These guys are such assholes

Quite a number of beneficiaries rely on their checks to live month to month so they are probably not going to be happy to wait until the next month espcially if it impacts everyone. Medicare will also be affected if SSA temporarily goes dark:

• You sign up for Medicare through SSA so beneficiaries may not have the health coverage they need.
• Medicare premiums can be withheld from the SSA benefit payments and no paid premium = no coverage

Looking for ways to cut costs and eliminate waste and abuse is a good thing. However, the administration is going in and playing slash and burn. These are complex systems and time should be spent getting to understand the business rules and how they interconnect with other systems and outside partners. Not to mention having people who actually know the languages some of the older systems use (cough COBOL)

Bonus Moment of Dumbassitude