DOGE

[Vrede too]

viewtopic.php?p=208763#p208763

Turns out if the Dept of Education cuts funds to public schools, the effect would be much more negative on rural areas (which coincidentally mostly voted for Trump) than in urban areas that have higher tax base, more people, etc. to fund their schools. But yeah, Trump loves the uneducated and wants to keep them that way.

It's not just education:

How Trump's MAGA Agenda Is Already Sticking It To Red America
The effects of DOGE and potential cuts to Medicaid are likely to hit communities where Donald Trump is popular.

Medicare only covers medical bills. Millions of Americans in nursing homes rely on Medicaid for the other costs. POTUS Musk, PINO and the GQP will kill granny.

... “A lot of MAGA is on Medicaid,” (Steve) Bannon said on Thursday on his “War Room” podcast. “If you don’t think so, you are dead wrong. Medicaid is going to be a complicated one. You just can’t take a meat ax to it, although I would love to.”...

Aside, Trumpettes were warned:
This Essential Health Care Program Could Get Hammered If Donald Trump Wins
There are several reasons to think Trump and Republicans might in fact target Medicaid if they get the chance.
Oct 24, 2024

The pain shows up in surprising ways, too:

... Cuts at USAID might seem less likely to have a perceptible effect stateside, because American jobs don’t generally depend on foreign assistance. But in farm country, they do, because that’s where USAID gets food: Farmers, who voted overwhelmingly for Trump, could lose as much as $2 billion if food aid goes away.

“You’re talking about a direct impact on American products and American jobs,” George Ingram, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Washington Post.

Republican lawmakers from Kansas, Arkansas and other rural states are rallying behind legislation to save the primary food aid program by moving it out of the State Department and over to the Department of Agriculture.

And they aren’t the only GOP lawmakers making the case to protect programs on the Trump target list. Nearly two dozen House Republicans have been lobbying their leadership to spare federal subsidies for electric vehicles that Trump has said he is determined to eliminate.

It’s not the potential of backsliding on climate progress that worries these Republicans. It’s the potential of losing jobs in their districts, which are home to new, sprawling EV factories in what’s become known as the “battery belt” stretching across the South. And what’s true for EVs is true for the clean energy push more generally: The money that President Joe Biden and the Democrats invested in projects like solar and wind power has gone disproportionately to Republican districts.

Take the money away, and it’s those districts that could suffer disproportionately....

It's a shame that every red state, county and zip code has blue voters in it, too.

[Whack9]

I have trouble understanding the motivations of these people. Why wouldn't you want to help alleviate the suffering of others? Some people are really bad off. Not everyone was dealt a fair chance in life. Sometimes you can do everything right and still be crushed by a stroke of bad luck. Not everyone receiving help is gaming the system.

[Whack9]

Lawmakers to Trump: Reverse cuts to 9/11 health care

https://www.news10.com/news/ny-news/law ... alth-care/

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — Members of Congress from both parties oppose staff cuts and grant cancellations that restrict medical care for 9/11 responders and survivors

...

After his inauguration, President Donald Trump began slashing federal staff through billionaire businessman Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Authorities fired probationary workers and offered buyouts to others, cutting the workforce by nearly 20% at the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP).

The program, part of the 2010 James Zadroga Act, helps more than 130,000 Sept. 11 first responders and survivors. The Trump administration also canceled a research grant for comparing disease rates between the New York City Fire Department (NYPD) and other fire departments, tracking new health problems stemming from Ground Zero

[O Really]

I have trouble understanding the motivations of these people. Why wouldn't you want to help alleviate the suffering of others? Some people are really bad off. Not everyone was dealt a fair chance in life. Sometimes you can do everything right and still be crushed by a stroke of bad luck. Not everyone receiving help is gaming the system.

Motivation is a desire to intimidate, cause fear, create a sense of inevitable power, and doing so without the least bit of compassion or normal decency and humanity.

[GoCubsGo]

I have trouble understanding the motivations of these people. Why wouldn't you want to help alleviate the suffering of others? Some people are really bad off. Not everyone was dealt a fair chance in life. Sometimes you can do everything right and still be crushed by a stroke of bad luck. Not everyone receiving help is gaming the system.

Motivation is a desire to intimidate, cause fear, create a sense of inevitable power, and doing so without the least bit of compassion or normal decency and humanity.

And call themselves good god fearing Christians.

[Vrede too]

I have trouble understanding the motivations of these people. Why wouldn't you want to help alleviate the suffering of others? Some people are really bad off. Not everyone was dealt a fair chance in life. Sometimes you can do everything right and still be crushed by a stroke of bad luck. Not everyone receiving help is gaming the system.

Motivation is a desire to intimidate, cause fear, create a sense of inevitable power, and doing so without the least bit of compassion or normal decency and humanity.

And call themselves good god fearing Christians.

They despise granny.

Trump official calls Social Security ‘wrong’ as administration lays groundwork for massive cuts

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are ramping up baseless claims that tens of millions of dead people are collecting Social Security payments, laying the groundwork to cut out “waste” and “fraud” as they look to make dramatic cuts for some of the most expensive programs in the federal budget to pay for astronomical tax cuts for America’s wealthiest households.

Deplorable LYING, it's what MAGA does.

Despite promises on the campaign trail that his administration would not touch Social Security, and claiming that his Democratic rivals are the ones trying to end it, Trump and the world’s wealthiest man and his allies are trying to justify cuts to Social Security and federal health programs Medicare and Medicaid to come up with Musk’s target figure of more than $1 trillion in savings.

On Jesse Watters Primetime on Fox News on Wednesday, recently confirmed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hailed the work of Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is “gonna cut a trillion dollars of waste fraud and abuse,” Lutnick said....

“You know Social Security is wrong, you know Medicare and Medicaid is wrong, so he's going to cut one trillion,” Lutnick added. “Get rid of all these tax scams that hammer against Americans and we’re gonna raise a trillion dollars in revenue, and our objective, under Donald Trump, is to balance this budget.”

Ummm, Massive tax cuts, dummy.

Lutnick also suggested Trump will create an “External Revenue Service” and abolish the IRS to let “all the outsiders pay” federal taxes for which Americans are responsible.

... In remarks to supporters at Mar-a-Lago Wednesday, Trump returned to Musk’s bogus claims that people who are hundreds of years old are collecting Social Security.

Deplorable LYING, it's what POTUS MUSK and PINO do.

... Any meaningful reduction of government spending to get to Musk’s $1 trillion or $2 trillion figure would require some combination of severe cuts to expensive but critical government programs — as well as the Department of Defense — and tax increases....

Trump, meanwhile, is commanding lawmakers to make massive tax cuts for the nation’s wealthiest households. House Republicans are proposing a budget blueprint that would add $4.5 trillion in new deficits through tax cuts, with an additional $2 trillion in cuts to “mandatory” spending that covers programs like Medicare, Medicaid and food assistance.

A budget plan negotiated by House Speaker Mike Johnson, and approved by Trump, would cut $880 billion from Medicaid over the next decade to pay for a portion of the president’s proposed tax cuts.

Trump has separately promised to exempt Social Security benefits from income taxes, which would cost the program more than $2 trillion over the next decade, without any plan to recover those costs elsewhere.

Will I have to go back to work? I've let my nursing license, knowledge and skills lapse for 8 years, so that's out. Veterinary assistant would be cool.

[Whack9]

Trump admin backtracks on firing National Park employees:

So. Damn. Efficient.

So. Damn. Competent.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... reddit.com

Following a loud public outcry about job cuts at the National Park Service — and a relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts across the country — it looks like the Trump administration has reconsidered.

A plan to eliminate thousands of seasonal workers at the beloved federal agency appears to have been reversed.

...

After he was fired on Feb. 14, Yosemite maintenance worker Olek Chmura went on Instagram to ask whether he and his modestly paid colleagues were really an example of the kind of wasteful spending Trump and his appointed efficiency expert, Elon Musk, claim they are trying to eliminate.

“I make just over $40,000 a year; scrape s— off toilets with a putty knife nearly every day,” Chmura wrote. “Somehow, I’m the target.”

...

I just really don’t understand why they’re attacking working-class Americans who never took these jobs to get rich,” he said. “It’s just extremely confusing. Why us?”

Conservative friends from Ohio, who have seen him on Instagram and TV, have reached out and said, “This is not what I voted for, this is ... insane,” Chmura said.

But it really is what you voted for, you dumb fucks.

[Vrede too]

Trump admin backtracks on firing National Park employees:

So. Damn. Efficient.

So. Damn. Competent.

https://www.latimes.com/california/stor ... reddit.com

Following a loud public outcry about job cuts at the National Park Service — and a relentless media campaign from outdoors enthusiasts across the country — it looks like the Trump administration has reconsidered.

A plan to eliminate thousands of seasonal workers at the beloved federal agency appears to have been reversed.

...

After he was fired on Feb. 14, Yosemite maintenance worker Olek Chmura went on Instagram to ask whether he and his modestly paid colleagues were really an example of the kind of wasteful spending Trump and his appointed efficiency expert, Elon Musk, claim they are trying to eliminate.

“I make just over $40,000 a year; scrape s— off toilets with a putty knife nearly every day,” Chmura wrote. “Somehow, I’m the target.”

...

I just really don’t understand why they’re attacking working-class Americans who never took these jobs to get rich,” he said. “It’s just extremely confusing. Why us?”

Conservative friends from Ohio, who have seen him on Instagram and TV, have reached out and said, “This is not what I voted for, this is ... insane,” Chmura said.

But it really is what you voted for, you dumb fucks.

DOGE had fired about 5% of National Park Service employees. What about the 10% of the U.S. Forest Service workforce that has been fired?
viewtopic.php?p=208869#p208869

[GoCubsGo]

Hannity gets schooled.

[Whack9]

Trump voter shocked to find out they were fired due to DOGE

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/02/tru ... lives.html

An IRS worker who voted for President Donald Trump expressed shock after being among the roughly 7,000 people in the department to be laid off by the Department of Government Efficiency.

Robert McCabe of Philadelphia told NBC10 that the Trump administration and DOGE, run by world’s richest man Elon Musk, are acting like a “wrecking ball and destroying people’s lives for no reason.”

...

You know when he talks about government waste and all that, yes, I’m behind it,” McCabe told the local station. “I believe there is a lot of stuff in the government that needs fixing. And that’s part of the reason why I actually wanted to work for the government, actually. To help change. Help change the things that are wrong in the world, you know? I thought that someone with his business acumen would have come in with a fine-tooth comb and actually found it instead of coming in with a wrecking ball and destroying people’s lives for no reason.”

Congrats Mr. McCabe

[O Really]

"... with his business acumen...

[Vrede too]

"... with his business acumen...

Supplemented by his accounting acumen...

Elon Musk and DOGE promised up to $2 trillion in government savings. How much have they actually saved so far?
DOGE is claiming $55 billion in savings — but its own ‘wall of receipts’ shows just $7.2 billion (or less).

... “We’ll aim for $2 trillion, which I believe is the best-case scenario,” Musk said in a January interview on X, the social media site he owns. “But you need to allow for some margin. If we target $2 trillion, I think there’s a strong chance we can achieve $1 trillion in spending cuts."...

March revision:
“We’ll aim for $1 trillion, which I believe is the best-case scenario. But you need to allow for some margin. If we target $1 trillion, I think there’s a strong chance we can achieve $10 billion in spending cuts (or less)."


Maddow Blog | Rachel Maddow: Republicans silent after Trump reportedly slashes funds for Alzheimer’s center

Opps, I guess DonOLD is SOoL.

Pushed by a Repub
Named for that Repub
Repug icon Ronald Reagan died of pneumonia, complicated by Alzheimer's

You're doing a heckuva job, Muskie.

Musk’s blitzkrieg is unnerving many of Trump’s senior advisers

Top Treasury officials have complained about disruption. The secretary of state has pushed back on staff cuts. Inside the Education and Health and Human Services departments, political appointees have been informed - not consulted - about canceled grants and contracts, sometimes learning about decisions from the media.

Elon Musk’s aggressive tactics to reshape the federal government have irritated and blindsided many senior officials in the Trump administration, including those tasked with running Cabinet departments being squeezed by his U.S. DOGE Service, according to interviews with more than 30 current and former officials and their advisers, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Amid these bubbling tensions, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles personally asked Musk last week to better coordinate on DOGE’s sweeping actions....

FAFO. Does this presage a divorce or will PINO continue bending over for POTUS Musk?

[Vrede too]

Civil war brewing?

Several administration officials tell workers not to reply to Musk email

Elon Musk’s demand that all 2.3 million government workers justify their work prompted confusion and resistance on Sunday, as several government agency leaders told their staffs not to reply to a mass email requesting bullet-point summations of their accomplishments.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard instructed personnel in U.S. spy agencies not to respond, according to the text of an email she sent to the workforce on Sunday, citing the agencies’ sensitive and classified work. Defense Department employees were given similar instructions to not respond, as were FBI personnel and Department of Homeland Security employees....

Employees at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency were told definitively to reply - a few hours before DHS sent a note saying the opposite. In some parts of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, staffers received instructions to draft a response but not send it yet. At other agencies, like the Department of Health and Human Services, employees were first given one instruction only to be emailed later to pause and watch for more guidance Monday.

Opps.

Raising the stakes, Musk warned in a post on X that any employee who failed to respond would be treated as having resigned. But the email sent to workers made no mention of that possible consequence, which lawyers said would be illegal.

Musk’s threat also appears to contradict an assessment released on Feb. 5 by the Office of Personnel Management which concluded any responses to government-wide emails must be “explicitly voluntary.” Yet the weekend email was sent by an address at OPM, which serves as human resources for the entire federal government - and has been largely taken over by Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service.

On Sunday, a Republican lawmaker questioned the viability of the directive.

“I don’t know how that’s necessarily feasible,” Rep. Michael Lawler (R-New York) said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Obviously, a lot of federal employees are under union contract.”

Many employees at certain agencies cannot disclose information about their work to third parties without explicit authorization, security experts noted. Some warned of security risks if all 2.3 million federal employees are forced to reply to one email server sharing their contact information, their manager’s contact information and details about the work they do....

POTUS Musk stymied?

What part of "illegal" does he not understand?

[Vrede too]

Civil war brewing?

Several administration officials tell workers not to reply to Musk email


POTUS Musk stymied?

What part of "illegal" does he not understand?

The Resistance:

Why there’s an upside-down American flag hanging in Yosemite National Park



February is one of the busiest times of the year at Yosemite National Park thanks to “firefall,” a natural phenomenon that causes a glowing ribbon of water to look like molten lava cascading down El Capitan’s Horsetail Fall.

Travelers come from around the world to witness the event at the granite monolith, famed for its nearly vertical walls, some booking entry tickets and reserving parking spots a year in advance.

But this year’s visitors witnessed more than firefall on February 22. They also saw an upside-down American flag, which Yosemite employees reportedly hung over the side of El Capitan to protest the recent downsizing that took place as part of the Trump administration’s cost-cutting initiatives....

Bold move.

[Whack9]

Trump posts sponge bob meme to DOGE critics

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- ... ge-critics

President Donald Trump shared a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed meme after Elon Musk announced that federal workers would receive an email seeking information about what they accomplished last week.

The meme features a list titled, "Got Done Last Week." The five items on the list include, "Cried about Trump," "Cried about Elon," "Made it into the office for once," "Read some emails," and "Cried about Trump and Elon some more."

The President of the United States partaking in internet trolling like he's a teenager. Not only that, trolling American citizens that are likely to face job loss.

Is this how a leader should behave?

[neoplacebo]

Trump posts sponge bob meme to DOGE critics

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- ... ge-critics

President Donald Trump shared a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed meme after Elon Musk announced that federal workers would receive an email seeking information about what they accomplished last week.

The meme features a list titled, "Got Done Last Week." The five items on the list include, "Cried about Trump," "Cried about Elon," "Made it into the office for once," "Read some emails," and "Cried about Trump and Elon some more."

The President of the United States partaking in internet trolling like he's a teenager. Not only that, trolling American citizens that are likely to face job loss.

Is this how a leader should behave?

trump delights in being a juvenile minded dipshit. Because he knows his juvenile minded dipshit cult members will gush in awe no matter what.

[Whack9]

Trump posts sponge bob meme to DOGE critics

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump- ... ge-critics

President Donald Trump shared a SpongeBob SquarePants-themed meme after Elon Musk announced that federal workers would receive an email seeking information about what they accomplished last week.

The meme features a list titled, "Got Done Last Week." The five items on the list include, "Cried about Trump," "Cried about Elon," "Made it into the office for once," "Read some emails," and "Cried about Trump and Elon some more."

The President of the United States partaking in internet trolling like he's a teenager. Not only that, trolling American citizens that are likely to face job loss.

Is this how a leader should behave?

trump delights in being a juvenile minded dipshit. Because he knows his juvenile minded dipshit cult members will gush in awe no matter what.

Also, Russel Vought, the head of the office of management and budget, stated he wants federal workers to be in a state of trauma:

https://www.govexec.com/management/2024 ... da/400607/

We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” he said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.

“We want to put them in trauma.”

It's one thing to want to cut the budget and put the country on a more fiscally sound footing. It's another to openly state you want federal workers to be in a state of trauma. This is the behavior of an amoral thug.

Added cruelty is unnecessary. It serves no end.

[GoCubsGo]

He's not playing to his base, he is his base.

[Whack9]

Actions consequences: A story in four images.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Project2025Award/s/EdlFiSdRWH

[Whack9]

Actions Consequences. A story in seven slides

https://www.reddit.com/r/Project2025Award/s/Tfsv8AtJOI