Well, for one thing, I doubt they'll touch DoD. I bet a really serious and diligent bean counter could find a couple hundred billion dollars of fat ro cut out there.
If you can, please write a column on calls from conservative financial planners like Luke Gromen (FFTT) to (i) send interest rates to zero, (ii) print money (QE) and devalue the dollar, (iii) inflate our way out of the debt (total and interest payment) crisis, (iv) then cut 1-2T from the US budget.
As usual, it is all a shell game. Which is why we see all the deflection to ideas of US imperialism and other non-sense. Check out Paul Krugman's substack - it is worth a read.
In highschool and college I sucked at economics.
Since, I depend on @stephruhle.bsky.social and Ali Velshi to explain economics in well understood language.
If DOGE were serious about saving money, they would focus first (and maybe only) on Medicare and the DoD. But those will be politically off limits. So we’ll hear a lot instead about foreign aid and NPR.
Of course it was. Anyone with (what should be) a high school level understanding of how the government works knew there was literally no legal way he was going to cut $2t.
As a teacher it was always so discouraging to hear, "Run schools like a business!" My husband and I were buying essentials for our classrooms with our own money.
Education is a longterm investment; one of its main payoffs is citizens who can tell the difference between the truth and a lie.
Of course not. Muskrat just wants to dismantle the regulators that stop him doing really stupid stuff. It was never about "efficiency". Even the acronym was a pisstake.
How completely unexpected from the guy who was going to have cars driving autonomously from LA to NYC by now and was also going to tunnel away all our traffic problems.
That's part of why I stopped listening to him and TFG. People kept freaking out, telling me "They said they'll do this and that!" and I was like, "Oh, you mean Elmo, famous for promising autonomous cars every year for the last 10, and TFG, who got Mexico to pay for the Great Wall 2.0? Those guys?"
"Pipe dream" got coined from the outlandish plans opium smokers in the 19th century would rave about. Seems "Ketamine dreams" is the 21st century version.
The only successful pipe dream that I know of is Coleridge's "Xanadu" - a literal opium dream. He forgot the last half so it remains unfinished.
Most educated people know that this has been tried and it never worked.
Meanwhile, Republicans continue their journey of giving out more tax cuts to billionaires
NO! Sacrilege! Thou shalt not tell the truth! Suggest we stop pissing away a trillion dollars a year on "defense', as in reality most of it is welfare for the failed red states of the south, in terms of hyper numerous military bases in those states. The proclaimed mighty state of Texas included.
A start to the solution is to get regular Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing thus eliminating the incentives to subjecting yourself to private insurance. 4/
As someone who spent a decade consulting in the industry (policy, delivery and insurance components both federal and private industry) watching this happen and predicting the results I'm only surprised by how bad it got so fast. 3/
the industry actually calls the share of premiums that end up paying medical bills the “medical loss ratio” — and they devote considerable resources to finding ways to avoid covering medical expenses."
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This little nugget needs much more attention: "The purpose of Medicare and Medicaid is to pay for peoples’ health care. The purpose of health insurance companies is to collect premiums; paying for care is a cost —
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It's about generating sound bites about things that don't get much funding in the overall scheme but can be twisted into a narrative about government "wasting" money on stupid things. Like "look how much money went to this study on raccoon poop!"
Has any research been done on the net impact to the economy for each $1 spent on after tax govt employee wages given the multiplier effect of spending? Curious if there would be a net positive or negative economic impact for each $1 cut from govt employee wages.
Problem is not spending rather the tax cuts since Reagan amount to $40 trillion dollars and counting.
Middle class will be decimated with any cut to SS and medicare
Question is if there is a net negative or positive economic effect for each incremental $1 spent on federal wages, when considering the multiplier effect and related tax payments (fed, state,local). There would be no rationale to cut fed employee spending if the result of each $1 cut was negative.
Companies are small, but governments are Big so of course spending numbers look far greater than anything in a business. Some business people can believe that means the big numbers can be made smaller. But in reality, it's different. They aren't the same thing at all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0
Why are you going to eventually paywall your work? I’m not against people making a living, but when is it really enough? I can’t imagine you’ve squandered your earnings. You’re drawing social security. You can get paid speaking gigs maybe? But you still need to paywall? Eh, my Marxism is showing
Like, Hamilton Nolan doesn’t paywall and I don’t think he has your level of stability. What is more important, sharing this knowledge or monetizing this work? Easy for me (not my monetary loss) but we live in a poisoned information environment, we need as much good, accessible work as we can get
It goes deeper than that. Musk is being sued in federal court for Enron scale securities fraud. That explains the urgency to get his $50bn payout from Tesla and his clinging to Tumpy. He's trying to stay out of prison.
No wonder he's manipulating Twitter's algorithm to boost his posts - he needs all the influence he can get to distract from these legal issues. Follow https://twitterexodus.org to help turn down his megaphone.
The actual quotation is: "History repeats itself. The first time for tragedy, the second time for farce." We are on the third, and yes, that's the clown show.
Prof. Krugman is so correct that cutting waste, fraud, and abuse has long been a conservative obsession. It was all part of Reagan's "government is evil" mantra. Should waste, fraud, and abuse be curtailed? Of course. But it won't save the taxpayers the trillions they've been promised.
Like how on earth will they ever get rid of FEMA using DOGE, particularly after LA this week? That might fly with MAGA until it's Florida that totally goes under.
Yep. I wrote my first novel about this topic after spending years in the FBI and Secret Service's government efficiency programs (having personally founded the latter with their Director).
Having worked at DOE during the Grace Commission and then for Al Gore's reinventing government employee-driven effort, I look forward to reading your book.
Comments
In highschool and college I sucked at economics.
Since, I depend on @stephruhle.bsky.social and Ali Velshi to explain economics in well understood language.
This piece, SIr, reads like a charm.
Government is there to do what business doesn't find profitable.
Taking care of the elderly so they can buy from businesses isn't efficient.
Educating all children isn't efficient.
Privatization diverts taxes to business without any increase in benefit.
Education is a longterm investment; one of its main payoffs is citizens who can tell the difference between the truth and a lie.
It's not about direct return on money. The post office isn't there to maximize profit, but to provide low-cost, affordable service to everyone.
Grandiose ideas that see little sunlight
The only successful pipe dream that I know of is Coleridge's "Xanadu" - a literal opium dream. He forgot the last half so it remains unfinished.
Meanwhile, Republicans continue their journey of giving out more tax cuts to billionaires
2/
1/
It’s a Fabulous portrait 🙂
Middle class will be decimated with any cut to SS and medicare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0
"'Apocalypse-proof' Tesla Cybertruck defeated by some sand" https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/tesla-cybertruck-gets-stuck-in-sand-18707997.php
https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/tesla-cybertruck-elon-musk-accident.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us
https://www.financialexpress.com/life/science-elon-musk-spacex-mars-mission-deadline-2545184/
they need their troops a little longer
https://bsky.app/profile/edgibney.bsky.social/post/3lckvnyyi2s2m