This sucks for accessibility.
GSA Eliminates 18F
211–220 of 495 posts
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#212Lots of people are hyperventilating about DirectFile, but:
1. IRS itself created DirectFile. 18F merely provided some unquantifiable "support"
2. DirectFile is not shut down.
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#213Amazing 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?
Every time I drive by the huge shiny new Intuit building on 101 near Google, I throw up a little. Regulatory capture in action.
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#214TIL that in America, if you work on a free tax filing system you are considered by some to be part of the "far left".
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> Broadly speaking, I support DOGE's mission. This decision in particular I'm not at all a fan of.
Everything the DOGE undertakes is absolutely justified except for the rare story of which you happen to have firsthand knowledge.
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#215Bad result for America, as at least the two that I've been familiar with have both been dramatically better website implementations than much of the federal government. GSA, Digital Analytics Program: https://analytics.usa.gov/ Huge amounts of data about how government websites are used including: locations (cities, countries), languages, referral sources, media sources, devices, browsers, OS, website destination, an…
All that wonderful transparency and analytics, yet failed to uncover this here multimillion dollar Uniparty/DeepState money laundering scheme (one of many!): https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1889172190282821690. Uncovered by just one deaf, nonverbal, female hacker working part time (until she was doxxed, she's full time now).
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#216Bad result for America, as at least the two that I've been familiar with have both been dramatically better website implementations than much of the federal government. GSA, Digital Analytics Program: https://analytics.usa.gov/ Huge amounts of data about how government websites are used including: locations (cities, countries), languages, referral sources, media sources, devices, browsers, OS, website destination, an…
The goal is to make government as dysfunctional as possible (beside the part that enforces corruption [for your side]), so people want it to get smaller and smaller (except for the corrupt parts that benefit exclusively them), so that it costs less, so that they pay less taxes, so that they have even more money (that they don't need). They definitely do not care if this "makes things worse". Often, it's intended.
Given Musk has inserted industry CEOs into agencies where they definitely have conflicts of interests, the other goal is to privatize the scraps.
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
They claim that if the government could calculate taxes for you, then it would be too easy for the left to add new taxes that you wouldn't notice. The real kicker of course is that if you don't file your taxes, they actually do calculate your taxes for you, and send you a bill. It just includes the non-payment penalty and doesn't include donations.
Then the right thing to do would be to remove tax deduction at source from payroll. People will notice how much they are paying in taxes when they have to write a check every month to the government and start asking questions. For most people, taxes are more than the next 3 biggest expenses.
Are you sure the question wouldn’t be “why don’t they just take it out at payroll like they did before $RIGHT_WINGER did this, that would be more efficient and save everyone time like every other country in the world?”
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Taxes aren’t hard but people have been encouraged to talk about it like it’s a colonoscopy by Roto-rooter. Someone can have all W-2 income and only take the standard deduction, but thanks to that messaging they’ll act like filing your own taxes is incredibly dangerous with a high chance of ruining you for life (I know someone whose parent worked for the IRS as an auditor and they noted that many people ended up neutr…
The reason I think taxes are hard isn't because of messaging. I might be an idiot, but it's because of an experience I had years ago where I was trying to follow the rules and pay taxes on some contracting income. I screwed something up. I ended up corresponding with the IRS dozens of times. Somehow I had recorded some income that never happened. I think I spent more time writing letters than I spent on the contract…
> ...where I was trying to follow the rules and pay taxes on some contracting income...
You're an exception and, yeah, it sucks. For somebody who has W-2 income, maybe a 1099-INT, and takes the standard deduction filing taxes is painless and simple.
I've just accepted the $800 - $1,000 cost per year for preparation of my LLC K-1 and personal taxes as part of the cost of being an exception. It sucks, but I just roll it into my rates.
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#219Bad result for America, as at least the two that I've been familiar with have both been dramatically better website implementations than much of the federal government. GSA, Digital Analytics Program: https://analytics.usa.gov/ Huge amounts of data about how government websites are used including: locations (cities, countries), languages, referral sources, media sources, devices, browsers, OS, website destination, an…
All that wonderful transparency and analytics, yet failed to uncover this here multimillion dollar Uniparty/DeepState money laundering scheme (one of many!): https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/1889172190282821690 . Uncovered by just one deaf, nonverbal, female hacker working part time (until she was doxxed, she's full time now).
Ah yes, our favorite partisan actors, who can’t be bothered to mention how much her benefactor spent just this year doing same thing.
Also, that chart is just magical, did she inflate the numbers by repeatedly adding same money being shuffled around (represented by those arrows between entities)?
Re: GSA Eliminates 18F
#220I always thought that 18F would be the inspiration behind DOGE. Instead it seems to have become the opposite
May I offer a proposal here?
A great many people would've told you beforehand what DOGE was going to be and do (although I think most of us are a bit shocked about the speed and violence of the thing). I expect you heard some of it ahead of time, too. It may be worth updating your priors on the intents, beliefs, and capabilities of the people involved in this to match this new experience, and to apply those new priors as you hear new proposals and ideas from those same groups in the future.