DOGE opinions

[flogger]

'Believe half of what you see, and none of what you hear'
E.A. Poe

[Firehaus]

I find it refreshing that departments are being purged quickly compared to normal timelines of getting rid of people. Letting the government workers unionize was one of the biggest mistakes IMO.

Take the NY city process of deciding on a trash bin. $4mil to tell them what trash bin to use. Seems like that could of been done cheaper.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ts/ar-BB1pJZ8n


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Oscar77]

I think It has been one of the GREATEST things to ever happen to the US Govt.

[tmckay2]

Is what you do so unique to government that it could not be done cheaper and more efficiently by the private sector?

Not really. I worked in both private and public sectors in the same field. Private sector wouldn't really be worse, just shift the cost to a different party. I wouldn't say in my field I've had more deadbeats in government than in the private sector. It's about the same. But its a professional field. On the other hand it was at least plausible to fire people in the private sector, albeit not nearly as easy as people would think.

[tmckay2]

I find it refreshing that departments are being purged quickly compared to normal timelines of getting rid of people. Letting the government workers unionize was one of the biggest mistakes IMO.

Take the NY city process of deciding on a trash bin. $4mil to tell them what trash bin to use. Seems like that could of been done cheaper.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ts/ar-BB1pJZ8n


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes unionization has been a huge part of the problem. I did management in the private sector, I wouldn't dare in government. Tiny pay increase, virtually no bonus and it's impossible to manage union members.

[eddiememphis]

Not really. I worked in both private and public sectors in the same field. Private sector wouldn't really be worse, just shift the cost to a different party. I wouldn't say in my field I've had more deadbeats in government than in the private sector. It's about the same. But its a professional field. On the other hand it was at least plausible to fire people in the private sector, albeit not nearly as easy as people would think.

That is an honest answer.

Those are the programs that should be cut.

If a private company can do whatever a particular government department is doing, better and more efficiently, that department should be closed.

Within reason and of course there as exceptions, but governments are not supposed to be lifetime job creators. Leave job creation to the private sector where merit and initiative are more highly valued and rewarded.

[buffalobo]

This lefty article says he?s 3rd. Their graph below shows Obama increased it heavily, but he must of came in 4th so they didn?t mention him.

Without Covid the deficit would of been much lower. Was Covid his fault? Was it China?s? Does China owe us 3 trillion to pay for it? Does NIAID need to pay for it?

Why do we pay interest on our own debt instead of using those funds to pay it down?

Trump is not perfect and has things to dislike about him, but your obvious hatred of him is well known and you?ll slant any post negatively towards him.

Have you applied to be on MSNBC?






?The growth in the annual deficit under Trump ranks as the third-biggest increase, relative to the size of the economy, of any U.S. presidential administration, according to a calculation by a leading Washington budget maven, Eugene Steuerle, co-founder of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. And unlike George W. Bush and Abraham Lincoln, who oversaw the larger relative increases in deficits, Trump did not launch two foreign conflicts or have to pay for a civil war.

Economists agree that we needed massive deficit spending during the COVID-19 crisis to ward off an economic cataclysm, but federal finances under Trump had become dire even before the pandemic. That happened even though the economy was booming and unemployment was at historically low levels. By the Trump administration?s own description, the pre-pandemic national debt level was already a ?crisis? and a ?grave threat.?

The combination of Trump?s 2017 tax cut and the lack of any serious spending restraint helped both the deficit and the debt soar. So when the once-in-a-lifetime viral disaster slammed our country and we threw more than $3 trillion into COVID-19-related stimulus, there was no longer any margin for error.?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

+1.

None of the detractors want to or will address the anomaly of COVID or the previous trends set in motion and beauracracies enabled by Bush and continued by Obama or the fact that pretty much every pres and congress since WW2 has grown Fed deficit.

The hatred of the man always shows thru.

If you're unarmed, you are a victim

[theGinsue]

I'm not a Trump fan of him as an individual, but as a politician I've been impressed by his ability to get things done for the American citizen - when he isn't being obstructed at every turn by every other elected official out there.

In my lifetime there was one President who was widely considered the "worst President of all time", Jimmy Carter. While he set the bar very low, along comes Biden who showed us he's an Olympic gold medalist in doing the limbo and set the bar so ridiculously low everyone else will be hard pressed to do as poorly, ever. After the nightmare that was the Biden administration, we need someone to push hard to undo all of the harm Biden did to this nation and Trump appears to be doing just that.

The entrenched bureaucracy at all levels of our governments are out of control. While there has only been a handful of agencies currently reduced, many more have already been identified to be reduced or eliminated. This needs to happen soon, before the obstructionists can stop the train.

For those pointing out the latest federal budget as proof that Trump isn't actually making improvements, I ask: Is it Trump who is responsible for the budget or is it Congress? While Trump has final approval, what you see in the budget is all the doing of members of Congress. Even if Trump failed to approve the budget and let things shut down, it's interesting to see that Congress would still be getting paid, while average citizens who receive money from the .fed, that they've earned, wouldn't. All of the entitlement junkies seem to receive money before those who EARNED their disbursements. Only Congress can fix this and they have no desire to do so.

I say, let DOGE keep pushing forward to end as much federal waste as they can. We need significant change NOW to provide a better opportunity for our children.

[FoxtArt]

Is what you do so unique to government that it could not be done cheaper and more efficiently by the private sector?

Depending on the tasks, federal contractors are not cheaper than federal employees - common misconception.

The contractor's wages are often utter garbage, I'll give people that. So yes, the contractor might make $20 an hour where their federal counterpart makes $32/h (equivalent) doing the exact same thing.

However, the labor rates the company charges to the federal government is $45. Contractor gets $20, $25/h to the company for costs of labor and profit.

So your federal employee is costing the gov about $40/h in true costs of labor, while the contractor is $45/h for the same position. Pension contributions have been adjusted over the years where a federal pension is no longer what it was.

Very neutered analysis, but this is what I'm talking about.

Labor rates I've seen for even low-to-mid level contracting jobs are often around $65-72/hour (that the company is paid by the gov). I've seen some as high as $161/h. Again, the contracted employee... does not make those numbers. But that's what it costs the gov.

It's great if you own one of those companies. But it doesn't eliminate waste/fraud.

[Eric P]

DOGE could eliminate the 95% of the FHWA. Only part that would need retaining is for construction projects that cross state lines.

CDOT received a grant for low carbon materials that was awarded, then froze. Money that could be better spent fixing roads.