Save Your Pennies If You Can -- Digby

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2025/03/29/save-your-pennies-if-you-can/

I’m sure this is going to go very smoothly:

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is starting to put together a team to migrate the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) computer systems entirely off one of its oldest programming languages in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which tens of millions of Americans rely—at risk.

The project is being organized by Elon Musk lieutenant Steve Davis, multiple sources who were not given permission to talk to the media tell WIRED, and aims to migrate all SSA systems off COBOL, one of the first common business-oriented programming languages, and onto a more modern replacement like Java within a scheduled tight timeframe of a few months.

Under any circumstances, a migration of this size and scale would be a massive undertaking, experts tell WIRED, but the expedited deadline runs the risk of obstructing payments to the more than 65 million people in the US currently receiving Social Security benefits.

God help us:

In order to migrate all COBOL code into a more modern language within a few months, DOGE would likely need to employ some form of generative artificial intelligence to help translate the millions of lines of code, sources tell WIRED. “DOGE thinks if they can say they got rid of all the COBOL in months, then their way is the right way, and we all just suck for not breaking shit,” says the SSA technologist.

DOGE would also need to develop tests to ensure the new system’s outputs match the previous one. It would be difficult to resolve all of the possible edge cases over the course of several years, let alone months, adds the SSA technologist.

“This is an environment that is held together with bail wire and duct tape,” the former senior SSA technologist working in the office of the chief information officer tells WIRED. “The leaders need to understand that they’re dealing with a house of cards or Jenga. If they start pulling pieces out, which they’ve already stated they’re doing, things can break.”

Obviously, this is a necessary modernization which they’ve been talking about for some time. But it requires taking their time and being very careful about doing it because 75 million people are dependent on the system to work without interruption. Keep in mind that most people’s Medicare premiums are deducted from their Social Security. If this explodes, as it likely will, senior citizens are not only in dangers of not getting their checks, the Medicare system is in danger of blowing up right along with it.

But I’m sure BigBalls and his grubby little friends know what they’re doing with COBAL and will make sure nothing bad happens right? They’re all geniuses.

As Scott Lemieux wrote:

Enjoying your hard-earned retirement? Thinking of retiring in the near future? Elon would like to take take what is likely most of your disposable income to the Dunning-Kruger casino

[Trust_Reality]

1. Chaos, Cruelty, and Incompetence is difficult to hide.

But we can expect lots of deceit as they try.

[mucholderthandirt]

2. The whole point of all of this is to put control of the government and our money in Musk's hands.

There's no "inefficiency", no waste, no conspiracy to get at the money except on their side. Musk wants it all, and so do the ultra-rich who made sure he got this chance. No way would Harris have approved any of this sort of thing.

I tried my best to learn COBOL, way back in the 80s and it made my brain explode. I ended up switching to accounting, where at least things made sense to me. The thing is, the language may be old, but it still works.

No, there's no excuse, no justification for this except to allow people who are already richer than they could ever spend their way out of to take our money. I worked damned hard for my SS benefits, worked myself into physical breakdown. Now I think I may not live to collect what I earned.

Fucking bastards. I can't say what I'd like to see happen to all of them, but it's not pretty and it would hurt.

[indusurb]

3. Well let's hope they don't decide to "upgrade the systems at our various nuclear power and missle sites

One slip there and, well, you can fill in the rest.

[elocs]

4. I come to DU because I know I can find all the potential SS bad news in one place.

Potential. But it's worked because I no longer have faith or trust anymore in dependably receiving my SS. So, although I am 72 I am still in good physical shape with no aches or pains, no old problems I am going to find a job. So if I get my SS, that's great. If not, I'll do what I need to do to get by like back in the days before SS.
Welcome to the new America.

[Retrograde]

5. It's not as simple as the Dogebros think it is

Translating some code from COBOL to a more modern language? Fairly straightforward if it's a small application and you understand what you're doing. Translating a large system of code? A lot more difficult, since all the pieces have to work together. Translating a large system of code that reflects 70+ years of changes to the laws and must be backwards compatible for all the odd corner cases? If the programmers take the time to understand the laws and the current programs (I don't know for a fact, but I suspect the SSI code is a collection of programs rather than one stand-alone application) and actually design the replacement and test as they go along? I'm being optimistic and guessing a minimum of 5 years, although 10 is more reasonable. And I'm not even considering the documentation requirements, or the time and resources needed to train the new users.

I've been out of the programming game for several decades, and I'm not up to speed on current best practices (assuming there are any). It's one thing to write a game app that can be updated frequently - nobody real is hurt. Re-writing a large, complex legacy system that peoples' lives and incomes depend on is another story. I wonder what the programming equivalent of "unplanned rapid disassembly" is/

[erronis]

6. I'm still in the coding business and totally agree with your points.

There is no way for neophytes (even with big balls or the AI equivalent) to understand the interactions between components, the timing dependencies, the dealings with exceptions.

It doesn't matter if it is assembler, COBOL, Java, Rust, or any other language and platform. It is understanding how the pieces need to work together and how to adapt/handle the errors/edge cases.

But this crew is just focused on destroying what exists. They will probably implement their "X-Solution" on the Xitter platform - giving full control to the biggest Xit of all.

And they'll chortle as it all falls down. Especially in putin's world.