the Social Security Administration has simply been checked out and has failed to conduct basic maintenance on its records. The worst case scenario is people buying the social security numbers of those who have been dead for many years, assuming their identities and committing fraud.
Regardless, this puts government incompetence and inefficiency front and center and is a prime example of the importance of DOGE and its mission.
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