DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus USAID, our tax dollars hard at work

j/c:

There is none. Its the doctorial illegal and opaque process while exposing our personal information that is the problem.
How do you not know that is the problem?

I'll add to that. The way his tweets come across, it is DOGE taking ownership of everything, including back-dooring a 19 year old into a senior advisor position with DoS. On top of that, even if DOGE is working on behalf of the Executive, show me where in the Constitution the Executive has the power to freeze and recapture Congressionally appropriated funds, let alone in a clear-cutting way.

And I sense BS in the room.


That's not the issue here. The issue is what they're cutting. Don't play stupid.


Then how is it trump pretty much said he could cut whatever he wanted and Musk is announcing the cuts?


Everyone who cares about human life as well as curing diseases should be worried as well. It appears you aren't one of those people.

The term is 'willfull ignorance'.

This is the same person that said (paraphrasing) we just need to do it right and send troops over the middle east to sort all that out.

Because pork in one persons eyes is a justified expenditure in someone else's.

The funds were passed by congress and approved by the President at that time.

You can't simply shut down the mechanism to spend appropriated money, that would likely require Congressional approval. Even if it was shut down, the obligations would have to be transferred to another entity.

Advisor my ass.. that is rich. Auditor, double my ass. double rich. What qualifications does Elon have as an auditor? Auditors do not have the authority to discontinue funding. Musk isn't deciding may or may not be true, technically but the Twitter universe suggests otherwise.

You don't give the passwords and control of the accounts to advisors.

It is not our playpen money, it is Congressionally approved funding.

There has been no audit. Anyone think that these changes have taken place after an audit? Is wilfully ignorant or just drinking the Kool-Aid a little bit too strongly?.

Is medicaid and snap pork in the budget? And they are planning a massive tax break for the elite. Get your head out of your rear end.

Remember when trump did an interview or podcast or something with elon and he laughed about how many people elon fired and thought it was great. That is trumps qualification for elon.

Cutting Pork is NOT the problem... Cutting NIH Funding IS a problem. Cutting USAID so deep without taking a moment to see where they are, is the Problem. An IG for USAID writes a report that states that we have food rotting on the docks because funding was cut off and people were told not to come to work.. That's the problem Then because the IG has the balls to say so in a memo, TRUMP fires him.... So, what that says to whistle blowers is that they can't be protected if they report government waste.....
So why do it?

Like so many, you want to simplify things but by doing so you miss the real issues. Your comments show that you don't know what's really happening.. You just follow Trump and Musk blindly

Why haven't you discussed the amount of money that Musk gets from the Government....

I don't think either of those two cases in particular could EVER be confused for "Playpen Money"!

I'm still waiting for Proof of all this wasteful spending. No proof has been offered, just Trump and Musk telling us.....

Now I await a smart ass comment from you in an effort to belittle me for daring to call you out,.

I don't know my friend, I suspect all of our info has already been exposed.

Typical GOP rhetoric. Accuse others of exactly what you yourself are doing. That's what a 787 million dollar settlement says.

We could have hoped it wasn’t. But that hope didn’t just fade, it blew to smithereens.

Ah... the Deep State boogieman. MAGA somehow keeps trotting this nonesense out there even though they have Musk subverting any and all govt procedures, talking about how the judicial shouldn't be interfering in what they're doing (constitutional or not), handing sensitive info to college kids, and cutting out rank-and-file govt employees while contracts with his companies magically are allowed to move forward.


You should probably stick to posting joke memes in the joke thread.

He doesn't even believe his own BS. He's just out to own the libs. Instead of taking what they're doing seriously it's nothing but a game to him.

OkeyDokeyO Rose propaganda again. Don’t you get this post was custom tailored for people like you to spread?

He likes getting paid to lie, you’ll have to do better.

I’d be good with closing down a fair portion of USAID if they promised to use some of that money to end US homelessness. But we all know there’s no profit to be had there so it won’t even be considered.

They cut it off to enrich billionaires. It’s criminal if you ask me. I don’t like giving all the money away to impoverished countries either, but that is way better than increasing the wealth gap. The American elite have no idea how everyday Americans are living. They don’t feel the stress of making ends meet living paycheck to paycheck or the feeling of having no way out, no light at the end of the tunnel. And who do they expect to foot the bill for the 4 trillion dollar give-away? Those trapped at the bottom. How dystopian is that?

I don't know why they pay him to lie when Memphis is willing to do it for free.

05, I appreciate the time, effort and thought that went into your veeerrrry loooong post. Not quite War and Peace but I think you could give Tolstoy a run for his money. I also appreciate the expertise you bring to the conversation. Clearly you and I come at this from different places. You are in the “belly of the beast” while I’m doing a flyover at 10,000 feet. While I think much of what you said is valid I think my flyover view has validity as well.

Now this 999 fellow thinks I will respond with a two sentence post about some minor point. I couldn’t find any minor points so that would be difficult. I do think that fellow tends to project on to others exactly what he does himself. So there is that.

05, responding in total to all your points would require a small book, so I have chosen to offer comments on two of your points i agree with, two I have a somewhat different take on and two that I think you are in error.

Every time I see a story about DOGE attacking waste and spending I am reminded of your point that the problem is our legislative branch, the congress. And I agree with that point totally. The branch that should be the solution to the problem is, in fact, the problem itself. I just read the projected deficit for this year is almost $2 trillion. I think it may bebiggest ever. Why?? Well after covid emergency ended congress refused to return to pre COVID spending levels, insisted on keeping the money and spending it on their pet projects. Pre COVID our budget was about $3.5 trillion and now I think 🤔 t is 6.5 trillion. If we had returned to Pre covid spending, factored in the inflation, our budget would be less than the expected revenue for the year. In other words, congress is constitutionally incapable of reducing spending. (Not referring to the U S Constitution in that sentence) . There is a word to describe congressional money mindset. Insatiable!! No matter how much they have they will take and spend more if they can.

If I thought there was anychance the Congress would do anything to rein in spending and attack waste and corruption I would be all for it and DOGE could stand down. But they cannot/will not do so and someone needs to go at it from a different angle. One point you cited that actually favors a doge approach is the huge amounts of money that flows into the pols from lobbyists. I don’t think the doge guys have to worry about that. So they will attack it free of the constraints of lobbyist tentacles. btw, I do think there is a minority in congress who want to disrupt and change this system, but between the dems and the establishment repubs they cannot get anywhere. I do not know how we can change this but I think sitting around doing nothing with the hope things will change on the hill is just “pie in the sky” thinking with no hope of it happening.

Another point you made had to do with the language/vocabulary being directed toward government employees. I think it is way over the top and I wish it would cease. Government employees are not the enemy. In fact they can be a great ally in dealing with some of this. Nobody knows the machinations of government/industry interactions like employees who are in the middle of it. In dod I am sure there are lots of people like you who can show the inner workings of this process and I am certain employees in other areas can do the same. So I would like to see fed employees viewed as collaborators in our attempt to rid the government of wasting taxpayer dollars. I am sure I have not heard all the harsh rhetoric but I did hear, with my own two ears, spokeslady Caroline refer really negatively to workers working remotely. Should not have happened. She is young and has a lot to learn. She is no Kaleigh Mcananey (sic) that is for sure. So hopefully as we move on the rhetoric will change.

05, you cited a great concern for the fact that a number of Inspector generals have been removed. You believe that leaves us vulnerable to misbehavior. But 05, we have had all those IGs in place and you are citing often the abuses that are occurring. We need to put something in place that actually works. Part of it is developing a passion within government for getting the max out of taxpayer dollars. If every spender treated those dollars like they were coming out of their own pocket who knows what might happen.

You mention a principle. Time, amount and thing?? Can’t remember for sure the words. Jist was they give you an amount to spend on an item by end of fiscal year. That generated a question. They give you a
Billion for 2025 for widgets. Thru hard negotiations you get the widgets you want for $500 million. What happens to the other$500 million?? Just curious.

I do think as abuses of spending get laid out the American people are going to be more and more supportive of the process.

I think it is true that this process with federal employees is more “out there”, more public, than the same goings on in the private sector. We vacated about 150 employees positions but outside the hospital nobody knew about it. However that was still stressful for the employees who lost their jobs and they struggled to recover from it just like federal employees who lose positions will do. So I think going thru streamlining an organization, whether public or private, is difficult and stressful for those involved.

05, you expressed concern for revenue shortfall being a problem for he future. I do not see that at all. According to the CBO, revenues for the next 10 years are gonna be almost $70 trillion. Almost $7 trillion per year coming in. If the pols would show a willingness to live within their means I think we could make do on that.

Finally i think you are mistaken about federal employees compensation being 25% below private sector employees. Unless you are referencing actual pay scales which imho does not paint the complete picture of employee compensation. I wish I was a techno geek so I could transfer this bar graph i am looking at over to this post . Alas I am not. Maybe I could get my 11 yo grandson to come over. He could probably do it in 10 seconds. Failing that I think I’ll just describe what I see. It is CBO data. It shows the total compensation package for federal employees vs private sector employees in comparable positions. It breaks them into five categories based upon education. HS grads, some college, bachelor’s, masters and finally, professional/doctoral degrees. The first two categories the federal employees have a compensation package advantage of 15-20 $/hr. The third, bachelors degree has a federal advantage of $4/ hr. I would guess the vast majority of federal employees fall into one of those three categories. The fourth, master’s degree, has a $3/ hr private sector advantage. The fifth, doctoral trained has a substantial private sector advantage, 15-20 $/hr. I would guess that masters and doctoral degree employees are a small minority of federal employees though I have no data to support that. But I think in general federal compensation is more than competitive.

Finally 05, i think as we talk about bringing spending under control, reducing corruption, overpaying etc.i do not think many realize the urgency of the situation. Right now, according to CBO number we are paying 21% of our revenue to service our debt. 21%!!! By 2035 if nothing changes we will be spending 25% on the debt! 25% !!! A quarter of our money. We are in a fiscal emergency and the old way would just not have dealt with it. So we are treating it like the emergency it is with this new way. If we are to survive it has to work.

05, I appreciate your concern for this old guys health. I wish I had been at the doc for me. Sadly my wife has spent 6 weeks fighting the shingles on her face and now it is in her eye. Horrible headaches and now her right eye itches constantly. This is a 75 year old who is on zero prescriptions in her life who now has 4-5 pill bottles by her bed. I just hope this does not drag out for months and months like shingles sometimes does.

Hang in there . I know we don’t want to lose good employees like you. I have been curious about the early retirement package. Was it a good deal for a guy in your position. Years ago at the hospital, we floated a package to encourage long term, highly paid employees to retire. If your age and years of service equalled 80 you got a deal. I was at 79, dang it, so I missed. I never even found out the details of the package. Since then we have done the same thing twice more but I was already gone so I don’t know details but I know a bunch of folks have done it. It is just not really a big deal, and can be a positive for many employees.


Good talking to you , 05.

I read the first 1/3 of your response and I appreciate you sticking around and debating. I want to make a point of saying that to folks that I may not agree with, but are still sticking around and contributing to debate.

I'm gonna get back on here later and read the rest of your response when I have a little more time. Work has me running around quite a bit.


What some folks keep coming back to is the argument that those that disagree with DOGE are against cutting govt waste. That isn't true in the least.

If I thought DOGE was going about these govt cuts in a thoughtful manner, I'd be their biggest fan. If DOGE stuck with their current methods and instead pointed it at Congress, I'd be a big fan.


They're not doing either of these things. They are slashing departments and people that will disrupt core functions of our government while still not making a dent in the deficit and without any plans on restoring those core functions. That's a big problem.

A sensible and thought out response.. Thanks

I will also say that DOGE is announcing what they are cutting like a rooster crowing in the morning.

There characterizations of the authorized expenditures is intentionally inflammatory and has bias.

Fine if you want to cut spending, but do it through the Congressional Budget process, not by some ex-post-facto strategy which has been previously determined to be illegal.

And Musk has inherent conflicts and lacks qualifications to be the hatchet man.

The President can't simply cut spending that the President does not like.

You can obviously do whatever the hell you want when SCOTUS makes you KING and the Republicans in congress have been turned into cucked lemmings. People will have to rise up to stop this, you can bet on that.

You realize both of these guys are lifelong lib dems. Unlike most of you they still believe in freedom of speech and oppose government censorship. That made them the enemies of the dems in congress.

They’ve been radicalized by Christo-Fascists. I was a life long Republican until the racism and hate started tearing through the party during Obama’s 08 run. Don’t tell me these guys hold ANY democrat qualities. They’re both billionaire assholes.

So when you know nothing you just make stuff up. “Christo-fascists??? Billionaires??? Radicalized?? All pure bologna. I realize playing with truth makes it harder but try it for a change. Both of these reporters are and have been dems. Tiabbi voted for gore, he voted for Kerry, he voted for Obama. Haven’t heard this one but id bet he voted for Clinton. It wasn’t them that changed. It was the looney lefty dems who decided that government censorship was fine. That freedom of speech wasn’t really in the first amendment.

If I sat down with these two reporters we would align philosophicaly on virtually nothing ….except that government censorship is evil and freedom of speech is virtually inviolable.

So when you talk about these guys next time try to be a little truthful….just a little bit.

Take your meds KFX, you’re delusional. And then don’t bother talking to me again because I won’t reply… don’t need another nazi ban.

Here's what I realize. There is a lot of waste in government spending that needs to be addressed. I also realize what it is they have decided to target first and how they targeted it.

USAID provides aid and medicine to starving children around the globe. I'm all for cutting out the waste but what they did was cut off the entire hand because a finger was infected. Next it was inspector generals who oversee that abuse in government is overseen. Next it was the consumer protection agency that helps protect citizens from being abused by big business. Now they're moving on to the department of education which will do away with any set standard across the county for educating our children. Sadly this will hurt poor red states more than anyone.

Whether you're a "life long dem" or a "life long Republican" doing away with the people that feed the poor, oversee abuse in government or protect every day consumers we should all be worried.

Government censorship like this? Like throwing a tantrum because the AP won't call it The Gulf of America?......

White House says it has the right to punish AP reporters over Gulf naming dispute

https://apnews.com/article/ap-white-house-gulf-name-dispute-3f43c519a4b4f4661dd0831421943ef7

Lol!! Caught lying ….again. And he throws a little hissy fit. Takes us ball and goes home. Find somebody to cry on their shoulder. lol

It’s not what you say that turns me away, it’s the cheeto toned stain around your mouth.

No, government censorship like meeting with social media and telling them to prevent certain people from posting information because it does not comply with government orthodoxy. Throwing a “tantrum “ about something being published is not censorship.

Brief history tutorial here. Government saying they do not like what was printed/said is not censorship. Using government to keep it from being printed/said is censorship.

You lefties have lost your way.

Yes, we should all want people spreading lies that cause people to die. Murica! Freedumb!

Don't worry, you got your "MPGA = Make Polio Great Again guy in there now. Lies will now be government policy. Enjoy.

Right!! Except that the “lies” that were censored turned out to be true, and the “truth” that the Feds wanted published turned out to be lies. I get it, that doesn’t bother you but it does me.

Sure they did. Only in trumplandia.

To be fair, the correct path of reducing govt spending will take you through Congress... which is 100% of the root cause of the problem. Radical action is necessary in order to rein in spending... especially if you want to accomplish that over just one pres term.

Electing a guy that has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of this process after he is the largest campaign contributor definitely ain't it, though.