Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOGE’s goal is to right-size our government. It’s pretty obvious, just from their audit of USAID, that there is a lot of waste and excess in our government.

Does it add up to 75%? I doubt even DOGE knows until they conduct a similar audit of every agency, but it is a good enough starting point and is consistent with the results of their USAID audit that found definitively that only 294 positions out of 10,000 (or less then 3% of total staff) were necessary to actualize the goals set and established by Congress.

As an aside, it’s wonderful watching how open and transparent this administration has been compared to decades of hidden agendas, shadowy work practices, and corrupt leadership. As someone who hated Trump during his first term, it’s lovely seeing him growing into a great American leader up there with Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington

Tell me you've never audited anything without telling me you've never audited anything. Their 'audit' of the work conducted by 2k+ USAID employees that they conducted over the course of...less than a week? And where are these results you reference? And by results, I mean the results of audit fieldwork supported by sample-based testing - not Elon's feelings, thoughts, or opinions. I'll wait for you to provide a link.

See the audit results here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/at-usaid-waste-and-abuse-runs-deep/

Again, the Trump presidency has been incredibly open and transparent.

You don’t need years to audit. That is what got us to this point. Review spending and use common sense. Funding genital mutilation in Guatemala is clearly not one of the goals expressly stated in the Foreign Assistance Act, so that program should never have been even started. As an example.

The so-called audit results are far from transparent. In fact, they're flat out misleading. Several claims are being fact checked, but this administration doesn't care about facts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/08/us/politics/usaid-funding-trump-fact-check.html

The New York Times is hardly a trustworthy news source when they were taking millions in stolen, misappropriated funds from USAID themselves.

Anonymous wrote:He can say whatever he wants. Doesn’t mean it will happen. It’s not feasible.

Anonymous wrote:The Washington Post just published a breaking story on how Musk plans to eliminate the bureaucracy and replace civil servants with technocrats, robots, and AI. It will shrink the federal workforce to 19th century levels.

The DC region will need to pivot hard to survive economically. Maybe the historic core can live off tourism like Venice but the suburbs will suffer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/08/doge-musk-goals/

Anonymous wrote:The Washington Post just published a breaking story on how Musk plans to eliminate the bureaucracy and replace civil servants with technocrats, robots, and AI. It will shrink the federal workforce to 19th century levels.

The DC region will need to pivot hard to survive economically. Maybe the historic core can live off tourism like Venice but the suburbs will suffer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/08/doge-musk-goals/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not what the linked article says.

"DOGE has goals of eliminating entire federal agencies and cutting three quarters of federal government jobs."

This is directly from the article.

Where do you see 75%?

Do you really not know how to translate the words 'three quarters' into numerical form?

75% is a hard number, three quarters is politspeak.

Have you never baked a cake? What do you do when a recipe calls for three quarters cup milk?

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t happening. It is unconstitutional and illegal, and the courts will stop it when the feckless legislature won’t. I predict that the Dems will tie their support in passing the budget to firing Elmo and his goons, and he will be gone.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not what the linked article says.

"DOGE has goals of eliminating entire federal agencies and cutting three quarters of federal government jobs."

This is directly from the article.

Where do you see 75%?

Do you really not know how to translate the words 'three quarters' into numerical form?

75% is a hard number, three quarters is politspeak.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOGE’s goal is to right-size our government. It’s pretty obvious, just from their audit of USAID, that there is a lot of waste and excess in our government.

Does it add up to 75%? I doubt even DOGE knows until they conduct a similar audit of every agency, but it is a good enough starting point and is consistent with the results of their USAID audit that found definitively that only 294 positions out of 10,000 (or less then 3% of total staff) were necessary to actualize the goals set and established by Congress.

As an aside, it’s wonderful watching how open and transparent this administration has been compared to decades of hidden agendas, shadowy work practices, and corrupt leadership. As someone who hated Trump during his first term, it’s lovely seeing him growing into a great American leader up there with Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington

DOGE didn't do an "audit" of USAID. They tried to shut it down, completely.

Read the order Judge Nichols put out last night

When the Court asked the
government at the TRO hearing what harm would befall the government if it could not immediately
place on administrative leave the more than 2000 employees in question, it had no response—
beyond asserting without any record support that USAID writ large was possibly engaging in
“corruption and fraud.”

All hat, no cattle

First of all, I do not place the words of an unelected bureaucrat over the proof given by our elected commander in chief.

The President’s role is to implement the laws passed by the legislature. The legislature established USAID under the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961 in order to provide assistance to underdeveloped nations in order to expand US power internationally. The President has the right to terminate any employee whose role is not directly and clearly related to the aims and interests of the act. And it’s pretty clear that an Iraqi Sesame Street and free genital mutilations in Guatemala isn’t included within USAID’s mission.

The Supreme Court will slap away this rogue judge’s lies, and hopefully we will see a movement to impeach these activist judges standing in the way of Trump and removing them from office.

If it's just about terminating USAID employees who put on a Sesame Street show (I'm still trying to figure out why that's bad), then why did they make a big show of taking the sign off the USAID building yesterday? Even to the extent of using trash bags and duct tape to cover up the signage?

Actions speak louder than words.

Because a State Department sub-department with a total head count of 291 employees (mostly working internationally) does not need an office building designed design for an independent agency with 10,000+ employees?

You realize that is the plan, right? To merge USAID into the state department as a sub-department so it can actually focus on implementing its mission drawn from the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 rather then serve as a piggy bank for the Clintons/Obamas/Bushes/Bidens pet interests?

If that were the plan, then it should be done through Congress without dismantling what is already there.

the actual plan is to simply cede soft power to China and Russia.

Anonymous wrote:See here:

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-speaks-jpmorgan-event-attended-by-ceo-dimon-source-says-2025-02-07/

Why is JP Morgan getting briefings from Musk about DOGE but Congress can't? Why is the White House and Musk lying to the American people about what he's doing at DOGE when banks are getting the truth?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOGE’s goal is to right-size our government. It’s pretty obvious, just from their audit of USAID, that there is a lot of waste and excess in our government.

Does it add up to 75%? I doubt even DOGE knows until they conduct a similar audit of every agency, but it is a good enough starting point and is consistent with the results of their USAID audit that found definitively that only 294 positions out of 10,000 (or less then 3% of total staff) were necessary to actualize the goals set and established by Congress.

As an aside, it’s wonderful watching how open and transparent this administration has been compared to decades of hidden agendas, shadowy work practices, and corrupt leadership. As someone who hated Trump during his first term, it’s lovely seeing him growing into a great American leader up there with Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington

DOGE didn't do an "audit" of USAID. They tried to shut it down, completely.

Read the order Judge Nichols put out last night

When the Court asked the
government at the TRO hearing what harm would befall the government if it could not immediately
place on administrative leave the more than 2000 employees in question, it had no response—
beyond asserting without any record support that USAID writ large was possibly engaging in
“corruption and fraud.”

All hat, no cattle

First of all, I do not place the words of an unelected bureaucrat over the proof given by our elected commander in chief.

The President’s role is to implement the laws passed by the legislature. The legislature established USAID under the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961 in order to provide assistance to underdeveloped nations in order to expand US power internationally. The President has the right to terminate any employee whose role is not directly and clearly related to the aims and interests of the act. And it’s pretty clear that an Iraqi Sesame Street and free genital mutilations in Guatemala isn’t included within USAID’s mission.

The Supreme Court will slap away this rogue judge’s lies, and hopefully we will see a movement to impeach these activist judges standing in the way of Trump and removing them from office.

If it's just about terminating USAID employees who put on a Sesame Street show (I'm still trying to figure out why that's bad), then why did they make a big show of taking the sign off the USAID building yesterday? Even to the extent of using trash bags and duct tape to cover up the signage?

Actions speak louder than words.

Because a State Department sub-department with a total head count of 291 employees (mostly working internationally) does not need an office building designed design for an independent agency with 10,000+ employees?

You realize that is the plan, right? To merge USAID into the state department as a sub-department so it can actually focus on implementing its mission drawn from the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 rather then serve as a piggy bank for the Clintons/Obamas/Bushes/Bidens pet interests?

If that were the plan, then it should be done through Congress without dismantling what is already there.

the actual plan is to simply cede soft power to China and Russia.

It was done through Congress.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act back in 1961. All Trump and Musk have done is conducted a thorough audit and ended every program of USAID not consistent with the Act that founded it.

Do you really want to argue that the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 authorized funding genital mutilation in Guatemala?

I think a lot of the stuff Musk is claiming about USAID is hallucinations from his Grok AI because I tried researching some of them and in some cases could find no evidence such a recipient org or program even existed, in other cases found that the dollar amount claimed was far greater than the org's entire budget and could find no reference to the activity the org was supposedly doing and so on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t happening. It is unconstitutional and illegal, and the courts will stop it when the feckless legislature won’t. I predict that the Dems will tie their support in passing the budget to firing Elmo and his goons, and he will be gone.

I hope you're right. Keep calling!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DOGE’s goal is to right-size our government. It’s pretty obvious, just from their audit of USAID, that there is a lot of waste and excess in our government.

Does it add up to 75%? I doubt even DOGE knows until they conduct a similar audit of every agency, but it is a good enough starting point and is consistent with the results of their USAID audit that found definitively that only 294 positions out of 10,000 (or less then 3% of total staff) were necessary to actualize the goals set and established by Congress.

As an aside, it’s wonderful watching how open and transparent this administration has been compared to decades of hidden agendas, shadowy work practices, and corrupt leadership. As someone who hated Trump during his first term, it’s lovely seeing him growing into a great American leader up there with Reagan, Lincoln, and Washington

DOGE didn't do an "audit" of USAID. They tried to shut it down, completely.

Read the order Judge Nichols put out last night

When the Court asked the
government at the TRO hearing what harm would befall the government if it could not immediately
place on administrative leave the more than 2000 employees in question, it had no response—
beyond asserting without any record support that USAID writ large was possibly engaging in
“corruption and fraud.”

All hat, no cattle

First of all, I do not place the words of an unelected bureaucrat over the proof given by our elected commander in chief.

The President’s role is to implement the laws passed by the legislature. The legislature established USAID under the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961 in order to provide assistance to underdeveloped nations in order to expand US power internationally. The President has the right to terminate any employee whose role is not directly and clearly related to the aims and interests of the act. And it’s pretty clear that an Iraqi Sesame Street and free genital mutilations in Guatemala isn’t included within USAID’s mission.

The Supreme Court will slap away this rogue judge’s lies, and hopefully we will see a movement to impeach these activist judges standing in the way of Trump and removing them from office.

If it's just about terminating USAID employees who put on a Sesame Street show (I'm still trying to figure out why that's bad), then why did they make a big show of taking the sign off the USAID building yesterday? Even to the extent of using trash bags and duct tape to cover up the signage?

Actions speak louder than words.

Because a State Department sub-department with a total head count of 291 employees (mostly working internationally) does not need an office building designed design for an independent agency with 10,000+ employees?

You realize that is the plan, right? To merge USAID into the state department as a sub-department so it can actually focus on implementing its mission drawn from the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 rather then serve as a piggy bank for the Clintons/Obamas/Bushes/Bidens pet interests?

If that were the plan, then it should be done through Congress without dismantling what is already there.

the actual plan is to simply cede soft power to China and Russia.

It was done through Congress.

Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act back in 1961. All Trump and Musk have done is conducted a thorough audit and ended every program of USAID not consistent with the Act that founded it.

Do you really want to argue that the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 authorized funding genital mutilation in Guatemala?

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t happening. It is unconstitutional and illegal, and the courts will stop it when the feckless legislature won’t. I predict that the Dems will tie their support in passing the budget to firing Elmo and his goons, and he will be gone.