• IRS Direct File is the nation's first free tax filing system, meant to ease the pain and fees of complex filings.
• Employees who worked on it are worried that DOGE wants to kill the two-year-old program to save money.
• A Treasury Department official told BI it was a failed program and said its fate was up in the air.

The future of IRS Direct File looks grim as a DOGE official eyes cuts and the Treasury Department dismissed the free tax filing system as a failed program.

Sam Corcos, a DOGE official and one of the group's public faces, has expressed skepticism about IRS Direct File, according to a recently departed federal employee. Corcos has said he thinks it should be shut down, according to two people who were told about his thinking by others close to him.

A senior Treasury official told Business Insider it was a failed and disappointing program used by a small fraction of the nation's taxpayers. No decisions have been made about its future, the official added.

The uncertainty has disappointed people who believe Direct File is emblematic of the very things that DOGE is supposed to be building.

Its purpose is to offer a tech solution to file taxes directly to the US government quickly, bypassing fees to for-profit software companies. A December 2024 IRS report found that taxpayers spent around $160 and eight hours preparing their taxes.

"On the one hand, you have a broader ambition through the DOGE to automate IRS operations and create a more online IRS that would justify the significant reductions in force that are underway," Danny Werfel, who served as IRS commissioner until January, said. "On the other hand, you have a very strong contingency in Congress and an industry who believes that this activity should be the exclusive domain of the private sector."

Critics of the tool say it's too costly, and wasn't implemented legally. Representatives for H&R Block and Intuit, which makes the popular tax prep software TurboTax, said that free tax preparation has been available to Americans for years.

It's not clear whether the views of DOGE or Corcos will affect Trump administration policy. Elon Musk, DOGE's de facto face, claimed in February he had "deleted" a government agency that helped build Direct File; that came months after he had reportedly eyed creating an app Americans could use to file their taxes.

The Treasury senior official's characterization of the program appears to diverge from previous statements about its future. During confirmation hearings, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent committed to preserving the program through the 2025 tax season.

The program presents a DOGE dilemma: While it's a potential budget item to be cut, and still getting off the ground, it's also an automated and efficient tech tool. Advocates say that saving or even bolstering it could exemplify the DOGE way — if it's allowed to stay afloat.

Scale it or kill it?

About a fifth of American taxpayers — or 32 million people — are eligible to use Direct File this year, and the program's advocates are eager to get the word out.

Last year's pilot program saw high satisfaction ratings. Just under 141,000 people used Direct File to do their taxes, and 90% of them rated their experience "excellent" or "above average," an IRS report showed. Eighty-six percent said it increased their trust in the IRS. A December 2024 survey by the Urban Institute of more than 7,000 adults found that 73% of tax filers are interested in using Direct File — but 68% of filers said they didn't know enough about the program to feel comfortable using it.

One Treasury official pointed to their favorite user feedback quote from someone who used it to complete their return: "I don't cry when I do my taxes using Direct File."

The IRS expected between 920,000 and 3.7 million users this year. The agency hasn't reported usage so far, and said data on its website traffic can't be compared to last year because of a change in how the data was collected.

Though the concept is popular and early usage signs are encouraging, awareness is a big issue. Many Americans heard about the tool for the first time after Musk's post about the deletion.

Some people took that to mean that the program was being axed, and former government employees said Musk's post undercut the IRS's messaging that the program would be permanent. Google search volume for "direct file" peaked the day after Musk's post.

Some people inside and outside the government said the IRS could do more to help spread the word. While the agency has mentioned Direct File in several press releases, sometimes alongside the Free File program that gives middle- and low-income people free access to private-sector tax prep tools, it hasn't hosted any calls with the media on Direct File since October 2024. Finding it from the IRS homepage can take multiple clicks.

"If you give a program some time, growth will increase and then something like that can take off," said a Treasury official who wasn't authorized to speak to the media. Referring to the move from paper returns to filing electronically, they added, "Imagine if they had killed e-file in 1989 or 1988 before it really even was able to get going. This is a program where we've seen people really satisfied."

Direct File began in 2022 when Congress committed $15 million to study a way to file taxes directly with the IRS online, without complicated tax forms. Within a year, a prototype was ready. Dozens of tech workers from the IRS and other federal offices teamed up to build Direct File, which went live last year for a limited number of taxpayers.

"We effectively launched a startup in the IRS," said a person who worked on the program.

'Unnecessary, problematic, costly, and illegitimate'

Republican critics of the program have said the agency overstepped its legal authority when it decided to make Direct File permanent.

"The IRS does not have unlimited resources and should focus on improving information technology systems, data privacy, and long-standing customer service issues," Sens. Mike Crapo and John Barrasso wrote in a July letter to Werfel, the former IRS commissioner. "It should not be focused on unilaterally expanding its own power, without congressional approval, through a permanent government tax preparation scheme that is unnecessary, problematic, costly, and illegitimate."

They have also said the program could cost billions of dollars, although the inspector general who covers the IRS reported last month that it identified $33.4 million in spending related to running the program last year, a number it said "may not capture all the costs."

Despite public confusion, there are signs that interest in the program is growing as tax day approaches: The number of active users on directfile.irs.gov over the week ending on April 7 was about 8% of the total number of people going to the IRS homepage, compared to about 5% for the 90 days before.

"On the one hand, lots of people using and liking Direct File would help protect the program," said Vanessa Williamson, a researcher at the Brookings Institution.

On the other hand, she said, "We're really in uncharted waters in terms of how decisions are being made at a federal level."

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• 41 Social Security offices are cutting 25-58% of workers under DOGE's budget reductions.
• The agency faces increased customer service demand as retirees worry cuts will affect benefits.
• This comes as Trump hopes to combat fraud and cut costs at the SSA.

A Social Security customer service office in Wisconsin is cutting more than 58% of its workers in the coming weeks. It's one of 41 field offices where staff is being reduced by more than a quarter due to Trump's budget cuts.

That's fewer people to answer phones, handle in-person appointments, and process paperwork at a time when retirees flood the agency's phones and visit offices in droves due to concerns that the White House's cost-saving efforts will imperil their benefits.

Business Insider obtained and viewed the list of offices, which was on the Social Security Administration's website as of Sunday but is no longer visible. SSA has over 1,000 locations, but the White House's DOGE commission plans to close over 25 of them. Already, around 6 million seniors are 45 miles or more away from one.

"The times when you do have to go to the Social Security office are when, oftentimes, something really bad has happened to you," Bill Sweeney, AARP's senior vice president for government affairs, told BI. The nonprofit has also reported record call volumes from older Americans worried about their monthly checks.

Short-staffing at field offices comes alongside major changes for Social Security. In accordance with the Trump administration's cost-cutting goals for federal agencies, the SSA announced it would cut 7,000 employees out of a total of 57,000 — which would place the Social Security workforce at a historic low. New in-person identification requirements have offices bracing for a steep influx of visitors. As of April 9, nine field offices have also reverted to phone-service only, but those locations don't appear to have direct overlap with the offices facing a 25% or more staff reduction.

The SSA previously told BI that a recent return-to-office mandate will help ease customer service challenges. The Trump administration told BI changes at the SSA are because the president is a "responsible steward" of taxpayer dollars. Trump said new policies that the SSA will alleviate benefits fraud, which made up 0.84% of total improper payments between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, per the SSA's Office of the Inspector General. He has said that he will not cut benefits.

"The unnecessary loss of field office staff will place greater workload pressure on the remaining employees, which will further depress morale and likely induce more employees to leave, and so on," Rich Couture, the federal worker union's SSA General Committee spokesperson, told BI. "High attrition will lead to higher wait times and processing delays for beneficiaries, and will increase the risk of field office closures due to lack of staffing."

Staff reduction efforts also mean employees who remain at the agency are being asked to consider voluntary reassignments to "mission critical" positions at field offices and call centers. On April 3, employees received an email from the Human Resources department at the SSA. The email, which was viewed by BI, said staff had until April 7 to volunteer: "More than 1,000 of your colleagues have already stepped up to support our mission — but we need more of you to join them." It is not yet clear how many employees accepted the offer or what positions they will fill.

Low staffing is causing anxiety for beneficiaries

As field office staffing falls, demand for SSA services — or a desire to ensure benefits are secure — has taken hold among some recipients. The agency has seen its daily calls rise by 50,000 from February to March, and the agent busy rate, which tracks how many callers hear a prerecorded disconnect message when they want a representative, has skyrocketed. In a March 28th agency meeting shared publicly, a Social Security operations worker said 665,000 people visited field offices the week before — a "significant" influx of potentially concerned recipients. Recurring website outages are also making it difficult for beneficiaries to get help.

For seniors, this means a chicken and egg scenario: Concerns about Social Security are leading them to call in more and show up more, potentially leading to more work for a dwindling workforce. That could exacerbate anxiety all around.

When visiting a field office, people are "already stressed out," Sweeney said.

"Having to spend hours and hours fighting with the phones and having to drive long distances to an office just to prove things that you can prove over the phone — it just adds a lot of insult to injury here."

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• AARP says Social Security's service is deteriorating and urges the agency to rethink coming changes.
• The share of callers to SSA who got a prerecorded disconnect message surged between February and March.
• SSA faces staff cuts and office closures affecting service as the number of beneficiaries increases.

AARP is sounding the alarm on deteriorating service at the Social Security Administration and is calling on the agency to rethink the coming changes to identity verification that could lead to even more frustration for seniors.

In a letter to Leland Dudek, the SSA's acting commissioner, Nancy A. LeaMond, AARP's executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer, said that the nonprofit "continues to receive thousands of calls and messages from older Americans who are concerned about their Social Security."

LeaMond said AARP is "deeply troubled" by what it called "a startling and sudden decline in customer service," citing a skyrocketing rate of "agent busy" messages. That metric tracks the percentage of callers who got a prerecorded disconnect message. In February, the busy rate was 1.5%. In March, it shot up to 28.4%.

"I can't remember a case where we've had this many of our members calling about problems at Social Security," Bill Sweeney, AARP's senior vice president for government affairs, told BI.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Sens. Mark Kelly and Ron Wyden, also sent a letter to Dudek on Monday, which BI obtained. The letter asked Dudek to address recently reported website crashes, beneficiary account errors, and service delays.

"This alarming episode raises fresh questions about operations at SSA and the effects of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)'s attacks on the agency, which you have helped facilitate," the senators wrote.

The letters come as the SSA faces staffing cuts, policy changes, and field office closures under the Trump administration. The agency announced in March that it plans to slash its 57,000-person workforce by 7,000 employees — which would place staff numbers at a historic low, despite the growing pool of Social Security beneficiaries.

The White House and DOGE also aim to close more than 25 offices across the country.

The SSA was spared from President Donald Trump's first round of federal workforce reductions this year. The president has previously said he "will not cut one penny" from the program.

Changes to Social Security's ID verification could make customer service even worse

SSA announced that it would require some beneficiaries to confirm their IDs in person if they need to update their bank information or file new claims. The new policy is expected to start in mid-April. It was originally set to begin at the end of March, but the SSA extended the deadline and introduced some tweaks.

SSA leadership said in an internal memo seen by Business Insider that offices could expect an additional 75,000 to 85,000 visitors a week in the coming months.

AARP has urged the agency to halt the changes or to extend the timeline to better communicate the new policy. Nearly 73 million Americans receive Social Security benefits.

The new requirement is part of the Trump administration's stated effort to reduce benefits fraud, though fraud is exceedingly rare, making up 0.84% of total improper payments between fiscal years 2015 and 2022, per the SSA's Office of the Inspector General. The White House told BI in a statement last week that "the previous fraud strategy has failed, and as a result, necessary changes are coming. "

The SSA did not immediately respond to Business Insider's comment request, but Sweeney said that SSA had acknowledged receipt of the letter.

"I think it's disrespectful if you've worked your whole life in this country, and you're supposed to be getting this money that you've earned — and you have to jump through all these hoops and all this red tape," Sweeney said.

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• Americans are flooding Social Security offices and phones over benefit concerns and identity measures.
• New identity verification rules and staff cuts fueled fears of benefit disruptions.
• Advocates warn of a feedback loop worsening call volumes and public anxiety.

Seniors are calling Social Security in spades and showing up en masse to field offices, as many fret about the future of their benefits.

Some are concerned about new identity measures, and others fear that their benefits could be affected. Taken together, this is creating a new problem: People who are worried about delays are straining the Social Security Administration's customer support systems with an influx in calls and appearances at field offices. That all comes as the agency has said it wants to reduce staff by 7,000 of its 57,000 workers.

In February, Social Security's 800 number received around 8.6 million calls; by March, it had received nearly 10.5 million calls. All told, the average number of daily calls per month rose by about 50,000 from February to March. March's average was 483,549, up from 312,533 a year before.

A Social Security operations worker said in a March 28th agency meeting that 665,000 people visited field offices in the week prior, which was "significant."

"Why are they coming? They're nervous," the worker said, who was identified as Ian, said. He said that visitors are coming in and requesting certified copies of their documents, which cost $100, and can usually be accessed online. He said that mySSA, the online portal, used to see around 2,500 users a week; now, that's up to 5,500.

"They're afraid of our systems going down. That's what they're telling us," he added.

When Business Insider's Allie Kelly tried to contact Social Security's 1-800 number last week, she was greeted with a voice message telling her that wait times were over 120 minutes — and then she got hung up on. Under 40% of callers reached a representative in March, according to SSA data, down from around 59% a year prior.

Social Security did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

"With a resounding mandate from the American people, President Trump is moving quickly to fulfill his promise of making the federal government more efficient," White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement. "He has promised to protect Social Security, and every recipient will continue to receive their benefits."

The influx of calls and visitors comes after public uncertainty around the program. Social Security is still providing benefits , but some advocates and beneficiaries have raised concerns over new guidelines for identity verification.

Under that guidance, new beneficiaries would have to verify their identities either online or in-person. Advocates sounded alarms that the new process could leave behind seniors without access to the internet or the ability to come in person. The new guidelines were ultimately tweaked, with the identity proofing now set to start April 14 and applicants for Medicare, disability, and SSI exempted from the in-person requirement.

"The Trump Administration's rash statements and actions on Social Security are triggering widespread worry and stress, particularly among older and disabled people," Kathleen Romig, the director of Social Security and disability policy at the left-leaning think tank Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said.

That cascade of worry is being felt beyond phone lines and field offices: At the end of March, the AARP told BI that the nonprofit has been receiving around 2,000 calls a week about Social Security benefits, with potential disruptions to checks coming in as "by far the number one" issue.

Tracey Gonniger, the managing director of economic security and housing at the advocacy group Justice in Aging, said she thinks that the agency could face a worsening feedback loop.

"You have higher call volume because you created higher call volume, and then you cut back on staff and then created more caller volume. They just keep on making the situation worse, and then people are panicking and probably then calling more because they're like, what's going on?" Gonniger said. "It's this weird effect of making it worse, and then cutting back and then making it worse, and then cutting back on services and making people lose faith in the system; it's really bad."

Workers on the ground are feeling that firsthand. One Social Security employee told BI that they had to talk down someone on the phone who was fearful that Elon Musk would take their checks; they ended up having to assure them and send them documentation they were due benefits.

The recipient was "clearly having an episode," the worker said. "Very sweet, very scared."

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• With tariffs, federal budget cuts, and student loan limbo, Americans are delaying financial decisions.
• 6 Americans told BI how economic uncertainty is shaping their family, jobs, budgets, and retirement.
• While the US is not in a recession, indicators are showing some signs of weakness.

Babies, homes, retirement, and business ventures — all major moves Americans have told BI they're putting on hold as the US reels from economic uncertainty.

Tariffs are set to raise prices on everything from groceries to cars, and sweeping cuts to federal spending have many concerned about their livelihoods. Federal student loan limbo is also leaving millions wondering how they will pay off their debt.

"I feel like I just got done building a life out here," said a Washington DC 28-year-old who resigned from her government job and may have to move due to finances. "I was actually trying to own a home."

Some are even worried about a recession. While the US isn't in one yet, a major indicator of consumer sentiment hit a three-year low in March, and consumer spending was weaker than expected last month. Meanwhile, a closely watched inflation metric has seen its highest jump in a year. Economists have said these conditions are making people less likely to make major purchases and take financial risks.

While some Americans also told BI they support Trump's recent cost-cutting measures and don't plan to make any adjustments to their jobs or savings, six shared stories about holding off on major milestones.

A millennial is weighing starting a family amid student loan uncertainty

Florence Thompson feels stuck. The 39-year-old wants to buy a home and have a baby, but she's not sure what her future monthly student-loan payments will look like. She said she hopes they'll stay in the low hundreds.

Thompson is enrolled in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which forgives student debt for government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying payments. Trump is taking steps to limit eligibility for the program, which could bar some borrowers from future relief.

Thompson is also on the SAVE plan, created by President Joe Biden to give borrowers more affordable monthly payments. Since July, she and 8 million enrolled borrowers have been stuck in forbearance after SAVE was blocked in court. Thompson has not been able to make payments or earn PSLF credit while the lawsuit plays out. Now, Thompson isn't sure when she will have to add loan payments back into her budget — and how much those payments will be. The Trump administration's recent decision to dismantle the Department of Education has heightened this uncertainty, she said. It's complicating her plans to buy a home and start a family.

"I have the money to pursue IVF, I have the money to buy a home," Thompson said. "But it's like the sword hanging above your head where you don't know when your monthly costs are going to increase and by how much. It's just a real uncertainty, and I know people are in much more difficult positions than myself. It's just not fair, not right."

Until she knows what will happen with her student debt, Thompson is conflicted. "It's really causing me to have to save money rather than spend it on the things that I'd like to spend it on," she said.

A federal employee left a $100,000 salary on the table and is worried about the future of her career

Ashley Shannon submitted her resignation letter last month. The 28-year-old was an attorney in her second year at the Department of Justice's Federal Bureau of Prisons. She said her job felt meaningful — her work helped combat mass incarceration disproportionately impacting Black and brown people.

But, as news flooded in about the firings of federal probationary workers, Shannon made the tough decision to leave her role.

"Higher up in the agency, they pretty much told us it's either you leave or you're going to likely get fired and pushed out," she said.

The career paths for Black women in private-sector law are more limited than in the federal workforce, and Shannon had been excited to build a career in the public interest. She had been making $100,000 a year and was building her life in Washington DC — hoping to buy her first home soon. Now, Shannon has been unemployed since March 5. If she can't find a job by the end of April, she will have to move back to Chicago to live with her parents.

"That is a very defeating feeling as a very new attorney," she said. "I would have to move back in with my family, find another job, and pretty much restart my entire life."

A Gen Zer moved back in with her parents to save up for an international move

Last fall, Bri O. moved back in with her parents. The 23-year-old works a finance job in Charlotte, North Carolina. She didn't picture spending her young adult years in her childhood home, but said it's her best option to save money.

Bri knew she wanted to live abroad at some point in her life — it's an opportunity to experience new cultures and she has her eyes set on Spain. However, she said Trump's return to the Oval Office has accelerated her timeline: She's now trying to save $50,000 by 2026 so that she can move out of the US, maybe permanently.

As a young, queer woman, Bri said she doesn't feel safe living under the Trump administration, especially if she someday chooses to get married or start a family. The government "enacting policies against us in the queer community is having an effect on our lives," she said.

She said she's sacrificing some of her independence by living with family right now, but it's worth it for her finances. Being at home is allowing her to put the money she would be spending on rent and other expenses into savings for her eventual move.

"I'd love to stay in the country where all my friends and my family are," she said, adding, "It's disheartening that I'm leaving because of fear."

A Gen Xer isn't sure she can retire early anymore

Margarita Sdoukos, 49, thought she was going to retire early. She was confident that she and her husband would have a strong enough nest egg to stop working in six years. Due to living below their means, savvy investments, and careful saving habits, the couple felt financially comfortable.

Now, Sdoukos isn't sure she will ever fully retire. The Illinois resident told BI that she and her husband have lost "tens of thousands" of dollars in the stock market since Trump took office in January, and they're shifting to safer investments for their 401(k), even if they are less lucrative. She cashed out her teacher's pension and placed it in an IRA due to "uncertainty in the government." She's concerned about potential changes to Social Security, and now expects to continue working for as long as possible.

"We don't even think about retirement right now," she said.

A business owner is anxious about her next step

Jessica Deseo, 40, has been in the design industry for nearly two decades. She's a California-based, first-generation immigrant and mother who is balancing her own LLC with her role as a 1099 employee for a fellow creative.

With economic policy changing quickly under Trump, Deseo is at a crossroads with her career: go solo with her business or balance her job and freelancing.

"I'm right in the middle of figuring that out, and it's really, really hard," she said.

Deseo said she wants to put energy and money into growing her own business, but it comes with sacrifices. She's worried that potential clients won't have the extra budget to hire her as a freelancer and said that going out completely on her own would be an even bigger financial risk. Right now, she's being cautious about spending and saving as much as she can.

"You see the economy around you and you're just like, 'Jesus, everyone is getting laid off,"' she said.

A baby boomer is putting off a move and saving some Social Security income

Kathy Heller, 67, hoped to move out of her studio apartment in Pennsylvania and buy a new house. However, due to recent changes in the stock market and her fears about the future of Social Security, she said that may no longer be possible.

"I've been wanting to move for the last couple of years, and I just can't now," Heller said. "Everything's changed."

Heller, who worked as a legal secretary, ate through some of her retirement savings while caring for her husband, who was ill for two decades. She works nearly full-time as a real estate agent to supplement her over $3,000 monthly Social Security survivor benefits. She said she's had to wait for four hours on the phone to contact a Social Security representative, and she said she's worried about what her finances may look like a few months from now, especially if Social Security is disrupted in any way.

"My plan is to save $1,000 a month out of my Social Security check, but I live alone," Heller said. "If you don't have savings or a monthly income, you're screwed now."

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• Tyler Tep founded The Dinner Table, a social dining community for communal meals with strangers.
• Social dining and dinner parties are trending as Americans seek good food and socialization.
• This article is part of "Made to Order," a series highlighting the business strategies driving today's food industry.

Tyler Tep, 26, might be responsible for your next dinner party.

Tep is the founder of The Dinner Table, a new social dining community that's serving up communal meals for customers craving both food and socialization. Tep is hopping on a growing trend, as social dining and dinner parties are experiencing more robust demand. Americans want to see other people, and they want to eat — dinner parties offer a chance for both.

Of course, any new venture brings its challenges. For dinner party entrepreneurs, that means designing and executing something new in a notoriously difficult restaurant industry.

Over two conversations, Tep spoke with Business Insider about his journey — and challenges — creating The Dinner Table.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

What's your first memory of a dinner party?

When we first started, the intention was never for The Dinner Table to become a social dining community that's across the US. Initially, it was just for me and my roommates to make friends. So, my first dinner party was our attempt at meeting new people in New York; we hosted a dinner with a private chef who came to our apartment and cooked a meal for about 20 of our friends and their mutual friends. It was a great gathering.

What happened next that you were like, we have to keep doing this?

We hosted the first dinner party for our friends, and they absolutely loved it, and they were telling their friends about it — so it kind of just built on itself. Their friends wanted to come to the next one and they were asking us when we're hosting again. We hosted a second dinner a few weeks later where we got to meet more people. After the first few that we hosted, we figured, why don't we open this up to the public and also open this up to different venues across New York City? It was really in about four to eight weeks that we decided, wow, we actually have something here.

It was very resounding that there was an appetite and a demand for it. That's how we snowballed into the model that we have now.

Have there been any unexpected challenges when planning these types of events?

If you speak to any event coordinator or event-based company, the nature of events is very unpredictable. Then, when you throw in the component of working within a restaurant, that's always been unpredictable as well.

To mitigate that, we build a network of restaurant partners that are anywhere between 12 and 15 restaurants in each of the markets we operate in. These are restaurant partners that we've worked with in the past. They're familiar with our events, they're familiar with us, and likewise with them.

At times, we can see the breakdown of attendees skew more toward women — and in some cases, very dramatically toward women. So sometimes we hear, "I wish there were more men in attendance," or "I wish there was a more diverse array of men that were coming to even out the distribution of genders at the event." I think that's one we hear quite a bit, and I think that's pretty consistent in the events business as well — getting men to come out.

One way we mitigate that is we create gender tickets — men's and women's tickets — for the sole purpose of ensuring that we'll have a baseline number of men in attendance. But that's definitely one logistical challenge, that we're being inclusive to all the attendees and all the guests within our community, but also ensuring an optimal dining experience and mingling experience for our guests as well.

Have you ever had a moment where you're just like, oh my gosh, there are too many things going on?

Always. Taking a step back, I never saw The Dinner Table being what it is today, and I'm immensely proud of what it has become. Now what I do see is the potential of what it can be and how much interest there is in it. But I also recognize that what I've already built with The Dinner Table is already really cool and incredible.

I have an immense amount of appreciation for being able to do something like this. It's a privilege to have this opportunity. Not many people have an opportunity to do things like this with The Dinner Table.

When I think about how I manage and balance my days, it very recently has come from a place of appreciation for the work and for my position.

It really helps me through the tough days and gets me through the busy days that the alternative is to not do The Dinner Table — and that is way less interesting, way less creative, and way less fun, frankly.

• Rumors swirled Wednesday that Elon Musk may leave his role at the White House DOGE Office.
• After Politico's report, BI heard from 16 federal workers about what his departure would mean.
• The Trump administration and Musk both denied his exit on X, and workers say it doesn't make a difference anyway.

Even if Elon Musk is eyeing the exit, federal workers say the anxiety and financial chaos DOGE caused will stick with them long after his tenure ends.

After Politico reported that the world's richest man might be leaving his post as the de facto leader of the White House DOGE Office soon, Business Insider spoke with 16 current and recently fired federal employees who are left wondering what it means for the future of their agencies — while most are crystal clear about their distaste for Musk himself.

"Obviously, my reaction is good riddance," an employee at the Office of Personnel Management said. Employees requested anonymity for fear of retaliation or because they were not authorized to speak, and BI has verified their identities.

Musk has been a vocal advocate of firing federal employees and slashing government budgets. Some federal workers who voted for Trump previously told BI that they support efforts to make the government more efficient but feel "betrayed" by widespread job cuts and upset by Musk's role.

The White House has denied that Musk plans to step back from the cost-cutting effort, directing BI to a post on X by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt: "Elon will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at DOGE is complete." No timeline was given. Representatives for DOGE did not respond to a request for comment from BI, and Musk said on X, "Yeah, fake news."

As a special government employee, Musk is only legally allowed to work for the government for at most 130 days a year. Most employees BI spoke to doubted that a quicker departure would make much of a difference.

Five current and former employees told BI that they think Musk will still influence the DOGE office's operations, even if he technically gives up his government role. As one put it, he'll still "pull the puppet strings — whether inside the White House or out of it."

Others said they didn't see much daylight between Musk and his allies, like Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and young DOGE office staffers.

"I'm assuming he's getting out sooner because this has cost him and his businesses far more than he anticipated, for which I am glad. I hope he never fully recovers," a NOAA employee said.

The Politico report comes as Tesla stock has fluctuated amid Musk's growing power in the West Wing. The company's reported first-quarter deliveries were well below analysts' estimates, and shares are down roughly 30% this year. Even as the president has championed Tesla on the White House lawn, owners of the vehicles have been putting them up for sale in droves. Just yesterday, a conservative judge lost a key election in Wisconsin — despite getting more than $12 million from Musk's PAC.

At a town hall on Sunday, Musk said that his role in the Trump administration is "costing me a lot." Meanwhile, some federal employees are skeptical he'd leave his government influence behind.

"Maybe on paper, they'll say someone else is in charge, but in reality, it will still be Musk," an IRS employee said. An employee at NASA predicted that Musk would simply use X to "pressure anyone not doing what he wants."

Eight employees said they hoped the news was true. Yet many of those who welcomed Musk's departure also said that DOGE has already made a significant, enduring mark on the federal government.

After so many firings, an employee at the Institute of Museum and Library Services said Musk's departure "would be a hopeful sign to keep the federal workforce afloat, but so much damage has already been done. We need more people to proactively help us rather than just wait around for him to leave."

Noah Sheidlower and Ayelet Sheffey contributed reporting.

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• Gone are the days when most movie theaters were packed on a Friday night.
• The pandemic, streaming, and inflation have thrown cold water on the popcorn-fueled outing.
• However, some movie theater superfans are living it up using subscription services like AMC A-list.

This year, I've already seen ten movies in theaters. If that sounds like a lot, let me assure you: I pale in comparison to my fellow AMC A-List fanatics.

For instance, Marcel English, 25, estimates that as inflation hits movie tickets, he saved $900 last year with the subscription service. AMC's A-List runs moviegoers about $20 a month for up to three movies a week, depending on location. English saw 55 movies in 2024 and has already seen 29 this year.

One of his favorites last year was a Christmas Night showing of the remake of the vampire horror film "Nosferatu."

"And when I tell you I loved those showings — I've seen 'Nosferatu' at least four or five times and I saw 'Wicked' six times before that," English, a tutor in Alabama, said.

After Jeremy Chao, 42, had a stroke in late 2021, he hinged his recovery on one big goal: He wanted to regain his ability to walk back over to his local AMC theater. Within a year, Chao had made his triumphant return. These days, the New York City paralegal aims to see four or five movies a month.

Chao, English, and I are all members of the movie theater chain AMC's highest-tier loyalty program, A-listers, but several others exist from the likes of Regal, Alamo Drafthouse, and Cinemark.

Prices range from $15 to $30 a month, and industry research indicates that these offerings have helped lure in moviegoers. Cinemark CEO Sean Gamble said in a February earnings call that the company's subscription offering Movie Club has nearly 1.4 million members and tickets purchased through the program make up 25% of its domestic box office sales.

Gamble added that the company has seen moviegoing "buck the trends" during inflationary periods, speculating that it may be a more affordable option than other forms of entertainment.

A report from Cinema United found that, in 2024, subscription services saw a 12% increase in membership year over year. While AMC no longer shares exact membership numbers anymore, the paid A-List tier boasted about 790,000 members in the first quarter of 2019.

"The usage of and love for the program is strong among our A-list members," Carrie Trotter, the vice president of loyalty and brand marketing at AMC Theatres, said in a statement.

Not everyone has been swayed back into theaters, however. One reason is that prices have been on the rise — the average movie ticket was $10.78 in 2023, up from $9.35 at the start of 2020, per box office site The Numbers — and ticket prices have increased 26% since 2019. Even AMC is upping prices for its A-List tier, although it's also adding some extra perks.

Plus, two-thirds of Americans polled by HarrisX for IndieWire said they'd rather wait to stream movies than go to the theater. It's a big disappointment for filmmakers and even some moviegoers.

"Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen; I know I will," Sean Baker, whose "Anora" swept the Oscars, said in his acceptance speech for best director. "Distributors, please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your films." Baker also had another plea: "For all of us, when we can, please watch movies in a theater, and let's keep the great tradition of the moviegoing experience alive and well."

In an economy where Americans are less eager to go out drinking or partying — or to have the disposable income to throw at more lavish entertainment — the movie theater's appeal is becoming more clear to a certain set of superfans.

"Once it reopened after the pandemic, I just really wanted the movie theater experience to survive," Chao said. "So I thought the best way to do that was to, even if I couldn't go every week, was to sign up for A-list and see as many movies as I could."

Movie theaters are a phone-down social outing and subscriptions help save money

I'm no AMC shill — I simply chose that membership because I love the option to visit the giant IMAX screen in Lincoln Center, and the chain's locations are convenient for me and several of my friends.

Other friends have other subscriptions, and the rivalries run deep. One BI editor loves their Regal Cinemas subscription because it's truly unlimited; if they wanted to, they could see up to three movies a day for $26.49 monthly. They estimate they saved around $624 using their subscription last year. Different models fit different needs. Several A-Listers BI spoke to said that having a variety of theater and film options would make the subscription even better.

A-Listers get perks beyond discounted tickets: It's cheaper to buy tickets for friends, there's a special concessions line, and you get free popcorn and soda upgrades. Plus, you can also see movies at traditionally pricier screenings in IMAX or Dolby.

"It's been really nice to sort of not worry about price because it can be like $20 for a ticket, and if I'm already paying 25 for unlimited, I can see one or two and feel like I've gotten my money's worth," Chao said.

For Austin Martin, 31, AMC A-List has, for the most part, replaced nights out at the bar.

Martin works remotely in North Carolina and no longer drinks — a growing trend among younger Americans — so he has more free time and a little extra cash. In 2024, he saw 36 movies; this year, he's already seen 12. His roommate is in Martin's "entourage" — an A-List feature that allows you to book tickets on behalf of a select group of friends or family.

"My roommate, literally my best friend, says, 'This is our therapy to get out of the house and just not look at your phone, not be distracted,'" Martin said, adding that even his phone-addicted boyfriend focuses when he's at the movies.

Having a phone-down experience is also a draw for Taylor Gillman, a 33-year-old executive assistant on Long Island; she saw around 20 movies last year. Unlike Martin, Gillman was never a cinephile until she drank the A-List Kool-Aid; she had once proclaimed that she would never go to the movies. But after getting dragged to see the new "Mean Girls" and then "Wonka," she got the film bug.

"It's like I'm on another planet. I put my phone away," she said. "And I'm a lot less interrupted than I would be at home just watching in the background."

For Gillman and her husband, it's become a nice new shared hobby — they've tried everything from ax throwing to top golf, and both were far more expensive than AMC. Having a new third space — somewhere that isn't home or work — that lets them get out has been a good experience; the air conditioning in the summer also doesn't hurt.

"It feels different than a streaming platform because you could see anything you want on Netflix whenever, but being able to go somewhere and do something out of the house, I think is a really big plus for this," she said.

Low on funds, but still wanting to go to the movies

Jonathan van Halem, a 30-year-old television researcher in Brooklyn, is no longer an A-Lister.

He joined during a bout of unemployment and was seeing around four movies a month. However, the membership wasn't as convenient for his friends. They'd either have to trek from Brooklyn to Manhattan to go to the AMC, or he'd miss out on group events like Barbenheimer if they chose a non-AMC venue.

Ultimately, van Halem left A-List due to a combination of lower pay, shorter runtimes for smaller films, and movies heading straight to streaming services. If an AMC were to open closer to his home — or another service would let him go to multiple movie chains — he might be lured back into a new subscription service.

While movie theater attendance is still fluctuating at Regal, Cinemark, and AMC — in January 2025, it was down 1.7% compared to a year prior, per data from Placer.ai provided to Business Insider — February saw 8.9% growth from a year prior.

The rise of subscription services might also bring about the community and third spaces that folks like Gillman crave. Sierra Hanson, a 29-year-old bartender at AMC in Missoula, Montana, said that A-Listers bring a completely different demeanor to the theater. They're efficient and always respectful, she said.

One frequent customer came to the theater right after he'd proposed. "We were the first three people he told that she said 'yes,'" Hanson said. "It is really special. You really do form special bonds with the people who come in."

But, of course, there are hazards to centering social life on subscription services. Prices might go up, or folks might move out of the range of an AMC. And with individual services — like AMC vs. Regal — forcing moviegoers to choose brand loyalty, there can be divisions when you leave it behind. Look no further than van Halem.

"My entourage was like seven or eight people and we rolled deep. It's a meaningful thing to be in an A-list entourage with someone. It was a sad day when I had to tell them I was no longer participating," he said. He told them the cost just wasn't making sense anymore.

"They understood, but I never got a text to go to the movies with any of them ever again."

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• AARP reports a surge in calls from retirees concerned about Social Security benefits.
• Seniors are worried about the Trump administration's budget cuts at the Social Security Administration.
• Office closures and staffing cuts could strain the agency as baby boomers retire and demand rises.

Anxious retirees have been phoning AARP in droves about their Social Security benefits.

A spokesperson said that since February 1, the nonprofit has received roughly 2,000 calls a week on the issue, and "by far the number one" concern is about disruptions to checks.

"They're really struggling to get by and Social Security is their lifeline," Bill Sweeney, AARP senior vice president, said of older Americans who rely on Social Security benefits to make ends meet. "It's something they paid into their entire working lives from their very first paycheck until their very last."

The spike in calls is double AARP's usual volume and is happening in response to the Trump administration's workforce reductions within the Social Security Administration. Though Trump has promised his administration won't touch benefits, retirees have reason to be concerned about the service they'll receive from the agency.

Last month, wait times for calling Social Security averaged around an hour and 44 minutes, and Social Security administrators warned that customer service is going to get worse.

For example, one change requires beneficiaries to present identification in person rather than online to prevent fraud. However, the agency also announced it would be closing some field offices, a move that could present further challenges to seniors and disabled Americans who don't have access to transportation or live in remote areas.

Business Insider previously spoke to Social Security employees who said the agency was already overwhelmed before the White House's DOGE office came on the scene. Staffing has reached its lowest levels in 50 years — and demand for the agency's services is only growing as a wave of baby boomers hit retirement age.

"There's about 10,000 people turning 65 every single day in this country," Sweeney told BI. "And there's more every day than the day before. And yet the staff at Social Security is going down."

Nearly 73 million Americans receive Social Security benefits. Around 40% of older Americans rely solely on monthly checks for their retirement income, according to the National Institute for Retirement Security. The number of Americans over the age of 65 is projected to steadily increase to 80 million in 2040.

Judith Murray, 64, is one of them. Murray previously told BI that she lives on $1,311 a month in Social Security and a $1,174 monthly SNAP allotment in central Illinois. It's barely enough to cover essentials in a seven-person household, which includes some of her children and grandchildren and her fiancé, who recently lost his job.

Any delays in Social Security payment would jeopardize Murray's ability to pay for housing and groceries — and she is already already behind on bills and doesn't have any savings. Murray said that, due to a disability, she's been relying on Social Security for several decades.

Whether it's a supplement to retirement savings or a sole source of income, Social Security is one of the most popular federal programs with 87% of Americans saying it must remain a priority even with budget deficits.

Frank Bisignano, a seasoned finance executive, fielded questions from Democrats during Tuesday's Senate Finance Committee hearing as Trump's pick to head the Social Security Administration.

Bisignano vowed to continue operating the agency to serve the American people "to ensure that every beneficiary receives their payments on time, that disability claims are processed in the manner they should be."

When asked if he had plans to denationalize the service, he said no.

"I've never thought about privatizing. It's not a word that anybody's ever talked to me about," the Wall Street veteran continued. "I don't see this institution as anything other than a government agency that gets run for the benefit of the American public."

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• Social Security offices could see longer lines due to short staffing and limited phone service.
• A new in-person ID requirement may make it harder for some Americans to claim Social Security.
• The Trump Administration said they are making changes to the SSA to prevent benefits fraud.

Lines at your local Social Security office are about to get a lot longer — if it survives a wave of closures brought on by funding cuts under the Trump administration.

And the Social Security field offices that do stay open are in for a flood of visitors after the short-staffed government agency limited phone service for beneficiaries. That might be bad news for elderly Americans relying on Social Security checks without reliable transportation or internet.

In a memo obtained by Business Insider, Acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations Doris Diaz told SSA staff on March 13 that recent reductions in phone service could lead 75,000 to 85,000 additional visitors a week to show up at local field offices in order to file Social Security claims. The memo came before the agency announced it was changing its identity-proofing procedures in an effort to reduce fraud risk, which will, in part, require some beneficiaries who cannot use online systems to come into field offices to confirm their identities.

It's unclear if beneficiaries will see a delay in checks hitting their bank accounts — but the stakes are high for older and disabled Americans. Over 73 million people claim Social Security, many of which rely on it as their primary source of income. Economists, policy analysts, and former and current SSA staff members told BI that the policy changes could be an insurmountable obstacle for seniors, making it harder for some to receive the checks they need to afford housing, groceries, and other basics.

"It's going to further strain people's ability to access their earned benefits," Kathleen Romig, the director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said. The agency already had an average call wait time of one hour and 44 minutes in February 2025 and received an average of around 307,000 calls.

BI has heard from nearly 4,000 older adults in recent months, many of whom don't have adequate retirement savings and rely on their monthly checks to afford essentials like housing, groceries, and healthcare. Some retirees told BI that they are anxious about the impact that federal funding cuts will have on their monthly checks.

"There are a lot of people — we're laying in bed awake at night wondering if we're going to make it through this month and if we're going to have enough money to pay bills," said one 68-year-old relying on Social Security. "And if not, we wonder: What can we give? What can I do without?"

Changes could make it harder for people to claim Social Security, staff say

The mounting customer service crisis at the SSA comes as the Trump Administration and the White House's DOGE office have fired thousands of federal workers — some of which were reinstated due to a judge's ruling earlier last month. Social Security has said its staffing target is 50,000 workers — 7,000 less than its current 57,000, which is already near a historic low. Romig called the cuts to those staff numbers "a perfect storm for Social Security beneficiaries."

Staffing disruptions at the SSA have already led to the closure of some local field offices and longer call wait times for beneficiaries hoping to file a claim with customer service. With a requirement that some beneficiaries confirm their identity in person, these wait times will likely worsen.

Some older Americans may also struggle to meet the in-person requirement. Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the left-leaning think tank Groundwork Collaborative, said that as more "hoops and barriers" are implemented, seniors with the least means will likely be impacted the most. That includes seniors without access to the internet, those in rural areas, or those who are disabled and don't have access to transportation. "Of course, those are disproportionately going to be the ones who rely on Social Security for nearly all of their income."

Americans' reliance on the Social Security program is expected to grow in the coming decades.

"There's about 10,000 people turning 65 every single day in this country. And there's more every day than the day before. And yet the staff at Social Security is going down," AARP senior vice president Bill Sweeney said.

Economist Ben Glasner of the Economic Innovation Group told BI that any delay in Social Security payments could "jeopardize seniors' ability to meet their needs," making it difficult for low-income retirees to pay bills and increasing levels of food and housing insecurity. Older Americans living in rural areas tend to rely most on government aid and could be most vulnerable, he added.

The Trump Administration has said that changes in Social Security policy could help prevent benefits fraud — a phenomenon that is extremely rare, with only 0.84% of payments deemed improper by the SSA's Office of the Inspector General. DOGE has recently made efforts to crackdown on dead people claiming benefits. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a podcast interview last week that a hypothetical delay in Social Security checks might catch those guilty of fraud because they would make "the loudest noise screaming, yelling and complaining."

Assistant White House Press Secretary Liz Huston told BI in a statement that Trump has pledged to be a "responsible steward" of taxpayer dollars and "the previous fraud strategy has failed, and as a result, necessary changes are coming." A representative for the SSA said that the agency's five-day return to office policy will ensure that "maximum staffing is available to support the stronger in-person identity proofing requirement."

Still, SSA employees are concerned that in-person identification requirements and short staffing could cause chaos for beneficiaries. Staff said they also haven't received guidance on how to answer older Americans' questions.

A current SSA worker said that they've received essentially "no information" on the new policy.

"There has been zero communication on this since that press release," they said. They said a coworker was currently fielding phone calls from beneficiaries about the new change, with nearly every call related to recipients asking if they needed to come into a field office.

"People are calling and we have no more info than that press release," they said. "We look like idiots."

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• After all the hullabaloo about fired federal workers, many are now back at work — sort of.
• They're on paid administrative leave after a court ordered the Trump administration reinstate roughly 25,000 of them.
• Ten of them spoke to BI about the whiplash of their careers and financial lives.

The latest twist in the White House's efficiency push is roughly 25,000 fired federal workers being ordered back on the government's payroll — but not doing any work.

"I'm sitting at home not doing anything," said Monte Burns, a 55-year-old Internal Revenue Service worker who was fired in February and then reinstated on administrative leave last week.

Burns feels relieved, but has only temporarily paused his job search because he's doubtful his IRS paycheck will last.

"I definitely am not wanting to put all my eggs in this basket again," Burns said. "They kind of put holes in the basket, and I don't want the eggs to fall out and crack."

Burns isn't the only sitting duck on the federal government payroll. Around 25,000 federal probationary workers across 18 agencies were fired under the Trump administration in the last month or so. Now, many of them are back, following a judge's order. But that doesn't mean they're pushing papers; instead, many have been placed directly on paid administrative leave, which OPM has said in a filing is the first step in reinstating workers' jobs.

"Their version of reinstatement is just adding us back to personnel rolls but not letting us actually do our jobs," a reinstated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau worker said, adding they expect to be fired again.

Business Insider spoke to 10 workers about what it's like being fired, unfired, and then bracing for a possible second firing. Many viewed the latest turn of events as as antithetical to DOGE's mission to reduce what Donald Trump said was the many federal workers who "don't work at all."

For the newly re-employed, it's a frustrating period. Workers say they want to be working, but instead they're twiddling their thumbs. At least they're getting paid — for now.

"I get more and more annoyed and angry at the way they're treating us as this little ball they can just hit around. Just make up your damn mind," a reinstated National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration worker said. "You're basically holding everybody in limbo and playing games with their livelihoods."

Representatives for the White House, CFPB, NOAA, IRS, DOGE, and DOE did not respond to a request for comment.

When a push for efficiency means getting paid to sit around and do nothing

The reinstated workers BI spoke with said they don't want to be slacking off. It's a strange twist of fate for people who were fired, obstensibly, for performance issues, which they dispute.

"It's just been for me, a little bit of a back and forth mentally. Obviously I feel like I was wrongly terminated, but also I didn't take my oath to uphold the Constitution to sit here and do nothing and get paid. It just feels like I'm stealing from the taxpayers in a way," one reinstated IRS worker said.

A reinstated IRS worker said that while "it sucked to get swept up in the mass cuts" they originally supported the cost-cutting mission and believe "the country has to do penance for the overspending."

Now the aim has been distorted. "I find it ironic that 'they' were wanting to flush out the people who were earning checks and not actually producing and now, due to the way they fired us, they created the same scenario," they added.

Even getting in touch with workers to get them back on payrolls brings its own challenges. One reinstated General Services Administration worker said that the letter informing them of their reinstatement went to their spam folder.

A reinstated Veteran Affairs worker said it's not that simple to bring people back — they'd need new equipment and new IDs. The worker said the plan is to get equipment and IDs next week and get back to work then.

The worker said there's still "a lot of gray area with unknown direction" given there's a hiring freeze still, which impacts their work.

Spokespeople from both the VA and GSA told BI that the agencies are complying with the court order.

One pending question is whether workers will actually pick up their pens and paper again. The GSA worker seriously doubts they'll be tangibly reinstated, but another reinstated IRS worker was more optimistic.

"It's sounding like they're going to be bringing us back to official duties soon once they can re-onboard us, so it'll also be nice to be able to feel productive again," they said.

For now, though, workers are sitting and waiting for what comes next.

"We want to go back to doing what we did — that's to help people," a reinstated NOAA worker said, adding, "You're now paying us to not work. How is that making things more efficient?"

A few more days of unexpected pay

For some workers, the brief reinstatement has been a boon. The administrative leave means at least a few more days of pay that they hadn't expected.

"It's pretty awesome," said a reinstated IRS worker who'd had a job interview the day before, adding, "Obviously you never know when you'll get a job offer, so having a paycheck to rely on in the meantime will definitely help."

Some said they're using the extra paid time to think about what comes next, or to take some breathing room for the job hunt. But it's also a time to lament jobs that none are anticipating they'll actually get back.

"Ideally, I would return to my job. I just do not think that that's going to happen," a reinstated IRS worker said.

A reinstated Department of Energy worker said that they loved their job and their team, but they do expect to be let go again. They're "not at all" counting on actually staying. One reinstated NOAA worker said, emotionally, they've moved on. They still "adore" the agency and think highly of it — but it's too stressful to stay under the current circumstances.

"I have a family to care about," they said. "I just need to seek something else that is going to be not necessarily stable, because no job is really stable, but at least isn't going to treat me like dirt."

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• The US is not in a recession, but Americans are sharing their "indicators" online.
• It's all about how they're cutting back on spending or seeing early aughts throwbacks in pop culture.
• After all, when uncertainty strikes, humor helps us cope.

It's Southwest charging for bags. It's the "recession pop" vibes of Lady Gaga's new album. And it's definitely cancelling your eyelash extensions to save money.

If you ask the internet, they're all terrible signs for the economy.

But Americans are getting ahead of themselves: The economy's fundamentals are not in downturn territory. Instead, they're sharing memes to bond over souring sentiment. People are noticing ways in which both their own finances and pop culture are reflecting a time of uncertainty.

Maybe you want to bring home the alcohol you brought to a party — you paid for it, after all. And if your sugar daddy ghosts you? Clearly, we're all cutting back. And if you get laid off, just don't call it "funemployed."

And then there's pop culture: One musicologist interviewed by CNBC likened the 2008 recession's pop era to the "era of the Katy Perry banger," and some music lovers say it's making a comeback with the bouncy, vibrant tracks found on Gaga's "Mayhem."

"Creators and consumers or such memes use humor both to alleviate some of the tension associated with a recession, and to deliberate about the situation," said Sulafa Zidani, an assistant professor in communication studies at Northwestern University who's writing a book on memes.

Indeed, tension is ramping up. Google searches for "recession" are on the rise, and consumer sentiment plummeted by 11% in March, hitting its lowest three-month slide since 2020. Joanne Hsu, who oversees the University of Michigan Index of Consumer Sentiment, told BI's Allie Kelly that there's currently a "massive amount of uncertainty" weighing Americans down.

That makes sense, as investors signal potential recession fears and stocks plummet amid a sell-off. Both President Donald Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have brushed off potential recession concerns.

So, for comfort, we turn to the memes. Zidani's research has found that people create them to "make sense of current events," especially "in moments of uncertainty and situations that are shocking or still unfolding."

To be sure, actual recessions are marked by longer-term declines in multiple data points like the job market and consumer spending. But some less-offical indicators have caught on in popular conversation. One such theory is the lipstick index; the thinking behind that one is that people increasingly turn to affordable luxury like lipstick — rather than pricier alternatives — during a downturn. Other potential signs are men's underwear sales plummeting, a theory popularized by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, and the hemline index theory, which posits that skirt lengths get longer during a downturn.

Then there's the rise of the "recession brunette" over the last few years; when essentials got more pricey, some Americans who had colored their hair lighter reverted to brunette, which is traditionally much easier and cheaper to maintain — especially at home.

You might see more people donning prescription glasses, albeit perhaps ones with a bit of flair; a 2009 piece from the Review of Optometry notes that the Great Recession meant a plunge in appetites for discretionary eyewear and accessories, and that consumers might instead turn to cheap online retailers. If trendy, cheap frames from online discount sites suddenly seem to be everywhere, that might be why.

But while recession memes might be a fun coping mechanism, you should still tread carefully if you're vibecession doomscrolling.

"The risk of using memes in this way is that memes, in their catchy and funny phrasing, can spread panic quickly with very little information," Zidani said. "People may be using them to cope emotionally, but the memes don't tell people how to prepare or survive a recession."

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This article is part of "Made to Order," a series highlighting the business strategies driving today's food industry.

On a recent night over spring rolls and mango salad, I spoke with more people than I had in months, from grandparents to young professionals.

That's the point: The Dinner Table is one of many businesses popping up to feed a growing appetite for a new kind of dining experience. It's the opposite of fast-casual — a slow, dinner-party-style meetup meant to turn strangers into friends — if only for a night.

Tyler Tep cofounded The Dinner Table in his apartment after living in New York for about three years. He wanted to find a way to contribute to the city's culture. What started with friends soon morphed into public, ticketed events at restaurants in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, and, soon, Miami. Tep said they'd been flooded with inbound requests to expand to new cities.

"That tells me that there's untapped demand that we are not currently capitalizing on," Tep said. "And there's so much opportunity and need for these sort of social dining communities in different parts across the United States, which is great to see that there's an appetite for that."

At a time when flakiness reigns, friend circles are shrinking, and we're spending more time alone than ever before, dinner clubs have sprung up to fill the void left by our shrinking third spaces: shared places that are neither work nor home but a venue meant to give us an opportunity to be around others. Access to third spaces has narrowed over the past few decades as younger generations have grappled with their own social disconnection and loneliness; dinner clubs with strangers might just help scratch that itch.

But the food and beverage business is already tough, and the new ventures bring their own challenges. Starting something isn't cheap, especially in a space at the intersection of the events and restaurant industries, where profit margins tend to be thin. And some dinner club creators are paying their own way. Even so, they believe that dinner clubs can be a salve for a lonelier world. They're making it work by doing what they can — whether that means holding a second job, working the kitchen themselves, or keeping a menu as tight as possible to reduce waste.

"I've learned so much about what it means to run a business, to manage people, to work with sales and to partner with restaurants and just navigating the food and bev and restaurant industry itself," Tep said.

In any events business, there's always unpredictability and unforeseen challenges — spacing might be constrained, or restaurants might be filled to the brim with other diners. Even so, Tep said, "I look back on the experience, and while it is a lot of work, it's also really fulfilling to see that this is something that I've built myself — and it's really cool."

Busting loneliness and running an 'anti-restaurant'

Joy Watts, the executive chef of Dinner Party in Brooklyn's Clinton Hill neighborhood, describes her workplace as an "anti-restaurant restaurant." Instead of simply serving up dishes to guests, it functions as a nightly dinner party. It was founded in 2021, when Cami Jetta — a New Yorker who did not have restaurant experience but knew she had the chops to host a 20-person dinner party — began offering picnic-style meals and, later, dinner-party-style events with communal seating. Now the concept has moved to a larger, permanent space.

"A lot of people work from home these days. A lot of people just either go to the office and back," Watts said. "You have your tight, little bubbles that you operate in. And so to be able to go to a place where you pretty much could be guaranteed to meet someone who you don't know, or speak to someone who you've never met, is really special and hard to find."

Even though there's a demand for dinner parties, the concept has financial pressures, especially as part of the food and beverage industry, which has razor-thin margins.

Dinner Party has a two-week set menu, which has helped it keep down waste and costs compared with when it used to change its offerings weekly. Another challenge is a generous reservation period and cancellations. At a traditional restaurant, someone canceling might mean the loss of a patron who would've grabbed a glass of wine and a snack. At Dinner Party, a party cancellation might mean a $400 to $500 loss, Watts said, since the prix fixe menu costs about $64 to $80 a person, depending on the night.

"To fill those seats last minute, it's not like you're just asking someone to meet you out at the most-casual-ever dinner. It's a little bit more of something to be going to," Watts said. "So I think that those cancellations, paired with the fact that people don't really just spontaneously decide to come to Dinner Party day of, just makes seats harder to fill when we have last-minute changes."

When I visited Lucky Dinner Club, my fellow diners knew about these industry challenges all too well. Almost the entire kitchen staff of another upscale restaurant joined the table, enjoying bottles of wine, stacks of sourdough grilled cheese, and piles of honeyed focaccia.

We're here because of Gabrielle Macafee, a 29-year-old based in Brooklyn. Lucky Dinner Club started in her railroad apartment in early 2022 when she wanted to throw a dinner party for some friends after falling in love with cooking during the pandemic. Since then, she's hosted dinners all over the city at different restaurants, working the kitchen in venues big and small.

Macafee said that there are months when the income can sustain her, but amid the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, she also does creative work on the side. Like many small-business owners, she's starting with a passion project — it's just not possible right now for it to be a full-time job, she said.

"I think people just ultimately want to break that fourth wall, and they want to have a reason to break the fourth wall," she said, adding: "It's more of a safe space for people to be able to come and not have the societal pressure of performing."

When Macafee started out, she made Lucky Dinner "pay what you wish." But she said that meant she was "hemorrhaging money"; ultimately, she set a price of about $50 a person. During my visit, the meal was à la carte, meaning we paid for only what we eat.

"Now with rising food costs, I'm trying to keep it as accessible as possible because I want a certain type of person to be able to come," she said. "And that's usually a more creative person who's not in it for solely the Instagram content."

Solving the long-term finances of hosting dinner parties

The dinner party equation is hard to solve even for people with more restaurant experience, though the much-lauded Ambra in Philadelphia is working to crack the code. Its co-owner Chris D'Ambro said that prepandemic, the small restaurant had more traditional seating — five tables in a dining room, with multiple seatings a night.

When D'Ambro and the team re-signed their lease in the middle of 2020, they decided to rethink how the dining room was set up. They wanted a more fun experience for both workers and patrons. Now it's one seating a night, and restaurant patrons will often find themselves at a communal table that seats about eight to 12. D'Ambro said that at first, they anticipated whole parties would book the larger table. Instead, folks have been booking in smaller configurations; couples or groups of friends come in and sit with fellow diners who had the same idea. It's turned into a 3 ½-hour dinner party — a true experience.

"The tables inevitably end up talking about what restaurants they've been to in the city and all these things," he said. "It's fun to hear and facilitate these little groups, some of which have become friends and have come in together subsequently."

A group of 10 people met at Ambra and are still on a text chain a year later, D'Ambro said. And often, folks end up keeping the party going at his Southwark bar in the same building. That restaurant helps to cover the bills for the building, D'Ambro said; Ambra was never meant to be a stand-alone venue.

Even so, Ambra has been sold out almost every night, D'Ambro said.

"I think I was very nervous that people would be in there talking politics and religion, or somebody would be carrying the conversation too much and the table would be annoyed with the one person. But everybody's been cool and it's been good," he said. "The biggest surprise on a good level has been that I see these people wanting to carry on their evening and continue to hang out even after dinner."

Meanwhile, Tep is self-funding The Dinner Table, but he said the events had been profitable.

"I never saw The Dinner Table being what it is today, and I'm immensely proud of what it has become. And now what I do see is the potential of what it can be and how much interest there is in it," he said, adding: "I have the saying that 'I'm playing with house money,' in the sense that no matter what happens, what I've already done with The Dinner Table is amazing."

• Former heads of Social Security are concerned about Americans' checks.
• The agency is facing potential disruptions due to staff reductions and tech issues.
• Staffing has already been in decline at a time when more and more baby boomers are retiring.

Former leaders at the Social Security Administration agree on one big thing right now, despite working for presidential administrations on opposite sides of the political aisle: Checks to 69 million beneficiaries could be at risk under the Trump Administration.

Former commissioners Martin O'Malley and Michael Astrue are raising the alarm about the White House's DOGE-inspired workforce cuts hitting SSA at a time when baby boomers are reaching peak retirement age and staffing at the agency has already been in decline. Complex technology stacks also mean that experienced staff are crucial to keeping the checks flowing and any issues addressed in a timely manner.

Already, the Social Security administration has offered some workers early voluntary retirements, with more reductions potentially to come. The agency has said that its staffing target is 50,000 — an ultimate reduction of around 7,000 workers, alongside an organizational restructure. Five Social Security workers previously told BI that they were already concerned that cuts could mean an even worse experience for the public and would-be recipients.

Mark Warshawsky, who served as Social Security's deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy in the first Trump administration, is also worried. He said instead of staffing cuts, the White House could save billions of dollars by rolling back regulatory changes made by the Biden administration that expanded benefits, but there's no sign the agency's DOGE staffers are trying to do that.

"To be frank, I've been disappointed in terms of what DOGE has been doing at Social Security," he told Business Insider, adding that staff cuts don't seem to address the regulatory or technology issues at SSA.

Meanwhile, key Trump advisor Elon Musk has called Social Security "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time." Meanwhile, workers linked to DOGE have been tasked with trying to hunt down benefits fraud to dead recipients, something that, per a BI analysis, is not very prevalent. SSA and representatives for DOGE did not reply to a request for comment.

"Any American receiving Social Security benefits will continue to receive them," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

When O'Malley was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2023, "it was not because the agency was doing well," O'Malley said. "They were struggling every day with a new record high in customers."

Astrue, who was the Social Security commissioner from 2007 to 2013 under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, said that the current state of Social Security has compelled him to talk about the agency and its operation for the first time in five or so years: "I don't operate very much in this world anymore, but I've kind of been summoned back lately," he said. "And so I'm here kind of trying to do the Lord's work a little bit."

How brain drain could imperil Social Security benefits

Both O'Malley and Astrue are concerned about benefit interruptions, although they have differing views on when that'll happen. O'Malley thinks that there could be a benefit interruption within 90 days.

He chalks that up to experienced workers opting to leave, potentially imperiling the agency's knowledge base for coding and technological issues. The agency's base foundation tech layer is written in COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language, O'Malley said. Laura Haltzel, a former Social Security associate commissioner who recently left the agency, described it as a "Frankenstein's monster version of how a system would run as laws are passed and pieces are added ad hoc over the years."

"These technology folks not only understand how to code COBOL, they understand the architecture — how that web of systems is held together, is pieced together, is maintained with great care so that we're able to get the right amount to the right person at the right time," O'Malley said. "And they're driving all of those knowledgeable people out of the agency fast."

Warshawsky, the former deputy commissioner, said the SSA could really benefit from efforts to modernize its software. Staff at the agency use multiple computer systems that can't talk to each other, he said. But in recent court filings, most DOGE staff were revealed to be looking into the possibility of benefits fraud.

The agency's tech problem, he said, "won't be solved in a day. Maybe not even a year. But it has to be solved."

Astrue is also concerned about disruptions — although he's not as certain they'll happen so quickly. "I agree with Martin on a surprising number of things, given that starting from first principles we believe, I think, in very different things," Astrue said.

"I think there's some real risk of a disruption," Astrue said, adding that his timeline is longer than O'Malley's. "I have — maybe it's a sentimental faith — in the Social Security employees."

And there may already be some technological snafus: One SSA worker told BI that systems for processing claims have been crashing more recently and that things like appointment systems keep crashing.

That's on top of issues the agency had already been dealing with, as the processing time for supplemental income and disability benefits has over doubled since 2016, hitting around seven and a half months. Staffing in fiscal year 2024 was hovering near 50-year lows, even as SSA looks at slashing its workforce more.

"The people who maintain these systems and fix issues are just not there," the worker said. "It's like all the systems issues that happened at Twitter when Musk took over are happening at SSA…except instead of people being minorly inconvenienced, people's livelihoods are at stake."

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• Some Trump-voting federal workers told BI they feel betrayed.
• They said they voted for Trump to lower prices; not for Elon Musk to lead mass firings.
• Some said they still support the administration's efforts to cut waste and have hope Trump will deliver.

David Pasquino voted for President Donald Trump. Then, the new administration fired him.

The former Veterans Affairs employee told Business Insider that while he still supports aspects of the Trump administration he finds many of the president's actions problematic.

In particular, he supports the president's approach to border enforcement and his plans to increase the size of the military. He's not a fan of the Elon Musk-led firing of thousands of federal workers.

"They are literally taking a chainsaw to the government when they should be using a scalpel," Pasquino said. "This is not what I imagined when President Trump stated that he was going to change the government and make the government more efficient."

BI spoke to 10 current and former federal workers, offering some anonymity to speak freely without retribution. Some who are still employed said they voted for Trump with the hopes that he would deliver on his campaign promises, but the constant threats to their careers and villainizing of their coworkers have led them to regret it.

"I feel betrayed. This is not what I wanted, to let everybody lose their job," a Veterans Affairs employee who voted for Trump twice told BI. "You're fired. You're fired. You're fired. This is not 'The Apprentice.'"

Others said they continue to support Trump and his mission to cut government waste. The overwhelming message was that they did not cast a vote for Musk.

"I don't like Elon Musk," a VA employee said. "I don't want him meddling into my business. He's not the president. Trump is."

Harrison Fields, the White House's principal deputy press secretary, told BI that Trump "returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring about unprecedented change in our federal government to uproot waste, fraud, and abuse."

"This isn't easy to do in a broken system entrenched in bureaucracy and bloat, but it's a task long overdue," Fields said. "The personal financial situation of every American is top of mind for the President, which is why he's working to cut regulations, reshore jobs, lower taxes, and make government more efficient."

Elon Musk is 'not the president'

Musk's role as the unofficial head of DOGE has confounded voters and lawmakers across the aisle who did not anticipate the influence he would have over the Trump administration. He has appeared in the Oval Office alongside Trump, speaking to reporters. His ideas posted on X have translated into official emails from the Office of Personnel Management, and he's even met with world leaders.

"We didn't vote for him. We voted for Trump," the VA employee said, adding, "That pisses me off right there."

An employee at the National Weather Service told BI that they "actually admire" what Musk has accomplished at SpaceX and Tesla, but "private business is completely different than the government."

While private companies focus on profit, the employee told BI, "The public sector does way more than worry about money and being efficient."

"We have lives to save and functions to perform that don't necessarily make money but are extremely important nonetheless," this person said.

Musk has continued to defend his efforts and signaled during a recent interview that DOGE has no plans of slowing down. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has attempted to dial back Musk's role in the White House. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week that while he thinks Musk is doing "an amazing job," he wants his Cabinet member to take the lead on cutting government waste.

'I voted for something totally different'

Marcia, 67, is another Trump voter who was fired from her federal job, and she said she feels "extremely let down."

"He was going to make prices lower. He was going to make gas cheaper. He was going to help the middle-class people in America," Marcia, who is seeking to reinstate her position, said.

The National Weather Service employee said that they voted for Trump because they wanted the country to return to how things were in 2019. Instead, they said, "This is just the most toxic environment I've ever seen."

The employee described feeling "hoodwinked" by the president. During the campaign, this person said that they trusted Trump when he said he had nothing to do with Project 2025, the conservative blueprint authored by the Heritage Foundation. Among other things, Project 2025 described breaking up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which houses the National Weather Service.

Following the election, Trump nominated Russell Vought, a key architect of Project 2025, to lead the White House's Office of Management and Budget.

"I said, 'I'll believe Trump, he won't do everything in there,'" the National Weather Service worker said, "but then all of a sudden, everything is starting to come true."

The VA worker said the administration is not using their vote to fulfill the promises that won them over.

"I voted for something totally different, for the economy and the border, the immigration control," the worker said, "I did not vote for him to go in and bully the federal government and start firing people for no reason."

Marcia said she felt confident in her vote back in November because of Trump's promises to boost the economy and crack down on border policy. But if she knew then what she knows now, she would never have cast that vote.

"I've been a Republican all my life, and this is the first time that a Republican president misled me," Marcia said "If I knew I was going to lose my job because Trump became president, no, I would not vote for him."

Some still support the cuts — even if more are coming

Some federal workers who voted for Trump don't feel the same sense of betrayal. One of those workers said that they "fully support DOGE auditing and finding fraud in the system."

"If the agency doesn't need them, then why are they there?" the worker said. BI also previously spoke to Trump-supporting federal workers who said that while they didn't fully stand by Trump's approach to the federal workforce, they support his mission to reduce government waste.

"I think overall we're going to end up better off with him as a president," one of the workers said.

Another worker who is broadly supportive of Trump and DOGE's mission said that job cuts, should they come to their agency, would "definitely be hard on my family." Going into the election, they knew that positions could be cut. Even so, they added, "I believe if we are going to continue funding essential services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, and infrastructure we have to cut spending in a massive way."

More federal terminations are likely coming; the Office of Personnel Management asked all agencies to submit reorganization plans by March 13. It's leaving workers in limbo, wondering if they'll be next on the chopping block — and for those who voted for the president, a particularly bitter taste in their mouths.

The National Weather Service worker said the cuts aren't prompting the efficiency within agencies that DOGE intended.

"There is anxiety, there is shock, and also that feeling where they just don't trust us to do our jobs," they said. "DOGE wants us to be as effective as we can be, yet they're distracting us with all these threats."

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• Alexander Simonpour, who has worked at Tesla for several years, has popped up at NASA.
• He's scheduled to attend a meeting next week with other DOGE people on NASA's layoff plans.
• At least four people with Tesla connections have joined the Elon Musk-linked initiative.

A longtime Tesla engineering manager is on the DOGE team at NASA, according to agency records and two people familiar with the matter.

Alexander Simonpour, an employee of the General Services Administration with a NASA email address, is among those expected to attend a meeting between NASA officials and staff from the White House's Department of Government Efficiency initiative next week where "reductions-in-force" may be discussed, according to the people and records reviewed by Business Insider. He lists several roles at Tesla going back to 2015 on his LinkedIn profile.

His name and work with DOGE have not previously been reported.

Other attendees at the meeting include Riley Sennott, a DOGE staffer whose connections to the initiative were revealed because his Google Calendar was public, and Scott Coulter, who has been named in court documents as being involved with the Trump administration's efforts at the Social Security Administration. Coulter has been listed as a "program specialist" at NASA for weeks, according to agency employees.

Simonpour is at least the fourth person with Tesla connections pitching in on DOGE, the Elon Musk-linked White House initiative to shrink the government workforce and quickly slash spending. Sennott appeared to have interviewed at Tesla, BI previously reported, and a Tesla employee, Thomas Shedd, leads GSA's Technology Transformation Services division.

Antonio Gracias, a longtime member of Tesla's board of directors who is close with Musk, has a Social Security Administration email address, according to people familiar with the matter. His presence at the SSA was previously reported by Bloomberg. Jon Koval, who listed himself on LinkedIn as an employee of Gracias's investment firm, Valor Equity Partners, is also involved with DOGE's work at SSA, according to a record seen by Business Insider.

Tesla, NASA, Simonpour, Gracias, Koval, and Coulter didn't respond to emails seeking comment.

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• Federal workers are protesting mass firings and workplace policy changes with subtle acts of dissent.
• The resistance follows workforce cuts and demands from Trump, Musk, and the White House's DOGE office.
• Workers are using snarky emails, pronouns, and legal action to counter the administration's policies.

First came the spoons, and then the staplers — subtle dissent is rippling through federal government offices in the era of cost cutting under Trump.

In response to a host of wide-ranging orders from President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the White House's DOGE office, they're displaying pride flags, flaunting their pronouns, and sending snarky emails. As one worker said, it's all about "malicious compliance."

"I just go back and forth over which is worse: giving them what they want (an excuse to fire us) or kowtowing to their illegal bullshit," the federal worker told BI, referencing Musk's threat to workers who don't list their week's accomplishments in an email.

Business Insider spoke to 10 federal workers about the ways they're pushing back, granting them anonymity to protect their jobs. While some publicly booed leaders in meetings, others said they're trying to be subtle about their dissent because they aren't always sure which of their coworkers or bosses agree with them.

It's illustrative of the rift that's broken open in recent weeks as the administration has spearheaded efforts to terminate thousands of federal workers, cut federal funding to key programs, and change the way remaining employees do their jobs. The federal employees BI spoke to said they've found comfort in banding together and making statements on the job whenever they can.

The first signs were workers embracing a spoon symbol as a contrast to the "fork in the road" offered by the government, which tried to incentivize workers to leave under a deferred resignation program. A meme of a stapler referencing the cult-classic movie "Office Space" and daring someone to "come and take it" circulated online. And then there's good old-fashioned unionizing.

"This convinced me to join the union at my agency right away, and convince four coworkers to join too," a longtime federal worker said, adding that DOGE has been the "best thing" to ever happen to union membership.

Booing, ignoring emails, and sharing pronouns

BI heard it from dozens of federal workers in recent weeks: They didn't like the emails asking them to list their accomplishments from the past week. A worker at the Office of Personnel Management, the agency that sent the Musk-inspired email, said that information sharing is "huge" among the federal workforce right now — including "ways to write your stupid bullet points."

One employee said that at a NASA town hall, workers booed a director who didn't have clear guidance on how to respond. A Department of Defense worker said, "A lot of people reported the emails as phishing."

While many federal agencies told workers that they were not required to respond to the first email, OPM sent a second email a week later — and some agencies shifted to requiring responses. A Health and Human Services worker was one of a few who said they'll continue to refuse to respond.

Several workers described protests against the administration's new policies regarding DEI and gender, as workers were asked to strip pronouns from their email signatures. Some NASA workers have been introducing themselves with their pronouns during town halls and company meetings, the NASA employee said, and some have pushed back on the agency taking down "gender neutral" signs on restrooms by putting their own signs up. One worker at the Social Security Administration said that while they can't include "she/her" in their email signature, they can still wear a button that says it.

"As soon as DEI stuff came down in the offices, it went up in our cubicles," the SSA worker said. "I know I went out and bought a Trans pride flag for my cubicle as soon as they made us only list male/female."

The NASA worker said that while they suspect there might be "DOGE sympathizers" in upper management, most of their coworkers are "pretty upset and have no problem asking about how to deal with DOGE." An OPM worker said they are being careful because they assume they're being monitored but that everyone they know has been "uniformly appalled." One Department of Defense worker said a coworker tried challenging them to a fight after overhearing them discuss their Trump-related fears.

"I try to be conscious about who I voice my opinions around," they said.

Potential legal action has also helped some employees resist the administration's changes. The OPM worker said that discussing how to file appeals with other employees has been unifying, and the HHS worker is hopeful that there will be further class actions to counter "the emotional distress, hostile work environment, and harassment."

Unions for federal workers filed a lawsuit on February 19 to block the Trump administration's firing of probationary federal workers, or workers who have typically been on the job for under one year. American Federation of Government Employees President Everett Kelley said in a statement that the administration "has abused the probationary period to conduct a chaotic, ill-informed, and politically-driven firing spree."

But for now, workers are engaging in moments of pushback: One federal worker is using their email signature to resist, signing off every email with a quote on the limits of OPM's power.

And the HHS worker is doing the most prudent thing for their career: "I've been trying to work business as usual," they said. "But I've also been applying to other jobs."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from BI.

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• Millennials are having fewer kids than previous generations.
• Surveys and conversations with moms taught us that many parents want bigger families but are worried about money.
• Parents face increased costs for essentials and are saddled with large amounts of student-loan debt.

Christi Orsatti, 32, and her husband both grew up in big families with a stay-at-home parent.

She said there's "absolutely no way" the couple could swing that lifestyle today. They have one kid, who comes with a $20,000 childcare bill for just nine months of the year, the pre-K teacher said.

"We need both of our incomes and we don't have extra money to go on vacation," Orsatti said. Even though she's able to keep her kid at home during the summer months, she said the prospect of another day care bill means she's not sure if another child is in the cards.

Orsatti is one of the parents caught in the crosshairs of overlapping economic concerns that could jeopardize their ability to build the family they want. To better understand some of American moms' biggest economic concerns right now, Business Insider spoke with three contending with different challenges. This story kicks off a series looking at some of Americans' major financial worries right now and how they are influencing major life decisions.

Debt, in particular, was a major stressor for the moms BI spoke with, followed closely by the still-rising cost of everyday essentials. Because of these factors, they all said that having a second child was looking economically dicey. As seen in the chart below, Gallup research found that many Americans said the ideal number of kids is more than they currently have; a plurality of people with zero to two kids said two is the ideal number.

"We were hesitant to even try to have a baby, just knowing how expensive childcare is," Orsatti said. "Obviously, now that we have our daughter, we have just more of a responsibility to make sure that everything is okay."

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Can't afford to feed a second child

The moms BI spoke to talked about how much things have changed since they were kids.

While having a larger family may have been more affordable and feasible for their parents' generation and before, it's increasingly out of reach for the newest wave of parents. Business Insider estimated that parents could spend around $26,000 raising a young child in 2024, with childcare, transportation, and food clocking in as the biggest costs.

Orsatti said she doesn't think older generations understand how difficult it is to "just live" these days. Things like more affordable childcare might make a difference — but she doesn't know if that's something that will happen anytime soon.

"I don't think people really understand how expensive it is to be raising a family and just trying to make it day to day," Orsatti said. Car trouble, for example, would be a big deal for them right now — much less a second day care payment.

As seen in the chart below, costs of child-related essentials — things like transportation and formula — have increased over the last few years.

Leigh, a public interest attorney in the tri-state area, said she is "a very skilled shopper." She added: "One of the greatest gifts I was given by my parents was being very discerning about expenses and learning how to grocery shop, buying stuff on sale, looking at unit prices." She's cut certain things out of her budget in recent years due to rising prices.

For example, pasture-raised eggs and other organics used to be a priority in Leigh's family. The 37-year-old, whose last name is withheld over professional and privacy concerns, would love to give her child grass-fed whole milk, but now she opts for a cheaper option.

Orsatti, who's still breastfeeding, said she's also trying to get the correct nutrition in without spending too much on groceries.

"We haven't bought eggs for a week or two. I think we're going to hold off for another week and just we're trying to get creative and think of other things that we can eat to save money," she said.

Lane, a 35-year-old librarian in the Midwest whose last name is withheld due to medically sensitive information, is dealing with medical debt and newborn necessities like a crib and formula — and is also worried about the cost of living.

"Dealing with all of those costs of just existing on top of the costs of existing with previous medical conditions, it takes a chunk of change," Lane said.

Leigh said the essentials are all she can afford right now. Fun things like vacations or renovations to their home are at the bottom of their priority list; they just want to keep a roof over their heads.

"Unfortunately, as essential as I thought a second child was to my future and my family," Leigh said, "it's not even on the table right now."

The big question: Can I pay for debt and day care?

Orsatti has been paying off her student loans for nearly eight years but has only chipped away at $250 of the principal. She said she owes around $36,000.

"I am on the public service loan forgiveness plan, which I am hoping doesn't get just ripped away from me," she said. "I have about two years left to pay on it."

Leigh, the public interest attorney in the tri-state area, has also been working toward public student loan forgiveness. Under the Biden administration's SAVE plan, her monthly payment dropped to $250 — down from an estimated $900 under the alternative income-driven repayment plan. She said she's put about $50,000 toward her loans. Though they were initially around $200,000, they've ballooned to about $315,000 with interest. Still, with lower monthly payments on the SAVE plan, she's been able to budget and afford her mortgage and childcare bills.

"Then the house of cards fell in the summer of last year," she said, as litigation paused payment options. "Once Trump was elected — not to get too political — it's like just the bottom fell out of everything. I'm basically resigned at this point that I will probably die with my loans."

The SAVE plan is a Biden-era program that was intended to give debtors lower monthly payments and a shorter timeline for loan forgiveness. It's currently paused by a federal court, and some borrowers told Business Insider's Ayelet Sheffey that they're worried about the program's fate and other potential relief options during the Trump administration.

Student loans aren't the only type of debt weighing down some moms. Lane, the librarian in the Midwest, is dealing with student loans and a mortgage — but she's also paying down the medical debt she incurred from treating complications with her first birth. Her child spent time in the NICU, and insurance has been a continual struggle.

"It's hard for us to be like, 'let's have another baby' when, two years out, I'm still paying off just literally the act of having one baby," she said. Having a second child may just not be within reach for them, she said, and that's for a dual-income, "solidly middle-class" household.

She met her $6,000 deductible before even arriving at the hospital to give birth. She left with $6,000 more in NICU bills; she's still paying down the debt. She said it's a story she's heard from other moms her age, too.

"My mother looked at the bills when I started getting them, and quietly told me that her entire experience having me as a baby was about $250 for everything," Lane said, adding that included prenatal appointments, a C-section, and a hospital stay, according to her mom. "In 30-odd years we've gone from $250 to $12,000."

Do you have a story to share about your finances? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.

• Elon Musk's effort to shrink and automate the federal government includes a team at the Department of Labor.
• Members include Marko Elez, Aram Moghaddassi, and Miles Collins, whose association with DOGE hasn't been previously reported.
• Collins has been connected to a fertility clinic business that is currently facing labor lawsuits. His brother is pronatalist Malcolm Collins.

Staff at the US Department of Labor in Washington have identified new faces in their offices in recent weeks: three people associated with the White House's Department of Government Efficiency office.

The new arrivals are Marko Elez, Aram Moghaddassi, and Miles B. Collins. Elez and Moghaddassi have worked for Elon Musk at X, xAI and Neuralink; Collins is a startup founder and investor who has been connected to a fertility clinic business in Los Angeles.

Collins' work with DOGE has not been previously reported.

Three current Department of Labor employees confirmed the arrivals to Business Insider. Elez, Moghaddassi, and Collins did not respond to emails about their involvement with DOGE.

White House DOGE spokeswoman Katie Miller did not respond to a request for comment.

Collins and his wife Brittany Collins bought the Pacific Fertility Center of Los Angeles in 2019, according to deal announcements. He served as president, while his wife was CEO until becoming executive chairman last year, according to her LinkedIn profile.

His brother is Malcolm Collins, who, along with his wife Simone Collins, is a prominent member of the pronatalist movement. The couple has talked about their plans to have seven to 13 children and select among embryos for what they describe as desired traits. Simone Collins was the managing director at Dialog, an organization founded by Peter Thiel, according to her LinkedIn profile. Wired previously reported that people connected to Thiel were among the staffers involved with DOGE.

Musk has also espoused pronatalist ideas.

The fertility clinic business is currently facing lawsuits in California that accuse it of underpaying employees and depriving them of lunch breaks. The company has denied wrongdoing and accused one of the former employees who filed suit of having "fabricated" his claims. The company's lawyers have said they have reached a settlement that should resolve the lawsuits, but haven't filed any details.

Lawyers for the employees didn't respond to requests for comment, and a lawyer for the clinic declined to comment.

Elez, a former xAI employee, and Moghaddassi, whose now-removed LinkedIn page said he worked for X and Neuralink, were previously named by The New York Times as being part of the team that the Trump Administration planned to install in the Treasury Department.

Elez resigned from DOGE last month after the Wall Street Journal reported that he had made racist social media posts. Within a day, Musk posted on X that Elez would return to DOGE.

After Trump's November election victory, Moghaddassi posted on his X account that there were "too many" federal agencies. The account has since been taken offline, but the post was archived.

Several unions have sued the Trump administration over the DOGE office's access to government data, including at the Department of Labor. The unions have said that Americans' privacy rights could be violated and that Musk could unfairly access information that would help his businesses.

"DOGE will also have access to Department of Labor records concerning investigations of Mr. Musk's businesses, as well as records containing the sensitive trade secrets of his business competitors," the lawsuit says.

The Trump administration has said those claims are baseless and DOGE staff are bound by information security rules.

Alice Tecotzky contributed reporting.

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After a long workday, a too long doctor's appointment, a lingering cold, or a visit to the emergency veterinarian, canceling plans can be an understandable relief. Or as the comedian John Mulaney put it in his 2012 stand-up special: "In terms of like instant relief, canceling plans is like heroin. It is an amazing feeling."

The hedonistic benefits of canceling plans have in recent years gained a more philosophical underpinning. As the new mantra goes: You don't owe anyone anything. The thinking is that self-care is key — your needs should come first, even if you've committed to plans. So go ahead, ignore that party invitation, ghost a friend's texts (or block their number completely), or cancel that dinner reservation.

Many Americans, particularly young people, have taken this idea to heart. In a YouGov survey conducted in June 2022, 36% of respondents said they often agreed to plans far in advance but realized closer to the date that they didn't want to participate. Among respondents 18 to 29, 56% said they very or somewhat often made plans and then realized they didn't want to go.

But as another adage tells us, everything is good in moderation. As it turns out, that applies to backing out of the plans we make with other people. William Chopik, an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University, has studied why people feel relief when they cancel plans — and how to best do that.

"We were like, 'Well, why do they feel that way?' Because, in a way, you're kind of rejecting another person," Chopik said. "You know, you're telling another person you don't want to hang out with them."

While this might seem like an easier way of living, it has more sinister effects on our relationships and economics. If we don't owe anyone anything, we may start to view service workers as input-output machines to be screamed at rather than as human beings. We can pull the plug on a friend's Friday-night plans via a text message saying we vaguely don't feel up to it — we don't have to view or hear the friend's disappointment. On a sociopolitical level, we might throw support behind movements to benefit ourselves even if they prove harmful to other people.

"This leads to all sorts of effects for ourselves, from loneliness and isolation to also just a lack of deep meaning," said Richard Cowden, a research scientist who studies topics including forgiveness. Cowden said there's an idea called relational meaning, where your meaning in life is fundamentally rooted in relationships — with family, friends, and broader communities.

"Without fulfilling this fundamental need, we struggle in different ways," Cowden said.

There are many good reasons to cancel plans: an illness, a family emergency, a work meeting gone awry. A society where people feel able to adjust plans for legitimate reasons is a step forward. But for every emergency-driven cancellation, there are dozens more nebulous ones — where, yes, you could go, but a little voice in your head is telling you not to.

All these little decisions to cancel add up to a lot more alone time. In 2010, Americans spent an average of about 5.6 hours a day alone; by 2023, that had risen to nearly seven hours.

Chopik tells me there are two big forces undergirding some of our newfound flakiness. One is the proliferation of what he calls busy culture, a nasty offspring of hustle culture. Modern conveniences make life easier, but constant connectivity pushes us to work more, not less. And when our jobs consume every corner of our lives, we start to view social outings as a special privilege or event rather than something we should weave into our daily routine. Busy culture, Chopik says, is this illusion that we simply don't have enough time for each other, or that that time is overlaid on the rest of our lives rather than an integral part of them.

The other reason is grimmer: We're getting in our heads about whether we're even worth spending time with. After all, one byproduct of the pandemic was a pronounced increase in anxiety disorders and social anxiety.

"People have started to doubt the fact that people want to hang out with them," Chopik said. Indeed, research suggests we underestimate how positive we feel when someone reaches out to us. We may think that if we strike up a conversation with a stranger on the subway, they won't want to chat or it'll make the commute worse. But the opposite is true. We like talking to each other — we just don't think people want to hear from us.

This insecurity runs counter to what most people want.

"A good test is to think about how you would react to it if a friend reached out or wanted to hang out with you — you would probably be positively disposed to that," Chopik said. "But then if I asked you, hey, reach out to a friend and just, like, ask how their day was, you'd be like, I don't know, I don't want to bother them."

Niki Meyari, a 20-year-old college student in Arizona, chalks some of that up to residual social fallout from the pandemic.

"You get used to that loneliness and that isolation or maybe only interacting digitally in ways that fully can't be replicated in real life," Meyari, who was a teen when the pandemic started, said. "And I think that desensitized a lot of people."

While it may seem trivial to send that "I can't come" text, we lose more than just a canceled plan when we back out of a scheduled meetup. For one thing, there's a counterintuitive hierarchy of cancellations. While you might assume it's not as big of a deal if a close friend cancels — you'll probably see them again — Chopik has found that that's more likely to faze you than a casual acquaintance canceling. That's partly because we expect the people close to us to honor their commitments — they do, in fact, owe us something.

"I think that a lot of people have taken this concept, and they're applying it to everyone in every situation, and I just don't think that's productive," Ashley Corbo, a 27-year-old content creator, said.

Chopik has found that when it comes to canceling plans, there are better and worse ways to go about it. For those getting canceled on, excuses such as dealing with health or family issues are more reasonable than not feeling like it or poor planning.

Pulling the rug out from under those closest to us and leaning on dubious health reasons is starting to affect our friend groups. Americans are increasingly less likely to have a best friend — perhaps we're filling our social circles with acquaintances we might not be upset with when they cancel.

And the idea that canceling plans is a form of self-care may be backfiring. Chopik said the people we're closest to are actually included in our sense of self. The time we spend with friends is precious, and it feels costly to lose out on that.

"We have placed comfort and convenience on a pedestal that it does not need to be on," Meyari said. "In turn, actually, in the long run, it makes us more uncomfortable, because we don't really have others to be with."

Economically, places for socializing, like restaurants, have instituted new measures to protect their bottom lines from our flaky tendencies. Look no further than the dominance of restaurant reservation fees or no-show charges. In a survey conducted by OpenTable in 2021, 28% of respondents in the US said they hadn't shown up for a reservation over the past year. In 2022, OpenTable launched its reservation-deposits feature designed to help restaurants avoid no-shows, citing their thin profit margins. The company told BI that, from January 2024 to December 2024, they found the global volume of no-shows for restaurants using the deposit feature was about 50% lower than for those that don't require a deposit. A spokesperson for Resy, another popular restaurant booking app, said that in September 2024, nearly one-fifth of New York City restaurants on the platform charged at least one cancellation fee. Nationally, it said, 12% of restaurants charged a fee that month.

"Most restaurants are small businesses — every table that sits empty can have a significant impact, especially when the average profit margin of restaurants is razor thin," the Resy spokesperson said.

Our newer isolationist tendencies — or the rarity of social gatherings — might also be giving people a shorter fuse. In a 2022 survey of workers in the restaurant industry by the advocacy organization One Fair Wage, 46% of women said they'd experienced increased harassment from customers or supervisors during the pandemic. Anecdotally, service workers have said that customers generally treat them worse than they used to.

"I noticed that customers were starting to act almost like they were taking stuff out on us," Cristian Cardona, who left her job in fast food in 2021, previously told BI. "They would get upset, angry. Sometimes they would get violent, yell stuff at us, and it made it a hostile environment for us a lot of times."

On an intellectual and transcendental level, as Cowden said, there's a line of thinking that we become more human the more we depend on others and spend time together. And when you're stuck thinking you don't owe others anything, you might not have someone to help reel you back into reality.

While flakiness can be frustrating, the rising tide of cancellations is not inevitable. The event companies Evite and Eventbrite said that people on the platforms were increasingly showing an interest in attending health and fitness events, fandom festivities such as cosplay events, and alternative-music festivals.

"We've seen a ton of traditional things, people reverting back to book club, game nights," Olivia Pollock, a hosting and etiquette expert at Evite, told BI. They may find, in those cases, that they owe it to each other to read that book or show up to play that game.

As individuals, we might also need to lean into something that modern luxuries aim to alleviate: discomfort. Feeling a bit uncomfortable — whether that means showing up to a party we're not enthusiastic about or trekking to a friend's house — can pay off in the long run. On the other side may be a friend or a party full of new friends. While it might feel more comfortable to stay home or go into facilitated digital interactions where you can disappear in a moment's notice, it's worth having to suffer through some small talk or meeting a stranger.

Meyari recalled a piece of advice she received on balancing discomfort: Are you uncomfortable with actually going to something, or with the transition of having to get up and go?

"For a lot of people, those lines just get blurred; they think just because they don't want to transition from place A to place B, it means they don't want to go to place B at all," Meyari said. "And they don't want to figure that out — because discomfort is just naturally such a bad thing to them — that they don't want to look deeper and say, like, oh, this thing is actually good for me. I'm going to be uncomfortable for a little bit, but that's OK."

Juliana Kaplan is a senior labor and inequality reporter on Business Insider's economy team.