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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

#151

Post by EasyMark »

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…

1. I can't agree with this. We have AI to raise flags and we have computers to make payment and bookkeeping trivial.

2. we may or may not spend enough. what we don't do is collect enough taxes to pay for it, that is the failure.

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

#152

Post by EasyMark »

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.

his cuts are max 0.1% of government outlays, yet the MAGAs are acting like it's slash and burn and worshipping at the idol of their cult of personality(ies?) . Anyway it's so obvious to anyway who steps back and turns off the political blinders. Just look at the sheer number of lies coming from Musk and Trump about the "savings" ,about millions of people over 100 getting social security checks, that the few million of probably waste of money USAID was spending is evidence to cut without any other proof the entire USAID organization, even though it's a $50 billion dollar outlay. It's so effing sad that people fall for this, and that our education system is such a failure on probably the most necessary modern skill other than literacy--critical thinking.

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

#154

Post by ModernMech »

nathanaldensr wrote: post #79
mlnj wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Either that or, you know, we want to keep Hacker News about tech. Lots of us don't want /r/politics here.

Hacker News isn't about tech isn't about hackers. Right there in the name. Other systems besides tech systems can be hacked. What's happening with DOGE can be viewed as a hack of one of the biggest systems of all time. And it's ongoing. This article is chronicling part of that hack, and I can't believe the tech minds at HN aren't more interested in it.

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

#155

Post by leereeves »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #143
leereeves wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Are you telling me that the US Government is storing its data in a data storage facility? https://www.ironmountain.com/services/vital-records-storage When will this woke madness stop?

Read the article. It's not just data storage. Hundreds of people actually work there, processing the applications there, by hand, on paper.

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

#156

Post by EasyMark »

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]

that's why you fix it, not act like you can just destroy it and what it does. It is also why you think practically and tell us, the voter, how much extra it is costing us over your "new and improved" program. Just lying about it and exaggerating the concern is a sad, sad, disingenuous way of governing. I want fixes and unrelenting attempts at efficiency and not "hur-duh-hur I can make a meme out of this on X and not offer a single solution"

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

#157

Post by EasyMark »

ZeroGravitas wrote: post #143
leereeves wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Are you telling me that the US Government is storing its data in a data storage facility? https://www.ironmountain.com/services/vital-records-storage When will this woke madness stop?

Also why does it matter if it's in an underground ex-mining facility or a basement in Washington? It matters how much does this cost vs a modern computerized system. Instead the big brains over at X act like this is how the entire government works. They found maybe 1 or 2% of waste in USAID? "Shut it all down and lose all the experience and relations built over decades" they don't want efficiency. They want to slash and burn all government departments that aren't enriching billionaires.

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

#158

Post by _DeadFred_ »

nemo44x wrote: post #65
_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.

[flagged]

Except these people have published that their real agenda is the destruction of the ̶F̶e̶d̶e̶r̶a̶l̶ ̶g̶o̶v̶e̶r̶n̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ administrative state.

"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati...

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

#159

Post by acdha »

nemo44x wrote: post #65
_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.

[flagged]

This isn’t renovating an old house, it’s pouring kerosene around, torching it to collect the insurance money, and saying you might rebuild whatever you miss. They’ve squandered billions of dollars in past investments, incurred massive liabilities, and are making all future work more expensive.

Say you do need the government to actually do something: how much more money are qualified people going to expect when they can’t count on decent working conditions or job security? How much more will every government contract cost when past history of failure to pay has to be priced in? Every federal job supports multiple private sector jobs, and federal spending provided a consistent economic baseline in many parts of the country, too, so that’ll all be happening within a hard recession.

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

#160

Post by _DeadFred_ »

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.

They aren't rooting out fraud. They have published their intentions over and over.

"We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work" https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/11/books/review/administrati...

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