While I don’t plan on spending the next four years writing about Trump, Trump, Trump, for the moment, it does seem culturally relevant, to say the least. And these first weeks have not disappointed, at least in terms of the ratings. By all appearances, the second season of the Trump Administration is a bona fide hit. Everyone is watching. Everyone is talking about it.
Yes, keep pulling strings on USAID. This is to wake everyone up to the outrageous $ grift and waste in one agency, before then moving into the next. The real $ savings will come from curtailing Medicare fraud. It also appears some USAID to NGO’s were then a ‘laundering’ point for donations back to Democrat campaign coffers. You do this kind of fraud and the good gets torn down with the bad. Then you start from scratch again and only allow the good spending. This wasteful spending is what happens when Congress abdicates their responsibility to an unelected, executive agency. Trump using the Constitution powers of Article 2 to tear it down, is the proper remedy in this moment. Current debt to GDP is 125%, and scheduled to reach 127% next year. Along with $36T in national debt and service on the debt the #3 or #4 spending line item - there must be cuts, and big ones. Without this, our savings wealth and standard of living will diminish. And we’ll all be that spider man meme pointing fingers at each other in a circle wondering how it happened and whom to blame.
Only in Silicon Valley does the mantra of "break things" go unchallenged. Let's say for the sake of argument that 40% of what USAID does is corrupt, wasteful, should be stopped. Freezing the other 60% is still destructive, and the idea that you have to do that is just wrong. Shift the percentages however you chose: blowing things up suddenly does damage. Period.
But this is one of those situations where the executive is fighting a bureaucratic power so deeply entrenched that if it doesn't move quickly to defang the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy will adapt and find new ways around accountability. This is simply unacceptable at some point. USAID has become a whirlpool that sucks in tax money and then redistributes it in various forms to the Democratic party, which then runs cover to make sure the whirlpool is undisturbed. There is virtually nothing - *nothing* - that USAID does that is so vital to national security that it can't be paused for a while as the auditors go through the books. In the end, what has developed there for the last few decades can't be allowed to redevelop. As far as I'm concerned, if you choose to go to work for the federal government, you should lose your right to unionize, and you should give up your right to vote. Don't like it? Find other employment. We can't have a permanent class of Washington bureaucrats both overwhelmingly aligned with one political party and reliant on tax dollars. That lunacy's gotta end.
Yup. Democrats are drama queens who lie about nearly everything.
As for USAID, it was essentially operating as a liberal Democrat welfare program abroad and creating dependent classes of foreigners with dollars from the American taxpayer. Extreme human suffering should be alleviated where prudent but long term programs such as the ones aiding Hamas without end should be terminated with prejudice.
Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Hand-wringing leftist wags are obsessing over just how badly Musk and Trump - among others now and to be in the next four years - will ruin their lives. No need to wonder. I leave the reader, and Monsieur Karabell, with an observation from one of the United States' founding revolutionaries, Thomas Jefferson: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical". Monsieur Karabell and others should be consoled, however, that Musk and Trump are using laws, not weapons, to effect a 21st century version of Jefferson's little rebellion.
interesting how you selectively read a piece that calls for less hand-wringing (or perhaps no hand-wringing) as calling for it. Perhaps you should re-read...And while a little rebellion may be positive in shaking up sclerotic status quos, blowing things up is a messy, crude and harmful way to go about needed changes.
Boy, are you ever missing the point. In unleashing this blitzkrieg on government bureaucracy, Trump is making no attempt to understand how agencies work or even identify what is wasteful spending and what isn't. He is indiscriminately destroying what works well and efficiently along with what *might* not be working, and firing (or randomly "buying out") people whose expertise would make it possible to tell the difference. When, inevitably, systems large and small that Congress mandated and the American people depend on collapse, what will be the price tag to rebuild them? And who will suffer in the meantime? Lives could be upended, possibly lost. (How can Trump argue that they won't be, when no one has taken the time to study the effects?) Most businesses would refuse to touch "move fast and break things" with a ten-foot pole, and with good reason. It's not an approach that belongs in government, or in any enterprise that can impact health, lives, or livelihoods.
All this is apart from the fact that Elon Musk has no business meddling in Americans' personal data, nor screwing with agencies with which he has government contracts or which regulate his businesses. And apart from the fact that Congress gets to decide what gets funded, not Trump.
Hysteria does no one any good -- but let's be clear-eyed about the enormity of what's happening.
I agree Anne that the way this is being done is needlessly and foolishly destructive. That is a critique of how policy is being implemented. But that is distinct from existential warnings of a Constitution in crisis and democracy imperiled.
I think more importantly, he's taking a look at these things that are "working not so well" and find out why. Find out why budgets skyrocket but output does not. Find out why the number of employees ballooned but output has not.
In the real world, where revenues are sacred and vital, the behaviors and ghastly waste in our government agencies is absolutely unacceptable. What is the big problem assessing the condition of our agencies? For decades, it's been baseline budgeting, higher payrolls, larger budgets and anyone who asked a question was crushed. No leadership on this issue ever.
Now we have leadership that is totally within its rights and powers to open up the books and ask some very, very vital questions. The resistance is just a bit tooooooo strong.
First of all, this is one of the best objective journalistic assessments I have read since the Antichrist first came to power! thank you
As a survivor of nearly 50 years of ineffective and frequently unqualified corporate leadership, I was looking forward to enjoying a lifestyle where I didn’t have to rely on “earning” a living based on the whims of those in the Executive Suite.
The EARNINGS my wife and I invested in the Social Security TRUST Fund allow us to live a comfortably reduced lifestyle. The Medicare advantage plans created through bipartisan efforts is the best healthcare plan I have had since the UNION insurance I got as a salaried employee at the Steel Mills in 1975…(family coverage with premiums fully paid by employer, No Deductibles, No pre existing conditions, any doctor, any hospital)
The whims of the executive branch of whatever country they think they are running better not try to take this away from the 71 million people that have EARNED IT!
They are not earnings, they were taxes that have long since been collected and spent, in exchange for a political promise to continue squeezing future generations to give to you. There is no "fund"--if there were, it would show up as an asset on the government's books, rather than a gaping unfunded liability. At best, it's an unconscionable Ponzi scheme.
Boomers are the most selfish generation of people the world has ever know. They squandered the legacy bequeathed by their parents, squandered everything they build themselves, and are now binding their own grandchildren into indentured servitude by insisting that young fast food workers' paychecks be garnished to redistribute to wealthy retired people.
Check your sources…The social security trust fund exists and contains almost 3 TRILLION DOLLARS …the federal government has borrowed from it in order to pay for things it can’t pay for. NOW, because the federal government has failed to raise the income limit on SS EARNINGS beyond 160k…that fund is being depleted because people are living longer.
Eliminating the income limitation would ensure the 6% of earnings is paid by EVERYONE and allow the fund to keep returning that money PLUS interest to those who EARNED IT.
To fix the blame on any generation is absurd. Greedy politicians see that 3 trillion dollar fund and want to use it for their own pet projects. Defunding 71 million US citizens is NOT an option…unless you are the antichrist
Zachary, your analogy about speeding is accurate and agreeable-to a point. If I'm going 70 in a 65 mph zone on the freeway to keep up with traffic, well and good. But, if I'm going 60 in a 20 mph zone in front of a pre-school, not well and good. Guess I don't disagree with your point; I disagree with your choice of analogies.
There is a saying in baseball, "Players play. Coaches coach. And umpires umpire. As long as each of does his job, we'll have a good time. Let's play two." The political institutions of America need to come into congruence with the dictates of the Constitution. If we can achieve that goal, we are going to have a wonderful 21st Century.
Trump's approach to USAID began with a desire to investigate, then reform (surely you admit thst there were very bad things being done there). The folks at USAID told their boss to go pound sand. Here we are.
Sorry, this time, it's not hyperbole to say this is the dismantling of democracy in front of our eyes. This is a coup, plain and simple. I'm not going to avoid using those hyperbolic terms, because that will dilute the fight -- and we need to fight. I'm not saying that Trump wasn't duly elected -- he was (although between gerrymandering, fiddling with local election boards and voter suppression, you could argue that, too). But to bring in a billionaire with no understanding of foreign policy to hack into the Treasury and other agencies' systems with a bunch of teenagers without security clearances is absolutely terrifying. And the rampant nepotism -- how do our members of Congress sleep at night when we've got, in plain sight, the Trump family and other billionaires already raking in the cash -- how corrupt is it, for example, to launch a bitcoin right before being inaugurated? Liars, criminals and oligarchs -- that's who's running the country now. So, no, I'm not taking a "wait and see" approach, and I'm calling this what is: an alarming and dangerous threat to our country.
Francesca, there is nothing in the Constitution that defines any of these federal agencies. They came about in the Woodrow Wilson administration as a way to get progressive agendas implemented because it was ‘too hard’ and ‘too slow’ to pass bills/laws through normal channels of Congress. The ‘dismantling of democracy’ that you describe, many of us on the other side of the aisle describe as ‘dismantling of a shadow government’ which rules by regulations (that perform as laws), which are implemented by unelected bodies, suck our tax dollars, our liberties and are not Constitutionally defined.
If you don't like those "unelected bureaucrats," how do you feel about Elon Musk and his 20-something computer hackers accessing your private information? I don't remember voting for him. But to answer your larger point: As someone whose husband worked tirelessly for the State Department for 33 years, I have witnessed the dedication of many people working for the American people who truly care about the work they do. Did I observe waste, fraud and abuse? Yes, I did, sometimes, and that needs to be rooted out. But firing nearly everyone is not the way to do this. It's kind of a child-like way to do it in fact -- it doesn't require much skill to just shut things down. But the repercussions will be deeply, deeply felt by all Americans. You will see how much work this "shadow government" has done for America and how crippled we will be without expertise in times of crisis or competence in general. Those are the babies being thrown out with the bath water.
Thanks for your reply, Francesca. I worked 8 years for DOD, in the US military. And I also saw plenty of waste there. I’m not too worried about the privacy aspect of this. That feels to me like a minor objection to the much larger picture. We need to cut back our scope and size of government to get our fiscal house much healthier. The $40B USAID budget is just the start point, to juice the airways of waste. The bigger nuts are Defense and Entitlements. And in the latter, I hope means testing comes out of that, and a serious look into Medicare fraud. On a whole, I think our ‘shadow government’ has done a lot more damage in last 30 years than good. The damage to the world sown by the Military Industrial Complex gets its lifeblood thru the shadow government. Same with Big Pharma and Big Food hold over us. An occasional ‘tear down’ like this can be healthy for our Republic. Much better to do it this way than at barrel of a gun. I think there’s way more cutting to come. USAID and Dept of Education are small potatoes. I’m interested in the bigger stuff still to come.
I think we're closer than we think in some respects. I'd love to see the Defense budget halved, and to see those funds actually get to veterans (why do we even have homeless veterans??? That should never happen) instead of just to defense contractors. But the only way we can trim Defense is by boosting our soft power, which is exactly what USAID does. So, send folks out to our projects around the world, ask questions, examine accounting sheets, see where there might be fraud or waste. But don't do it like this, turning America from the good guy to the bad guy overnight. I'm embarrassed on our behalf and mortified that people will actually die because of this ham-fisted approach. But, all in all, I think there is bipartisan support for trimming USG budgets. It's the way they're going about it that we differ on.
I think too we likely agree on much. USAID is going to be rolled up under the State Department. So, the soft power projection can continue but I’d argue with greater focus and oversight - to ensure the spending aligns with the voter’s interests (POTUS). And not weird spending that advances social goals that are controversial. The other big fight to come (that could save Federal government a lot of $) is over the Impoundment Act (I think of 1975). The ‘law’ that forces agencies to spend 100% of allocated $$ to it by Congress, even if the agency says the job is already done or spending to 100% limit - is wasteful. I think this is why there was the floor fight last night over OMB Director Russ Vought nomination. Russ held this position before and is a big proponent of returning leftover $$ to the Treasury when it’s not necessary to spend it all. Russ knows where the $ bodies are buried.
It's not a coup if we voted him in. Stop pretending all of this wasteful spending is on our behalf. take a look at what's being cut, the actual funding lines and explain why we're sending money to fund these outrageous programs. I was an intelligence analyst for 28 years-this audit needs to happen.
Considering we had a coup in 2024 right before our eyes, that we almost had the ministry of truth and the Biden family lined their pockets, I think there are enough fingers to point in EVERY direction.
Francesca - what part of the "an election was held in 2024" doesn't make sense?
The election was 100% a referendum on both Trump's first term and Biden's only term. The people voted for change, well advertised... "we're going to do THIS" sort of change. The voting went across geography, across age groups, across ethinic groups, across economic levels. The only people resisting are the people who just might be part of the problem and have skeletons.
Word is taht the Dept of Justice wiped clean 5,000 laptops. Why? Why did they need to do that? But you think this is dismantling democracy?
What, exactly do you believe democracy actually is?
"Testing the limits of executive authority is, whether unfortunately or not, a logical next step in the path presidents have followed since Carter." More like since Wilson (with the lone exception of Coolidge). Otherwise, I find much to like in this piece, even though I disagree with your conclusions. Many thanks.
"The idea that democracy naturally produces good, kind, liberal outcomes is part of the current morass."
That's why many have been advocating for decades for the undoing of the "progressive" changes made to the processes for electing members of the Electoral College and Senate, to restore the sensible original republican checks-and-balances our Constitution placed on democracy and demagoguery.
Zachary, this entire charade is bizarre and confusing, but one verb is key and that is ALARMING. Sure, everyone is talking, trying to wrap their brain thoughts and just re-hashing what we cannot comprehend, just insane. Orange Idiot- over and over and over in my mind...I will keep reading and hoping for a shred of hope or at least clarity.
What are your thoughts on the following . 1 Musk has increased his fortune at a rate of 2 bullion / day since this election . 2 The risks posed to health and stability by massive inequality, 3 Have you looked at the data on how massive inequality effects the health, wealth and viability of a society. 4 The data that climate change is accelerating and that Musk and others are adding yo this. 5 Hoe can you justify the security breach at the treasury. 6 How can you minimize the attacks? on Canada ?
You have cherry picked a few points to discuss , why?
If you wish to quell hysteria that is fine. I agree with that . If you are in denial . I do not agree with you.
Nothing in Musk's biography or history suggests he is motivated to maximize his fortune, as opposed to Trump who clearly is. I'm not minimizing stupid attacks on Canada, one of our closest allies, but the tariffs were walked back and stupidity does not equal existential threat. And inequality is an important topic, but a different one.
Personally I think Elon is a true believer. We often make mistakes in ascribing motivations of deception and disingenuousness to our opponents, and that impulse can amplify contempt and divides. You might like this piece of mine about Elon’s polarization: https://defusingamericananger.substack.com/p/the-polarization-of-elon-musk-and
It's as much - or more - about the corruption than it is about the money saved. The "good" programs can still exist, and perhaps even get more funding if they're actually productive.
I think you need to look into what USAID was actually paying for and where that money was going. People should be in prison over it. Period.
Yes, keep pulling strings on USAID. This is to wake everyone up to the outrageous $ grift and waste in one agency, before then moving into the next. The real $ savings will come from curtailing Medicare fraud. It also appears some USAID to NGO’s were then a ‘laundering’ point for donations back to Democrat campaign coffers. You do this kind of fraud and the good gets torn down with the bad. Then you start from scratch again and only allow the good spending. This wasteful spending is what happens when Congress abdicates their responsibility to an unelected, executive agency. Trump using the Constitution powers of Article 2 to tear it down, is the proper remedy in this moment. Current debt to GDP is 125%, and scheduled to reach 127% next year. Along with $36T in national debt and service on the debt the #3 or #4 spending line item - there must be cuts, and big ones. Without this, our savings wealth and standard of living will diminish. And we’ll all be that spider man meme pointing fingers at each other in a circle wondering how it happened and whom to blame.
Only in Silicon Valley does the mantra of "break things" go unchallenged. Let's say for the sake of argument that 40% of what USAID does is corrupt, wasteful, should be stopped. Freezing the other 60% is still destructive, and the idea that you have to do that is just wrong. Shift the percentages however you chose: blowing things up suddenly does damage. Period.
But this is one of those situations where the executive is fighting a bureaucratic power so deeply entrenched that if it doesn't move quickly to defang the bureaucracy, the bureaucracy will adapt and find new ways around accountability. This is simply unacceptable at some point. USAID has become a whirlpool that sucks in tax money and then redistributes it in various forms to the Democratic party, which then runs cover to make sure the whirlpool is undisturbed. There is virtually nothing - *nothing* - that USAID does that is so vital to national security that it can't be paused for a while as the auditors go through the books. In the end, what has developed there for the last few decades can't be allowed to redevelop. As far as I'm concerned, if you choose to go to work for the federal government, you should lose your right to unionize, and you should give up your right to vote. Don't like it? Find other employment. We can't have a permanent class of Washington bureaucrats both overwhelmingly aligned with one political party and reliant on tax dollars. That lunacy's gotta end.
Yup. Democrats are drama queens who lie about nearly everything.
As for USAID, it was essentially operating as a liberal Democrat welfare program abroad and creating dependent classes of foreigners with dollars from the American taxpayer. Extreme human suffering should be alleviated where prudent but long term programs such as the ones aiding Hamas without end should be terminated with prejudice.
Malo periculosam, libertatem quam quietam servitutem. Hand-wringing leftist wags are obsessing over just how badly Musk and Trump - among others now and to be in the next four years - will ruin their lives. No need to wonder. I leave the reader, and Monsieur Karabell, with an observation from one of the United States' founding revolutionaries, Thomas Jefferson: "I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical". Monsieur Karabell and others should be consoled, however, that Musk and Trump are using laws, not weapons, to effect a 21st century version of Jefferson's little rebellion.
interesting how you selectively read a piece that calls for less hand-wringing (or perhaps no hand-wringing) as calling for it. Perhaps you should re-read...And while a little rebellion may be positive in shaking up sclerotic status quos, blowing things up is a messy, crude and harmful way to go about needed changes.
Boy, are you ever missing the point. In unleashing this blitzkrieg on government bureaucracy, Trump is making no attempt to understand how agencies work or even identify what is wasteful spending and what isn't. He is indiscriminately destroying what works well and efficiently along with what *might* not be working, and firing (or randomly "buying out") people whose expertise would make it possible to tell the difference. When, inevitably, systems large and small that Congress mandated and the American people depend on collapse, what will be the price tag to rebuild them? And who will suffer in the meantime? Lives could be upended, possibly lost. (How can Trump argue that they won't be, when no one has taken the time to study the effects?) Most businesses would refuse to touch "move fast and break things" with a ten-foot pole, and with good reason. It's not an approach that belongs in government, or in any enterprise that can impact health, lives, or livelihoods.
All this is apart from the fact that Elon Musk has no business meddling in Americans' personal data, nor screwing with agencies with which he has government contracts or which regulate his businesses. And apart from the fact that Congress gets to decide what gets funded, not Trump.
Hysteria does no one any good -- but let's be clear-eyed about the enormity of what's happening.
Anne, can you point to me where in the US Constitution it defines how these Federal agencies are supposed to work? If not, why not?
I agree Anne that the way this is being done is needlessly and foolishly destructive. That is a critique of how policy is being implemented. But that is distinct from existential warnings of a Constitution in crisis and democracy imperiled.
Good.
I think more importantly, he's taking a look at these things that are "working not so well" and find out why. Find out why budgets skyrocket but output does not. Find out why the number of employees ballooned but output has not.
In the real world, where revenues are sacred and vital, the behaviors and ghastly waste in our government agencies is absolutely unacceptable. What is the big problem assessing the condition of our agencies? For decades, it's been baseline budgeting, higher payrolls, larger budgets and anyone who asked a question was crushed. No leadership on this issue ever.
Now we have leadership that is totally within its rights and powers to open up the books and ask some very, very vital questions. The resistance is just a bit tooooooo strong.
First of all, this is one of the best objective journalistic assessments I have read since the Antichrist first came to power! thank you
As a survivor of nearly 50 years of ineffective and frequently unqualified corporate leadership, I was looking forward to enjoying a lifestyle where I didn’t have to rely on “earning” a living based on the whims of those in the Executive Suite.
The EARNINGS my wife and I invested in the Social Security TRUST Fund allow us to live a comfortably reduced lifestyle. The Medicare advantage plans created through bipartisan efforts is the best healthcare plan I have had since the UNION insurance I got as a salaried employee at the Steel Mills in 1975…(family coverage with premiums fully paid by employer, No Deductibles, No pre existing conditions, any doctor, any hospital)
The whims of the executive branch of whatever country they think they are running better not try to take this away from the 71 million people that have EARNED IT!
They are not earnings, they were taxes that have long since been collected and spent, in exchange for a political promise to continue squeezing future generations to give to you. There is no "fund"--if there were, it would show up as an asset on the government's books, rather than a gaping unfunded liability. At best, it's an unconscionable Ponzi scheme.
Boomers are the most selfish generation of people the world has ever know. They squandered the legacy bequeathed by their parents, squandered everything they build themselves, and are now binding their own grandchildren into indentured servitude by insisting that young fast food workers' paychecks be garnished to redistribute to wealthy retired people.
An absolutely disgusting cohort of people.
I agree, and I am one.
Check your sources…The social security trust fund exists and contains almost 3 TRILLION DOLLARS …the federal government has borrowed from it in order to pay for things it can’t pay for. NOW, because the federal government has failed to raise the income limit on SS EARNINGS beyond 160k…that fund is being depleted because people are living longer.
Eliminating the income limitation would ensure the 6% of earnings is paid by EVERYONE and allow the fund to keep returning that money PLUS interest to those who EARNED IT.
To fix the blame on any generation is absurd. Greedy politicians see that 3 trillion dollar fund and want to use it for their own pet projects. Defunding 71 million US citizens is NOT an option…unless you are the antichrist
Zachary, your analogy about speeding is accurate and agreeable-to a point. If I'm going 70 in a 65 mph zone on the freeway to keep up with traffic, well and good. But, if I'm going 60 in a 20 mph zone in front of a pre-school, not well and good. Guess I don't disagree with your point; I disagree with your choice of analogies.
Thanks
fair enough
There is a saying in baseball, "Players play. Coaches coach. And umpires umpire. As long as each of does his job, we'll have a good time. Let's play two." The political institutions of America need to come into congruence with the dictates of the Constitution. If we can achieve that goal, we are going to have a wonderful 21st Century.
Trump's approach to USAID began with a desire to investigate, then reform (surely you admit thst there were very bad things being done there). The folks at USAID told their boss to go pound sand. Here we are.
Sorry, this time, it's not hyperbole to say this is the dismantling of democracy in front of our eyes. This is a coup, plain and simple. I'm not going to avoid using those hyperbolic terms, because that will dilute the fight -- and we need to fight. I'm not saying that Trump wasn't duly elected -- he was (although between gerrymandering, fiddling with local election boards and voter suppression, you could argue that, too). But to bring in a billionaire with no understanding of foreign policy to hack into the Treasury and other agencies' systems with a bunch of teenagers without security clearances is absolutely terrifying. And the rampant nepotism -- how do our members of Congress sleep at night when we've got, in plain sight, the Trump family and other billionaires already raking in the cash -- how corrupt is it, for example, to launch a bitcoin right before being inaugurated? Liars, criminals and oligarchs -- that's who's running the country now. So, no, I'm not taking a "wait and see" approach, and I'm calling this what is: an alarming and dangerous threat to our country.
Francesca, there is nothing in the Constitution that defines any of these federal agencies. They came about in the Woodrow Wilson administration as a way to get progressive agendas implemented because it was ‘too hard’ and ‘too slow’ to pass bills/laws through normal channels of Congress. The ‘dismantling of democracy’ that you describe, many of us on the other side of the aisle describe as ‘dismantling of a shadow government’ which rules by regulations (that perform as laws), which are implemented by unelected bodies, suck our tax dollars, our liberties and are not Constitutionally defined.
Thanks to you both, Matt and Francesca, for the civil and well reasoned conversation.
yes, I second that
If you don't like those "unelected bureaucrats," how do you feel about Elon Musk and his 20-something computer hackers accessing your private information? I don't remember voting for him. But to answer your larger point: As someone whose husband worked tirelessly for the State Department for 33 years, I have witnessed the dedication of many people working for the American people who truly care about the work they do. Did I observe waste, fraud and abuse? Yes, I did, sometimes, and that needs to be rooted out. But firing nearly everyone is not the way to do this. It's kind of a child-like way to do it in fact -- it doesn't require much skill to just shut things down. But the repercussions will be deeply, deeply felt by all Americans. You will see how much work this "shadow government" has done for America and how crippled we will be without expertise in times of crisis or competence in general. Those are the babies being thrown out with the bath water.
Thanks for your reply, Francesca. I worked 8 years for DOD, in the US military. And I also saw plenty of waste there. I’m not too worried about the privacy aspect of this. That feels to me like a minor objection to the much larger picture. We need to cut back our scope and size of government to get our fiscal house much healthier. The $40B USAID budget is just the start point, to juice the airways of waste. The bigger nuts are Defense and Entitlements. And in the latter, I hope means testing comes out of that, and a serious look into Medicare fraud. On a whole, I think our ‘shadow government’ has done a lot more damage in last 30 years than good. The damage to the world sown by the Military Industrial Complex gets its lifeblood thru the shadow government. Same with Big Pharma and Big Food hold over us. An occasional ‘tear down’ like this can be healthy for our Republic. Much better to do it this way than at barrel of a gun. I think there’s way more cutting to come. USAID and Dept of Education are small potatoes. I’m interested in the bigger stuff still to come.
I think we're closer than we think in some respects. I'd love to see the Defense budget halved, and to see those funds actually get to veterans (why do we even have homeless veterans??? That should never happen) instead of just to defense contractors. But the only way we can trim Defense is by boosting our soft power, which is exactly what USAID does. So, send folks out to our projects around the world, ask questions, examine accounting sheets, see where there might be fraud or waste. But don't do it like this, turning America from the good guy to the bad guy overnight. I'm embarrassed on our behalf and mortified that people will actually die because of this ham-fisted approach. But, all in all, I think there is bipartisan support for trimming USG budgets. It's the way they're going about it that we differ on.
I think too we likely agree on much. USAID is going to be rolled up under the State Department. So, the soft power projection can continue but I’d argue with greater focus and oversight - to ensure the spending aligns with the voter’s interests (POTUS). And not weird spending that advances social goals that are controversial. The other big fight to come (that could save Federal government a lot of $) is over the Impoundment Act (I think of 1975). The ‘law’ that forces agencies to spend 100% of allocated $$ to it by Congress, even if the agency says the job is already done or spending to 100% limit - is wasteful. I think this is why there was the floor fight last night over OMB Director Russ Vought nomination. Russ held this position before and is a big proponent of returning leftover $$ to the Treasury when it’s not necessary to spend it all. Russ knows where the $ bodies are buried.
It's not a coup if we voted him in. Stop pretending all of this wasteful spending is on our behalf. take a look at what's being cut, the actual funding lines and explain why we're sending money to fund these outrageous programs. I was an intelligence analyst for 28 years-this audit needs to happen.
But is it really an audit? Seems to me it's just trashing entire agencies.
Also, how does a bartender go to congress and get 29 million dollars richer?
Considering we had a coup in 2024 right before our eyes, that we almost had the ministry of truth and the Biden family lined their pockets, I think there are enough fingers to point in EVERY direction.
Francesca - what part of the "an election was held in 2024" doesn't make sense?
The election was 100% a referendum on both Trump's first term and Biden's only term. The people voted for change, well advertised... "we're going to do THIS" sort of change. The voting went across geography, across age groups, across ethinic groups, across economic levels. The only people resisting are the people who just might be part of the problem and have skeletons.
Word is taht the Dept of Justice wiped clean 5,000 laptops. Why? Why did they need to do that? But you think this is dismantling democracy?
What, exactly do you believe democracy actually is?
"Testing the limits of executive authority is, whether unfortunately or not, a logical next step in the path presidents have followed since Carter." More like since Wilson (with the lone exception of Coolidge). Otherwise, I find much to like in this piece, even though I disagree with your conclusions. Many thanks.
The budget of USAID doubled under Biden.
Thank you, thoughtful as alawys.
"The idea that democracy naturally produces good, kind, liberal outcomes is part of the current morass."
That's why many have been advocating for decades for the undoing of the "progressive" changes made to the processes for electing members of the Electoral College and Senate, to restore the sensible original republican checks-and-balances our Constitution placed on democracy and demagoguery.
This is lies!!!! These lefty writers can never tell the truth,,marxist pigs...
Zachary, this entire charade is bizarre and confusing, but one verb is key and that is ALARMING. Sure, everyone is talking, trying to wrap their brain thoughts and just re-hashing what we cannot comprehend, just insane. Orange Idiot- over and over and over in my mind...I will keep reading and hoping for a shred of hope or at least clarity.
Thank you Jennifer
What are your thoughts on the following . 1 Musk has increased his fortune at a rate of 2 bullion / day since this election . 2 The risks posed to health and stability by massive inequality, 3 Have you looked at the data on how massive inequality effects the health, wealth and viability of a society. 4 The data that climate change is accelerating and that Musk and others are adding yo this. 5 Hoe can you justify the security breach at the treasury. 6 How can you minimize the attacks? on Canada ?
You have cherry picked a few points to discuss , why?
If you wish to quell hysteria that is fine. I agree with that . If you are in denial . I do not agree with you.
Nothing in Musk's biography or history suggests he is motivated to maximize his fortune, as opposed to Trump who clearly is. I'm not minimizing stupid attacks on Canada, one of our closest allies, but the tariffs were walked back and stupidity does not equal existential threat. And inequality is an important topic, but a different one.
Personally I think Elon is a true believer. We often make mistakes in ascribing motivations of deception and disingenuousness to our opponents, and that impulse can amplify contempt and divides. You might like this piece of mine about Elon’s polarization: https://defusingamericananger.substack.com/p/the-polarization-of-elon-musk-and
It's as much - or more - about the corruption than it is about the money saved. The "good" programs can still exist, and perhaps even get more funding if they're actually productive.