Just because people aren’t homeless and don’t qualify for food stamps doesn’t mean they can afford things.
You need to make less than $33k for a family of 3 to even qualify for food stamps and then get disqualified if your total assets are above $4.5K. If you’re an adult without children, your food stamps eligibility is capped at 3 months every 3 years. A lot of people who need food stamps, do not qualify for them.
This is true. So now let’s look at the substance of what DOGE has actually done:
- indiscriminately fire people who have been in long term positions but recently got promoted and so were considered “probationary”
- dismantle the CPFB which was a net gain for revenue
- dismantle 18F which has a track record of improving government efficiency
- fire people who were involved in managing nuclear weapons and bird flu and then try to bring them back
- share spreadsheets on Twitter about really old people in the social security system making people think there’s tons of fraud without learning about the 2023 OIG report that already existed that explained this data
- make a bunch of noise about cutting a bunch of contracts including a third of which were already fully spent and will save nothing
Does this give you confidence that they are genuinely focused on reducing inefficiency and waste? It seems to me like they are rushing in, not bothering to learn what has already been done, arrogantly making assumptions, randomly breaking things and causing chaos, and all for what… a few billion in real savings which is not even a fraction of the proposed increase in spending by the current budget resolutions being worked on by the Republicans in the house?
Why should we have ever thought that an operation literally named after a dog meme was serious about anything?
I’d also add that doing all of this by breaking laws/contracts makes it likely that the net cost will be greater than the advertised savings. Every one of the contractors they stiffed has pretty straight forward grounds for a breach of contract suit and every government employee they said was fired for poor performance has grounds and a strong incentive to sue to clear their name.
All of this makes everything more expensive in the future: new contracts are going to have higher overhead to account for new legal and accounting costs, and unless the government will never hire anyone again they’re going to struggle to get skilled employees at all, much less at the same salary, when it’s clear that they’d be signing up to be treated like this. The direct cost is bad but the productivity cost will be even greater and last for decades.
The government has a fair bit of flexibility to cancel contracts without penalty. They usually don't, and of course nobody has ever seen it as this scale.
You're probably correct about the employment law. That will take more legal finesse to keep them from having to pay a ton of money. Fortunately for them they also own the judiciary. It's not 100% reliable, but they've for 4 out of 5 needed votes locked in at the top level
They also deleted the largest "fraud findings" from their site after a day or so after posting them because they were lies, and enough people called them out
What do you mean? There are several special elections happening April 1. New Jersey and Virginia have governor elections this November. Mid-terms in every state next November. These elections, like all elections, are run by states, not the federal government. Which ones do you think are not going to happen?
they're talking about federal elections 2 & 4 years. Trump is working to wreck the current independent FBI/NSA/SS and put in toadies loyal to him. They will effectively ignore any malfeasance that red states do at the polls to make sure Trump and republicans win all the races or at least a large enough majority to stay in power indefinitely. So he can call up and say "find me enough votes". It's likely the primary purpose the Project 2025 as first stage and re-enactment of "night of the long knives" in Germany, 1934. Just a bit less bloody and take place over the next year or so.
The federal government can do a lot to support state actions to disenfranchise people, especially when the courts go along with it. And then there’s the threat of state legislatures to override the popular vote in national elections on the basis of “fraud”.
I think it’s important to maintain curiosity rather than assume “pretty large scale fraud” here. It seems very likely that the vast majority of these old records are not actually receiving active benefits, and even the few that are may have valid reasons (ex living younger spouses).
This is good info. The histogram definitively disproves the COBOL theory.
It’s always good to respond to odd things with curiosity rather than cynicism.
It also seems clear that the vast majority of these old records are not collecting benefits, and even the few that are may have valid reasons (ex living younger spouses)
Yep, it doesn’t sound like that’s the sole criteria based on this thread, which includes a NYT article (from 2023!) showing less than 50k users over 100 collecting payments despite over 18M records.
https://xcancel.com/ThatsMauvelous/status/189135619250239902...
I can’t say how annoyed it makes me that Elon’s initial reaction to anything odd seems to be “fraud!!” rather than curiosity
> I can’t say how annoyed it makes me that Elon’s initial reaction to anything odd seems to be “fraud!!” rather than curiosity
To be fair, being curious about things isn't going to get as much support as screaming "GUBBERMINT FRAUD!" (a red rag to the GOP bull) when you're trying to trash any government departments that stand between you and more money.
It sounds like there are several million in the db with those ages and without death records, but it also sounds like the vast majority are NOT collecting paychecks either. Also unclear how many of those who are collecting involve money going to living spouses or whatever other rules exist.
US median individual income in 2022 was $48k
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_income_in_the_United_...
> The “average person” doesn’t make enough money to pay rent or afford groceries
<1% of the US population is homeless, and ~10% receive food stamps. The average person makes enough money to pay rent and buy groceries.
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