How much of our tax and social security records should team Elon Musk get to see?

I'm David Brancaccio. As you've been hearing, the Trump administration is defending,

giving the Elon Musk-led advisory group access to the detailed tax records of all Americans.

Presidential advisor Stephen Miller says it's about rooting out foreign fraud.

And now this Doge advisory group is reportedly trying to get access to social security records.

Here's Marketplace's Nova Safo.

The Social Security Administration holds a treasure trove of data on Americans, says Nancy Altman,

president of the nonprofit Social Security works.

It's records. It's who gets what benefits of when they get paid and the dates they're due

and who their dependent benefits are and what their children are getting and what their survivors will get and so forth.

Altman says there's no reason for Musk's Doge Group to have access to this data.

The administration's acting

commissioner Michelle King reportedly resigned over the weekend rather than grant that access.

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Carolyn Levitt told Fox News that Doge is looking for fraud.

They haven't dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments.

But Social Security auditors had already uncovered millions of outdated listings on the administration's database.

That doesn't mean those people were getting payments.

Auditors found improper payments made up less than 1% of what Social Security sent to

Americans. I'm Novasaafo for Marketplace. And the White House in a filing says Elon Musk is not the

head of Doge, that outfit looking for government waste, nor is he a decider there, according to this

filing spotted by the publication Axios. As an advisor to the president, Musk is he a decider there, according to this filing spotted by the publication Axios.

As an advisor to the president, Musk is officially an SGE, a special government employee.

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