These “I’m just concerned about the waste” criticisms from the right are… awfully selective.
No concern about the $150B increase in military spending. No comments at all.
No concern about abandoning Ukraine to Russia after having invested hundreds of billions in military aid to keep Russia out of Europe.
No concern about the billions spent on fossil fuel subsidies.
Etc, etc…
But oh my gosh, someone spent a poomfteenth of a fraction of a percent on something that sounds “left wing” then BURN IT ALL DOWN!
I welcome government efficiency, and clearly some programs were stupid and wasteful. However, that’s clearly not what DOGE is about. They’re not looking into general waste or corruption. Instead they’re doing a drag-net operation and cancelling anything and everything with certain key words Musk doesn’t personally like.
Disagree? Name one program that DOGE has cancelled that was sponsored by someone on the right.
A whole bunch of farmers in predominantly red states, many of them trump voters, are totally fucked this year because their crops were going to USAID.
It's not about "efficiency" or "the economy", it's about wrecking shit so bad the tech oligarchs can seize power. They're trying to make curtis yarvin's insane bullshit real.
Oh they will carve out exceptions for them. And rural post offices (the MAILS act), and rural schools (Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act). Democratic doormats will jump in an help Republicans shield their constituencies from the pain they are inflicting because preserving rural post offices is the right thing to do right? What I'm saying is, those farmers will be fine.
That's the funniest thing about all of this. Bunch of red state farmers expected something in return for their vote. Can't just pay them directly, so instead their representatives pay them by sticking some pork in a bill that says USAID will pay farmers to grow soybeans. Same effect.
But now some koolaid drinker comes in, notices some money being sent to feed third world poor people, calls it woke nonsense and shuts it down.
But who does this end up hurting directly but the very people who voted for this to happen! They grew a bunch of beans the government doesn't want to pay for anymore, and they're out of luck. I guess you can call this waste, or even abuse, but definitely not woke.
> They're trying to make curtis yarvin's insane bullshit real.
There's a non-zero chance this is exactly what's going on, at least for an influential faction in the administration (there seem to be... a few factions, at least for now). Vance has alluded to Yarvin a couple times in interviews, and AFAIK Thiel's outright said he likes Yarvin's ideas. Not sure how Musk feels about the guy.
A decent news media would have hammered anyone connected to the campaign over that kind of thing, any time they got a chance. We don't have that, though.
> Name one program that DOGE has cancelled that was sponsored by someone on the right.
We know this is the case, but there's nothing you could say to them to believe it, they will just make up an excuse like "because we do things right, there is nothing to cancel." while blaming the left for ten dollar eggs.
