DOGE killed USAID and made major cuts to NED, which is a huge win in my book. Other than that, I can’t say from lack of familiarity. But the concept of DOGE is good. Just unlikely that it would produce the right outcomes in the american political environment. It’s obvious to anyone who’s looked at the numbers that the “welfare” system in America (which is just a bandaid covering up underlying market inefficiencies) is deeply inefficient itself. If you’ve ever worked in a bureaucracy, you know that without oversight, bureaucracy expands only to serve its own interests, not the people. Bureaucratic positions may not need to be subjected to market discipline, but they do need to be accountable to some sort of discipline.
DOGE killed USAID and made major cuts to NED, which is a huge win in my book. Other than that, I can’t say from lack of familiarity. But the concept of DOGE is good.
The concept may be good, but they are not even trying to cut government waste. It is just trying to destroy parts of the government Elon doesn’t like and increase waste by making these parts of the administrative state unable to do their job, even if the money still constitutionally has to be spent anyway. If you cared about actual waste and corruption, they would focus almost exclusively on the Defense budget, as that has just been handouts to defense contractors and graft mostly, and since that money is for killing people, right-wingers never question that part. Yes, welfare is inefficient and a band-aid, but unless we overthrow capitalism tomorrow, removing or cutting it is just going to make things worse. Removing a flawed system, but replacing it with nothing.
Also, while bureaucracy does grow over time, like a law of entropy, in the US government it is actually better on that front than private companies. The majority of bureaucracy is as part of accountability requirements and all this “anti-waste” oversight requirements that have been imposed. Ironically, most bureaucracy in the government is legally required, due to “small government” advocates, with knowing intentions of undermining the government’s administrative capabilities.
I am not going to defend USAID or NED because they are for US geopolitical influence and control. But it is funny right-wingers are so hostile towards it and think this is “streamlining” government. USAID is a cold war outfit whose main purpose is to provide cover for CIA agents (e.g. sending in an assassin to kill a warlord messing with mining in the Congo, or sending torture experts to South America to train US backed death squads). As a secondary side benefit it is the carrot in the US’s carrot and stick to get other nations working with us, and is therefore cheaper than needing to threaten tariffs or invasion to get anything out of foreign countries. You do need 9 out of 10 USAID workers to be actual aid workers for it to successfully work as a cover for the 1 out of 10 that are CIA agents and mercenaries. It is so funny to see right-wingers take the liberal propaganda at face value and hate it based on that. “They help people and helping people is gay and woke!”
DOGE killed USAID and made major cuts to NED, which is a huge win in my book. Other than that, I can’t say from lack of familiarity. But the concept of DOGE is good. Just unlikely that it would produce the right outcomes in the american political environment. It’s obvious to anyone who’s looked at the numbers that the “welfare” system in America (which is just a bandaid covering up underlying market inefficiencies) is deeply inefficient itself. If you’ve ever worked in a bureaucracy, you know that without oversight, bureaucracy expands only to serve its own interests, not the people. Bureaucratic positions may not need to be subjected to market discipline, but they do need to be accountable to some sort of discipline.
:)
The concept may be good, but they are not even trying to cut government waste. It is just trying to destroy parts of the government Elon doesn’t like and increase waste by making these parts of the administrative state unable to do their job, even if the money still constitutionally has to be spent anyway. If you cared about actual waste and corruption, they would focus almost exclusively on the Defense budget, as that has just been handouts to defense contractors and graft mostly, and since that money is for killing people, right-wingers never question that part. Yes, welfare is inefficient and a band-aid, but unless we overthrow capitalism tomorrow, removing or cutting it is just going to make things worse. Removing a flawed system, but replacing it with nothing.
Also, while bureaucracy does grow over time, like a law of entropy, in the US government it is actually better on that front than private companies. The majority of bureaucracy is as part of accountability requirements and all this “anti-waste” oversight requirements that have been imposed. Ironically, most bureaucracy in the government is legally required, due to “small government” advocates, with knowing intentions of undermining the government’s administrative capabilities.
I am not going to defend USAID or NED because they are for US geopolitical influence and control. But it is funny right-wingers are so hostile towards it and think this is “streamlining” government. USAID is a cold war outfit whose main purpose is to provide cover for CIA agents (e.g. sending in an assassin to kill a warlord messing with mining in the Congo, or sending torture experts to South America to train US backed death squads). As a secondary side benefit it is the carrot in the US’s carrot and stick to get other nations working with us, and is therefore cheaper than needing to threaten tariffs or invasion to get anything out of foreign countries. You do need 9 out of 10 USAID workers to be actual aid workers for it to successfully work as a cover for the 1 out of 10 that are CIA agents and mercenaries. It is so funny to see right-wingers take the liberal propaganda at face value and hate it based on that. “They help people and helping people is gay and woke!”