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GSA Eliminates 18F

nextgov.com

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Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#111

Post by zerocrates »

breadwinner wrote: post #60

Here's the big picture: Only around 3% of total spending is federal payroll. Dismantling of essential services like free tax filing saves very little money. Total annual spending is around $6.75 trillion, of which only around $210 Billion is spent on federal payroll (not including military and postal workers). All these cuts are intended to pay for tax cuts for Elon Musk and his fellow billionaires.

18F went around improving tech for other agencies and the government as a whole; shutting them down almost certainly costs money. Just as cutting from the IRS tends to cost money.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#112

Post by johnny22 »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #100
xyst wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

No, absolutely wrong. Neoliberalism is about a big, functional government that is utopian and takes care of everything for you. "You own nothing, and you'll be happy." You can argue in practice it's terrible (subjective, no one really cares about your opinion). But it's hard to argue its GOAL is to be small.

No, this is closer to the definition of neoliberalism that people are using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#113

Post by wisemang »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #100
xyst wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

No, absolutely wrong. Neoliberalism is about a big, functional government that is utopian and takes care of everything for you. "You own nothing, and you'll be happy." You can argue in practice it's terrible (subjective, no one really cares about your opinion). But it's hard to argue its GOAL is to be small.

That is definitely not what neoliberalism is about. GP is correct (though the current situation seems to be something much more extreme).

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#114

Post by skepticATX »

Sad that 18F is gone and that USDS is effectively gone. I’d long had in the back of my mind that I’d take take a short sabbatical at some point and work for one of these organizations - looks like that’s not happening.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#115

Post by acdha »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #39

Just another obvious sign of the drive to privatizing everything. I find it pretty amazing that conservatives would be against Direct File since the government is forcing people to pay taxes shouldn't the way to pay those taxes not be another tax?

The current Republican budget proposal incurs roughly five trillion dollars in additional debt and service cuts, all to allow tax cuts which mostly go to the top 10%:

https://budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu/issues/2025/2/27/fy202...

If you went to the average person and asked whether they’d like to have services like Medicaid and SNAP cut so their senior management can pay less in taxes, they’d say no. If you demonize the concept of tax collection, however, then they might go for it because they’re reacting out of fear rather than thinking analytically.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#116

Post by chrisfosterelli »

miltonlost wrote: post #103
chrisfosterelli wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just an outsider here but it seems very obvious to me that someone could both 1) support the (stated) mission of saving taxpayers' money and reducing the US national debt, and 2) disagree with a specific cut

I guess it's the "Stated" mission that I find impossible to believe is the truth. DOGE clearly is not supposed to be about "saving tax payers money" when they include DEI reviews as well. So even your definition removes the baggage of the racism/transphobia/homophobia/misogyny by focusing only on the money when DOGE has not been focused solely on money in the slightest. Anyone who trusts the "stated" mission of DOGE…

Let's please avoid ad hominem here. I don't think that's contributing to the discussion in the spirit of HN.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#117

Post by gs17 »

FollowingTheDao wrote: post #39

Just another obvious sign of the drive to privatizing everything. I find it pretty amazing that conservatives would be against Direct File since the government is forcing people to pay taxes shouldn't the way to pay those taxes not be another tax?

They're okay with it when it's a "tax" paid to corporations.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#118

Post by collinmcnulty »

Finnucane wrote: post #104
Reason077 wrote: post #41

Amazing how the idea of being able to file tax returns online, without paying for a commercial service to do it, is considered far-left extremism in the US. You’d think that simplifying tax returns and reducing costs in the taxation system would be something the right could get behind?

no, the right wants you to keep paying Turbotax.

This is commonly repeated but incorrect. The Nyquist pledge is a far more powerful force keeping tax filing complex than Intuit lobbying. This is not a conspiracy theory, this is a stated practice of Americans for Tax Reform, the anti-tax conservative group.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#119

Post by yongjik »

xyst wrote: post #95
dralley wrote: post #8

Stupid, pointless destruction. No part of this is efficient. 18F and the USDS were effective tools for modernization.

Got to make room for the trillion dollar tax cuts. Trickle down economics, right? Can’t wait for the pitchforks to rise up against the billionaires that created this mess.

This isn't caused by some nebulous alliance of "billionaires," this is caused by one particular billionaire, Elon Musk, and his friends.

These days I'm getting skeptical of these anti-billionaire quips. Sounds like a great segue to "all politicians are the same because they're in the billionaire's pocket," and now look at what that led us into.

Re: GSA Eliminates 18F

#120

Post by hackyhacky »

dingnuts wrote: post #107
vkou wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It absolutely believes in a federal government. It just does not believe in a federal government that it is not in control of.

who, exactly, is in control of independent agencies if Congress never corrects their power and the Executive isn't in charge? For example: the perennial fight over "net neutrality" was because Congress absconded their duty to write regulation and handed it off to the Executive to figure out in a vague way that allowed for flip flopping policies with the force of law every time the administration changed. You know wha…

> The Republicans in Congress are more to blame for this mess than the White House.

The fact that Congress is ineffective in no way absolves the executive branch of irresponsible or illegal behavior. The president took an oath.

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