DOGE, The Money Pit

Money pit a term we all use from time to time but do we have a good grasp on the definition?  If not I can help….

Money pit….A massive non stop waste of money that you regret severely in hind sight

I would say that explains this whole stupidity of the DOGE.

Billionaire CEO and White House advisor Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has amassed roughly 30 staffers with the goal of slashing the US government’s budget.

As it’s targeted president Donald Trump’s number one bogeyman — diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) — something ironic is happening: even as it’s trying to cut costs across the government, the so-called department’s expenses are ballooning.

As Business Insider reports, DOGE’s spending more than doubled from $6.75 million to $14.4 million between January 30 and February 8, according to its latest financial filings.

While that’s still quite a bit less than the roughly $60 million the Biden administration set aside for the United States Digital Services last year — the department was reincarnated as DOGE — it’s nonetheless a sign that Musk is quickly racking up bills, despite employing underqualified high school grads, drug sellers, and racist shitposters.

Meanwhile, according to DOGE’s dubious back-of-the-envelope accounting, the department is purportedly saving the government “approx. $1 billion/day.”

“A good start, though this number needs to increase to > $3 billion/day,” DOGE’s official X account tweeted late last month.

DOGE has gloated about canceling government subscriptions to news outlets and consulting contracts related to “executive coaching.”

But considering the mountain of legal complaints filed against the nascent entity, DOGE will likely have some much steeper bills to pay in the upcoming months and possibly years.

In just a matter of weeks, Musk’s group of young lackeys — who have torn through sensitive data at lightning speeds without the necessary clearances — have already amassed a litany of lawsuits from district judges, religious groups, teachers’ unions, federal worker unions, the American Foreign Service Association,  and 22 attorneys general, to name a few.

And as plenty of experts have since pointed out, DOGE’s indiscriminate combing through sensitive data is likely illegal.

Who will foot the bill for the ensuing legal challenges remains to be seen. Besides, we’ve already seen the Trump administration bristle at the legal blowback, with Trump accusing judges of “intolerable judicial overreach.” If the judicial system will survive Musk’s coup is also a hotly contested subject these days; Congress, meanwhile, has mostly sat on the sidelines.

Apart from ballooning expenses, DOGE at least won’t have to give the richest man in the world a paycheck, as BI points out, since he’s a “special government employee.”

(futurism.com)

The whole idea of giving this tool Elmo unlimited power is stupid….but then look who is allowing it.

As Elon Musk stood beside him, President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday that gives Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency group control over hiring and firing at federal agencies. Six takes on what that means:

  • Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo: “I don’t think it’s too much to say that it puts Musk functionally in control of the US government,” he writes, noting that “political commissars” will be assigned to each federal agency and given control over hiring and firing, with a requirement that for every four people who are let go, only one person can be hired. “We’re in dystopian quasi-science fiction territory here,” Marshall concludes.

Rex Huppke, USA Today: He likewise calls Musk the nation’s “most powerful person” and “de facto president”—an “unelected rich snot” who is “demolishing the federal government, probably illegally” and “acting downright gleeful about thousands upon thousands of Americans losing their jobs.” “It is vile, bordering on sadism,” Huppke writes. “Losing a job is a catastrophe for most families. It’s not a damn joke.”

  • Tressie McMillan Cottom, New York Times: Musk wants to dismantle and “demoralize” the federal government, she writes, noting his “narration of power as a vicarious gamelike experience of dominance” is “a skilled manipulation of content in a content-saturated culture” that “obscures what is actually happening.” Look beyond his exuberant tweets and you’ll see “a strategic takeover of national interests that will demolish the state’s functionality in a way that benefits the ones swinging the hammer.”
  • Nicole Russell, USA Today: Taxpayers should be celebrating these efforts “to bring financial responsibility to the federal government,” she writes, noting that as a parent, she’d love to know why $268 billion in annual education funding hasn’t delivered “a better return on our investment.” She believes Trump when he says billions of dollars in waste and fraud will be found and argues the hunt “is exactly what Americans want.”
  • Cal Thomas, Tribune Content Agency: Indeed, Trump promised to downsize government, and now he’s following through on that promise, writes Thomas. He compares Musk’s moves to “spring cleaning,” the eliminating of “wasteful, fraudulent, and, in many cases, unnecessary and duplicative programs” that came from bureaucrats and regulators who, like Musk, weren’t elected by the people. And “sometimes it takes a chainsaw, instead of a scalpel, to get a job done.”

I like the term ‘president de facto’ when describing Elmo.

Nothing about this unit impresses me….it will in the end go down as a colossal waste of time and money.

Whatcha think?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Elmo And The Constitution

I think most Americans are familiar with the Constitution….that document that established this country’s laws by which we are all so proud.

Then along came Elmo and his band of mini thugs in DOGE….somewhere along the way to his ascension the Constitution became a thing to destroy….

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is moving fast and breaking the law — lots of laws.

The scope of Trump and Musk’s sweeping effort to purge the federal workforce and slash government spending has shocked the political world — in part for its ambition, but also in part because of its disregard for the law.

David Super, an administrative law professor at Georgetown Law School, recently told the Washington Post that so many of Musk’s moves were “so wildly illegal” that he seemed to be “playing a quantity game, and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.”

I reached out to Super so he could walk through this quantity game — so he could take me on a tour of all of the apparent lawbreaking in Musk’s effort so far. A transcript of our conversation, condensed and edited for clarity, follows.

https://www.vox.com/politics/398618/elon-musk-doge-illegal-lawbreaking-analysis

Some have strong opinions on the Constitutional aspect of DOGE and what it is attempting….

Some warn that a constitutional crisis is under way, as Mr. Musk and his DOGE team ride roughshod over various statutes governing how the executive branch operates, such as the 1974 Impoundment Control Act, as well as protections for career civil servants. Mr. Trump’s advisers view some of these laws as unconstitutional constraints on the executive, setting up a fight in the courts. 

“This vision of executive power is extremely dangerous,” says Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under former President George W. Bush. 

https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2025/0204/musk-doge-treasury-usaid-congress

My thought is while this group is suppose to save the government money it will be much less so in the near future and this smells of retaliation disguised as cost cutting….an attempt to keep his majesty in the seat of power for as long as possible.

Elmo is nothing more than a tool Trump needs to strip all protections from the way government does things….and the people will pay the hefty price for all this silliness.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The “DOGE”

That sounds like some creature from D&D….but it is a new term for the Trump admin of a couple of dudes that will suggest where to cut payrolls and what to keep…..a bit much in my opinion.

The group is lead by Musk and the V-Man, who was decided to bow out of DC to run for office….

The Department of Government Efficiency has already cut one position. Co-chief Vivek Ramaswamy has left President Trump’s startup, intended to reduce federal spending, to kick off a campaign next week for governor of Ohio, NBC News reports. A spokesperson for the initiative thanked him for his contribution in its first two months. “Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE,” Anna Kelly said in a statement Monday. “He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE.” That leaves Elon Musk alone at the top. Just Monday morning, Ramaswamy had posted a photo of himself and Musk on X with the message, “A new dawn.”

With the V-Man gone that leaves Musk, the nazi saluting d/bag in charge of this office…..

What are the plans of this governmental agency?

While the U.S. Senate on Wednesday held confirmation hearings for several of President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees, the watchdog Public Citizen sounded the alarm about a new commission and its billionaire leaders, who don’t require congressional oversight but could significantly impact federal agencies, regulations, and spending.

Despite being called the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE is not a government department. It is a presidential advisory commission that Trump announced after his November win. He has asked billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to co-lead it.

Public Citizen co-presidents Lisa Gilbert and Robert Weissman on Monday wrote to Trump’s transition team, asking to join DOGE. While their group has concerns about the commission’s “structure and mission,” including potential conflicts of interest regarding Musk and Ramaswamy’s financials, the watchdog leaders made the case that they could serve “as voices for the interests of consumers and the public who are the beneficiaries of federal regulatory and spending programs.”

The pair highlighted that their appointment “would be an important step towards compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act,” and outlined some ideas they have “to slash drug prices, end privatized Medicare, reduce the wasteful Pentagon budget.”

Weissman expanded on the group’s recommendations in a Wednesday report titled DOGE Delusions: A Real-World Plan to Reject Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Misguided Agenda, Crack Down on Corporate Handouts, Tax the Rich, and Invest for the Future.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/doge

While I agree that there is way too much waste in DC….I am not convinced that Musk is the right person to lead the charge to curtail this waste.

This will be interesting to see what DOGE comes up with as policy…..I am not optimistic.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”