Earlier quoted context omitted.
The GAO is a "legislative agency"...
Fair enough, but wishing for an independent agency without creating its own government branch is still foolish.
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DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
311–316 of 316 posts
Re: DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
#312I admit I was a little bit curious about DOGE and its outcome, as a software guy I've seen huge amount of bureaucratic inefficiencies, sometimes wondering how some companies could survive wasting all that money for nothing. I've also often be irritated by the slow and sometimes absurd processes of French administration, and I am pretty sure the whole thing is far from running as efficiently as it could. That said, I…
We had a significant reduction in government workforce during the Clinton administration. The stark difference is that THAT effort was handled with careful planning and through the proper channels. The way any mature, thoughtful, and responsible person would approach something like this. One thing has been made very clear with Trump's terms - if there is no detailed plan on how they intend to do something, it's going…
Yeah, you want to identify and maintain service levels when reducing force. Or establish new service levels.
This takes research, coordination, and planning. But the administration fired the people who could have helped with that too.
Re: DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
#313Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why am I responsible for this person's death? He had fallen on the subway tracks all on his own, it was his fault. All I did was extend a hand to him, let him climb halfway up, and then kick him in the face back down. So why is everyone looking at me now? The outcome is the same it would've been if no one jumped in to help. Why aren't you calling the bystanders murderers too?
I've been trying to help this man off the tracks for 70 years, he's only fallen further onto the tracks should I stay until the train hits me too or should I let him go?
USAID helps a lot of people in ways that aren't just feeding.
A lot of the assistance and programs provided help children in ways they are particularly vulnerable to. As a cliched example children are disproportionately vulnerable to malaria. They account for something like 75% of malaria related deaths.
The reason this situation more closely matches the posters analogy and not your unserious reply; The children USAID helped 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 years ago are adults now and have been helped in ways that don't require ongoing "70 years" support.
Children and parents may have been able to rely on programs funded by USAID. However by abruptly shuttering it (ie "kicking them in the face")critical, life saving services were not afforded the opportunity to fight for their continuation through political advocacy or finding alternate funding sources. We were committing to helping in ways others could have helped if we had not. Then we suddenly stopped helping.
Re: DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
#314Earlier quoted context omitted.
We already have that in the GAO. We also have personnel who's job is to root out fraud: inspector generals. The budget is constantly audited scrutinized for excess and waste, except 2 departments: defense and Medicare. The former is pork for the politicians' home states. The later is so complex it relies on the healthcare industry to help write the rules. And they can't help making sure they get paid the most.
Yes, the GAO exists. But under the current administration, it's basically like a security guard that just sits there and watches crooks do bad shit, reports it, and then nothing happens.
It's more like they fired the security guard and never bothered to hire a new one.
Aren't most of the inspectors general positions they fired still vacant?
Re: DOGE is done. What happened to its records?
#315Any time people talk about cutting government spending, they are exploiting naivety of the audience. When you actually cut, nobody likes it. There isn't really much waste in federal spending. Most programs are important to somebody for good reasons. From this perspective, DOGE was always an obvious con.
The entire administration is. It's the most overtly wasteful and fraudulent admin of my lifetime anyway(so going back to Reagan).
They disgraced the People's House. Gilded it so the POTUS could feel like a king/emperor/tzar.
Destroyed the East Wing to build a ball room. Initially said it would be privately funded (which is itself a hugely corrupt act having individuals and corporations directly fund hundreds of millions to a vanity project for the POTUS). But then tried to raid the public coffers for it to the tune of over a billion dollars.
Accepted a plane from Qatar and spent millions rebuilding it. Now saying they are going to donate it to the Trump library(aka steal from the public).
All the contracts going to family and friends? The overt pay-to-play politics?
Yeah, of course DOGE was BS.