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DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

nytimes.com

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Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#131

Post by MisterKent »

JeremyNT wrote: post #129
MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

2) is questionable. Most of the budget is spent maintaining global hegemony through military dominance. Whatever inefficiencies that exist on the civil side are nearly irrelevant.

I think many who are okay with our civil spend may take issue with our military spend.

I have rarely encountered anyone who thinks the government isn't overspending. And nobody ever agrees on how we should be spending the money.

I realize the comment above paints me as a conservative, I assure you I am not.

However, I guess I can at least sympathize with how we got here (DOGE being acceptable).

And from that I blame almost everyone in politics and every person tangentially related to those in politics.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#132

Post by MisterKent »

turtlesdown11 wrote: post #38
MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

Strong points in the face of this inaccurate, politically biased ledger that has revealed zero fraud, corruption or waste.

I am maybe cynical, but I sincerely doubt there's no fraud or corruption in the government spend. Among trillions of dollars of money being spent by people who can easily siphon some off, etc.

Intuitively, there _must_ be some corruption.

I have zero faith that Musk is interested in finding real corruption. He seems to be more interested in changing budget allocations and calling the removed regulations / "woke" things corrupt.

I also think that corruption was within my acceptance tolerance of wastage. _Think_ is doing a lot of work in that sentence, but maybe that's all that really matters when it comes to something like this.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#133

Post by MisterKent »

mandmandam wrote: post #62
MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

Americans cheered for the gutting of USAID because they thought that spending 25% of the federal budget was too much, and should be around 10% instead. The actual spend on foreign aid? Under 1%. Americans are systemically and catastrophically disinformed. Expecting us to be able to assess the real impact of the DOGE team's fuckups is a violation of GIGO.

People are not just cheering for that. They're cheering because of the stated causes that money was going to were "woke" and "not America first"

The general public's understanding of soft power, a global economy, and maintaining an economic hegemony is just not there. We have a democratic Republic because our founding fathers were smart enough to realize the general public is not smart enough (or, doesn't have the time to) rule on every issue.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#134

Post by leereeves »

turtlesdown11 wrote: post #38
MisterKent wrote: post #29

Two points that are often missed: 1. Perfectly tracking every dollar is more expensive than having some slack in the system. There's an optimal amount, at least from an overall value perspective. 2. We spend too much, and both sides of the aisle repeatedly blocked attempts to curb spending for literal decades while our debt got higher. That's how someone doing something coming in with a hatchet and no plan to build g…

Strong points in the face of this inaccurate, politically biased ledger that has revealed zero fraud, corruption or waste.

[flagged]

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#135

Post by turtlesdown11 »

cuuupid wrote: post #84

I think impartial observers have not spent time in actual government bureaucracy. Basically everything will seem like “they’re cutting something important!” Or “they’re stopping critical research!” because every government contract needs justification; so naturally they will all sound good. The data and accounting itself is such bad quality in all cases that it is impossible to be perfect at this; there are entire in…

[flagged]

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#137

Post by turtlesdown11 »

TomK32 wrote: post #89
doom2 wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it transparent? Elon got angry when people merely listed the names of some DOGE employees. I still don't think we know the full list of people working under him (and according to court filings, the government claims he isn't even the administrator of DOGE but can't name who is). We also won't be able to get access to DOGE records until well after Trump is out of office [1]. That doesn't sound like maximal transpar…

We don't even know what DOGE is and whether Musk is running it. LeagleEagle hasn't a clue[1], the courts are slow at finding out and the Republicans in Congress are useless at what Congress is supposed to do. Musk is overstepping even the powers of the president but I don't see anyone trying to sue him and Trump for treason. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihvSwJT0rLU

> but I don't see anyone trying to sue him and Trump for treason

That would be...interesting... but there is no standing for suing individuals for "treason" as far as I am aware. The inmates run the asylum.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#138

Post by shepherdjerred »

leereeves wrote: post #134
turtlesdown11 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strong points in the face of this inaccurate, politically biased ledger that has revealed zero fraud, corruption or waste.

[flagged]

This is absolutely bizarre. It sounds like something out of Portal

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#139

Post by mcphage »

underseacables wrote: post #41
_heimdall wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not sold on this. I can't yet distinguish if the plan is to get rid of institutions or to gut what's their and rebuild it how the want it. We may not end up with a smaller government, just a different one.

I can't recall when government was so enthusiastic about rooting out fraud. I kind of like this, and I want the government to actively pursue fraud and mismanagement. Feels like it always gets buried in some bureaucratic report.

> I can't recall when government was so enthusiastic about rooting out fraud.

They’re very enthusiastic about rooting out. The fraud is still missing, however.

Re: DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes

#140

Post by chneu »

Master_Odin wrote: post #36
_heimdall wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm still not sold on this. I can't yet distinguish if the plan is to get rid of institutions or to gut what's their and rebuild it how the want it. We may not end up with a smaller government, just a different one.

The Republican plan for the federal government for decades has been to try to kneecap various agencies and departments so fully that they can't function well, go "look how poorly they operate! Time to close it down and let private sector handle it!"

It's called Starve The Beast
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