Tuesday, December 17, 2024

The DOGE Cometh…Or Not

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have certainly created a buzz around WDC and the nation regarding their partnership effort with incoming president Donald Trump and their Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  It is not difficult to find folks who believe that our government has become too large, too inefficient, and too intrusive.  It is also not difficult to find plenty of ideas about how those bureaucratic problems might be addressed.  What IS difficult is persuading our Legislative Branch of government to take these issues seriously and address them with transparency, common sense, and courage.  We can all hope for some positive changes to flow from the DOGE offensive.  Unfortunately, hope has historically proven to be thin gruel when attempting to nourish the effort of improving governmental efficiency.

 

In February of 1982, President Ronald Reagan had a notion quite similar to that of Trump’s DOGE; it was known as the Grace Commission.  Here is a bit of history about it: https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/topic-guide/presidents-private-sector-survey-cost-control-grace-commission .  Reagan came into his initial presidential term in the midst of a politically divided nation…not unlike what we have today.  Republicans loved them some Reagan; Democrats despised the man.  Sound familiar?

 

The Grace Commission accomplished very little.  Perhaps the time was not right for change.  Perhaps the nation was not ready for the pain that would inevitably accompany a serious restructuring of federal spending.  But…perhaps the fiscal and regulatory train wreck that has been occurring in painfully slow motion since the mid-90’s has reached sufficient crescendo as to spur some intestinal fortitude within our Executive and Legislative branches of government.  Trump is coming into office with a wind at his back and at least for the time being, there is growing support for a serious look at how our government conducts its business.  However…if our government is to become more fiscally responsible, someone’s ox will be gored.  In fact, a lot of peoples’ oxen will be gored. 

 

I worked for a smart man once who told me that when reforming governmental bureaucracy, sometimes the train has to wreck in order to solve the problem.  There can be little doubt that when examining the overall state of our government, the train has wrecked.  The train is, in fact, continuing to wreck on a daily basis.  Will it take a colossal collapse similar to the Great Depression for our federal books to be brought to order…or…have we arrived at a perfect storm of circumstances that offers real opportunities for real change that will result in real improvements?  Only time will tell. 

 

Why is there even a chance that DOGE might work?

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/geraghty-this-time-trumps-victory-is-being-accepted-as-legitimate/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/16/are-the-years-of-madness-ending/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/14/a-word-to-the-doge-reduction-is-not-synonymous-with-reform/

 

THIS is the illness that must be cured: https://justthenews.com/government/congress/congress-releases-text-stopgap-funding-bill-includes-funding-disasters

 

In the target rich environment of federal bureaucracy, regulatory reform, and spending…where will Trump and DOGE go?

 

https://reason.com/2024/12/13/federal-government-has-grown-too-big-promised-too-much-subsidized-too-many-warns-former-gao-boss/

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/whats-the-point-of-the-department-of-education/

 

https://americanmind.org/memo/abolishing-the-department-of-education-is-not-the-answer/

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/3258800/biden-education-department-grants-taxpayer-dollars-dei/

 

https://reason.com/2024/12/14/student-debt-disaster/

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3262731/trump-eyes-privatizing-postal-service/

 

https://reason.com/2024/12/12/bidenomics-goes-out-with-a-whimper/

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/15/business/trumps-two-ftc-picks-could-remake-the-agency/index.html

 

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/12/how-harmeet-dhillon-can-tame-the-beast-at-doj/

 

https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/number-migrants-temporary-protected-status-exploded-240-2021-new-data-shows

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/healthcare/3259475/obamacare-is-the-missing-word-as-democrats-rage-against-healthcare-system/

 

And just for the heck of it…here are some of my own ideas for governmental change…flashback to April/2018: https://centerlineright.blogspot.com/2018/04/is-wdc-stuck-in-spin-cycle.html

 

Not only has the Biden Administration left the domestic operation of our government in a hot mess, he and his band of clowns have thrown together a foreign affairs circus that has pushed global tensions to the breaking point.  Strong, moral, courageous, thoughtful, transparent, predictable, and humane leadership from America is essential if our planet’s inhabitants are going to coexist and maintain some semblance of human dignity and order.  That is NOT what we have today.

 

It all started downhill with this: https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/WILLFULL-BLINDNESS-An-Assessment-of-the-Biden-Harris%20Administrations-Withdrawal-from-Afghanistan-and-the-Chaos-that-Followed.pdf

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/this-is-your-life-antony-blinken.php

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/3261327/biden-handcuffs-trump-to-china-tech-agreement/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/15/communist-china-is-moving-toward-war-separating-the-signal-from-the-noise/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/13/could-the-fall-of-assad-be-a-precursor-to-the-fall-of-the-mullahs-in-tehran/

 

https://americanmind.org/salvo/getting-peace-in-the-middle-east/

 

https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/13/trump-is-right-america-must-stay-out-of-the-crisis-in-syria/

 

Perhaps there is hope: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/world-leaders-are-all-over-the-map-in-responding-to-trumps-election/

 

Here are some quick hits on the way out the door…

 

Speaking of “out the door”…please…just LEAVE: https://amgreatness.com/2024/12/12/the-evaporation-of-the-obama-mystique/

 

We have Meloni in Italy…We have Milei in Argentina…and now we have this lady in England.  Has MAGA become an international cause…with the first “A” becoming “fill in the blank”?

https://www.thefp.com/p/is-kemi-badenoch-the-next-margaret-e28

 

What in the hell is our president thinking? 

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/bidens-monsters.php

 

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/the-daily-chart-pardon-me.php

 

What a novel thought for our “esteemed” bastions of higher learning to consider: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/hey-colleges-treat-students-like-adults/

 

This is the unique…and toxic…type of corruption that Obama and Biden brought into our government: https://thefederalist.com/2024/12/17/three-russia-hoax-bombshells-hidden-in-ig-report-on-doj-surveillance-of-congress/

 

Here is one of those questions that will never fully be answered: https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/12/how-much-voter-fraud-in-2020.php

 

Remember this…as Scully told Mulder… “The truth is out there, but so are lies”: https://www.nationalreview.com/the-morning-jolt/new-jersey-bedeviled-four-possible-explanations-for-the-nonstop-drone-sightings/

 

Our society and culture is in a very bad place when a man of honor and courage is disparaged as this man was: https://americanmind.org/salvo/daniel-penny-is-a-hero-for-our-times/


How about some possible anthems for the DOGE...let's close it out with some great music...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBIxScJ5rlY


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYpwfbNFQXA


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxvVk-r9ut8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw4tcCbf2TE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4


...and here is my nominee, TURN IT UP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC3AYhiJCzg





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