Government Efficiency (2 Viewers)

[RobF]

I think this topic deserves its own thread, both to discuss generally the topic of government efficiency, and specifically the so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' and the incoming Trump administration's aims to "dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal Agencies".

The announcements have been covered in the The Trump Cabinet and key post thread, but to recap, Trump has announced that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will work together on a not-actually-an-official-government-Department of Government Efficiency, which is intended to work with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to "drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before," with the 'Department' to conclude its work "no later than July 4, 2026."

Musk has previously said that the federal budget could be reduced by "at least $2 trillion", and Ramaswarmy, during his presidential campaign, said he would fire more than 75% of the federal work force and disband agencies including the Department of Education and the FBI.

 

[SFIDC3]

I understand that we have strong statutory guard rails. I'm holding on to that thin thread of hope because thats all we have left. But we are talking about people who view the law as speed bumps. They don't hold any particular core uncompromising ideology.

We have laws against foreign entities contributing to government officials, yet we had that DC hotel. Egypt brazenly withdrawing us dollars from a bank and handing it to trump's people in 100 lb bags. That's only the surface.

And I don't think he will go forth w mass detention for immigrants or cutting 75% of the bureaucracy. These are merely sleight of hand to distract. If we are to learn from those eastern European countries, the path first is corruption. The bureaucracy and then the courts are much longer term processes.

The media companies would fall next after corruption.

Yup, I feel the same way. The fact that Trump has been able to get away with so much for so long gives me very little faith that the guardrails with hold....we will see, soon enough....

 

[coldseat]

Yup, I feel the same way. The fact that Trump has been able to get away with so much for so long gives me very little faith that the guardrails with hold....we will see, soon enough....

The guardrails have already failed. The people are supposed to be the last and final guardrail and they just elected the authoritarian criminal back into office.

Also, every legal entity that was supposed to hold the criminal responsible, let him of the hook. What guardrails???

 

[MT15]

 

[J-DONK]

Can I make a prediction on all of this?

The senate is where all this crap will die. A Republican senator who just got elected/re-elected would be insane to vote for any of these social safety net cuts. Trump, and by proxy Elon will be long gone when they are up for re-election.

 

[MT15]

I hope so, Donk. I hope so, but I’m not resting easy on it.

 

[bird]

I hope so, Donk. I hope so, but I’m not resting easy on it.

Agreed, principally because I am paranoid.

 

[SFIDC3]

The guardrails have already failed. The people are supposed to be the last and final guardrail and they just elected the authoritarian criminal back into office.

Also, every legal entity that was supposed to hold the criminal responsible, let him of the hook. What guardrails???

Statutes, and Repubs concerned with re-election voting against some of the insane bills and such that will be coming their way soon....I mean, to make the insane leaps they are talking about under law should be utterly impossible in a short period of time (4 years), Chuck could give much more detail....

 

[J-DONK]

Statutes, and Repubs concerned with re-election voting against some of the insane bills and such that will be coming their way soon....I mean, to make the insane leaps they are talking about under law should be utterly impossible in a short period of time (4 years), Chuck could give much more detail....

Well the senate already denied Trump his guy for senate leader. They are telegraphing they won't be push overs. All the Republican senators who just won thier elections have no incentive to vote for cuts. Trump won't be around. He will either be dead, or on a golf course.

The only groups that will follow Trump in lock-step: The House, and senators up for re-election in 2026.

 

[SFIDC3]

Well the senate already denied Trump his guy for senate leader. They are telegraphing they won't be push overs. All the Republican senators who just won thier elections have no incentive to vote for cuts. Trump won't be around. He will either be dead, or on a golf course.

The only groups that will follow Trump in lock-step: The House, and senators up for re-election in 2026.

That said, and though I know there are guardrails, I'm far from confident that at least some of them....won't break down....

 

[UriUT]

Every single billionaire he is proposing for his Cabinet only cares about one thing - enriching themselves. They care not one bit about helping ordinary people, in fact there’s evidence they want us to have it worse than we do now. The corruption will be massive. It will damage this country in ways we probably cannot imagine right now. Foreign policy driven by an oligarchy. Same with domestic policy.

We haven’t ever had passports - used to not need them to travel to Canada and Mexico, and we haven’t ever gone to any other countries than those. We ordered them a few weeks ago.

It may not get that bad, but there’s a non-zero chance that it will.

Yup, I feel the same way. The fact that Trump has been able to get away with so much for so long gives me very little faith that the guardrails with hold....we will see, soon enough....

Ramaswamy’s threats to claw back Rivian loan spark criticism of Elon Musk’s DOGE role | CNN Politics

Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk.

www.cnn.com

And we still have more than 200 billion in funds from the infrastructure bill to allocate.

 

[MT15]

Ramaswamy’s threats to claw back Rivian loan spark criticism of Elon Musk’s DOGE role | CNN Politics

Vivek Ramaswamy, the incoming co-chair of President-elect Donald Trump’s commission to cut government spending, has set his sights on money the Biden administration is dispersing in its final days in office, including a key loan to a rival company of his commission co-chair, Elon Musk.

www.cnn.com

And we still have more than 200 billion in funds from the infrastructure bill to allocate.

The corruption will be staggering.

 

[UriUT]

The corruption will be staggering.

"Concerning"

 

[Optimus Prime]

Katie Miller will join the Trump administration’s much-watched non-governmental Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, the president-elect announced on Sunday, where she will join Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in attempting to cut hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal budget.

“She has been a loyal supporter of mine for many years, and will bring her professional experience to Government Efficiency,” Trumpwrote on Truth Social. “Katie is a deeply experienced communications professional respected by all. Congratulations to Stephen and Katie!”

Miller is married to immigration hardliner Stephen Miller, one of the architects of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” family separation policies, who will serve as Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy.

She previously served as press secretary for Vice President Mike Pence.

Musk and Trump have variously described DOGE’s plans as seeking between $500 million and $2 trillion in annual cuts to the federal budget.……

Trump taps Katie Miller, wife of key aide Stephen Miller, for Musk’s DOGE panel

DOGE panel aims to cut at least $500m a year from federal government

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Optimus Prime]

Wasn’t sure where to put this
=====================

Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the leaders of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, blamed a series of 1990s TV sitcoms for what he saw as a decline in U.S. dynamism in science and technology, leading tech companies to hire more qualified foreign-born and first-generation workers over their mentally lazy American counterparts.…..

Vivek Ramaswamy blames 90s sitcoms for tech companies hiring immigrant workers

Trump coalition’s hardline anti-immigrant stance is clashing with concurrent embrace of tech world, often highly diverse

www.independent.co.uk

Full Text:

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our arses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it.

 

[Dragon]

The Asian work ethic that Ramaswamy advocates for, and the immense pressure it places on young people, comes with severe consequences—among them, alarmingly high suicide rates, extreme stress, and even fatalities caused by overwork. Is this truly a model we should aspire to emulate?
Additionally, this mindset tends to prioritize personal achievement over collaboration and teamwork, which are essential skills in today’s increasingly interconnected and cooperative workplaces.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The Asian work ethic that Ramaswamy advocates for, and the immense pressure it places on young people, comes with severe consequences—among them, alarmingly high suicide rates, extreme stress, and even fatalities caused by overwork. Is this truly a model we should aspire to emulate?
Additionally, this mindset tends to prioritize personal achievement over collaboration and teamwork, which are essential skills in today’s increasingly interconnected and cooperative workplaces.

We talked about that in the racism and violence against Asian Americans threads

 

[cuddlemonkey]

Wasn’t sure where to put this
=====================

Vivek Ramaswamy, one of the leaders of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, blamed a series of 1990s TV sitcoms for what he saw as a decline in U.S. dynamism in science and technology, leading tech companies to hire more qualified foreign-born and first-generation workers over their mentally lazy American counterparts.…..

Vivek Ramaswamy blames 90s sitcoms for tech companies hiring immigrant workers

Trump coalition’s hardline anti-immigrant stance is clashing with concurrent embrace of tech world, often highly diverse

www.independent.co.uk

Full Text:

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our arses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it.

Zack (not Zach) Morris scored higher than Screech on the SATs. And Slater had a skill good enough to get a college education. Vivek would know this if he grew up watching TV instead of being a miserable little snot.

 

[superchuck500]

This is a good read

Fake Jobs and Fake Facts

By Misrepresenting Constitutional Law, Muskawamy Prove Brandolini's Law

donmoynihan.substack.com