DOGE has estimated that Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and other entitlement programs generate trillions of dollars in waste every year. Elon Musk said that this made entitlement programs the "big one" to cut, sending media into a frenzy.

The agency will move ahead with a much narrower revision eliminating direct deposit changes by phone amid DOGE fraud concerns.

Social Security will no longer let people change bank information by phone, alleging the practice is behind direct deposit fraud.