Musk is busy urging slashing funds for worker safety, consumer safety, and silly Marxist nonsense like that.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and former Republican presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy head to Capitol Hill on Thursday to present their ideas for President-elect Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE.
The new group is expected to recommend drastic cuts to the federal workforce and to slash regulation. To achieve those goals, though, the group will have to work through Congress.
Regulation is bad, you see. Mustn’t regulate capitalism. Profit is the only goal.
In social media posts, podcasts, op-eds, books and speeches, Musk and Ramaswamy have sketched out what they have in mind: a 75% reduction in the federal workforce, a $2 trillion cut to federal spending and the elimination of entire agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Consumer financial protection; have you ever heard of anything so absurd? The job of consumers is to hand over their money to the profit-makers. Profit is the only value.
William Howell, founder and director of the Center for Effective Government at the University of Chicago, notes that these workers simply implement laws enacted by Congress.
“These are the folks who keep our air clean, allow planes to land safely, that keep the meat we buy at the grocery store devoid of disease,” Howell said.
He said that indeed there are federal agencies working at cross-purposes and that leads to inefficiencies like those that DOGE is determined to root out. He pointed to the country’s “unbelievably complex tax code” and what he called an immigration system that “nobody would suggest is acceptable.” However for Howell, the rhetoric from Musk and Ramaswamy to “shut down” entire agencies and lay off workers raises red flags.
“You may need to rebuild it and you may need to adapt it to contemporary purposes,” Howell said. “But the way to do it is not by taking a sledgehammer to it.”
Yebbut taking a sledgehammer to it is so much fun.
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10 responses to “Cut all the things”
I’m thinking that someone who almost literally has everything (including his own personal fucking space program), might not be the best judge of what might constitute a necessary service. It’s easy for Musk because he has nothing to lose.
Your Name’s not Bruce, #1:
Are you suggesting that Musk should care about other people? How dare you! You’re destroying the glorious spirit of the U. S. of A. with your Leninist rhetoric. Next I’ll bet you’ll be asking for people with life-threatening conditions to get healthcare even if they can’t pay! The right to maximize profit always comes before to live.
But all your freedom luvin’ gun totin’ rootin’ shootin’ good ole boys, plus the basket of deplorables and the garbage bags that swept Trump to power will cheer as the ship of state goes down. The Turkeys voted for Xmas.
I read sometime back that one state (Texas?) had banned outdoor workers from drinking water during work hours. Strong Unions in Australia would shut down the first hint of that in construction.
Woolworths, our largest supermarket operator, is trying to implement Amazon style rules where warehouse and distribution staff are expected to work at 100% pace for 100% of the day, no pause for breath after loading dozens of 28kg cartons. Those three warehouses are currently shut down, supermarket shelves are emptying and the employer claims they’ve already lost $50 million in sales.
Why is it, that in America especially, those with the least capital are the quickest to support those with the most?
I’ve been wondering that my whole adult life.
And meanwhile, one of the few decent picks by Trump, Lori Chavez-DeRemer for Secretary of Labor, is facing opposition from Republicans because she’s taken some (gasp!) pro-union stances.
Tuberville’s against her too (of course), but the Teamsters support her, and Warren seem to like her, so she still might get confirmed with Democratic support.
Oregon is ahead of Kentucky in terms of GDP; what the hell is his issue? (We’re right to work as well, but trade unions aren’t exactly demonized here).
I’m amazed that Trump picked someone that pro-union.
She must have come straight from Central Casting.
Francis Fukuyama had a piece in Persuasion about this: they can do a lot of damage by drawing on targets on things but ultimately Muskrat and Rancidshawarma’s little project isn’t a real government body. It’d be like the Chamber of Commerce but with even less legitimacy and probably fewer personnel.
They have to get rid of the CFPB because it was something that Elizabeth Warren pushed for and through, following the mortgage debacle that caused so much pain in 2008 and 2009. So, DOGE don’t care if people get into houses they can’t afford, balloon payments that they can’t refinance when due, interest rates that aren’t based on any real index? Apparently, the abandoned houses and mortgages, combined with massive increases in homelessness are good for the economy.