And don't forget the 10 trillion in lost war plane sales due to "toning them down in case our allies turn on us', just like he has turned on Canada and Europe.
Well April 2nd is our supposed "national day of prosperity". Which analysts think means he is going to enact global tariffs as well as all the retaliatory tariffs he is planning.
I mean we can just say they aren't about efficiency because they don't research anything before they start making cuts it's simply I don't like USAID let's gut it, I don't like the SSA so let's gut it.
They know what they're doing even if Trump somehow gets the boot we're looking at probably 50 years or more to get back our world position if they don't fuck our economy up so badly it's effectively impossible to comeback.
Effectivity is if you’re even doing the right thing at all.
Not exactly. It's more about whether or not you've accomplished the thing you set out to do, irrespective of resources and irrespective of "right" or "wrong".
So in this case, if DOGE's actual goal is the dismantling of the administrative state (literally spelled out in Project 2025), then I would say that they've been very effective.
They don't seem to care about the efficiency aspect.
MAGA/DOGE were bragging about getting like 100 billion dollars over ten years from tariffs while the US gains ~1.5 trillion dollars every year in income tax revenue.
And/or destabilizing the country's economy and political power worldwide so our enemies like Russia can do whatever they want without the US interfering. The complete destruction of US soft power via things like USAID and the blatant attempts to destroy any collaboration with our allies seems to point more in that direction.
Different groups, different motivations, but they're headed in the same direction more or less so they're working together. Trump is working to install himself as a dictator under orders from Putin. He wants to be for the US what Lukashenko is for Belarus. Ultimately he'll be Putin's puppet but he'll largely have free reign within the US which is the only thing he cares about. He's destroying all the US soft power and doing everything he can to turn all the US allies against it. Domestically he's painting targets on the backs of as many minorities as he can in order to keep the useful idiots that elected him distracted.
Musk meanwhile is working to establish an oligarchy and to steal or destroy as much of the US government as he can manage. Ultimately his goals are fairly transparent as he's motivated entirely by naked greed. Since his efforts hurt US foreign relations as much as the domestic situation he's a useful tool to Trump in his efforts to neuter the US for Putin.
Then you've got the Christian nationalists in the GOP that don't really care about what's going on as long as they're allowed to trample all over the first amendment and declare Christianity as the official US religion with all the associated bigotry and discrimination. Since that plays to Trump's efforts to distract his supporters he's perfectly fine with it, but likely keeping a close eye on that group lest any of them think about usurping his crown, particularly when he still hasn't really gotten to go full dictator yet.
Just like in corporate america, the savings hit this quarter so bonuses all around. Then the CEO jumps ship and it's someone else's problem next quarter.
It's not the quickest though. ROI timeline is 18 years minimum for tax from non-degree level jobs, 22/23 years for degree level, and 26 to 30 years for post doctoral.
It's sad. The quarterly pressure to generate value is one of the worst economic forces of capitalism which drives enshitification, job-instability from the "fire bottom performing 10%" so that you can post more "profits" from cost cutting, and the general short-term thinking that pervades all aspects of the culture.
It's the reason "nobody" builds things to last or metaphorically plants something now for the future: it's not profitable quick enough.
Totally agree. Was talking to my brother who worked for the US Corps of Engineers. He said they have a decades long outlook for their projects. So if they want to remove a dam or something, studies are done to make sure that is the smartest move not just for the next few years, but the next several decades.
So refreshing vs the typical "new CEO wants to fire x% of the workforce to generate 1% more profit this year (ignore the fact that customers will leave when it's that much shittier here... That's next year's (and next Ceo's) problem)".
That's what is so sad to see - whole lotta young dumbasses with the same kind of short-term thinking dunking on "boomers" and things like Social Security. As well as unions, the post office, and public schools. Even worse when the framing of it is accompanied with some blather about "my generation" and so on, yadda yadda.
They are probably so filled with Dunning-Kruger that it hasn't even occurred to them that prior "generations" were told the exact same hokum and that their "generation" is not magically any different....
The Post reports today that the IRS’s internal projections estimate that the DOGE-driven disruptions to the IRS since the inauguration are on track to have reduced tax receipts by more than $500 billion by April 15th. This, to be clear, is not a final tally. It’s not April 15th yet. It’s a projection based on historical data, the number of people who’ve filed, paid owed amounts of tax etc.
For every dollar spent on IRS staffing, etc, it's estimated to be at least a 7x return. Any disruptions are going to cost a lot with that in mind. Also, I find it a little misguided to question the IRS, an agency that shows its work's opinion on DOGE, an "agency?" Which has failed to show its work and has been caught lying frequently.
I think we should organize and go demand everyone working for DOGE... stop. And not demand like with funny signs and chants, but like with 2nd amendment arms.
Incorrect. By law that money is owed to the government as taxes. Doge hasn't changed that. They have only ensured they don't have the staff to collect.