Hi. I'm an expert in modernizing legacy government software systems. This is profoundly stupid and will definitely fail [View all]

[demmiblue]

Waldo Jaquith
‪@waldo.net‬

Hi. I’m an expert in modernizing legacy government software systems. This is profoundly stupid and will definitely fail, and it’s just a question of whether our social security system fails along with it.

‪makena kelly‬ ‪@makenakelly.bsky.social‬·1h

SCOOP: DOGE wants to rebuild SSA's codebase in months, risking benefits and system collapse, sources tell me.

The plan is to migrate all systems off COBOL quickly which would likely require the use of generative AI.
www.wired.com/story/doge-r...

DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase In Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
www.wired.com

March 28, 2025 at 10:54 AM

https://bsky.app/profile/waldo.net/post/3llh324t6ys2b

What is the problem this is solving? There’s no problem with COBOL. It’s an actively maintained language that’s designed to do exactly what it’s doing at SSA.

The reason government has a lot of mainframes running COBOL is because they're actually really good at doing their jobs. Sure, they're hard to modernize and that's part of why they persist, but mostly it's because they get the work done.

I cannot think of a single legitimate reason for DOGE to perform such a modernization, especially on such a time scale. A lot of my work is around helping agencies triage how to deal with old systems. If the old system works, *leave it alone*! Start with stuff that's broken!

My assumption is that this SSA play is a continuation of the Treasury play—create a technical chokepoint for the flow of money to allow individuals or groups to be punished extralegally. "We're just rewriting the system in Java" has got to be a fig leaf covering the real goal of fascism.

* Waldo Jaquith- Thought follower. Public servant. Male software developer. Alumnus of 18F, the Obama White House, Georgetown's Beeck Center, U.S. Digital Response, the Biden-Harris Transition Team, and the Biden administration. He/him. Charlottesville, VA, USA.