A Conservative's Take on DOGE

It's going to take a huge coalition to fight 70 million seniors on Social Security. We may revive the Gray Panthers.
Even today, if you put the people who've been hurt so far compared to those who haven't been, they would be in the minority.
60% of Americans own stocks and are breathing fire!

I haven't heard this. where?
"And at the same time they’re doing this DOGE stuff, they’re planning a $4.5 trillion or maybe $5 trillion tax cut."

Where was this interviewer last administration? I've been hollering about this every since I've been here.
"But unfortunately, if we don’t get the debt under control, we’re not going to have a country anymore."

I agree that he believes in MMT, but I think he was educated by Vaught.
Is President Trump a deficit hawk? I don’t think there’s a lot of evidence for that just based on the first term.

I agree, but the government works at a snail's pace, and there are laws that need to be followed.
"So you combine that instinct, which you’re seeing very much here, with a managerial impulse to push people as hard as you can to achieve really specific, measurable, kind of insane goals. This happens at SpaceX all the time. You’re giving people stomach ulcers as they’re producing fantastic rockets in record time.?

I always wonder how they kept up with this crap and thought it was people. Informative and scary because of hackers.
"Archived clip of Elon Musk: Well, the government is run by computers. So you’ve got essentially several hundred computers that effectively run the government. And if you want to know —"

I blame the media because their stuff is divisive.
"the internet in general, is a more adversarial information environment than it used to be."

I agree it seems questionable with the sledgehammer approach, but only 3 months into this there might be plans to create new programs. Congress should get together and create a new Aid program that doesn't have too many tentacles, especially the CIA.
"He’s destroying, for instance, a bunch of data collection functions in the federal government. There’s going to be no fast feedback loop on whether that was a bad idea. Right now they’re cutting people from the I.R.S. and the Social Security Administration." "Consumer Financial Protection Bureau" USAID


I have to stop because it's too long, but I appreciate this candid interview.

I think the Administration certainly could be hoping for 'outrage fatigue' and maybe running out of lawyers to sue them (especially if they get more big law firms to play ball with them).

But it's still hard to see going after Social Security as being a reasonable goal (even though that would be required to get closer to a balanced budget if the Trump tax cuts are extended.)

Laodicean60 said:

I agree it seems questionable with the sledgehammer approach, but only 3 months into this there might be plans to create new programs. Congress should get together and create a new Aid program that doesn't have too many tentacles, especially the CIA.

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In the meantime USAID employees overseas and their families were rounded up on only hours notice and herded onto military planes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their homes, possessions and bank accounts left behind, and dumped at Dulles with nothing. No job, no home, no health insurance, no severance or retirement money, and the President denouncing them as criminals. In the DRC it was really exciting. There's a civil war on and USAID was sheltering in place, trying to get humanitarian aid out, but they were ordered to flee to Brazzaville on their own--across a crocodile infested river in native canoes--or risk missing the plane and being abandoned. How would you like making that trip with your baby in your arms?

BCP1928 said:

In the meantime USAID employees overseas and their families were rounded up on only hours notice and herded onto military planes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their homes, possessions and bank accounts left behind, and dumped at Dulles with nothing. No job, no home, no health insurance, no severance or retirement money, and the President denouncing them as criminals. In the DRC it was really exciting. There's a civil war on and USAID was sheltering in place, trying to get humanitarian aid out, but they were ordered to flee to Brazzaville on their own--across a crocodile infested river in native canoes--or risk missing the plane and being abandoned. How would you like making that trip with your baby in your arms?

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But after all this, if Congress does their job, maybe we can hire a couple back.

BCP1928 said:

In the meantime USAID employees overseas and their families were rounded up on only hours notice and herded onto military planes with nothing but the clothes on their backs, their homes, possessions and bank accounts left behind, and dumped at Dulles with nothing. No job, no home, no health insurance, no severance or retirement money, and the President denouncing them as criminals. In the DRC it was really exciting. There's a civil war on and USAID was sheltering in place, trying to get humanitarian aid out, but they were ordered to flee to Brazzaville on their own--across a crocodile infested river in native canoes--or risk missing the plane and being abandoned. How would you like making that trip with your baby in your arms

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Diabolical immorality.

Laodicean60 said:

But after all this, if Congress does their job, maybe we can hire a couple back.

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I doubt it. Not the good ones, anyway. They will all have other jobs by then and not in the mood to trust the US as an employer.

iluvatar5150 said:

Opinion | What Is DOGE’s Real Goal?

Santi Ruiz, a senior editor at the Institute for Progress, examines what DOGE has been trying to accomplish in its first few months.

www.nytimes.com

I thought this was an interesting interview with Santi Ruiz, from the Institute for Progress. One point that stuck out to me early on was the argument that DOGE et al are going after the cheap stuff (e.g. grants, new hires) first as a way of building a coalition and support for bigger, harder cuts (e.g. entitlements) later. I'm not sure I buy that argument, but it's at least more internally consistent than a lot of others I've heard. Amassing power for Trump while attacking centers of liberal power strikes me as a much more plausible overarching goal. The lack of fast feedback loops are a critique that the "run government like a business" folks ought to take to heart IMO.

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If you wanted to do that, you'd be more careful about cuts, so people would have confidence that you'd do bigger ones properly. This seems to be the reverse.

essentialsaltes said:

I think the Administration certainly could be hoping for 'outrage fatigue' and maybe running out of lawyers to sue them

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As usual Trump can turn that frown upside down. He's running out of lawyers willing to represent his poppycock in front of the learned Justices.

Many lawyers who argue for Trump at Supreme Court are heading for the exit​

At least half of the front-line attorneys in the solicitor general’s office plan to leave as the president’s emergency requests pile up at the high court, people familiar with the situation said.