When did we all just agree that the federal government is bloated and could benefit from cuts? I keep seeing this as a throwaway statement before media outlets criticize Trump, Musk, and DOGE. But it’s transparently false. Many government offices are actually severely understaffed. - ThreadSky

nbedera.bsky.social • 40 days ago

When did we all just agree that the federal government is bloated and could benefit from cuts?

I keep seeing this as a throwaway statement before media outlets criticize Trump, Musk, and DOGE. But it’s transparently false.

Many government offices are actually severely understaffed.

Comments

mmlarthur.bsky.social•39 days ago

I heard a state legislator recently struggle with the idea that it could be cost-neutral to hire an actual public employee rather than a contractor. The belief that everything government does is somehow expensive & inefficient is just so deep in these people.

nbedera.bsky.social•39 days ago

This!!

jessicawluther.com•40 days ago

yes, thank you! https://bsky.app/profile/jessicawluther.com/post/3ljxda673rc23

cforde.github.io•40 days ago

"smaller gov't" means fewer services for the people who need them and fewer people to monitor the services being abused by the people advocating for smaller gov't

sheridanstewart.bsky.social•39 days ago

50 years of a bipartisan consensus that, actually, government is bad.

On Jimmy Carter:

"They will be challenged by the man in the Oval Office to justify their long-established programs, their budgets and their tables of organization - or face having all three changed in ways they may not like."

chbarts.bsky.social•39 days ago

It's people implicitly accepting the premises of the Right as being "apolitical" and trying to argue over the details. The Left gets in on it when it demands big cuts to the military, for example.

chbarts.bsky.social•39 days ago

The Right is very good at getting people to play the game within its parameters. The Liberals and the Left need to reject more of its premises and attack it in ways it isn't prepared for.

ms-d.bsky.social•40 days ago

I’ve always gotten perfectly fine service with any interaction with the federal government

irrationaljr.bsky.social•39 days ago

I have been scratching my head abt this too... We don't have to strongman their positions in order to critique it.

jlandr.bsky.social•39 days ago

Too long has the public perception has been that the government was incompetent and that the private sector could do better with less waste. In actuality it uses the scant few dollars it does get more efficiently than the private sector to the ends it is trying to accomplish.

jlandr.bsky.social•39 days ago

What needs to happen is a dead sprint in the other direction. Expropriation of businesses we prop up with our tax dollars. Why shouldn't we own it? We've spent enough to have bought out many of these companies several times over at this point. AT&T, AmTrak, several banks... The list goes on.

jlandr.bsky.social•39 days ago

It will never happen, but it would be a panacea of late-stage capitalism.

nbedera.bsky.social•40 days ago

The office I know best is the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which has literally never been adequately staffed to address all the discrimination complaints it receives from students.

Which is why schools can discriminate with impunity.

nbedera.bsky.social•40 days ago

Anyone who thinks they’re being “fair” in their critique by assuming that some cuts would be reasonable is actually just ceding ground and validating their argument.

These are empirical questions! We shouldn’t just assume that Republicans are right!

nbedera.bsky.social•40 days ago

There’s a weird fallacy where the more unreasonable someone is being, the more tempted we become to search for *anything* they say we might possibly be able to agree with.

But the whole problem is you can’t reason with them! They’re unreasonable! And now they’re dragging you along with them.

nbedera.bsky.social•40 days ago

Or to put it another way, it’s a counterproductive to search for the most reasonable part of an unreasonable argument because you hope you can have a reasonable discussion if you focus your energy there.

The unreasonable person is still unreasonable. And now you’re acting unreasonably too.

indy.bsky.social•39 days ago

Yes! This is a fundamental danger of the doctrine of charitable interpretation.

luramccoy81.bsky.social•40 days ago

I think a lack of transparency and messaging about actual dollars and percentages each dept is spending has fueled this conversation. If a person/party can get Katie Porter's whiteboard on the socials with an accurate breakdown, that would be a game changer.

jasminempolyanthum.bsky.social•40 days ago

The only department that has failed seven audits in a row is the one no one is touching, which is the DoD. It also has the largest budget of any federal agency. This is the one I think of when this argument is presented, but it's definitely not helpful to neglect to specify.

jasminempolyanthum.bsky.social•40 days ago

It is also the one that gives Elon all his contracts so of course he won't touch it.

nbedera.bsky.social•40 days ago

LISTEN. You hit the nail on the head.

klogoldman.bsky.social•39 days ago

We definitely did not agree on this but many people have been brainwashed into believing its true. Also there seem to be a large number of people who think that cutting government would mean more money for them. I'm not sure where they got that idea.

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