Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE.

[Irish#1]

You would hate it. Not enough lib tearz to satisfy you, wouldn't be able to have GunnerEagleMan1488 doing pixelated meme's about me.

Can you explain why Jessica Tarlov is wrong? Or is this the part where we disappear because we realize that the MAGA meme is actually quite wrong?

Dude, if you could really pull that off you would have my undying appreciation for the rest of my life. If this were a Dem POTUS doing this, they would have my support. This wasteful and special interest spending has been going on long before you joined the human race. It is absolutely refreshing to see someone come in and say enough is enough.

She's wrong because $40B is $40B. You sound like the guy that keeps looking at the window sticker on new cars, has become numb to the outrageous prices, accepts it and figures a way to make the payments rather than looking at a used car where you could save yourself thousands of dollars because all you have ever done before was buy new cars.

Just because they aren't doing it the way that you want it done, doesn't mean they are doing it wrong. We don't know what is happening behind the scenes, but in general, I don't think the pubic really cares about the finite details like you do.

 

[Irish#1]

I mean we still don't have a budget for the fiscal year we are operating under, we're still under CR. And to anybody's knowledge, this money has not been reprogrammed or directed towards other efforts. You don't have to ask permission to not spend it, it's not like the money for USAID efforts were appropriated by Congress to be spent on the 12th of February 2025. It's not a uniquely Trump thing to alter the execution of the previous president's budget in the year of execution.

Thank you.

 

[NDVirginia19]

Depends on goals - maintain American hegemonic power? or pullback on the foreign footprint? I'm sure you can find the DEI gay pamphlet program equivalent in the DoD expenditures. Say you cut back 5% of spending, that's more than the entire USIAD. I think you can probably find payments for training exercises in other countries that you can score political points for cutting those down/out.

Yeah, I think if you go with entitlement reform you scrape out the back office bullshit of the social security department and open up the department's ability to expand their investment mandate to move into more lucrative investments rather than the low return securities they invest in now. You have the best and brightest financial minds in the world, empower them to use that expertise to rescue social security while reinvesting into American securities.

This is all probably easily digestible moderate shit that most people could get behind.

The only tenable solution to entitlements is a moderate position. If you really want to get after keeping social security solvent you need to 1) raise the retirement age to ~70 (Democrats won't let this happen) and 2) raise the taxable Social Security income to $200,000+ (Republicans won't let this happen).

 

[TorontoGold]

The only tenable solution to entitlements is a moderate position. If you really want to get after keeping social security solvent you need to 1) raise the retirement age to ~70 (Democrats won't let this happen) and 2) raise the taxable Social Security income to $200,000+ (Republicans won't let this happen).

Honestly? Raising the taxable SS income to $200K would just be shuffling the deck chairs because once you get up to the upper echelon of W2 earners you're not hitting many people because they're likely structuring their income to be flowed through a corporate entity.

Also, if you're taking the the upper bound at ~$160K and pushing it to ~$200K you're increase it by 25%, which on it's face would be really gross for people who hate taxes. While it wouldn't actually make that much of difference, I think politically it would sink that politician. Which means I could totally see some establishment Dem doing this lol.

 

[TorontoGold]

Yeah, $40 billion is chump change. That's what we spent each year on SNAP/Food Stamps assistance prior to COVID. $40 billion doesn't seem like a lot when you consider we're trillions in the hole, but it's that mentality that leads you to being trillions in debt. That, along with a few drawn out wars and a pandemic. We absolutely should be trimming the fat from government before we consider raising anymore taxes on civilians. The taxation is ridiculous at this point.

We constantly hear about how people want to run the Government like a business, well this is how you run a business. You do not focus in on the ancillaries, you tackle the biggest items first and work your way down.

If the bank is coming to foreclose your home, you do not worry about switching the type of gas you're putting into your car. You restructure your debt etc.

 

[ab2cmiller]

We constantly hear about how people want to run the Government like a business, well this is how you run a business. You do not focus in on the ancillaries, you tackle the biggest items first and work your way down.

If the bank is coming to foreclose your home, you do not worry about switching the type of gas you're putting into your car. You restructure your debt etc.

Yes, you've repeatedly made this point. In a corporate setting, this makes perfect sense. In the political realm, half of the battle is PR driven. Numerous posters have posted that they believe an appropriate strategy is to pick the low hanging fruit, build some momentum and tackle the bigger items later when you have more public support.

You may be 100% right that all of this is a PR stunt and that they will never get around to tackling areas that can result in much larger figures. For now, we will just have to wait.

 

[TorontoGold]

Yes, you've repeatedly made this point. In a corporate setting, this makes perfect sense. In the political realm, half of the battle is PR driven. Numerous posters have posted that they believe an appropriate strategy is to pick the low hanging fruit, build some momentum and tackle the bigger items later when you have more public support.

You may be 100% right that all of this is a PR stunt and that they will never get around to tackling areas that can result in much larger figures. For now, we will just have to wait.

I've asked for the supporting information that allows people to claim there is fraud, I haven't gotten a straight answer on that. So I've moved on from that. These numerous posters haven't looked at the facts of the matter, midsize CPA firms were able to conduct an audit of USAID in roughly 6 weeks post YE. I'm willing to bet that DOGE has access to better resources than local DC CPA firms, it should be concerning to some that DOGE is focused on trivial items of USAID. If you're going to make the claim there is widespread abuse/fraud etc. then you're going to need more meat than trivial items. It's like saying ND was a great team last year because of Luke Talich.

I don't see why it's wrong to criticize the political nature of this either. If DOGE is really about cleaning up the accountability/waste of DC, why isn't this process being handled by an independent third party? Why is the press release from the WH linking to Breitbart instead of the actual findings?

 

[Irish#1]

I've asked for the supporting information that allows people to claim there is fraud, I haven't gotten a straight answer on that. So I've moved on from that. These numerous posters haven't looked at the facts of the matter, midsize CPA firms were able to conduct an audit of USAID in roughly 6 weeks post YE. I'm willing to bet that DOGE has access to better resources than local DC CPA firms, it should be concerning to some that DOGE is focused on trivial items of USAID. If you're going to make the claim there is widespread abuse/fraud etc. then you're going to need more meat than trivial items. It's like saying ND was a great team last year because of Luke Talich.

I don't see why it's wrong to criticize the political nature of this either. If DOGE is really about cleaning up the accountability/waste of DC, why isn't this process being handled by an independent third party? Why is the press release from the WH linking to Breitbart instead of the actual findings?

Perhaps fraud isn't the right word. Maybe "wasteful spending or abuse" is a more appropriate term. Or, perhaps they are waiting to complete a deeper dive into some of this before they levy charges? You've made it clear that they should have wrapped this up in a couple of weeks, but a local firm completed the audit in 6 weeks. Do you know how many auditors the local form used during this audit compare to Musk's audit? Seems that would make a difference.

 

[GATTACA!]

Perhaps fraud isn't the right word. Maybe "wasteful spending or abuse" is a more appropriate term. Or, perhaps they are waiting to complete a deeper dive into some of this before they levy charges? You've made it clear that they should have wrapped this up in a couple of weeks, but a local firm completed the audit in 6 weeks. Do you know how many auditors the local form used during this audit compare to Musk's audit? Seems that would make a difference.

How much wasteful spending is it going to take to offset the hundreds of millions of dollars of armored Tesla's Trump is ordering?

And then Musk has the balls to stand there in the oval office and talk about faceless bureaucrats enriching themselves lol.

 

[ab2cmiller]

As long as we're asking for receipts. Please show me the orders for armored Teslas

 

[TorontoGold]

Perhaps fraud isn't the right word. Maybe "wasteful spending or abuse" is a more appropriate term. Or, perhaps they are waiting to complete a deeper dive into some of this before they levy charges? You've made it clear that they should have wrapped this up in a couple of weeks, but a local firm completed the audit in 6 weeks. Do you know how many auditors the local form used during this audit compare to Musk's audit? Seems that would make a difference.

I'm not talking about charges. If they levy charges they're going to be including the CPA firms into those as well, which I highly doubt.

Yes, the local firm probably had a team of about 15 staff to complete the audit. Found an invoice that the 2019 audit cost $1.2M. I think DOGE probably has more staff than that.

 

[Irish#1]

How much wasteful spending is it going to take to offset the hundreds of millions of dollars of armored Tesla's Trump is ordering?

And then Musk has the balls to stand there in the oval office and talk about faceless bureaucrats enriching themselves lol.

Would you have a problem if it were for some other company to provide? BTW.....Tesla isn't getting the contract.

 

[GATTACA!]

As long as we're asking for receipts. Please show me the orders for armored Teslas

Technical Difficulties

It's on the 2025 forecast. Cntrl-f armor and you'll see it.

 

[Irish#1]

I'm not talking about charges. If they levy charges they're going to be including the CPA firms into those as well, which I highly doubt.

Yes, the local firm probably had a team of about 15 staff to complete the audit. Found an invoice that the 2019 audit cost $1.2M. I think DOGE probably has more staff than that.

Looks like they're not done. Wrapping up another visit today.

DOGE Team Now Seeks Access to Treasury’s Accounting Data

Elon Musk's DOGE team will be in Parkersburg, WV, from Tuesday through Thursday, where Treasury keeps its Central Accounting Reporting System, or CARS, which handles accounting and reporting access for all federal agencies.

www.cpapracticeadvisor.com

 

[ab2cmiller]

Technical Difficulties

It's on the 2025 forecast. Cntrl-f armor and you'll see it.

Ahh yes. The ones that the Biden State Department was pursuing. Hmmmm. But Musk is bad, evil, blah blah blah. Project 2025 Nazi's Constitutional Crisis. Dem's are the boy who cried wolf and Trump can almost literally do whatever he wants because of you. Yes, that is a bad thing. But you only can blame yourselves. Everyone has reached a point where we just roll our eyes.

 

[TorontoGold]

Looks like they're not done. Wrapping up another visit today.

DOGE Team Now Seeks Access to Treasury’s Accounting Data

Elon Musk's DOGE team will be in Parkersburg, WV, from Tuesday through Thursday, where Treasury keeps its Central Accounting Reporting System, or CARS, which handles accounting and reporting access for all federal agencies.

www.cpapracticeadvisor.com

I don't expect them to be finished for the ENTIRE government scope.

My entire point is and has been - I would not expect a professional investigation to announce trivial findings, and that the team assembled should at least match the CPA firms team speed. DOGE's review of USAID should likely be in the wrap up stages and we would be hearing material errors right now if there were any. We haven't seen that, so it causes me to be skeptical of the level of waste that has been found. Additionally, the supporting documentation has been severely lacking.

I know I'm in the minority with trying to look at this in a non-partisan manner and trying to apply my professional experience to this. Of course politically it's great to get out the results of DEI play's costing millions because to everyday people we can rationalize what that amount means. But the US government has a very different materiality threshold than the average person I had figured it would be worthwhile to speak about the data rather than debate whether $1.2M to Yemeni gay dance clubs or whatever is reasonable.

There's really no sense in keeping this going because I'm not going to defend the spending on whatever random DEI causes that were funded and no one is going to understand what $40B is in relation to the overall financial health of the US Gov.

 

[GATTACA!]

Ahh yes. The ones that the Biden State Department was pursuing. Hmmmm. But Musk is bad, evil, blah blah blah. Project 2025 Nazi's Constitutional Crisis. Dem's are the boy who cried wolf and Trump can almost literally do whatever he wants because of you. Yes, that is a bad thing. But you only can blame yourselves. Everyone has reached a point where we just roll our eyes.

The list was updated and that was added during the transition period.

 

[Irish#1]

 

[NDShark]

The list was updated and that was added during the transition period.

I'm starting to believe some folks are arguing in bad faith around here

 

[TorontoGold]

I'm starting to believe some folks are arguing in bad faith around here

I've come to find out that it's actually your fault for them arguing in bad faith, if you point it out repeatedly? Well, you made them that way! lmao

 

[NDVirginia19]

How much wasteful spending is it going to take to offset the hundreds of millions of dollars of armored Tesla's Trump is ordering?

And then Musk has the balls to stand there in the oval office and talk about faceless bureaucrats enriching themselves lol.

It would be pretty interesting to actually see the forensics of when that would have been added to the state department's budget request. President's Budget 25 was submitted back in March of last year. There's certainly some parlay back and forth between Congress and the agencies with inquiries into specific programs and "marks" where the agencies can communicate the harm of proposed cuts as the budget is going through congressional reconciliation, but I would find it extremely hard to believe that a random procurement line for armored Teslas/EVs appeared out of thin air. The first mention of it actually appeared in the forecasted 2025 procurement back in December, before the transition actually took place

 

[ulukinatme]

For lulz

 

[NDVirginia19]

 

[Giddyup]

Seeing roaches squell or scatter once the corruption is exposed. Explains a lot. Bout time the executive was audited to be honest unless ur a Tran book writer or fund illegals coming to us or Reuters NY times Politico etc

 

[GATTACA!]

Seeing roaches squell or scatter once the corruption is exposed. Explains a lot. Bout time the executive was audited to be honest unless ur a Tran book writer or fund illegals coming to us or Reuters NY times Politico etc

Your comments read like you’re filling out a MAGA mad libs.

 

[Irish#1]

 

[Sea Turtle]

Good grief. It's all a bunch of slush funds.

 

[Giddyup]

Your comments read like you’re filling out a MAGA mad libs.

No one cares about that comment why even waste space with that? Typical lib. Might hurt a trans or other persons emotions are their vote. So simplistic

 

[Giddyup]

Would think a lib might care about the man’s corruption guess the remnants are worried about something else

 

[Sea Turtle]

I told my daughters cat about the marbles up the the rectum experiments that Doge uncovered.

Needless to say, he wasn't happy.