Bill Clinton cut over 377k federal jobs and had a balanced budget and surplus between 1998 and 2001.
Maybe model it after what he did.
They’ll tell you they are. They definitively are not.
Trump 47
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Maybe model it after what he did.
They’ll tell you they are. They definitively are not.
mugatu
Ranger
As Elon Musk eyes Defense Department, conflicts of interest, accounting issues loom
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Elon Musk was 'welcome' to the Pentagon. How will he approach its deep budget problems?
www.usatoday.com
Hopefully they are successful in getting contracts under control and don't go cutting positions with an ax.
The DOD needs to break up contractors, rework the acquisition process massively, and take over more of the work vs having for profit companies do basic work the government should be doing for less.
I'm gonna guess Elon won't recuse himself from all of this.
Hold prime time live debates on each department and their top 5 program that there is questions if it should be cut or not, let each side present and defend why or why don't cuts need to happen over a 4 week period then...Hold a national vote once every month for each department for those top 5 funding items and let America decide to keep it as is, keep it with up to 25% cuts, keep it with up to 50% cuts or scrap it all together..
Let each major dept do that with their top 5 biggest expense programs and see how much America votes to dump or change
After each department has a turn, the. Start over again with programs 5-10 in expenses and let America vote again
DOGE is then Tasked to carry out the spending cuts, cancelation, of the department as identified in the vote and DOGE provides follow up reports to the public on how / what they did to achieve the outcomes of the American voting wishes
DOGE should control the schedule of this, arrangement of the public hearing and facilitate the public hearing on each . DOGE is also then responsible to help each Dept identify the cuts they need to make to hit the target voted in by American Voters
DOGE the. Also has closed door meetings with Reps from both sides of Congress who meet in classified programs that can't be presented to the public and that bipartisan committee and DOGE decide spending cuts aimed at those classified programs
It would take them 10 years to develop that.
I like it in theory but in reality that would never get done. You can't ask the people that got us 37T in debt and store retirement data in mines to accomplish that. I'm talking about both parties. They would fight over what is a fair way to do that and write a 1500 bill to implement it that has 200B in wasteful lobby driven spending.
It is nowhere near what you are saying. Heck, just asking supervisory staff who their performers are would be easiest and just confirm it with other supervisors and/or HR.
What is obvious is nailing people for getting a promotion in the past year is as stupid as it gets. You can defend it if you want by claiming it is just so complex, but that was lazy expedience which harms the country. No two ways about it.
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Ohh so developing an entire new Govt Dept is hard and complicated and takes the input of both parties to define the playing field and rules
Explained DOGE to me then
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Stillwater Townie
Ranger
Right! Trump should fire Musk over it, if verified as true. Persons from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has IT access to the Washington department overseeing nuclear weapons, without a government background check, according to multiple reports.
Trump administration tries to bring back fired nuclear weapons workers in DOGE reversal
The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs.apnews.com
Such a $hi! $how!
https://www.newsweek.com/doge-luke-...LziWlCegl4GeaO-hWQ_aem_Dp1jAEo7yrnr7MPH6cWrng
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JTOSU
Ranger
If there is anything dumber and more meaningless over the last 5 weeks than Trump changing the name of Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America….it is Mexico threatening to sue Google over the name change on Google Maps.
Stillwater Townie
Ranger
At least that is a little less insane than putting Trump up on Mt. Rushmore.
Stillwater Townie
Ranger
DOD should close down hundreds of foreign military bases. China and Russia have very few foreign military bases.As Elon Musk eyes Defense Department, conflicts of interest, accounting issues loom
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Elon Musk was 'welcome' to the Pentagon. How will he approach its deep budget problems?
Hopefully they are successful in getting contracts under control and don't go cutting positions with an ax.
The DOD needs to break up contractors, rework the acquisition process massively, and take over more of the work vs having for profit companies do basic work the government should be doing for less.
I'm gonna guess Elon won't recuse himself from all of this.
Stillwater Townie
Ranger
Here is an interview with a Disabled Vet fired from the FAA.....his interview outlines what your talking about
Seems like you’re rejecting any possible solutions beyond handing the reins to Elon and having him burn it to the ground.
'Incredulous': Judge bemused as Trump lawyers can't confirm if federal workers fired
Judge Tanya Chutkan held a rare emergency hearing on Monday's Presidents' Day holiday to hear the case for a temporary restraining order halting the activity of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Chutkan noted that several other cases currently in the courts attempt to pause cuts being ushered in by DOGE, which isn't a congressionally established or funded department. She asked why the broader case before her, which seeks to shut down all of DOGE's cuts, is different.
The legal team suing for the order pointed to reports over the dangers of Department of Energy employees who oversee the nuclear waste in Los Alamos, New Mexico as an example. They mentioned that thousands of government employees were let go on Friday.
Chutkan asked whether the government's legal team could confirm — and they said they didn't know. It was a fact that legal analysts watching the case unfold were shocked by.
"I have not been able to look into that independently or confirm that," the government lawyer said, according to Just Security and MSNBC's Adam Klasfeld.
"The firing of thousands of federal employees is not a small or common thing. You haven’t been able to confirm that?" Klasfeld quoted Chutkan responding "incredulously."
Lawfare's Roger Parloff recorded Chutkan's concerns that DOGE's actions "have been unpredictable and scattershot." She commented that it's unclear if that is by design or a nature of the situation.
"That's why I'm asking: will there be terminations? Where? When?" Chutkan said, according to Parloff.
The government was forced to say they'd get back to her on that.
Lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrien pointed out that this might "sound damning," but that it might help the government's case in the end.
"This chaos may make it more difficult to demonstrate the immediate harm needed for the judge to issue a temporary restraining order — rather than just a generalized fear," he explained.
Chutkan said she would try to rule on the matter in 24 hours.
it could be up and running and extremely transparent and left in the hands of the US Voters in less than 6 months time. You don't have to have the parties agree on the Rules. Just give each parties 30 min per Top 5 spending for each Dept and have an expert from both parties ideologies present to the American Public each of 5 bullet points @ 30 min each and then let them vote.
Itterly, Top 5 line budget items. 30 min per topic presented by Dems and Republicans representative each. I would even argue there should be a 3rd party Non Partisan that just presents FACTS ONLY AFTER the Dems and Republicans give their argument For/Against ..... about the subject matter as well..such as how long its been around, examples of the best outcomes it has funded and examples of its current funding, examples of failures and Total Savings of 0%, 25%, 50% or total elimination.
That puts your arguments for this into the hands of the Political entities but the results of what action the govt will take in the hands of the American People.
I wonder what happens if a government lawyer gets let go mid hearing?
No not at all. Between setting up national elections and the richest man in the world promoting himself lies a pretty big expanse.
This has been needed to be being done forever. I think there could have been some kind of non/bi-partisan way prior to the last 7 years. I have 0 confidence in our current house/senate to be able to pull it off. They aren't good at anything.
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Good watch and is a pretty accurate description of what is going on, IMO.
Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E looks to update US gold reserves with Bitcoin after Fort Knox audit
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E) has its next mission: find out if Fort Knox actually holds the 4,580 tons of gold it claims to have. Elon was pulled into the debate today when an X user asked him to check if the US gold reserves still exist.
Elon responded, “Surely it’s reviewed at least every year.” The US Treasury claims that Fort Knox holds $425 billion worth of gold at market rates, but the last time anyone actually saw it was in 2017, when Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin visited.
Before that? 1974, when journalists and lawmakers were allowed inside after rumors of missing gold started spreading. The vault remains one of the most restricted locations on Earth, and no single person knows all the steps to open it.
Rand Paul demands answers, Lummis says Bitcoin is the solution
That single reply set off a political chain reaction, with Senator Rand Paul calling for an official audit and Senator Cynthia Lummis reiterating her favorite radical alternative—replace gold with Bitcoin.Rand Paul, who has long supported government transparency, jumped in immediately after Elon’s post. “Nope. Let’s do it,” Paul wrote, making it clear he wants a full-scale audit of the reserves. His father, Ron Paul, pushed for gold audits for years, arguing that Americans have no proof the gold even exists, which is quite interesting, isn’t it?
Anyway, Lummis told Elon, “Bitcoin fixes this. A bitcoin reserve could be audited anytime 24/7 with a basic computer. It’s time to upgrade our reserves.” Elon responded to her recommendation with an emoji that symbolizes thinking, likely meaning he’s gonna think about it.
Bitcoin is transparent to a fault, unlike Fort Knox, which remains locked away with no public verification. Her proposal? Ditch gold, buy Bitcoin, and create a US strategic BTC reserve.
The US Mint claims Fort Knox holds 147.3 million ounces of gold, but here’s the problem—the government values it at $42.22 per ounce, which puts the official total at just $6.2 billion. That valuation is a joke—gold trades at nearly $2,900 per ounce, making the real value around $425 billion, as aforementioned.
Meanwhile, Lummis has already introduced the BITCOIN Act in the Senate, which lays out a plan for the US to create its first official Bitcoin reserve. According to the BICTOIN Act, the plan includes 1 million Bitcoin acquisition program, which would make up 5% of all BTC supply. Lummis also wants to secure Bitcoin vaults run by the US Treasury, designed with both physical and digital security measures. Funding will be pulled from existing Federal Reserve and Treasury funds, meaning no new taxpayer spending, according to the BITCOIN Act.
Lummis also wrote that there should be legal protections for Bitcoin self-custody, which will make sure Americans can hold their BTC without interference.
Via a post on X, Lummis called the plan a “Louisiana Purchase moment”, comparing it to the massive land acquisition that doubled US territory in 1803. The crypto-loving Senator didn’t expect it, but Trump endorsed the Bitcoin reserve idea.
His administration is of course officially crypto-friendly, and he’s openly considered creating a sovereign wealth fund backed by Bitcoin. His support could mean the difference between Congress approving the reserve or blocking it entirely.
The US government already holds 200,000 BTC, mostly from asset seizures handled by the US Marshals, and so Lummis wants that Bitcoin moved into the Treasury to kickstart the reserve. She’s also looking at converting old US gold certificates into BTC, which would tie Bitcoin directly into the federal financial system.
Meanwhile, states aren’t waiting for Washington. Pennsylvania, Texas, Wyoming, Arizona, Wisconsin, and many others are already exploring state-based Bitcoin reserves, with even more states expected to follow.
I want to ask, what is the evidence that a mass, unaccountable, purging of the Federal workforce is needed?
This graph is the Federal workforce (spikes are census workers). The Green line is US population. Why do we have far too many Federal workers now when relative to the population served we are nowhere near a high point? Next graph is workers vs federal revenue. Again, one is growing, one isn't.
Now, if they wanted to go through the workforce and work with congress to get rid of the provisions that make it very hard to fire the staff that are underperforming, I'd be for that. If they want to make it so that I don't have to write a new Standard Operation Procedure every time some spurious random thing occurs and then send it through 5 committees and two unions to get it approved, awesome.
But, a purge of workers with no way to see if the people leaving are high performers or critically needed knowledge keepers? Purging the EIS that investigates infectious disease outbreaks, nuclear workers etc? Really?
I just have not seen any evidence that what is occurring makes sense at all.
It would make more sense to cancel every contract with any company that is over $1 billion market cap and renegotiate all of them. Funny, that isn't being considered.
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