The DOGE thread feels like a good place to track our progress in cutting spending and balancing the budget:
Trump tax plan is to cost the nation $4,500,000,000,000.
The GOP is raising the debt ceiling by $4,000,000,000,000.
The Two Santas strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes to run up the U.S. debt as far and as fast as possible.
This produces three results: it stimulates the economy thus making people think that the GOP can produce a good economy; it raises the debt dramatically; and it makes people think that Republicans are the “tax-cut Santa Clauses.”
Second, when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how “our children will have to pay for it!” and “we have to cut spending to solve the crisis!” Shut down the government, crash the stock market, and damage US credibility around the world if necessary to stop Democrats from spending money.
This will force the Democrats in power to cut their own social safety net programs and even Social Security, thus shooting their welfare-of-the-American-people Santa Claus right in the face.
And, sure enough, here we are now with a Democrat in the White House. Following their Two Santas strategy, Republicans are again squealing about the national debt and refusing to raise the debt ceiling, imperiling Biden’s economic recovery as well as his Build Back Better plans.
And, once again, the media is covering it as a “Biden Crisis!” rather than what it really is: a cynical political and media strategy devised by Republicans in the 1970s, fine-tuned in the 1980s and 1990s, and rolled out every time a Democrat is in the White House.
I thought this has been obvious for decades.
I just didn’t know there was a name for it.
Same. First time I have heard that naming convention.
Oops.
The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database that can be edited by anyone, according to two separate people who found the vulnerability and shared it with 404 Media. One coder added at least two database entries that are visible on the live site and say “this is a joke of a .gov site” and “THESE ‘EXPERTS’ LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN -roro.”
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/11/nx-s1-5290288/doge-savings-billions-contracts-musk-trump
I’m finding there’s no transparency about how much money is allegedly being cut. There are random Twitter posts with varying amounts of detail, often just claiming “this was DEI.” Apparently Musk claimed a total of $38B somewhere and has said “$1 billion per day”, but the only number with (error-ridden) receipts I can find is a total of $1B as of 1/29.
Of that number, over half was comprised of 3 contracts and NPR couldn’t verify those numbers. NPR was able to account for about 1/4 of the alleged cuts. Their data is full of errors and includes “cuts” to funds already budgeted, allocated, and spent.
So depending on which estimate, assuming that the lowest total of $1B was 100% accurate (and ignoring that much of the money was already spent), and including the wildly high $38B number I found without source that Musk claimed, DOGE has reached around 0.05% to 1.9% of its goal. Of what could be validated by NPR, more like 0.0125%, or 0.0117% when netting out the DOGE budget.
Given that DOGE has been reclassified as part of the government that doesn’t have to comply with FOIA requests, will we ever know?
Actions have consequences Elmo…
The website states in tiny print at the bottom that its database excludes information from U.S. intelligence agencies.
But an easy search shows that DOGE’s database provides details on the National Reconnaissance Office, the federal agency that designs, builds and maintains U.S. intelligence satellites. Not only are NRO’s budgets and head counts classified, but the prospect of Musk’s tech team meddling in sensitive personnel information is setting off alarms for some in the intelligence community.
“DOGE just posted secret NOFORN info on their website about [intelligence community] headcount, so currently people are scrambling to check if their info has been accessed,” said one Defense Intelligence Agency employee, who requested anonymity to avoid retaliation from senior leaders.
Nah that’s not what they’re going to do, they’ll let him stay. Instead they’ll all leave to form the Royal Society of No Elons.
What a s$@tshow.
They aren’t 't sending us their best and brightest
I can’t imagine how Trump bankrupted multiple business projects in his lifetime.
Couple of thoughts: they’re either cutting defense/VA/medicare/SS/medicaid, or they’re cutting virtually nothing. Unless Republicans have a sudden reversal of any and all priorities, they’re going to cut taxes.
Taken together, I can only assume one of two things will happen.
- Deficits will go up, not down
- Benefits will be cut for the poor and elderly and basically go directly into tax cuts for the wealthy
I’m more hardened then I was 8 years ago, and I’m gonna be awfully hard pressed to take any pity on anyone who voted for this.
I hate to be a party pooper, cuz everyone is having such a good ole time here. But here goes.
Let’s talk about defense. Let your imagination run wild a bit on what a likely scenario is for a clash between nuclear powers.
It won’t start with a missile launch. Both sides are primed for that. A conventional mobilize the army and navy, then go in guns a-blazin? I think not.
More likely, it starts in the digital sphere. Hacking the enemy’s infrastructure. It will be bytes, not bullets. It may escalate, sure. But it starts with code. If they take out the energy transfer and banking system, it’s good night Irene.
So we are stuck in the unenviable situation of needing hackers to both shore up our defense and provide the offense. Those peeps are more anarchic than hierarchical. A gross generalization, I know. But we all know it’s true.
So at some juncture you are gonna need those clowns. Most of them could not pass the character test required of a school bus driver. But hey, it’s the way it is.
So let’s not be too harsh on the group. We kinda need their help here.
I’m not sure I understand your point. Yes, we need hackers. But we need good hackers. Everyone who interacted with Musk at Twitter feels that he is not in that category, and DOGE has already had multiple basic computer security errors and it isn’t clear that the people there are good hackers either.
Security, accountability, controls, oversight…
There are reasons beyond sadism that these are things.
So how many characters does the company formerly known as Twitter allow in a routine tweet?
https://www.npr.org/2025/02/14/nx-s1-5298190/nuclear-agency-trump-firings-nnsa
Sounds like there was a massive and sudden purge of government scientists yesterday. The way it was done sounds quite destructive and costly as there was no continuity planning done to preserve samples, data , etc. I suspect billions of dollars of research materials and research are going to be lost as a result.