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DOGE Subcommittee is Loaded for Bear
Every day that passes offers new credibility and excitement for the public if they are following the new Department of Government Efficiency. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are championing the cause. Even better, we are learning more about the plans for the Department:
Leaders on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced plans this week to form a DOGE subcommittee in the next Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) will serve as the subcommittee’s chairwoman.
The formation of the new subcommittee ensures that the activities of DOGE will not only get a great deal of attention, but its activities will be transparent to the public.
Although having Marjorie Taylor Green as the subcommittee chair may raise some questions due to her reputation as a rabble-rouser, she may be just the thorn to stick in the side of the other members to keep them on task:
‘No topic will be off the table,’ she said. ‘The goal of DOGE is to bring accountability and GUT useless government agencies.’
Greene said she expects the subcommittee’s work ‘will expose people who need to be fired.’
‘The bureaucrats who don’t do their job, fail audits like in the Pentagon and don’t know where billions of dollars are going, will be getting a pink slip,’ Greene said. ‘Chairman [James] Comer and I are focused on delivering the mandate voters sent on Nov. 5th, and I can’t wait to get to work.’
Given her focus on pink slips, the question has come up about firing employees. But in his first term, President Trump was in the process of creating a new employment classification:
The executive order Trump signed in October 2020 made it possible for agencies to reclassify certain career federal workers in policy-related roles to a new “Schedule F” category of employment. If the order had been fully implemented, any employees moved into the new Schedule F classification would have seen their civil service protections removed, making them at-will employees and giving agencies much more flexibility to fire them.
But because Trump signed the order just a few weeks before the November 2020 election, the policy didn’t see much light of day. President Joe Biden, after winning the election, revoked the Schedule F executive order during his first month in office.
The reappearance of a policy similar to Schedule F is likely, but it would look different in a second Trump term. Robert Shea, a former associate director at the Office of Management and Budget during the George W. Bush administration, said a main distinction would be its arrival at the beginning, rather than the end, of the term.
Of course, we can count on the naysayers who will condemn the DOGE actions:
Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), however, criticized the GOP-led committee’s plans for the new subcommittee.
Greene ‘will chair a subcommittee to work with two unvetted billionaires who stand to receive billions more in government contracts and subsidies from the government under Trump,’ Raskin said. ‘That’s why Democrats will stay focused on waste, fraud, abuse and corruption. The government belongs to the people, not the billionaire oligarchs.’
One can only shake one’s head in wonder at the audacity of Jamie Raskin.
My hope is that this subcommittee, teaming with DOGE, will closely engage some key legislators who will energetically promote and celebrate the accomplishments of DOGE, keep the public abreast of their work, and help bring common sense to the management of government.
Published in Domestic Policy
Yes, of course it will. Just like it followed the money through the various Biden shell corporations, right Jamie?
I posted this on X and Facebook:
“And all we are getting is another day older and deeper in debt. How much deeper in debt? 36 trillion dollars deep; 36 thousand billion dollars deep. (For context, we “only” spend about 900 billion dollars annually on defense.) We are the brokest nation in the history of broke nations and our current path is both reckless and unsustainable. It is time for change; real, substantive change; and a Department of Government Efficiency is a very good place to start.“
I join every American who wants a smaller yet more efficient government.
The fact that the Pentagon has no idea where over 800 million dollars has gone is a matter worthy of intense scrutiny. Then when Assistant Defense Secretary Hicks attempts to whitewash the matter by stating that the in’s and out’s of different divisions within the DoD are simply to complex for a determination of where monies have gone, it’s easy to see that something needs to be done.
However, my fear is that with Elon, who reigns supreme as the Ultimate Big Tech, AI God Above All Else, now in charge of DOGE and with millions of “tech savvy” syncophants chanting “AI! AI!,” we could end up with a much worse predicament than what we face now.
One example: Right now, if the IRS is concerned about my 1040 for 2023, they send a letter. I can address the matter & once I get thru a minor phone menu, I talk to a human being. This is a good feature. So I hope to heaven and back that human contact at various agencies like the VA, MediCare and Social Security will not be replaced with Elon’s patented version of AI.
Here is where my concerns come from: Currently AI is ruining my interactions with other businesses. Triple A here in Calif recently got rid of having people immediately answer a call for roadside assistance. So I am at a truck stop, phone in hand, trying to hear a menu but background noises made it almost impossible to hear the menu choices. Whoever set up the AI program forgot to think about the real life conditions people face when trying to attempt this. It took me 20 minutes before I got through to a real person, as opposed to a wait time of ~4 minutes prior to this change.
Meanwhile I have received a non-requested package from my health insurer. Out of “courtesy and consideration” they have sent a small kit with enclosed butt swab tool so that someone in the household can provide a way for the colon cancer people to decide if I or my spouse have colon cancer. (Where is scatalogical comic Ali Wong when I need her?)
Within a day of that package, an AI generated automated phone message begins to contact us. Even pushing my phone volume control to its highest limit, I can’t make out what is being said. I’m not sure if it is a scam related to some “e-check” service or if it is about the health care package. The recorded voice speaks too rapidly and too softly. In any event, at the end of the message I am given a phone number to call. Except it is not possible to make out the first two digits of the area code.
Days later, I find that this caller has left one message on our machine but despite repeatedly playing back the message, I can’t make out the area code.
One thing this shows me is that in the rush to eliminate “inefficient, costly warm bodies” the companies doing this do not even bother to field test their AI substitutes to see if the new-fangled method helps out us consumers or is actually a total fail.
I notice how often Elon is glib about his impressive level of genius abilities. He also made a statement recently that people with high IQ’s know what the end of any speaker’s final words in a sentence happen to be before the speaker has spoken them. So he knows he doesn’t need to listen to the full statement.
It’s no wonder that given that attitude, despite possessing the genius IQ that he has, he has failed at marriage and with at least one of his adult children. Hopefully someone working with him at DOGE will be able to refine his thinking on the way forward before that way forward becomes a way backwards!
I find that most of the time, the number I’m given to call is the number the call came from. So I can just look at the Caller ID, or simply press the button to “dial” that number.
The calls to the house come over a land line, as is true for many residents in my rural community. We just don’t get clear cell reception due to hills surrounding us.
Yes, And? My land line phone has Caller ID.
You may not know that Musk left another AI company because they weren’t concerned about the invasive aspect of AI on humans, and Musk felt committed to making sure that AI didn’t take over our lives. That’s why he started his own company.
I haven’t found him to be glib. I think he does take it for granted, just like you or I take for granted our intelligence and communication skills. Also, I find myself often completing the sentences of others. It’s an impolite habit, so I try to remember to keep it to myself. And I do listen to all that the person says, since I could be wrong!
The proof, as they say, will be in the pudding. The problem is that once AI is fully embedded in too many aspects of a company or a government agency, there most likely will be no turning back.
People point to Musk’s success with “X” after he got rid of an entire group of employees. I don’t remember if it was half the work force there or a third. Yet the social media platform continues to thrive.
However some people are saying algorithms that should not be in place, if the platform is about free speech, still do affect their posts’ visibility.
Cynic that I am, I feel my posts there, as well as everyone else’s, are used to develop his AI.
It also is of interest that the new algorithms he let be developed there have let him know his posts are offensive!!
I think it was on a Donahue show, he had George Will on, and Phil or someone in the audience kept interrupting Will, until he said (more or less) “you should let me finish my sentences, because I’m an expert on where they’re going.”
Musk got rid of something like 80% of the staff at Twitter, mostly women who were involved with censoring people etc.
FTFY
I think I’d prefer just smaller. I don’t want the government to do everything – or even most of the things – it does today. Even for a fraction of the price.
Public goods only. 0% or lower inflation.
Medicare and Social Security are disasters and they aren’t public goods.
I wish the pentagon was at 7% GDP.
Government Is How We Steal From Each Other™
I expect to hear overwhelming and frequent support from the Republicans for this process, even if it’s not perfect. They will need to show that support to counteract the resistance of the Dems, who will probably fight every single cut.
I think Trump’s selection of Chavez-Demerer as Labor Secretary undermines this effort: If pink slips are expected, then putting somone in charge of who wants to strengthen public sector unions is going to run counter to that.
My problem with Marjorie Taylor Greene is not with her being a rabble-rouser; it’s that she comes off as being dumb as a brick.
Hate Radio is really down on this pick and they have a lot of reasons. It’s pretty strange that she snuck in.
Hopefully Comer will offset her actions.
The rather odious Jaime Raskin represents MD-8th whose regional economy is probably largely based on waste, fraud and corruption. Beaucoup lawyers, lobbyists and government contractors in the uber-wealthy southwest of the district with a lot of rank-and-file govt employees to the east and north. Even if the funds went to other parts of the country, somebody in MD-8th probably got a slice on their the way out the door. Fighting DOGE will now be Raskin’s main purpose in life.
Huge fight to change civil service laws, lots of litigation to stall and reverse with careful selection of Obama and Biden appointed judges, and lots of maneuvers to try to injure regular folks and blame it on the cuts. I am glad it is happening but I am not yet confident that the GOP has the stomach for this fight. It will be important to keep the House (Senate looks pretty solid on 2026) to continue this fight for the duration.
The fact that Randi Weingarten likes the pick is not a good sign. The Democrats will love her, and I’ll bet she gets more Democrats voting for her than Republicans. Unfortunately, she’ll probably get a few Republican votes as well – the usual suspects. My hope is that other people in the Trump world raise so much of a stink that Trump encourages her to exit.
What I don’t understand is this: we were told over and over by Trump enthusiasts that he was stabbed in the back during his first term by people who did not share his vision. Well, does Chavez-Demerer share his vision? She wants to force right-to-work states to unionize. She opposes school choice (which is probably why Randi Weingarten likes the pick). She wants to strengthen public sector unions. She is for federal employees having the right to strike. How is this not a pick that works against his vision and his other picks? Does he want to get the government off the neck of the US economy or not?
I couldn’t agree with you more, Jean. I don’t know his rationale, but we can hope he has a moment of enlightenment!
I just heard something that’s pretty funny and it’s pretty close to true. The United States government is an insurance company with a military.
All of this should have been done the second the Soviet Union fell.
Then we spent the prosperity thingy that I can’t think of the name of.
Then we started trading with the Chinese mafia so they can have a great big military.
The Ruling Class in this country has been worthless and selfish ever since World War II got over.
Public goods only.
Deflation all of the time, because that’s what economics does. Trade and automation.
Don’t give anything to the Chinese mafia, except fossil fuels, and food. Import deflation from somebody else.
“Peace Dividend.”
The problem is not people who don’t share one’s vision, per se. That can actually be a positive, for it provides the opportunity to hear counterarguments. Much better than an echo-chamber.
The problem is people who, having had the opportunity to present their opposing views to their boss, take it upon themselves to sabotage the boss’s decision when it conflicts with their views.
It looks like Trump has learned that hard lesson, and is intent on putting together an administration composed of non-back stabbers.
The first task needs to be a pithy “proper role of government” statement against which all departmental activities are measured. Otherwise it will seem like cherry-picking which never amounts to much.
You’re right! I hadn’t thought about that. If no criteria is identified, everyone will feel they are being singled out.
Public goods only. It has a definition.
The Fed stops pushing the economy around and just backs up the fractional reserve system at a penalty rate.
Medicare and Social Security are theft at this point.
On the other hand, you could probably get more people to agree to, say, abolition of the Department of Education, than any one single meaningful “proper role of government” statement.
Public goods are what is ridiculous to privatize.
The question then becomes, at what level should a particular “public good” be produced? Federal, or state/local?
And who decides? etc.