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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

#971

Post by presentation »

watersb wrote: post #927
presentation wrote: post #794

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think it’s about the budget at all. It’s just an excuse to purge the civil service, since it’s overwhelmingly liberals in it, so that they can swing it more republican. Deficits are just a cover.

Civil service work force is about 1/3 veteran - former military personnel. https://www.fedweek.com/fedweek/share-of-veterans-in-federal... While there is certainly a wide range of individual viewpoint in the military, compared to the general population I would not describe it as "overwhelmingly liberal". . There is evidence that DOGE has targeted Federal agencies perceived as "liberal": https://www.zmescience.com/oth…

Here’s one, maybe “overwhelmingly” is a bit too extreme but we’re talking double or more the number of registered dems on average, with some departments being much more lopsided:

https://newsroom.haas.berkeley.edu/research/study-finds-the-...

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

#972

Post by itishappy »

harry8 wrote: post #366
qgin wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Number 3 can’t be overstated. Healthcare costs for the exact same care are 2x-3x what they are in Europe. Global health insurance plans usually come in two flavors: 1. Global coverage 2. Global coverage excluding United States (for half the monthly premium of the first plan) The United States in an extreme outlier in terms of cost. This is separate from rationing care. This is separate from even population health (ex…

20 years ago I read a story about an obstetrician in the USA. His premiums at that time for professional negligence were $1m per year. He would have to keep paying those premiums for 18 years after his retirement. Same for every obstetrician. Professional fees then must be set to cover those insurance premiums. Has that changed for the better in the USA? Seems very unlikely to be the same in Europe. Obstetrics is obv…

Your number is high. Higher than the median salary high. Unbelievably high.

https://www.google.com/search?q=obstetrics+salary

https://www.google.com/search?q=obstetrics+individual+malpra...

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

#973

Post by yellowapple »

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…

> 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 the 1970s, with the main deviation in the past few years coming from the after-effects of the pandemic?

Pretty sure one of the core arguments behind the drive to slash federal spending is the belief that federal spending has been out of control since long before the 1970s.

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

#974

Post by starspangled »

yellowapple wrote: post #973
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…

> 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 the 1970s, with the main deviation in the past few years coming from the after-effects of the pandemic? Pretty sure one of the core arguments behind the drive to slash federal spending is the belief tha…

Government expenditure to GDP is up on the 70s anyway, and not just because of a covid outlier, it was well above the 70s rates in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, and 10s (i.e, before covid expenditure).

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

#975

Post by foxyv »

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…

I think a lot of the belief of government waste comes from anecdotal data usually centered around misunderstandings deliberate and otherwise. Welfare queens buying lobster (After not eating for a week). NASA bought a million dollar pen (It wasn't). People form opinions and ideas through stories. They see that there is a sub ten percent wastage and it doesn't even register. But tell a story about some insane thing the government did and people will remember it for decades.

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

#976

Post by jedberg »

tiahura wrote: post #860
jedberg wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By having a national health care system that would obviate the need for private insurance.

Pay your own bills.

I do. I also pay the bills of millions of others who are in my insurance pool. But it would be less for all of us if we were all in the same insurance pool.

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

#977

Post by mibes »

drawkward wrote: post #883
mibes wrote: post #802

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Reward friends and punish enemies. At long last the right has learned to play the game that the left has played for decades

>the game that the left has played for decades Can you give some examples, please?

Trivially demonstrated by immediate downvotes for posting anything left critical on HN

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

#978

Post by scintill76 »

cuuupid wrote: post #880
scintill76 wrote: post #710

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bringing up Palantir is funny to me. I don’t know enough gossip on Musk and Thiel’s relationship, but if I did I would bet it would solely determine the outcome of a hypothetical DOGE investigation into Palantir contracts. It seems from a sibling comment I’m not alone. If we’re right, DOGE isn’t going to eliminate government waste and corruption, just move it around. We’re not gaslit into thinking everything was fine…

I think for many people, this is the first exposure to audits and spending reduction in govt. So judging on an absolute scale, yeah DOGE is not doing a great job. Judging on a relative scale to past attempts and the existing 5(!) agencies with the sole purpose of auditing and reducing spending, DOGE looks amazing and has gotten farther in 1 month than everyone else combined over 20 years. It is an immensely difficult…

> the bureaucracy will struggle, writhe, and set fire to everything around it before it can be put down

Convenient way to blame "the bureaucracy" for every problem that DOGE creates. Are you open to the possibility that DOGE will cause more problems than it fixes?

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

#979

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

dang wrote: post #167
torlok wrote: post #54

Why is this flagged? Even if the comment section isn't up to standards, the article should be relevant to everybody.

I've been posting a lot about this lately. Here are some recent posts: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43130700 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43130063 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43093299 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43051836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42978389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 If you (or anyone) will read some of those and follow some of the links i…

>> Whenever there's a Major Ongoing Topic (MOT - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...), the flood of submissions about it quickly exhausts HN's capacity to host substantive discussions. That goes double when a topic is divisive and enraging, like you-know-who is.

I thought you-know-who was defeated? Are the Death Eaters assembling again?

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

#980

Post by drawkward »

mibes wrote: post #977
drawkward wrote: post #883

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the game that the left has played for decades Can you give some examples, please?

Trivially demonstrated by immediate downvotes for posting anything left critical on HN

Trivially refuted by pointing out that HN readers are not "the left" and that the original assertion refers to "decades" of this behavior.

How soft does one have to be to consider "downvoting" a punishment?

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