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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

#781

Post by 28304283409234 »

jmward01 wrote: post #203

People aren't voting for what benefits them which means we are now in post policy politics. That means that what matters is the messaging and not the actual things done or the impact of those things on people. This leads to doing things that you have the ability to message the way you want and not doing things that help people. The MAGA crowd figured this out and figured out that angry yelling is the easiest message…

"Limbic Governing System", is the term I learned recently. We are governed by posts on 'the socials' designed to trigger kneejerk responses from our limbic system. By undercutting education, (real) social interactions, and science in general people are falling back to their animal instincts more and more.

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

#782

Post by ZeroGravitas »

bambax wrote: post #717
sxyuan wrote: post #248

For those who want to have a substantive discussion on the federal budget and believe these cuts are justified, I have a few questions (putting aside questions of constitutionality for this thread): 1. There are claims that federal spending is out of control. How do you square that with the fact that spending as a percentage of GDP is only slightly elevated compared to the historical average going back to at least th…

These questions are about common sense, but the election of Trump has proven once again (if it needed proof) that politics don't have anything to do with common sense. Politics is about sticking it to the other side, even if it means hurting oneself in the process. I'm not sure anymore the famous Churchill quote about democracy[0] is true. Elections inevitably produce populism, and populism often lead to catastrophe.…

As a fan of democracy, I always like to point out when people complain about the results of the democratic process in the US, that the US has many well understood flaws in its democracy that could be fixed to the benefit of all by increasing the level democracy.

Some examples are:

* Voting systems that don't encourage polarization * Mandatory voting * Anti-gerryamndering

But there's lots, from small scale to large, within and outside of political parties and politics generally.

It's a bit "no true democracy" but generally giving people a say seems to work really well, even in the face of people trying to sub wet it.

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

#783

Post by [deleted] »

sxyuan wrote: post #248

For those who want to have a substantive discussion on the federal budget and believe these cuts are justified, I have a few questions (putting aside questions of constitutionality for this thread): 1. There are claims that federal spending is out of control. How do you square that with the fact that spending as a percentage of GDP is only slightly elevated compared to the historical average going back to at least th…

[deleted]

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

#784

Post by VBprogrammer »

curseofcasandra wrote: post #679
stogot wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd much rather my money being spent on education, foreign assistance, scientific research, etc., even if there is some inefficiencies and waste, than being spent on the military (which, by the way means that the big defense contractors in the US are _subsidized by tax payers_). We all would, but given that Russia, Iran, China, and NK are aggressive states and all actively claim that the US is the enemy, and that t…

[flagged]

American needs an enemy. Drugs, communism, terrorism, China. I guess without something to fear it would be hard to justify spending trillions on their military.

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

#785

Post by roenxi »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #689
stogot wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd much rather my money being spent on education, foreign assistance, scientific research, etc., even if there is some inefficiencies and waste, than being spent on the military (which, by the way means that the big defense contractors in the US are _subsidized by tax payers_). We all would, but given that Russia, Iran, China, and NK are aggressive states and all actively claim that the US is the enemy, and that t…

you could cut the US military budget substantially and it would still be the largest military power in the world and well able to defend itself it might not longer be able to be the "undisputed global power" but, as someone who has lived abroad most of my life and seen American foreign policy from the other side, I don't know that's a bad thing

Although it is worth noting that the war spending the US does do also doesn't translate into being an undisputed global power. They burned a trillion or few in Afghanistan and I doubt that impressed anyone in particular. They didn't achieve anything. Challengers to the global hegemony multiplied in the aftermath.

If they hadn't wasted the resources they'd just be better off with no downsides.

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

#786

Post by khana »

seanp2k2 wrote: post #650
digitaltrees wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It scales linearly because the same ratio of services to people continues. There aren’t suddenly less kids to educate, less elderly that need health care or less cases in federal court as the population grows. —- As someone that has been in healthcare for 12 years it’s broken because of the corporate structure and administrative state of companies. The payors and providers share the same incentive to raise rates beca…

Don’t worry, RFK will be gone in 6mo once the pharma lobbyists get through to Congress members if he touches anything that affects their profits.

[dead]

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

#787

Post by slaw »

rat87 wrote: post #725
IAmGraydon wrote: post #603

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is a series of illogical leaps strung together one after another, starting with the first sentence. The core fallacy that is obvious in your post is that you seem to think everyone who voted for Trump is part of this “MAGA” group of yelling yokel troglodytes. Your viewpoint is utterly saturated with obvious polarization. I honestly don’t know a single MAGA or anyone who would be caught dead at a Trump rally…

Voting for Trump is stupid. Im sure there are plenty of people with lots of schooling that voted for Trump. They made a stupid choice. Even if you agree with some policies Trump is the height of incompetence fraud corruption and abuse of power. Gutting effcient and useful goverment agencies to fund the Wall is stupid and wasteful. It also wont reduce illegal immigration.

Voting for Kamala was even more stupid.

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

#788

Post by voiper1 »

chmorgan_ wrote: post #569

I'd be interested in whether they are fixing mistakes that are reported to them. If they won't then there is an issue. If they do then maybe this is just another nitpicking attack on DOGE.

From the article: "... but did not respond to numerous questions about other aspects of the group’s accounting."

It's not "nitpicking" when the reports of where/how much they are saving money -- their purported goal -- is _fundamentally_ inaccurate in many circumstances that can be verified. And even worse for what that implies about everything else that can't be verified.

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

#789

Post by rassimmoc »

Sparyjerry wrote: post #763
sixothree wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s insane watching everyone around me get gaslit into thinking the government is actually efficient. It's equally insane to me that people think the private sector is somehow efficient. The amount of resources used to feed profit alone are a huge waste.

Private is not 100% efficient but it is much more efficient because if you don't make a profit you no longer exist. A government program can't go broke. Government programs simply get money with zero effect on their budget or revenue if they execute poorly or well. That's why removing an 'optional' HR role like DEI that does not actual produce anything measurable is slow hanging fruit. You are reducing cost and the r…

Hmmm, A few corporations come to mind that are considered too big to fail (banks a decade and half ago, intel atm,...). Seems like they have aquired government-like powers :D

Second point. Nuclear safety inspectors don't produce anything, they just cost us. Lets call them red tape. Simply fire all of them, energy costs will go down and nothing will happen in short term. But somewhere down the line a president will be asked how the hell they thought that running nuclear reactors without safety inspectors was a good idea.

Now, I honestly don't know if DEI is useful in the long run or not, but because you see it as ideological add-on makes me think that you know even less. People can make anything seem like its ideological (vaccines, wearing masks, climate change,...), but usually that just mean they don't know what they are talking about.

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

#790

Post by rassimmoc »

pembrook wrote: post #776
sixothree wrote: post #667

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it’s insane watching everyone around me get gaslit into thinking the government is actually efficient. It's equally insane to me that people think the private sector is somehow efficient. The amount of resources used to feed profit alone are a huge waste.

Wild red herring fallacy, I’ll bite. The private sector is indeed filled with lots of inefficiencies, but due to the profit motive and presence of competition, there’s massive incentives to correct those inefficiencies slowly over time. You'll make more profit doing so! Hence, the private sector is constantly self correcting itself and becoming more efficient via creative destruction. You can just look at the numbers…

>>The private sector is indeed filled with lots of inefficiencies, but due to the profit motive and presence of competition, there’s massive incentives to correct those inefficiencies slowly over time. You'll make more profit doing so!

Instead of correcting inefficiencies it's more profitable for private sector to: 1. merge/acquire competition, create monopoly, 2. lobby government for monopoly status (ISPs)/protection from competition with tarrifs (automakers)/... 3. sue competition out of business 4. aggressively use patents,...

Also found it funny that someone starts post with 'red herring' and ends with 'educating' parent post about communism :D

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