DOGE Suggestions?

[JohnDB]

Elon is doing some things with his bully pulpit of X....
And we have seen a couple of actions like DEI elimination and other race programs eliminated.

But what about some serious money? (although he claims about $7 billion has been saved currently)

What do you think should be cut in all seriousness.

So far on the chopping block is the Dept of Education.
Dept of Energy
ĤUD

 

[JohnDB]

Here's two....
Red Cross (doing everything except for their charter)

Planned Parenthood
This video explains yet again why this agency is needing to be de-funded.

 

[okfine]

A poll shows only 3 of 10 Americans want DOGE.
I believe most want it shitcanned.

 

[imawhosure]

Elon is doing some things with his bully pulpit of X....
And we have seen a couple of actions like DEI elimination and other race programs eliminated.

But what about some serious money? (although he claims about $7 billion has been saved currently)

What do you think should be cut in all seriousness.

So far on the chopping block is the Dept of Education.
Dept of Energy
ĤUD

We need to streamline our military.

Here's two....
Red Cross (doing everything except for their charter)

Planned Parenthood
This video explains yet again why this agency is needing to be de-funded.

With this I agree. These agencies are boondoggles, and money pits. Red Cross can stay, as long as it is private funded and not taxpayer funded.

 

[imawhosure]

A poll shows only 3 of 10 Americans want DOGE.
I believe most want it shitcanned.

It also shows that only 20 to 25% of the voters wanted J6ers to get pardons.......and yet, the people voted for him in droves over Kamala. Tells you how bad your candidate actually was. They accepted these things after weighing the alternative; so it is NOT on us for putting Trump up, it is on YOU PEOPLE for putting Biden and Mamala up!

 

[Polishprince]

reducing US mail delivery to 3 days a week is a good idea that would save billions. Nowadays, the vast majority of bills are paid electronically and checks are deposited automatically.

 

[TNHarley]

Dept of ed.
Military
Military
Welfare
Foreign aid
Military

 

[hadit]

Elon is doing some things with his bully pulpit of X....
And we have seen a couple of actions like DEI elimination and other race programs eliminated.

But what about some serious money? (although he claims about $7 billion has been saved currently)

What do you think should be cut in all seriousness.

So far on the chopping block is the Dept of Education.
Dept of Energy
ĤUD

At a minimum, every program should be required to justify any budget increases. Baseline budgeting has to go.

 

[Oddball]

Dept of ed.
Military
Military
Welfare
Foreign aid
Military

Pentagon
Dept of Commerce
Dept of Energy
Dept of Labor & EEOC
Pentagon
DHS & TSA
OSHA
PBS & NPR
Pentagon
UN and kick them out of the country
BATF
FEMA
Ovomitcare
Did I mention the Pentagon?

 

[JohnDB]

Pentagon
Dept of Commerce
Dept of Energy
Dept of Labor & EEOC
Pentagon
DHS & TSA
OSHA
PBS & NPR
Pentagon
UN and kick them out of the country
BATF
FEMA
Ovomitcare
Did I mention the Pentagon?

We need military...
BUT
We dont need a billion dollar hammer instead of paying soldiers decent wages. On that I'd agree and Hegseth is supposed to work on that.

Especially in the Navy...we are so short on navy recruitment it's ridiculous.
Rotations are so few and far between that they lose complete contact with home.

A 5 billion dollar drone that I can pick up at Walmart for $50.....needs to be fixed.

Anti drone tech is not that difficult. Every drone has two weak points. Electric motors and signals by fiber optic cable or radio transmission. This isn't that difficult to remedy....but by the way they act you think it is. I'm smelling another boondoggle coming.

 

[Paleman]

A poll shows only 3 of 10 Americans want DOGE.
I believe most want it shitcanned.

I would bet that the 3 who voted for the implementation of DOGE were those working in the private sector. The other 7 are government workers who want to protect their no-show, work-from-home, overpaid, and can not-be-fired jobs. DOGE is a gift from heaven.

 

[kyzr]

DOGE should have a very good handle on cost cutting recommendations.
They can talk to everyone in government and collate their recommendations.
I can say that these are my cost cutting recommendations:
Pocahontas' CFPB
Delete all unnecessary Federal agencies and departments
Cut Foreign Aid in half
Delete department of education
Use the "penny solution" whereby all budget lines are cut by 1% for the next 10-years
Use these "pay-fors" to fund the Trump tax cuts (no tax on OT or tips, etc)
1. A 1% Transaction Tax on all financial transactions (gains about $1T annually, hits computer traders and day traders)
2. A 1% Remittance Tax on all money sent out of the USA (gains $8b annually)
3. Save SS by raising/removing the cap and raising the early retirement age by 1-year for those under 50)

These CATO recommended cuts would save $480b a year:

https://www.cato.org/blog/spending-cuts-2025

So my recommendations plus CATO's would cut the annual deficit by about $1.5T

 

[okfine]

I would bet that the 3 who voted for the implementation of DOGE were those working in the private sector. The other 7 are government workers who want to protect their no-show, work-from-home, overpaid, and can not-be-fired jobs. DOGE is a gift from heaven.

You are oblivious to what 3 of 10 means. But, I bet you are one of the 3. Go figure.

 

[JohnDB]

DOGE should have a very good handle on cost cutting recommendations.
They can talk to everyone in government and collate their recommendations.
I can say that these are my cost cutting recommendations:
Pocahontas' CFPB
Delete all unnecessary Federal agencies and departments
Cut Foreign Aid in half
Delete department of education
Use the "penny solution" whereby all budget lines are cut by 1% for the next 10-years
Use these "pay-fors" to fund the Trump tax cuts (no tax on OT or tips, etc)
1. A 1% Transaction Tax on all financial transactions (gains about $1T annually, hits computer traders and day traders)
2. A 1% Remittance Tax on all money sent out of the USA (gains $8b annually)
3. Save SS by raising/removing the cap and raising the early retirement age by 1-year for those under 50)

These CATO recommended cuts would save $480b a year:

https://www.cato.org/blog/spending-cuts-2025

So my recommendations plus CATO's would cut the annual deficit by about $1.5T

One of Elon's talents is to understand exactly how to analyze labor and productivity in a large corporation.
He has made millions this way.

Making it to where nobody is standing around for lack of something to do or to try and look busy when they aren't.

Many of the bureaucratic agencies have literally created work for themselves out of whole cloth and are engaged in "work" outside their charter. Even hiring consulting firms to assist them in their endeavors.

Where some of this is acceptable...the size and scope are way way beyond what is acceptable as these agencies are all "desperate" for more money to accomplish these projects that are outside their charter. (Children will starve or be uneducated if they don't get more money...or thieves will steal taxpayer money if we don't do....).

This is what primarily Elon is there to discover and study. What departments need what funds. Up to now it's just been left to politicians with no real accountability. (Congress)

So....the detailed audits are coming. And with his huge bully pulpit....it's not going to be pretty. It is anger farming. But I don't think it's going to get much anger....just disgust.

 

[Ace Nova]

You want to cut things out? Eliminate Pork Barrel Spending and Earmarks that occur on just about every single Bill that is passed in Congress.

 

[1srelluc]

 

[DGS49]

Having worked eight years in the Department of Defense I can say that I saw many things being done simply because "we have always done that," or "We always do it like that." In every case, it was something being done for no good purpose. What it will take is for a private-sector manager to be temporarily put in charge of selected offices and simply reviewing what is being done and who is doing it. They will quickly find a ton of extraneous, pointless activity, and people whose whole purpose for being there is to do those meaningless tasks.

An overall 25% headcount reduction would be simple, if not easy, and no clients of these organizations will even notice the difference.

Another government abomination is the practice of spending money at the end of the fiscal year, simply because the funds are available. In the office where I worked in Pittsburgh, we were working with WWII-era desks and chairs that were in serviceable condition, but old. At the end of a fiscal year, we paid a couple hundred thousand dollars to "spruce up" our furniture and make it look better. Immediately after the start of the next fiscal year, we got funding for all-new furniture, bought it, and sold what we had for pennies on the dollar, much of it to employees.

I don't think this was a one-off thing. I think it happens all the time.

 

[debbiedowner]

Here's two....
Red Cross (doing everything except for their charter)

Planned Parenthood
This video explains yet again why this agency is needing to be de-funded.

So what figure do you put to the Red Cross?

 

[1srelluc]

In the office where I worked in Pittsburgh, we were working with WWII-era desks and chairs that were in serviceable condition, but old. At the end of a fiscal year, we paid a couple hundred thousand dollars to "spruce up" our furniture and make it look better. Immediately after the start of the next fiscal year, we got funding for all-new furniture, bought it, and sold what we had for pennies on the dollar, much of it to employees.

I don't think this was a one-off thing. I think it happens all the time.

LOL....When the wife worked for the gov. at Mt. Weather, Virginia they got shed of all the cold war era furniture in the above ground barracks/offices and gave it away to the employees if they wanted it.

I got two real nice 5' tall fireproof safes with fancy walnut shells that made them look like cabinets. I kept one and gave my parents the other one.

They just had the rest hauled away by a metal scrapper. There were whole truckloads of nothing but folding metal chairs....All painted OD green.

They would often have vehicles/equipment that the employees could put a bid in on.....I put a bid in on a FEMA office trailer but lost.

 

[JohnDB]

So what figure do you put to the Red Cross?

I don't know honestly...
They were originally formed for blood donations and supply. Then disaster aide got added....

Now?
I know they pay their top admin over a million $$ a year. For a charity that's outrageous. Then as EVERY person who has worked as a volunteer at a Natural disaster has testified...
Red Cross shows up, hands out a couple bottles of water and a couple blankets, gets the photos and then leaves....meanwhile Samaritans Purse and Salvation Army and others stay for weeks actually helping and working in the area for all who need help. Red Cross blood and blood products are the last place every hospital will go for supplies. All the others first....
Red Cross is the MOST EXPENSIVE. Even if the blood is free they charge for admin costs that are outrageous and more than if you bought blood from a for profit blood bank.