Musk claims $160B saved. Far below the $2T goal. And less than 3% of the annual budget of the US Federal government. Was it even necessary?
And there may not be any savings at all; in fact, it may cost us more in the end.
Pete
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And to think, DOGE is a big part of the damage Elon did to his and Tesla’s image. All for nothing.
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Well, yeah! If you want to wreck government and compromise taxpayer’s personal data, you’ve got to put in some effort.
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And that is a big part of my fear. Their data collection, which was illegal and not necessary. Was that the reason he did this?
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…the sound of crickets…
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How about we ask “is the outcome useful?”
I’d argue that “we” now have evidence that the US system/s are NOT as riddled with fraud, waste, abuse and perhaps corruption, as has been alleged.
That, IMO, is useful information.
ralph
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Other than AOL-Time Warner, it’s hard to think of a worse investment anyone has made than the $280 million he spent to get the job.
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Good time for a DOGE update:
After cost-cutting blitz, Trump administration rehires hundreds of laid-off employees
The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.
“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”
This bares repeating; those laid-off received a paid 7-month vacation and it will cost the government (and us) even more to get the GSA back to sufficient operation.
No right-minded fiscal conservative would approve of such waste - or sit silent while it happened.
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Have a niece who was in drug testing for the FDA. She was laid off, but continued getting paid for months. She finally decided to do something with her life and got another job.
Total waste of her experience, plus she kept getting a paycheck for months .
Some great program, there.
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It is the public. The general public does not realize the power of Cost/Benefit Analysis by government economists to make good choices with our money.
All of the disasters we are seeing right now are a failure to even know how the government works as intended over the generations by well meaning intelligent people.
I wonder how many of those will accept the offer and not show up on 10/6. Seems like a great opportunity to earn double pay from their new job and an obviously defunct GSA.
Using a chainsaw for surgery is not cost effective nor does it result in the anticipated outcome (unless your intention is to kill the patient).
An auditor who knows what they’re doing is worth their weight in gold.
DOGE has not only cost us billions, it has already set us back many years. They’re not worth their weight in fertilizer.,
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But… but… it was run by a genius… 
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….who was high on ketamine or what? Brilliant. And cancelled the “extra telescope” of a brilliant astrnonomical two telescope experiment thus rendering the surviving telescope useless. Genius!
Move fast and wreck things was his long standing motto.
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An evil genius… of incompetence, selfishness, and greed.
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DOGE bought us time. Trump has to hire people to do things. He can not do many things right now because people have been fired. It is slowing Trump down.
The plan, 2025, is moving right along -
… reduce funding and staff that could offer resistance to their chicanery,
… increase deficit spending to burden future generations with onerous debt
… give tax cuts to the ultra-rich,
…and fund the ICE goon squad to keep the people in line.
It’s dystopian. And doesn’t appear to be slowing down at all.
Next up, hamstring the elections so they can stay in power forever, like Putin.
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