1/ I am one of the founding members of the 1st agency-level team of USDS. I disagree that the mission of DOGE is similar to that of the Digital Service.
It sounds similar on the surface, but there are a couple of fundamental differences.
Quick 🧵
https://rollcall.com/2025/02/04/white-house-opens-funding-spigot-for-doge-expenses/
It sounds similar on the surface, but there are a couple of fundamental differences.
Quick 🧵
https://rollcall.com/2025/02/04/white-house-opens-funding-spigot-for-doge-expenses/
Comments
The focus here is on improving *technology* as the end goal.
“To deliver better government services to the American people through technology and design.”
The focus here is on *better government services* — the end goal is not the tech. Here the tech is a *vehicle* to delivering better services.
Focusing on tech as the end goal centers the tech, the systems, and the institutions.
Focusing on the service as the end goal centers the outcome and the people.
… or simply a government that can deliver on its promises & goals.
That end = an effective govt that people can rely on & easily interact w/instead of having to go through a Kafkaesque maze of websites & phone numbers & apps & forms.
What end is the tech a means to for DOGE?
That would feed a lot of people, repair a bridge or two, help citizens recover from disasters…
Per Forbes reporting in 2021 on 4-year WH payroll totals, “the Trump administration spent $164.3 million (2017-2020) and the Obama administration spent $188.5 million (2009-2012).”
My point is about the mission (which tbh seems like an increasingly moot point at the moment.)