DOGE cuts - where to start?

[HankB]

I'm old enough to remember a couple of "government shut downs" as far back as the Clinton Administration. What sticks out most in my mind is that in every instance, if not for hysterical news coverage - I WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED.

Well, that's almost true - a person I know had to modify his family's vacation plans because national parks were closed, but other than that - nada. Social security checks kept going out (so did welfare.  ), the military stayed on duty, mail was delivered - the essential stuff. But, by and large, MOST people outside of government weren't affected, and few missed what was shut down. Some MIGHT be missed if the shut down lasted longer - but I suspect an awful lot could go away permanently with nobody else noticing.

Maybe reviewing what was missed and what wasn't missed is a good place to start. Along with whoever gets designated "non essential" when shut downs occur.

[MechAg94]

I'm old enough to remember a couple of "government shut downs" as far back as the Clinton Administration. What sticks out most in my mind is that in every instance, if not for hysterical news coverage - I WOULDN'T HAVE NOTICED.

Well, that's almost true - a person I know had to modify his family's vacation plans because national parks were closed, but other than that - nada. Social security checks kept going out (so did welfare.  ), the military stayed on duty, mail was delivered - the essential stuff. But, by and large, MOST people outside of government weren't affected, and few missed what was shut down. Some MIGHT be missed if the shut down lasted longer - but I suspect an awful lot could go away permanently with nobody else noticing.

Maybe reviewing what was missed and what wasn't missed is a good place to start. Along with whoever gets designated "non essential" when shut downs occur.

In the recent past, they deliberate shutdown specific things precisely to get attention.  Because they know quite a bit of it would not be missed. 

[AmbulanceDriver]

From: https://thelawdogfiles.com/2006/11/old-political-humour.html

I wrote this bit back in 2001 after being challenged as to what I would do if I were elected President.

I think it’s probably time for a bit of political humour to leaven the doom-and-gloom, so I dusted it off and updated it a bit.

Enjoy!

What would I do if I were elected as President?

First thing, right after the swearing-in, I’d write my first, last and only Executive Order — nullifying any and all previous Executive Orders issued by any President.

Which would result in the historical, first truly bi-partisan Congress — Democrats and Republicans united together against anything President ‘Dog would try to do from that point on.

Second, I’d call the head of each office which reports to the Executive Branch and tell them to send me a memo detailing where, exactly, in the Constitution their offices are authorized.

In the rare instance that the office is actually authorized by the Constitution, I’d request a set of reasons and examples of why that particular person should keep his or her job.

Said memo should be on my desk by noon that day. Resignations would be freely accepted in lieu of the memos.

Democrats and Republicans would set a record for filing impeachment measures.

After lunch, I’d give a press conference and announce that each and every bill to cross my desk would detail exactly where the Constitutional authorization for that bill is located. Any bill without such accompanying authorization would be immediately vetoed — no matter what the topic of the bill. Any bill mentioning the Interstate Commerce Clause would be automatically vetoed without even a reading.

67% percent of the Senate would immediately crater my vetos.

The Media would turn my name into a synonym for Stalin, George III and Pol Pot.

I’d follow up by ordering the Attorney General to bring a copy of any and all tax records concerning the UN building and UN personnel to my office. Along with a copy of Kelo v. New London.

People in major urban areas would riot.

I’d spend the evening tearing out the White House swimming pool and installing a gun range.

The next morning, Congress would issue a joint condemnation of my first day in office and the Media would hint broadly at lynch mobs.

While they were doing this, my Attorney General would be filing eminent domain proceedings against the UN.

Since I like to copper my bets, I’d draw an advance on my first months paycheck, buy a truckload of dynamite and order the Commandant of the Marine Corp to de-infestate the UN building.

While the Marines are chucking UN politicos off the pier, I’d be personally setting charges in the UN basement.

At lunchtime, I’d have a cheeseburger and fries and watch the UN building go up like a Roman candle.

John Kerry would issue a press release calling my sanity into question and offering to be President pro tem until mental health professionals could examine President Dog.

Letting the power go to my head, I’d invite Scarlett Johannson to the White House and offer to show her my guns if she’d show me hers.

Getting thoroughly shot down by pro-Democrat Miss Johansson, I’d go down to the DC PD, and inform the Chief of Police that no anti-gun laws would be enforced in the District of Columbia. Then I’d have the Secret Service break his knees until he saw the light, and I got over my heartbreak.

CNN would issue me my very own background graphic, complete with catchy tune.

The next morning I’d read about two of the new bills to cross my desk, set fire to the rest of them, load up a shotgun and two 1911’s, head over to Congress and offer to shoot the next sumbitch who authors another blatantly unConstitutional bill.

Afterwards, I’d break ground and dedicate the President LawDog Free Trade Port — coincidentally located on the spot formerly occupied by the UN building.

The Media would go into a collective fit of apoplexy, the President of France would faint and I’d have more shrieking harpies on the front lawn than camels got fleas.

The afternoon of Day Three of The LawDog Presidency, I’d call a press conference/skeet shoot in the Rose Garden. I foresee it going something like this:

“Mr. President! Mr. President! What gives you the right to veto bills that contradict the Constitution?!”

“Pull!”

BAM! “Aiii-iiiieeeee!”

“Quitcherwhining. Stupidity is supposed to hurt. Didn’t even break the skin. Much. Next question?”

I anticipate a short conference.

That evening I’ll amuse myself by sending a novelty rubber check and a hangman’s noose to each member of Congress — just to get their minds properly focused.

I figure by 0900 on Day Four, I’ll be hot-wiring the Presidential Yacht about 20 minutes ahead of a rampaging patchouli-and-hemp-wearing torch-waving mob. My last act as POTUS will probably be shaking my fist at Washington, D.C. from the stern of the afore-mentioned rapidly-departing yacht whilst bellowing: “You didn’t deserve me!”

Oh, well.

LawDog

[Northwoods]

Regards DOGE, I doubt they'll have authority to actually do much, but can make recommendations to DJT.  My hope is they can A) ferret out the few agencies that should be retained, allowing Trump to close the rest, and B) figure out the % of workers actually needed at whatever agencies remain.  If (IF) it goes the way it should wed probably see 70-80% of agencies eliminated altogether, and staffing at the remainder drop by 50-80% as well, for a total head count reduction of at least 80%, and an ability to sell off 80-90% or so of federal buildings.

Things like DoD, courts, probably SS, some regulatory bodies would remain, but with staffing much reduced.

[cordex]

If (IF) it goes the way it should wed probably see 70-80% of agencies eliminated altogether, and staffing at the remainder drop by 50-80% as well, for a total head count reduction of at least 80%, and an ability to sell off 80-90% or so of federal buildings.

I'd love to be wrong, but I bet any firing is less than 1%.

[Northwoods]

I'd love to be wrong, but I bet any firing is less than 1%.

Hey, don't wreck my fantasy!

[WLJ]

What % could you fire before the rest of the country outside of DC even starts to notice? I know it's going to deffer depending what agency but 50%?

[Ben]

I'd love to be wrong, but I bet any firing is less than 1%.

I'm betting a lot of it will be no new FTEs and no backfilling/killing vacant FTEs.

People are focusing too much on personnel, IMO. There's a whole bunch of stuff you could cut before cutting a lot of people. There's a lot of stuff like "educational programs" various offices do where it's a $100K/yr FTE slot, but $1 million annual budget for nonsense that could be done on a web page.

Though I would expect that "get out of your pajamas and back to the office" will have a lot of FTEs who were hired from just prior to covid until now leaving on their own. I'm still in touch with people who are even now on the "one day a month in the office" schedule, and even they are talking about taking early outs because though they used to have to show up every day, they have become too comfortable with staying at home with little oversight on their actual production. There are a bunch of newer FTEs who have never known anything else but telework.

[cordex]

What % could you fire before the rest of the country outside of DC even starts to notice? I know it's going to deffer depending what agency but 50%?

There are two ways to look at that.

How many could you fire before you organically noticed?  If you selected carefully, I bet you could get it into the 70% range for most of us.  I simply don't have regular interactions with feds

On the other side, if a single Fed loses their job to DOGE, we will all know about it because about 150 microphones will be shoved in their face by sympathetic interviewers and you will be told endlessly how terrible it is that a government employee lost their job.

[WLJ]

Not just the number of employees that needs to be cut

Square profile picture
Department of Government Efficiency
@DOGE
Federal government agencies are using, on average, just 12% of the space in their DC headquarters.  The Department of Agriculture, with space for more than 7,400 people, averaged 456 workers each day (6% occupancy).

Why are American taxpayer dollars being spent to maintain empty buildings?

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
Your tax dollars [not] at work

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1859469143092699434

[Northwoods]

Not just the number of employees that needs to be cut
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1859469143092699434

Hence why i mentioned selling off federal buildings.

[WLJ]

Hence why i mentioned selling off federal buildings.

Missed it.
Who would buy them? Highly doubt DC has a need for that much office space.
Could turn them into homeless shelters, they may need a bunch soon.

[Northwoods]

Missed it.
Who would buy them? Highly doubt DC has a need for that much office space.
Could turn them into homeless shelters, they may need a bunch soon.

Don't care.  They could literally give them away, or demolish them.  Just not maintaining, heating/cooling, etc all that space would save a noticeable amount.

[HankB]

In times of budget shut downs and extreme weather events, they often tell "non-essential" workers to stay home or shelter in place. If they're employing "non-essential" workers, maybe - just maybe - a lot of them shouldn't be on the government payroll at all.

As for government agencies, here's a list:  https://www.usa.gov/agency-index

Bet most of us could find a lot of agencies to zero out. 

[Bogie]

Move anything farm related to Ohio or Indiana.
 
Mining? Kentucky.

BLM? They gonna get bored...
 
Transportation? Atlanta

[MechAg94]

There are probably a lot of DoD generals and officials could be cut.  The generals might even get discharged with no pension, but I sort of doubt that.


DoD Inspector General Concealed January 6 Evidence
https://cha.house.gov/2024/11/dod-inspector-general-concealed-january-6-evidence

WASHINGTON - Today, the Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight Chairman Barry Loudermilk (GA-11) sent a letter to Department of Defense (DoD) Inspector General (IG) Robert Storch, demanding a correction of the DoD's factually inaccurate January 6 report, as first reported by The Federalist.

After a thorough investigation, the Subcommittee uncovered evidence substantiating that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed the deployment of the D.C. National Guard to the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In addition, the DoD IG concealed the extent and cause of the delay to protect Department of Defense and Pentagon leadership. The Subcommittee found multiple instances where the DoD IG failed to disclose evidence that contradicted the DoD IG's erroneous conclusion.

[WLJ]

https://x.com/TiffanyFong_/status/1860380490374566031

[Northwoods]

Those grants do highlight the stupidity of the government. But, eliminate all of them, it's probably still a round off error level of spending.

[WLJ]

Those grants do highlight the stupidity of the government. But, eliminate all of them, it's probably still a round off error level of spending.

After a few thousand such things it adds up

[Northwoods]

After a few thousand such things it adds up

They should be cut.  But the real problem in entitlements.

[WLJ]

They should be cut.  But the real problem in entitlements.

Never said otherwise.

[Ben]

After a few thousand such things it adds up

And there are literally thousands.

A suggesting to DOGE: Don't use Heritage Foundation stats. While they are likely accurate, there will be a ton more pushback because of the Heritage/2025 thing. No need to make the efficiency cuts harder to get through than they already will be. Actual fed.gov documents could be directly cited. Unless DOGE is trolling, which is always a possibility.

[WLJ]

How about this

~~datahazard~~
@fentasyl
In 2022, the Federal Government Accountability Office found $247,000,000,000 in improper payments made across 82 programs, including $81B from Medicaid & $47B from Medicare.

That's $250B. In one year. That they know about. And publicly reported.

https://x.com/fentasyl/status/1858755685388841187

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
That is just the tip of the iceberg.

The actual fraud and waste in government spending is much higher.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1858762490714485024

[HankB]

They should be cut.  But the real problem in entitlements.

A suggesting to DOGE: Don't use Heritage Foundation stats. While they are likely accurate, there will be a ton more pushback because of the Heritage/2025 thing. . . .

Interesting juxtaposition. It was the Heritage Foundation which found that as of 2012, spending on welfare - that's UNearned entitlements - exceeded one trillion dollars annually. That did NOT include EARNED benefits like Social Security & Medicare, but it DID include about 80 or so programs - everything from direct payments and food stamps to free "Obama Phones." This is the legacy of LBJ's ""Great Society" spending programs, which - in total - cumulatively added up to a figure pretty close to the national debt. (At least before COVID.)

If I were Emperor, I know where I'd be looking to make cuts. Presidents and legislatures have more of a struggle to achieve fiscal responsibility.

[zahc]

Most government spending is authorized by Congress. Doge is powerless to do anything, really. All show.