Almost 40% of DOGE Contracts Cancelled, Won't Save Anything

$478 million is not worth saving?

Stephen3141 said:

I suppose that they may get Musk some sort of "participation trophy".

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Man, it's 4 weeks in do you think he's God?

Laodicean60 said:

Man, it's 4 weeks in do you think he's God?

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I was thinking more along the lines of the guy with the pitchfork.....

Seriously, the man is a heartless monster - waving a chainsaw around with glee knowing he was about to put thousands out of work is beyond despicable.

As if the Nazi salute were not enough.

I am cynical of the Musk efforts because the main premise of cutting is to extend the tax cuts. When Reagan made cuts he justified it with the Laffer Curve, that lowering taxes would increase revenue. The Laffer curve working at those tax levels in the 30-40 % range were mainly window dressing and while revenues rose some as always is expected, by inflation and better productivity, the deficits only climbed. Whether Reagan himself really believed it would does not matter, he got the tax cuts through. Bush too used deception to justify the Iraq war. Not only were the nuclear weapons never there as we were told, the idea that Iraq's oil would repay the USA was also just a ruse. (I doubt Ukraine is gong to pay the USA back either)
The point is that we can learn from the past to discern the real intentions of many government policies. I could easily pick on the democrats, as they too have hidden agendas and tricks to fool the American public. But today, the Trump administration has the need for a policy justification to provide for future tax cut extensions and Musk is leading the facade. .
So don't be fooled, it is not about reducing deficits. The tax cuts are expected to cost 4 trillion over the next ten years. In the meantime deficits will linger and there still is no real plan to balance even a single annual Federal government budget. I think there will be some good legitimate cuts but Musk's meager staff with no real auditing occurring, is not going to really make a dent. There also is nothing in place to prevent more waste from occurring or even old waste from returning. This takes serious auditing and a greater will from Congress. In the meantime, enjoy the entertainment from Musk, because in the end the middle class and the poor will get the crumbs. https://www.cbpp.org/research/feder...come-tax-cuts-price-hiking-tariffs-would-harm

Two things here:

1: The majority, 60%, of the contracts cut WILL save money.
2: The contracts that where the money had already been allocated needed to be cancelled regardless. If for nothing else than to say, "No more of this in the future".

The challenge I keep running into is that federal employee salaries make up such a tiny sliver of federal spending, that it seems almost meaningless to have mass layoffs. For example, the DoD intends to cut 61,000 positions. But oddly enough, this only amounts to something like 0.03% of Elon Musk goal of 4 billion per day in savings.

Meanwhile Donald Trump keeps ensuring people that there won't be cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, even though the two of those produce the vast majority of the countries deficit.

And for that reason, it's just not clear to me that these layoffs will be meaningful for the national deficit. Which begs the larger question of what the real motives are behind the layoffs. Because thus far, even after laying off 20,000 federal employees, such cuts are practically non-existent in terms of the deficit.

Even if 100% of federal employees disappeared tomorrow, it would barely scratch the deficit and the vastly more significant costs of Medicaid and Medicare.

Stephen3141 said:

VA begins reversing contract cancellations that support medical care, facilities

A day after the VA celebrated about $2B in savings on canceled contracts, it began reversing some that may have affected medical care, according to agency records.

abcnews.go.com

The professionals who know the parts of the federal budget, KNOW that the
president's claims to cut about 1.5 trillion dollars, was fantasizing.

And the methodology by DOGE of cutting all sorts of funding, then seeing
what happens, is the most mindless approach to cutting government spending.

VA begins reversing contract cancellations that support medical care, facilities

A day after the VA celebrated about $2B in savings on canceled contracts, it began reversing some that may have affected medical care, according to agency records.

abcnews.go.com

I think, that what we will see more and more, is that these seemingly random funding
cuts will be reversed, as it becomes clear that American voters WANT the benefits
that these government agencies provide, AND as it becomes clear that many of the
funding cuts are ILLEGAL under the fair rule of law in America.

What DOGE and Musk and the president are doing, is piling up support for politicians
who will show their disgust at this mindless hacking of the government work, and
workers. This approach DOES NOT REFLECT good business sense, and does not
reflect good management.

We need PROFESSIONAL management, in the U.S. government.
It is not a game show.

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What part is going to be reversed? Do the majority of Americans feel the need to send condoms to Gaza? How about funding transgender comic books in Peru? Maybe sending money to gay people in the UK?

Jermayn said:

What part is going to be reversed? Do the majority of Americans feel the need to send condoms to Gaza? How about funding transgender comic books in Peru? Maybe sending money to gay people in the UK?

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Not exactly. Trump WH falsely claimed USAID funded 'transgender comic book' in Peru

Stephen3141 said:

VA begins reversing contract cancellations that support medical care, facilities

A day after the VA celebrated about $2B in savings on canceled contracts, it began reversing some that may have affected medical care, according to agency records.

abcnews.go.com

The professionals who know the parts of the federal budget, KNOW that the
president's claims to cut about 1.5 trillion dollars, was fantasizing.

And the methodology by DOGE of cutting all sorts of funding, then seeing
what happens, is the most mindless approach to cutting government spending.

VA begins reversing contract cancellations that support medical care, facilities

A day after the VA celebrated about $2B in savings on canceled contracts, it began reversing some that may have affected medical care, according to agency records.

abcnews.go.com

I think, that what we will see more and more, is that these seemingly random funding
cuts will be reversed, as it becomes clear that American voters WANT the benefits
that these government agencies provide, AND as it becomes clear that many of the
funding cuts are ILLEGAL under the fair rule of law in America.

What DOGE and Musk and the president are doing, is piling up support for politicians
who will show their disgust at this mindless hacking of the government work, and
workers. This approach DOES NOT REFLECT good business sense, and does not
reflect good management.

We need PROFESSIONAL management, in the U.S. government.
It is not a game show.

Click to expand...

I fear you are being far too optimistic. And discounting the damage that is being done, that is being baked in for years. Some of these folks have expertise and are moving on with their lives.

Jermayn said:

What part is going to be reversed? Do the majority of Americans feel the need to send condoms to Gaza? How about funding transgender comic books in Peru? Maybe sending money to gay people in the UK?

Click to expand...

Gaza, Mozambique.

Job 33:6 said:

The challenge I keep running into is that federal employee salaries make up such a tiny sliver of federal spending, that it seems almost meaningless to have mass layoffs. For example, the DoD intends to cut 61,000 positions. But oddly enough, this only amounts to something like 0.03% of Elon Musk goal of 4 billion per day in savings.

Meanwhile Donald Trump keeps ensuring people that there won't be cuts to Medicaid and Medicare, even though the two of those produce the vast majority of the countries deficit.

And for that reason, it's just not clear to me that these layoffs will be meaningful for the national deficit. Which begs the larger question of what the real motives are behind the layoffs. Because thus far, even after laying off 20,000 federal employees, such cuts are practically non-existent in terms of the deficit.

Even if 100% of federal employees disappeared tomorrow, it would barely scratch the deficit and the vastly more significant costs of Medicaid and Medicare.

Click to expand...

It's part of Curtis Yarvin's 2022 playbook to destroy the regulatory state. It has nothing to do with saving money and everything to do with that agenda. And FWIW, Curtis Yarvin is the "intellectual" influence behind J.D. Vance. Yarvin insists that the US is actually properly a patrimonial monarchy or oligarchy, and not a democracy, and that it would be more efficient to simply eliminate most government spending and replace it with corporate power.

Of course, Yarvin is a dangerous fool whose plans would amount to a dystopian, crime-ridden hellhole, but the far right has had some crazy ideas before, so it's just par for the course.