So accurate. I worked in college for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All the Native Americans in my office would pile their work on my desk. They read Magazines all day long while smoking cigarettes. I was on Work Study program and came in for 4 hours 3 times a week. I had no problem getting their work done. There were three of them full time.
I agree with the need to cut costs. My issue has to do with the one determining which costs need cutting and the severe conflicts of interest that individual has. I don’t suppose Musk is going to advocate for cutting any wasteful spending that benefits his companies. Also, it appears he’s cutting a lot of agencies that monitor his companies. Again, we can agree costs need to be cut, but government oversight of the private sector can still take place (and should) in a more efficient way.
This is potentially a good discussion. I’ve read several books on Musk- he’s not been shy about wanting to “fix” the agencies that monitor businesses like his. Agencies that can drag their feet and cost you 8 YEARS to approve a study or building for one company, but if you are buddies or benefiting someone in the administration or have a job lined up there after. . . . Well then they fast track approval in 2 months and throw federal grant money at you. The whole thing is incredibly corrupt. Read Plutarch lately?
I think we can mostly all agree that bureaucratic red tape is inefficient, but Musk being buddies with the administration to fast track things and skirt regulation is precisely my issue with DOGE.
Conflicts of interest? Really? Michael Sussman was Hillary’s lawyer and the FBI’s Lead General Counsel (James Baker) told agents working on the fake AlfaBank server connection that the Justice Department got the data. Bauer went to Twitter and buried the Hunter Biden laptop story and ran the Fusion center to censor a bunch of 💩 the federal government did. Citing “conflict of interest” when there are Democrat spies all over Washington is not a hill to die on.
Why the hell are you bringing up Hillary and Democrats?!? Gee, it’s like both sides can have conflicts of interest and they’re wrong no matter who’s doing them! What a concept! But if you see Hunter Biden getting a job in a foreign country because his dad was VP at the time the same as Musk hurting agencies that oversee him while also vying for new government contracts, then there’s no helping you.
“Musk is going to…”. Pure speculation. Musk is not trying to help his enterprises in specific, but all enterprises in general. If you disagree, please site specific examples rather than speculation.
Saying he’s trying to help all enterprises is just as speculative. So the point is no one should be in a position like he is where he can help his enterprises. I thought that was something everyone agreed on, but I guess not. Another point, to really drive it home, is if cutting costs/driving government efficiency truly is the aim, then a person without a vested interest should be the one leading the charge.
He has given many examples of both how government bureaucrats have foiled his plans (he’d like to get to Mars before he dies), and how he’d like to help other businesses, because he believes in capitalist competition as a good for humanity.
The influence in essentially demolishing the CFPB is directly removing the department that institutes rules for funding platforms. Making X an "everything" app with payments will be much easier. You could argue that it will help all of the large social media companies getting into payments as well, but it's still removing a barrier to doing what he wants.
Do you think federal workers are any less incompetent than those in private sector jobs? I guess you've never seen The Office. A lot of what they propose to do (and are doing) is probably unconstitutional. See, e.g., privatizing the USPS, a constitutional agency? Where is our do-nothing Congress? Oh yeah, he's using executive orders, as he can't get his razor-thin majorities to get anything passed. Sure, I hate waste in government, but I hate it in the private sector, too. How about simply freezing federal spending or reducing it across the board by 2% a year, including the Pentagon, the most wasteful part of the federal government (see, e.g., the F-35) and so-called entitlement programs?
Suspect this is true in ways we would struggle to get our heads around. Hoping / thinking that we need someone with less flair, ultimately, to be the face of this effort. If it’s going to be done long enough to make a sustainable difference. Like you said, there are lots of good people that will be impacted. It would be wise to have someone demonstrate some empathy while doing necessary, even vital, efficiency moves. The optics of the world’s most wealthy guy doing it with glee is going to be counterproductive at some point. It needs doing and will need broad public support for years to come.
I envision drastic cost cutting much like a crash diet, it usually results in significant health problems if not done properly. A diet is the solution for being overweight but the approach requires a multifaceted strategy. Certainly an exercise regimen in conjunction with a different nutritional mindset are basic requirements for success, resulting in a change in lifestyle for future health. The approach to cost cutting requires a similar approach and a similar timeline for reaching the hoped for goals. Too much too fast results in a weak system not built for performance and not sustainable. I disagree with the current methods being used, I agree with the hoped for goals.
Hmm... I like DOGE because they are peeling back the rotten planks covering all the things that, up until now, have been kept well covered. Light and fresh air are getting in, and people are seeing what much of our government is really up to. And we are not happy with what we see that was formerly hidden. I hope they keep exposing all this stuff, so that the public outrage actually forces them to change.
One also needs to remember that the people who are howling the loudest (Schumer, Omar, Waters, Schiff) are often the ones who stand to lose the most. Their taxpayer-funded money laundering schemes are hopefully being shut down. Don’t get me wrong, the McConnells and Grahams of the Republican Party are just as bad, if not worse, because they lie and pretend to care about these issues. It’s human nature, though — get what you can while you can.
Maybe while we work to expose the waste and corruption, we should also try to put mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening in the future. That would be a noble effort.
Both parties are to blame, but this has certainly been supercharged over the last four years. If you monitored the NFP numbers each month, as I did, you would have seen that, after revisions, government jobs were a large percentage of the new hires each month.
I also believe that if American taxpayers knew their money was going to fund Drag Queen Operas in Tanzania or to pay for illegal immigrants' hotel bills at the Roosevelt Hotel in NY, and lets not forget the genital mutilation surgeries pushed in countries throughout the world, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers, courtesy of USAID, they would have rejected such uses of funds. But, we elected the leaders who put the people in place who promoted and authorized payments for such things. After all, you get the government you deserve and then the one you fear.
Weird. Yeah, I'm sure there's like people who don't do anything everywhere. Hidden in nooks and crannies, in both the public and private sectors. I'm sure there's CEOs who don't pull their own weight for the money they're pulling in. I'm sure there's people who work for the power companies who take nap breaks in apartment parking lots. I'm sure there are cops who spend too much time in the bathroom or drinking their weight in coffee while not pulling over their required amount of people with broken tail lights. I'm sure there are politicians who only work one day per week and bitch about people wasting taxpayer money, and go to the doctor twice a year their free health care that I don't have.
I guess what I'm saying is, people are awful all over, even those who write articles and also respond to them. I guess I just don't get why we have to destroy the government because someone saw a guy starting a screen 8 hours a day, or reading magazines, or going on too long of a smoke break. I guess I don't see why we need to defund everything without anyone ACTUALLY looking to see if these people are ACTUALLY just staring at a screen all day, not writing articles Just indiscriminate cuts. Cuts that could very well be killing people, or ruining people's lives or destroying entire industries.
Maybe someone can explain to me why this immigrant, who hasn't even been elected to public office, should have this much power and inflict so much terror over our country?
Nice. Never worked for government, and the scenarios you paint are exactly why. I hate a day where nothing gets done. To get things under control, they're going to have to do something with Medicare / Medicaid. They'll also probably need to do some trimming on the edges of social security--means testing, raising the retirement age etc. There will be discontent when this stuff gets rolling, but we won't survive unless we do the hard things now.
I worked for state government (equivalent of IRS) and saw none of what you've described. Even if your personal anecdote is factual, we're not seeing a trimming of unproductive workers here with DOGE. We're seeing a complete deletion of entire functions of government (notably consumer protections, research, foreign aid, veterans health, and public health - just to name a few). These are things we won't get back - and we will regret losing them at some point in the near future. And, even if you got rid of 100% of federal workers, you're talking about 5% of the federal budget. DOGE has been a complete shambolic political PR stunt. We're on pace to spend $1 trillion more this year than last year due in large part new inefficiences created by DOGE and an administration blowing money on vanity projects (migrant flights, buyouts, Noem ad campaigns, golf trips, private contracts to donors, etc.). It's a complete joke - and you're too smart to have taken the bait.
So accurate. I worked in college for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. All the Native Americans in my office would pile their work on my desk. They read Magazines all day long while smoking cigarettes. I was on Work Study program and came in for 4 hours 3 times a week. I had no problem getting their work done. There were three of them full time.
I agree with the need to cut costs. My issue has to do with the one determining which costs need cutting and the severe conflicts of interest that individual has. I don’t suppose Musk is going to advocate for cutting any wasteful spending that benefits his companies. Also, it appears he’s cutting a lot of agencies that monitor his companies. Again, we can agree costs need to be cut, but government oversight of the private sector can still take place (and should) in a more efficient way.
This is potentially a good discussion. I’ve read several books on Musk- he’s not been shy about wanting to “fix” the agencies that monitor businesses like his. Agencies that can drag their feet and cost you 8 YEARS to approve a study or building for one company, but if you are buddies or benefiting someone in the administration or have a job lined up there after. . . . Well then they fast track approval in 2 months and throw federal grant money at you. The whole thing is incredibly corrupt. Read Plutarch lately?
I think we can mostly all agree that bureaucratic red tape is inefficient, but Musk being buddies with the administration to fast track things and skirt regulation is precisely my issue with DOGE.
Conflicts of interest? Really? Michael Sussman was Hillary’s lawyer and the FBI’s Lead General Counsel (James Baker) told agents working on the fake AlfaBank server connection that the Justice Department got the data. Bauer went to Twitter and buried the Hunter Biden laptop story and ran the Fusion center to censor a bunch of 💩 the federal government did. Citing “conflict of interest” when there are Democrat spies all over Washington is not a hill to die on.
Why the hell are you bringing up Hillary and Democrats?!? Gee, it’s like both sides can have conflicts of interest and they’re wrong no matter who’s doing them! What a concept! But if you see Hunter Biden getting a job in a foreign country because his dad was VP at the time the same as Musk hurting agencies that oversee him while also vying for new government contracts, then there’s no helping you.
“Musk is going to…”. Pure speculation. Musk is not trying to help his enterprises in specific, but all enterprises in general. If you disagree, please site specific examples rather than speculation.
Saying he’s trying to help all enterprises is just as speculative. So the point is no one should be in a position like he is where he can help his enterprises. I thought that was something everyone agreed on, but I guess not. Another point, to really drive it home, is if cutting costs/driving government efficiency truly is the aim, then a person without a vested interest should be the one leading the charge.
He has given many examples of both how government bureaucrats have foiled his plans (he’d like to get to Mars before he dies), and how he’d like to help other businesses, because he believes in capitalist competition as a good for humanity.
The influence in essentially demolishing the CFPB is directly removing the department that institutes rules for funding platforms. Making X an "everything" app with payments will be much easier. You could argue that it will help all of the large social media companies getting into payments as well, but it's still removing a barrier to doing what he wants.
Do you think federal workers are any less incompetent than those in private sector jobs? I guess you've never seen The Office. A lot of what they propose to do (and are doing) is probably unconstitutional. See, e.g., privatizing the USPS, a constitutional agency? Where is our do-nothing Congress? Oh yeah, he's using executive orders, as he can't get his razor-thin majorities to get anything passed. Sure, I hate waste in government, but I hate it in the private sector, too. How about simply freezing federal spending or reducing it across the board by 2% a year, including the Pentagon, the most wasteful part of the federal government (see, e.g., the F-35) and so-called entitlement programs?
Suspect this is true in ways we would struggle to get our heads around. Hoping / thinking that we need someone with less flair, ultimately, to be the face of this effort. If it’s going to be done long enough to make a sustainable difference. Like you said, there are lots of good people that will be impacted. It would be wise to have someone demonstrate some empathy while doing necessary, even vital, efficiency moves. The optics of the world’s most wealthy guy doing it with glee is going to be counterproductive at some point. It needs doing and will need broad public support for years to come.
The idea that it is a priority for President Trump to root out fraud is hysterically ironic given everything we know about him.
This is also true in the nonprofit sector, and the closer you get to philanthropy, the more true it is.
I envision drastic cost cutting much like a crash diet, it usually results in significant health problems if not done properly. A diet is the solution for being overweight but the approach requires a multifaceted strategy. Certainly an exercise regimen in conjunction with a different nutritional mindset are basic requirements for success, resulting in a change in lifestyle for future health. The approach to cost cutting requires a similar approach and a similar timeline for reaching the hoped for goals. Too much too fast results in a weak system not built for performance and not sustainable. I disagree with the current methods being used, I agree with the hoped for goals.
You re-affirmed the view I had after a short stay working in government. Thanks for getting me amped up again.
Hmm... I like DOGE because they are peeling back the rotten planks covering all the things that, up until now, have been kept well covered. Light and fresh air are getting in, and people are seeing what much of our government is really up to. And we are not happy with what we see that was formerly hidden. I hope they keep exposing all this stuff, so that the public outrage actually forces them to change.
One also needs to remember that the people who are howling the loudest (Schumer, Omar, Waters, Schiff) are often the ones who stand to lose the most. Their taxpayer-funded money laundering schemes are hopefully being shut down. Don’t get me wrong, the McConnells and Grahams of the Republican Party are just as bad, if not worse, because they lie and pretend to care about these issues. It’s human nature, though — get what you can while you can.
Maybe while we work to expose the waste and corruption, we should also try to put mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening in the future. That would be a noble effort.
Both parties are to blame, but this has certainly been supercharged over the last four years. If you monitored the NFP numbers each month, as I did, you would have seen that, after revisions, government jobs were a large percentage of the new hires each month.
I also believe that if American taxpayers knew their money was going to fund Drag Queen Operas in Tanzania or to pay for illegal immigrants' hotel bills at the Roosevelt Hotel in NY, and lets not forget the genital mutilation surgeries pushed in countries throughout the world, all paid for by U.S. taxpayers, courtesy of USAID, they would have rejected such uses of funds. But, we elected the leaders who put the people in place who promoted and authorized payments for such things. After all, you get the government you deserve and then the one you fear.
Weird. Yeah, I'm sure there's like people who don't do anything everywhere. Hidden in nooks and crannies, in both the public and private sectors. I'm sure there's CEOs who don't pull their own weight for the money they're pulling in. I'm sure there's people who work for the power companies who take nap breaks in apartment parking lots. I'm sure there are cops who spend too much time in the bathroom or drinking their weight in coffee while not pulling over their required amount of people with broken tail lights. I'm sure there are politicians who only work one day per week and bitch about people wasting taxpayer money, and go to the doctor twice a year their free health care that I don't have.
I guess what I'm saying is, people are awful all over, even those who write articles and also respond to them. I guess I just don't get why we have to destroy the government because someone saw a guy starting a screen 8 hours a day, or reading magazines, or going on too long of a smoke break. I guess I don't see why we need to defund everything without anyone ACTUALLY looking to see if these people are ACTUALLY just staring at a screen all day, not writing articles Just indiscriminate cuts. Cuts that could very well be killing people, or ruining people's lives or destroying entire industries.
Maybe someone can explain to me why this immigrant, who hasn't even been elected to public office, should have this much power and inflict so much terror over our country?
Thank you Jared. I know this to be true as well. JV
One hurdle not being discussed is that a large amount of the government work force is actually contractor-based. https://x.com/Dave4Prez24/status/1884998070402003088
Not a criticism of DOGE or its efforts.
Nice. Never worked for government, and the scenarios you paint are exactly why. I hate a day where nothing gets done. To get things under control, they're going to have to do something with Medicare / Medicaid. They'll also probably need to do some trimming on the edges of social security--means testing, raising the retirement age etc. There will be discontent when this stuff gets rolling, but we won't survive unless we do the hard things now.
Nice. “Call’em as you see’em.”
Common Sense-As one once said “is not so common!”
I worked for state government (equivalent of IRS) and saw none of what you've described. Even if your personal anecdote is factual, we're not seeing a trimming of unproductive workers here with DOGE. We're seeing a complete deletion of entire functions of government (notably consumer protections, research, foreign aid, veterans health, and public health - just to name a few). These are things we won't get back - and we will regret losing them at some point in the near future. And, even if you got rid of 100% of federal workers, you're talking about 5% of the federal budget. DOGE has been a complete shambolic political PR stunt. We're on pace to spend $1 trillion more this year than last year due in large part new inefficiences created by DOGE and an administration blowing money on vanity projects (migrant flights, buyouts, Noem ad campaigns, golf trips, private contracts to donors, etc.). It's a complete joke - and you're too smart to have taken the bait.