Tag Archives: Elon Musk

Pay Attention To The People Who Are Opposing The DOGE Cuts

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On Saturday, Stephen Moore posted an article at Hot Air about the opposition to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts.

The article reports:

If you haven’t watched the Bret Baier interviews on Fox News with Elon Musk and the other executives who have given their time and expertise to exposing the rampant fraud and inefficiency of our federal government, I urge you to do so.

It will infuriate you — and that’s what we need right now.

These Department of Government Efficiency volunteers are on a patriotic mission to repair our ship of state. They are hunting down the rats and scoundrels who have played us (we the taxpayers) for fools for so many years. It’s the greatest robbery — more than $1 trillion of fraud and corruption — in world history.

Yet too many Democrats are reacting as though Musk himself is the scoundrel.

The “Musk-ateers” have marked nearly 10 million Social Security recipients over the age of 120 as deceased. (How many monthly checks were sent out?) How about $10 billion in rent for empty office buildings? Hundreds of millions of dollars for foreign aid programs that went to “nongovernmental government organizations” and then disappeared down a rabbit hole? Billions of dollars in fraudulent Medicaid spending? A federal workforce that has been MIA for three years?

In the wake of this epic failure of governance, nearly every leading Democrat in Washington has protested: “Elon Musk is going too far.”

The article cites an example of why the Democrats oppose the budget cuts:

Or maybe the real answer is that THEY ARE IN ON THE SWINDLE. This could explain how so many politicians spent their careers in Congress and retired as multimillionaires.

In other words, what is most revealing about the Washington slime that we are waking up to in real time thanks to DOGE is that the waste and fraud is the currency of Washington. It pays the bills, and everyone in the swamp gets their cut. Remember: One third of $7 trillion is the stuff of fortunes.

How else does one explain the $2.7 million that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse allegedly directed/laundered to his wife via a nonprofit environmental group she worked for? This would clearly be graft, but it has gone unpunished.

We are living through the harrowing last scene in a Hollywood murder mystery in which you discover that the chief of police was in on it all along.

The article concludes:

In reality, perhaps the greatest public service of the Musk-ateers is that they have taught voters that Washington should never get another penny of our tax dollars until the sewer is completely drained and the tens of thousands of fraudsters inside and outside of government are put out of business and hopefully behind bars.

I agree.

Tyranny Has A Pattern

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There is a pattern involved in establishing and keeping a tyrannical government. It was evident in Nazi Germany and it is evident today in countries where Sharia Law is the law of the land. Syria is a current example.

Tyranny in Germany began with Paul Von Hindenberg’s appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor on January 30, 1933.  In March 1933, the first concentration camp, Dachau, opened as a place to house political prisoners. The demonization of German Jews began shortly after Hitler took power. In April 1933, citing overcrowding in the schools, the government limited the number of Jewish students that could attend school. The year 1938 brought Kristallnacht, a night when German Nazis attacked Jewish persons and property. There were no consequences for the violence against Jews and Jewish businesses. The few Christian pastors who refused to allow the government to dictate what was preached from their pulpits were arrested and placed in the concentration camps. One of the major factors in establishing a tyranny is not holding those who break the law but have the correct political view accountable. Those who have the wrong political views may be arrested or held prisoner for almost anything.

President Trump is something of a litmus test. The people who hate him are willing to overlook almost any lawlessness as long as it opposes him. Until January 20, 2025, those who oppose President Trump were operating within a justice system that was not going to hold them accountable. The attempted Watergate wiretapping resulted in the end of the Nixon presidency and in people going to jail. The wiretapping of the 2016 Trump campaign and transition team resulted in very little consequences for those involved. Kevin Clinesmith, who altered an email to allow the wiretapping, was sentenced to12 months’ probation, 400 hours of community service, and no fine. The people involved in the Russia Hoax were never held accountable for their lies. The Washington Post got to keep its Pulitzer Prize, and people still buy the newspaper. Adam Schiff said he had seen proof of Russian collusion by President Trump. We now know that was a lie, and he is still in Congress. Lawfare became on acceptable way of doing business. Lawfare against President Trump and the raid on Mar-a-Lago were acceptable actions to many Americans. The majority of the people who assaulted police and burned cities during the summer of 2020 were never held accountable. Kamala Harris encouraged Americans to contribute to a bail fund for them. In contrast, people who peacefully walked through the Capitol after police opened the doors for them were hunted down and arrested for trespassing. Most of them even stayed between the ropes set up to guide visitors! When there is a two-tiered justice system, the seeds of tyranny are being planted.

Currently we are seeing Elon Musk and President Trump demonized. How could the President be so cruel to send murderers who were here illegally to prison in El Salvador? Elon Musk is going to take away America’s safety net (no, he’s not.) The difference now is that people who are breaking the law are being held accountable. Protesting is legal. Free speech is legal. However, destroying other people’s property is not legal. Threatening or assaulting Jewish college students is a crime. Someone who is not a citizen and commits a crime needs to be sent back to where they came from.

The slouch toward tyranny can be stopped by implementing equal enforcement of the law—upholding the rule of law. Again, protesting is legal, but assault or destruction of property needs to result in jail time.

When Common Sense Takes A Vacation

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On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the fake news posted by The New York Times about Elon Musk receiving a security briefing on top secret war plans. He did not  receive such a briefing. First of all, Elon Musk is seriously involved in America’s space program (some might argue that he is America’s space program). What kind of clearances might he have because of that involvement? I realize that classified information should be given out on a ‘need to know’ basis, and there might not be a case for Elon Musk to know about China policy, but I do believe this is much ado about nothing.

The article reports:

The deep state was has been in full meltdown since Thursday night’s leaked report by the New York Times that DOGE chief Elon Musk would be visiting the Pentagon on Friday for an alleged briefing on top secret U.S. war plans for communist China.

Notice it was a leaked report. Who leaked it? We can guess why–anything to make the Trump administration look bad. The person who leaked it needs to face consequences. That is how you stop the leaks.

The article notes:

Trump addressed the controversy with reporters in the Oval Office midday Friday with Hegseth by his side, saying he would not authorize such a briefing for Musk given his business ties with China. The purpose of the Oval Office meeting with Hegseth was to announce the selection of Boeing to build the military’s new Next Generation Air Dominance fighter jet, the F-47.

The article includes the following quote by President Trump:

““Elon Musk will be briefed by the Pentagon about the USA’s top secret plans against China should there be a War,” according to the Failing New York Times, one of the worst and most purposely inaccurate newspapers anywhere in the World. Their FAKE concept for this story is that because Elon does some business in China, that he is very conflicted and would immediately go to top Chinese officials and “spill the beans.” RATINGS CHALLENGED FAKE NEWS CNN immediately picked up on this absolutely ridiculous and false story, which is probably libelous, and went heavy with it. Fortunately, nobody was watching! Maggot Hagerman, the really dumb “scammer” who constantly writes about me for the Times, using anonymous, made up (nonexistent!) sources, and who I haven’t spoken to in ages, is a big part of the Scam. She lead the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, only to realize that she was duped and got it wrong. She owes me a totally discredited Pulitzer Prize for her bad reporting. The Fake News is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE…And Elon is NOT BEING BRIEFED ON ANYTHING CHINA BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR!!!”

How many Americans still believe the fake story? That is the scary part.

What Some Voters Don’t Know

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The mainstream media isn’t doing its job. That’s not a surprise to many of us. Every day we hear about the poor government employees losing their jobs and how horrible that is. But somehow, the mainstream media isn’t saying much about how much waste the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has found and how much their proposed cuts could mean to the average American taxpayer (or the positive impact shrinking the government could have on inflation). If you have ever worked in the private sector, you understand that there are times a company has to cut its workforce to decrease costs. That’s not fun, but sometimes it is necessary. If you have never been impacted by that, you are fortunate.

On Wednesday, Newsbusters reported the following:

Once a hero of the enviro-left for his electric Tesla cars, the broadcast networks have turned Elon Musk into a boogeyman who is heartlessly firing federal employees and endangering the public with cuts to food and airline safety programs. 

Musk has been so villainized by the media that his once-beloved Teslas are being vandalized by the left. 

There is another narrative that the lefties at ABC, CBS, NBC refuse to tell: How Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have already saved the hard-working American taxpayer billions of dollars by canceling boondoggle government contracts. 

In 32 days of coverage (February 8 – March 12) ABC, CBS, NBC (on their evening and morning news shows) spent a total of (4 minutes, 43 seconds) citing specific dollar amounts that DOGE or President Donald Trump claimed to have saved the American taxpayer. 

The article lists some of the announcements the mainstream media has ignored:

On March 10, DOGE re-posted Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement: 

After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.

…On March 7, DOGE re-posted Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announcement:

CANCELLED: $600,000 grant to study “menstrual cycles in transgender men”

…On March 5, DOGE announced:

Yesterday, @NIH cancelled seven grants for transgender experiments on animals including:

– $532K to “use a mouse model to investigate the effects of cross-sex testosterone treatment”

The article lists several more instances of wasteful spending. None of these was covered by CBS, ABC or NBC. The American public deserves better journalism than that.

When The Courts Are Out Of Control

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On Friday, Newsmax reported that Walmart is considering leaving Delaware as the state of its incorporation.

The article reports:

Walmart is among the latest and biggest companies considering leaving Delaware as its location of incorporation.

A small group of corporate attorneys last month told Delaware legislators that blue-chip companies including Walmart were considering moving their corporate legal residences out of the state, Semafor reported.

The news is said to have Delaware’s political and business leaders reeling.

The small state of Delaware with just over 1 million people derives more than one-third of its state budget from corporate legal fees, not to mention the far greater impact corporation business has on the economy.

There is a reason for this exodus:

Billionaire Elon Musk began the corporate stampede when he moved multiple companies out of Delaware, including Tesla, SpaceX and Neuralink.

The move came after Delaware Chancellor Judge Kathaleen McCormick, a Democrat, ordered Musk to give up a compensation package valued at $55.8 billion, though it was twice approved by shareholders.

The ruling followed McCormick’s January 2024 decision that called the Musk pay package excessive and rescinded it.

The move surprised investors and cast uncertainty of the state’s long-held position as a neutral corporate arbiter.

Despite painting Musk’s compensation as greedy, McCormick did award the trial lawyers who sued Musk a staggering $345 million for their legal filings.

At issue for Musk, Fortune 500 CEOs and entrepreneurs across the U.S. is that the Delaware Court of Chancery has become a haven for shareholder lawsuits and left-wing judicial activism.

Musk was not happy with McCormick’s ruling and took to X, writing, “Shareholders should control company votes, not judges.”

Another Musk repost stated: “Things to do in Delaware: 1) Leave.”

Musk has also urged other companies to quit Delaware as well.

“Never incorporate your company in the state of Delaware,” Musk wrote on X.

The courts should not be able to override the wishes of the stockholders in a privately held company. Actions have consequences.

When The Objections Illustrate The Problem

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If your news sources are limited to the mainstream media, you might think that now is not a good time to visit Yosemite National Park–you might not be able to get into the restroom! Obviously that is ridiculous, but not to everyone.

On February 23rd, Townhall reported the following:

There’s something about being exposed that causes stupidity; a kneejerk reaction to push back against reality, no matter how obvious. As DOGE and President Donald Trump work to expose and fight government waste, fraud and abuse (how sad is it that they have to FIGHT Democrats to end those things?), more ways in which the federal government has been doing those things is coming to light.

…One of the dumbest and most hilarious cases of this very phenomenon was on display in a story in the Washington Post this week. It opens with this paragraph, “At California’s Yosemite National Park, the Trump administration fired the only locksmith on staff on Friday. He was the sole employee with the keys and the institutional knowledge needed to rescue visitors from locked restrooms.”

I have questions.

Why is there a locksmith on staff, as a locksmith, when you could just contract with one when needed? How often in your life have you said, “Damnit, why isn’t there a locksmith on staff?!” At the most, I’d say one time. But the odds are heavily in favor of never.

Next, why is this guy the only person with keys? Is that the source of his job security? “Fire me and you’ll never get into any building or room again, because I will destroy every key!” Doubtful, as other locksmiths exist, not to mention the fact that changing a lock isn’t all that hard.

The article concludes:

I promise you there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of examples of other things too stupid to believe that our government pays for because no one is accountable for wasting money or cares. 

This is the system Democrats and Republicans created over the years, but only Democrats defend now. They wouldn’t run their family’s finances this way, and if they ran a company’s books the way they allow government to function they’d all be in jail. 

Remember that the next time you have an argument with one of your liberal friends about how “evil” Trump and Elon Musk are. Of course, there’s a better than average chance you’d be having that argument through a bathroom door with your friend “trapped” inside as they await the locksmith’s arrival, which makes the whole conversation pretty easy to avoid.

I am totally convinced that Yosemite National Park could put a locksmith on speed dial to avoid any problems firing the current one might cause.

The Road Toward Fiscal Sanity

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On February 22nd, Fox News posted an article listing seven things that happened this week that will move us toward more a fiscally responsible government.

Here is the list:

1. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, shot down a request from several federal labor unions, including the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), to pause the mass firings of federal workers by the Trump administration.

2. DOGE was handed another victory by U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who denied a request to issue a temporary restraining order preventing Musk and DOGE from accessing data systems at the Department of Education, Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Department of Labor, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation and Department of Commerce. 

3. DOGE scored a win in court after a federal judge declined a request to temporarily block Elon Musk’s government efficiency team from accessing sensitive data from at least three federal agencies.

4. Earlier this week, DOGE announced it had discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments, that was oftentimes left blank.

5. Schools spent hundreds of billions of COVID relief funds on expenses that had “little” impact on students, such as Las Vegas hotel rooms and the purchase of an ice cream truck, according to the Trump administration’s cost-cutting department.

…The cost-cutting department also revealed that schools spent $60,000 in COVID relief funds on swimming pool passes, while a California district used its funds to purchase an ice cream truck.

6. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is working with DOGE to make cuts within his department, saying he believes it will find waste “not core to our mission.”

7. DOGE revealed on Tuesday that the U.S. government has more than 4 million active credit cards on its books.

“The US government currently has ~4.6M active credit cards/accounts, which processed ~90M unique transactions for ~$40B of spend[ing] in FY24,” DOGE said in a post on X.

We are definitely moving in the right direction.

 

View From the Lair

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Remember the Elephant

The symbol of the Republican Party is an elephant, representing dignity and strength. It didn’t start that way; cartoonist Thomas Nast portrayed Republicans as such in a number of different settings, some not so kindly. Elephants are also noted for their excellent memory. I don’t think that that particular elephantine talent always translates to the Republican Party. It should. It better.

Now that the Trump-Musk BullDOGEr has crushed and chewed its’ way into the Deep State Swamp the rats are scrambling. Leftist’s wails and screams and gnashing of teeth are music to my ears. They are attempting to fight back, of course. This time President Trump and Elon Musk are far better prepared not just to do battle but to eviscerate their opposition. Good for them.

There is a new book out, you might have seen it advertised – I’m reading it now and comparing it to the revelations being exposed by The BullDOGEr.

“The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal that is Manipulating The Federal Government” was published and released before the BullDOGEr got started but it reveals the tentacles and kudzu like morass of NGO’s, government agencies and dark money from the likes of George Soros. Possible also from Satan, though it’s hard to tell the difference.

“Woketopus” is one of, if not THE, most researched and footnoted books I’ve ever read. It follows the money trail from and through the government to all of the myriad Marxist agencies infecting our government.

Trump and Musk are making fabulous – and frightening – progress in slashing both the size of government and fraud, waste and abuse. We can hope that their efforts will be long lasting.

Yet I fear that Republicans (not to mention the general public) will not long enough remember what has been done to our Republic that they are having to undo. Marxists are nothing if not tenacious. They play the long (and dirty) game. They are not like a simple weed that can be plucked from the lawn or garden and discarded forever.

No, they are more like kudzu or Poison Ivy, that even after being cut, sprayed and pulled, the tiniest remnant will return to infest the lawn and garden, stealing the strength and sapping the energy of the honest bureaucrat (yes, an oxymoron. Though a few might exist. Like unicorns.) who is actually trying to spend our hard-earned tax dollars wisely and efficiently. (You have no idea how hard that concept is for me to grasp. Or type.)

We MUST remember. We MUST insist on transparency. We MUST refuse to sit back and expect this lesson to be learned. Because the Donkey party is stubborn. They are obnoxious. And they will fight back. They must be treated like General Sherman treated Georgia. On second thought – compared to what the Marxists deserve, Sherman was too kind.

ciao

The Snark

Just A Small Part Of The Problem

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Elon Musk shared this on X:

Image

These are the ages of people currently listed on the Social Security payment list. It is unclear how many of them are actually receiving Social Security checks. I personally would like to interview one of the 300-plus-year-old people to find out their longevity secrets.

On Monday, The Daily Caller reported:

“I’ve been fighting fake news reporters all day long here in the Washington D.C. swamp who are trying to fear monger the American people into believing that this administration is going after their hard earned tax dollars and their hard earned Social Security checks,” Leavitt (White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt) said to host Sean Hannity. “So I want to set the record straight on your show tonight, Sean, and I’m very grateful for the opportunity to do so. President Trump has directed Elon Musk and the DOGE team to identify fraud at the Social Security Administration.”

“They haven’t dug into the books yet, but they suspect that there are tens of millions of deceased people who are receiving fraudulent Social Security payments. So their goal in going into the Social Security Administration is to identify three things,” Leavitt added.

…Leavitt went on to describe DOGE’s and Musk’s main goal regarding the SSA’s potential waste, saying that the “legacy fake news” was attempting to “fear” people into believing the Trump administration had other motives.

“Number one, to identify duplicate payments and to end them. Number two, to identify payments that are going to deceased people who are no longer living and should no longer be receiving that money,” Leavitt said. “Number three, to protect the integrity of this system for hard working Americans who have been paying into it their entire lives. So, rest assured to all of the people watching your show tonight, if you paid into the system, honestly, you will continue to receive your Social Security tax checks.”

It is definitely time to make sure that everyone entitled to get payments from Social Security gets them and that everyone who is not entitled to get payments from Social Security does not get them.

It Pays To Check The Facts Before You Lecture

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On Saturday, Townhall posted an article that essentially fact-checked a recent statement by MSNBC host Rachel Maddow. Rachel Maddow was criticizing President Donald Trump for giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The only problem with the criticism was that the contract was not awarded under President Trump, but under President Biden.

The article reports:

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has once again found herself in hot water after making false claims about President Donald Trump giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The liberal pundit, known for her questionable takes and liberal meltdowns, fabricated this narrative despite no evidence to back up the allegation. This latest misstep only adds to the growing list of inaccuracies from Maddow and other left-wing media figures attempting to distort the truth to discredit Trump and Musk.

…Although Maddow accused Musk of “self-dealing” regarding the multi-million dollar armored Tesla deal, she neglected to mention that the procurement list was revised under Biden on December 13, 2024— several weeks before Trump took office. The State Department stated that the Biden administration had requested it to explore options for adding armor to off-the-shelf electric vehicles, and the project was still in its initial phases.

Anyone who still watches the mainstream media and believes what it says is not only uninformed–they are misinformed.

Pay Attention To Who Is Screaming The Loudest

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President Trump and Elon Musk have certainly shaken things up in Washington. You would think everyone would get on board with cleaning up fraud and waste in the government and cutting spending. It kind of makes you wonder why anyone would oppose those things. Well, we are starting to find out why.

On Wednesday, Hot Air posted an article about one group who is opposed to all of the sunlight currently shining on government expenses. I know that this is an incredible coincidence, but one of the groups opposed to looking into and cutting the spending has received a lot of money from the government agency doing the spending.

The article reports:

It might be easier to keep a list of who in the Establishment DOESN’T get USAID funding than those who do. 

As everybody in the Elite screams from the top of their lungs about the injustice of it all, it turns out that cuts to USAID are so offensive to them because USAID is nothing but a piggy bank for every damn one of them. 

The article includes the following:

That might explain the following:

The article notes:
Senator Kennedy, who can always be counted on for interesting comments, is quoted on X:
The article concludes:

I want to see where every dollar goes. Every self-righteous organization, by complaining, is outing itself as yet another grifter that subsists off the hard work of the people they are working to suppress.

This is a war between the Establishment and the people. Nothing less.

Stay tuned and get out the popcorn!

Down The Rabbit Hole With Alice In Wonderland

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Sometimes the media spin is just so ridiculous it is funny. I am still trying to figure out how a President reining in government spending is a threat to the Constitution. It seems to me that President Trump is simply doing what he was elected to do.

On Tuesday, Breitbart posted the following:

Establishment media outlets appear to be laying the groundwork to impeach President Donald Trump and perhaps a few of his team members, based on the president’s purge of the so-called “deep state” or administrative state.

Reporters and pundits’ portrayal of Trump’s actions appears to be a signal for what is perhaps to come if Democrats gain control of the House in 2026.

Legacy media and Democrat operatives appear particularly upset that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) gained access to the federal payment system at the Treasury Department to monitor outflows of taxpayer funds. They are also angered about Trump’s decision to essentially defund many agencies, such as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and fire rogue and corrupt actors within the administrative state.

These allegations, bolstered by think tank “experts,” caused some Democrat lawmakers to publicly demand the impeachment of Trump, the chief executive of the federal branch. Other Democrats, like Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), suggested they should start by impeaching the president’s director of DOGE, Elon Musk.

Considering that President Trump’s approval is about 60 percent and the Democrats’ approval is hovering around 30 percent, the Democrats might want to rethink their strategy. Is fighting fiscal responsibility a hill they are willing to die on?

The article concludes:

The term “deep state” or “administrative state” describes the phenomenon of unaccountable and unelected administrative agency personnel, including the national security apparatus, exercising power to create and enforce their own rules. The administrative state uses its rule-making ability to essentially usurp the separation of powers between the three branches of government by creating a so-called fourth branch of government not formed by the Constitution.

Many unelected bureaucrats within the administrative state also use their position to inflict their own agenda on citizens. For instance, after the “laptop from hell” story broke in 2020, 51 intelligence officials signed a letter that insinuated Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Politico peddled the letter under the title, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” The 51 signatories seemingly knew the Politico story was false at the time because the FBI had the laptop that Hunter abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. Former President Joe Biden cited the story during a 2020 presidential debate with Trump to discredit the laptop’s contents. The story was allegedly planted by former Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Biden to use during the event.

It’s time to go back to government of the people, by the people, for the people.

Taking Action Against Medical Fraud

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On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) next target.

The article reports:

Elon Musk, who is leading the charge under President Trump’s newly established Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced on his social media platform X that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wasted a staggering “$100 billion of taxpayer money.”

On Wednesday, Musk’s team, along with two senior veterans from the agency, has been meticulously reviewing the CMS’s payment and contracting systems, which are crucial for managing health insurance for approximately one in every four Americans, according to far-left USA Today.

“CMS has two senior Agency veterans – one focused on policy and one focused on operations – who are leading the collaboration with DOGE, including ensuring appropriate access to CMS systems and technology,” the agency said in a statement to Reuters.

The DOGE team was granted read-only access to the system.

The article concludes:

Medicare currently covers about 68 million Americans, primarily those over 65 and individuals with disabilities, while Medicaid serves approximately 73 million low-income citizens.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), from June 2024 through October 2024, CMS suspended 850 agents and brokers’ Marketplace Agreements for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches. These agents and brokers are now prohibited from participating in Marketplace enrollment, including receiving related commissions.

The Department of Justice has also been active in combating healthcare fraud.

In recent years, the average loss associated with the schemes prosecuted by the Health Care Fraud Unit has steadily risen.

In June 2024, the Department of Justice announced charges against 193 defendants, including 76 medical professionals, for their alleged involvement in fraudulent schemes amounting to approximately $2.75 billion in false claims.

Since 2007, the Health Care Fraud Unit has charged more than 5,400 defendants with fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurers more than $27 billion.

It’s amazing what young computer wizards can find!

This May Change Quickly

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On Saturday, Manhattan-based District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a sweeping emergency injunction essentially removing the authority of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessett over the Treasury Department. The injunction blocks the Secretary and any political appointees from accessing records within the Treasury Department. The injunction also blocks any ‘special appointee’ of President Trump from having access records within the Treasury Department and demands that all information previously extracted be destroyed. What the judge is essentially saying is that the Treasury Secretary is not allow to look at the Treasury records nor is he or the President allowed to hire anyone to look at those records. This is an amazing combination of chutzpah, arrogance, ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, and stupid. I expect the ruling to be overturned quickly.

On Saturday, Legal Insurrection reported:

It was an unusual procedural context. I’ve reviewed the court’s electronic docket, and it appears to have been ex parte. There’s no indication of notice to the government and opportunity to be heard before the Judge ruled. The procedure was a Proposed Order To Show Cause including a Temporary Restraining Order. It’s the type of procedure used in only the most extreme emergencies (the OSC is not unusual, but including an ex parte TRO is unusual).

What was the emergency that couldn’t wait until the next day for the government to have a chance to be heard?

It was a Friday night move to deny access that, by the papers submitted, had been going on for over two weeks. The 60 page Complaint, and 40 Page Memorandum (plus a short Affirmation) obviously took a long time to prepare, arguing against an emergency so dire and time sensitive on a Friday night the court couldn’t even wait until the next morning for the government to be heard. It also reeks of judge shopping, because plaintiffs would have known who was the emergency duty judge so by going in on a Friday night they evaded the normal random assignment system for this purpose.

Whatever the ultimate merits, depriving the Secretary of Treasury of the ability to run the Department of Treasury as he deems proper is not something that should have been decided this way, even temporarily. I understand that litigants play these games, but it’s a bad look that damages faith in the judiciary when a court allows it.

The short version of the complaint and claims is that Secretary Bessent violated various procedural requirements and that there is a threat that sensitive private information could be exposed. Considering that the Chinese government thoroughly hacked the Treasury computer systems under Biden, it’s odd that the mere possibility that DOGE might mishandle the information required a Friday night court intervention. I think there are serious ‘standing’ issues with the states bringing the case as well as the harm being speculative.

The article also notes:

I can’t really assess the underlying merits on such short notice, other than it seems like what it is, a political objection in search of a legal theory. The Executive Branch gets to run the Executive Branch, and this seems like an overstep by a different branch of government.

This seems to be a repeat of 2017, where the Resistance had good luck with District Court Judges, less luck with Appeals Court Judges, and very little luck with Supreme Court Justices. But that’s besides the point, this is all about slowing down the Trump agenda, and wasting months or years before a final resolution is reached. Democrats don’t have to win in the end to achieve Democrats’ goals.

It is telling that there was less fuss when the Chinese hacked into the system.

Where We Were Before The Courts Got Involved

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Author: Raynor James

A funny thing happened recently while I was cleaning our refrigerator.  I turned on “rumble” and listened to it like listening to the radio.  I got a guy I’d never heard before, and what he said got interesting.

He talked about Elon Musk and something he’s doing with his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) assignment.  Apparently, a team he has assembled took over an office building in Washington, D.C. that previously housed folks who handled the cash flow from the U.S. Treasury Department.  Elon’s team has reportedly changed the codes to the locks on the building and changed the access codes to the computers in the building.  Elon’s team had control of the check book.”

In a simple (but brilliant) maneuver, Elon got his team to agree to be on location 24/7.  That included swinging into action on the week-end, quickly blocking the previous team out, working 12 hour shifts, and living and sleeping on site.  It’s said that they are to be well compensated for putting their normal lives “on hold” until they have uncovered what is being spent for what, and whether they are appropriate uses of our precious, hard earned taxpayer dollars.

That makes sense, doesn’t it?  It makes common sense that people who make a deep commitment to accomplish their mission can achieve a huge amount more than a workforce who works 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, and many of whom seldom, if ever, report into the office.

What has Elon’s team found out?  (You are up to date on your blood pressure medicine, aren’t you?)   For starters, the previous keepers of our national check book were under instruction to NOT DENY ANY CLAIM.  Really?  Yup!  NOT EVEN IF THEY KNEW IT WAS A FRAULENT CLAIM, and NOT IF THEY KNEW THE PEOPLE MAKING THE CLAIM WERE ACTIVE TERRORISTS.  What’s more, they followed their instructions!

It’s reported that Elon Musk is amazed at the amount of money flowing out of our collective piggy bank has continued to be money that the disbursers knew to be in those aforementioned categories, and they continued to do it anyway — until Elon and his team shut them down.  Go Elon!  Go team!

On his “War Room” programs, Steve Bannon has made many references to Elon Musk’s having managed to “cut off the check book.”  However, he is still distressed about members of the House of Representatives’ who talk a conservative line but who are squishy about cutting expenses THIS YEAR.

This Might Explain Some Of The Hysteria

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The attacks on Elon Musk and DOGE have dominated the news in recent days. Americans wonder why some of the people supposedly in charge are so upset about cutting federal spending. Some of the people in charge have claimed for years that they wanted to cut federal spending.

On Saturday, Red State posted an article that explains some of the hysteria.

The article reports:

Congress illegally spent at least $516 billion in 2024 on programs for which there was no authorization. Yes, billion, with a “b.”  A stunning report by the Congressional Budget Office underscores the reason for the legal assault upon President Trump’s right to audit payments by the Treasury Department.

In a report titled “Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2024,” the CBO observes: “Historically, House and Senate rules restrict lawmakers from considering an appropriation if it lacks a current authorization.” Nevertheless, “CBO estimates that $516 billion was appropriated for 2024 for activities with expired authorizations, which the agency identified for each House and Senate authorizing committee and appropriations subcommittee.” That $516 billion in illegal payments cover “1,264 authorizations of appropriations that expired before the beginning of fiscal year 2024 and 251 authorizations of appropriations that were set to expire by the end of fiscal year 2024.” The legal authority for some of these payments expired 40 — that’s not a typo — years ago.

The article includes a chart of the expenditures.

The article concludes:

Making this all the more intriguing is that it would seem that the President could stop those payments without worrying about violating the Impoundment Control Act as they are not legal appropriations by Congress’s rules.

I will guarantee you that when DOGE really digs into this, they are going to find other ongoing illegal payments on a Biblical scale.

I think we are learning why most Americans who pay taxes spend at least 33 percent on taxes, including state and local taxes.

This Needed To Be Done

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There is some serious concern on the part of Democrats about the investigation and possible demise of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). On Tuesday, The Gateway Pundit posted pictures of Democrats demonstrating outside the Treasury Building to protest the investigation into USAID.

The article notes:

Democrat Reps. Ayanna Pressley and LaMonica McIver called for violence during the “Nobody Elected Elon” protest outside the Treasury Department.

“We will not take this!” Rep. LaMonica McIver shouted before attacking Elon Musk. “We will fight back! And goddammit shut down the Senate! We are at war!”

Sounds like insurrection to me.

But the story gets more interesting.

On Wednesday, Hot Air reported the following:

USAID has been funding terrorism–even our most dangerous enemies–and the USAID Inspector General in January warned that the agency was a danger to US national security.

…That’s not exactly a newsflash for anybody who has been following the revelations that have come out over the past few days, but it puts an exclamation mark on them. 

Just days before Elon Musk began a purge at the U.S. Agency for International Develop (USAID), the foreign aid agency was warned in a stinging memo from its own internal watchdog that it had created serious “vulnerabilities” by doling out billions of tax dollars to overseas countries and groups without fulling vetting for terrorists and fraudsters or demanding transparency from recipients of America’s largesse.

The memo, which was published by the Inspector General of the U.S. Agency for International Development in late January, details some long-standing concerns about how safeguards against misuse of funds and the proper authorities to hold violators accountable are missing from the Office of Inspector General’s toolbox. 

The article at hot Air includes the following post on X:

USAID needs to go away.

The Flak Is Always Thickest Over The Target

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The first two weeks of the Trump administration have been a whirlwind. That is probably because the President realizes that he needs to act quickly to prevent a major crash of the American economy. The best way to cut taxes is to cut government spending, and that is happening at breakneck speed. Not everyone is happy.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article about the hill the Democrats are prepared to die on.

The article reports:

Of all the things Donald Trump is doing to upend the old order in Washington, it turns out that closing USAID, even temporarily, is the one thing that all Democrats can agree is egregious enough to go to war over.

Here are a few X screenshots from the article:

The article concludes:

Democrats are making it clear that they will fight like cornered rats to keep control of USAID and its massive funding stream.

We all know why, which is why Trump needs to win this battle one way or another.

This is a major step toward cutting government spending and lowering taxes for the American people.

Protecting The Pocketbook Of The American Taxpayer

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On Saturday, Zero Hedge posted an article about Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending. David A. Lebryk, the acting Secretary of the Treasury has retired after refusing Elon Musk access to Treasury Department records.

The article reports:

David A. Lebryk, a decades-long Treasury official who President Trump named as acting secretary upon taking office last week, announced his retirement in a Friday email to colleagues. According to the report, Lebryk had a dispute with Musk surrogates over access to the US government’s payment system used to disburse trillions of dollars every year.

[Imagine Musk and team uncover decades of improper payments and shady dealings?]

The Musk surrogates are affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and have been asking since the election for access to the system, according to the report. The requests were reiterated after Trump’s inauguration.

After Trump pick Scott Bessent was confirmed as Treasury Secretary on Monday, Lebryk ceased to be acting agency head.

The payment system in question is run by a handful of career officials within the Bureau of the Fiscal Service – which controls the flow of more than $6 trillion annually to households, businesses, and other entities nationwide – and includes Social Security, Medicare, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, tax refunds, grant recipients, and more.

…Unfortunately for the career bureaucrats, Trump signed an executive order instructing all agencies to ensure DOGE has “full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, software systems, and IT systems,” which appear to include the Treasury payment systems.

Musk has previously slammed rising national debt as an existential threat to the country, while DOGE has already made progress in rooting out bullshit programs established by Democrat administrations.

On Saturday, The New York Times reported:

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave representatives of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency full access to the federal payment system late on Friday, according to three people familiar with the change, handing Elon Musk and the team he is leading a powerful tool to monitor and potentially limit government spending.

The new authority follows a standoff this week with a top Treasury official who had resisted allowing Mr. Musk’s lieutenants into the department’s payment system, which sends out money on behalf of the entire federal government. The official, a career civil servant named David Lebryk, was put on leave and then suddenly retired on Friday after the dispute, according to people familiar with his exit.

This is what America voted for.

Racing Toward Irrelevance

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I think most Americans are willing to let bygones be bygones in terms of the mainstream media. Americans are a forgiving bunch and have not yet totally tuned out the mainstream media yet. However, the mainstream media is not helping their cause.

On Tuesday, Hot Air posted an article titled, “And the New Hoaxes Begin….” Unfortunately, that is an accurate title. Some of the mainstream media is already shouting that the Trump administration is made up of Nazis. I really am tired of everything the liberals don’t like being labeled ‘Nazi.’

The article reports:

Did Elon Musk give a Nazi salute at an inaugural rally with Trump supporters? In a sane world the question would be absurd to even consider, but we live in the Truman Show.

…If you believe the Pravda Media and the left-wing hoaxers, you might think he did. I took a quick break from watching X and the festivities to lie down yesterday afternoon and was greeted by a torrent of tweets insisting that Elon Musk has liberated his inner Nazi and spoke at the Nuremberg rally or something.

Here are some screen shots of the posts at X about the matter:

Note that the first screenshot is from PBS. We paid for that. It’s really sad that the mainstream media not only finds this necessary, but begins it hours after the swearing in of a new President. The other thing to watch for is the use of ‘Mr. Trump’ in reporting rather than ‘President Trump.’ That is still going on.

The Games Have Begun

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On Tuesday, Yahoo News posted an article about some of the lawsuits filed against President Trump’s executive orders. President Trump won the popular vote and the Electoral College, but that is not going to stop the deep state from trying to limit his power.

The article reports:

The lawsuits started to roll in on Monday within minutes of Trump being sworn into office for a second term. The Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Business Insider.

Here are the Trump initiatives that have been targeted so far:

The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency came under swift legal attack shortly after Trump signed an executive order formally creating the group that aims to slash wasteful federal spending.

Advocacy organizations and public interest groups quickly filed a handful of lawsuits in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against DOGE.

Three of four lawsuits filed argue that DOGE violates the transparency requirements of the 1972 Federal Advisory Committee Act. DOGE, the lawsuits say, is not a federal department and should be considered a federal advisory committee subject to the FACA law.

…Another lawsuit, filed by several groups including the American Public Health Association and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, contends that DOGE is a “shadow operation led by unelected billionaires who stand to reap huge financial rewards from this influence and access.”

…A fourth lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity against the Office of Management and Budget, seeks to compel the government agency to hand over records related to DOGE under the Freedom of Information Act.

“These records are important for the public to understand the threats to numerous environmental protections embodied in rules and orders and how, when, and under what circumstances the new administration intends to act on these threats,” the lawsuit says.

Another major target of the lawsuit:

One of Trump’s executive orders targets the constitutional right to birthright citizenship. The order bars federal agencies from issuing documents recognizing the citizenship of babies born in the United States to parents who are in the country illegally.

…The lawsuit says the order conflicts with the 14th Amendment’s provision that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

“This principle has enabled generations of children to pursue their dreams and build a stronger America,” the lawsuit says.

Please follow the link to the article for further details. The bottom line here is simple–the battle is not over–it has just begun.

Who Is Pulling The Strings?

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On January 21st, PJ Media reported the following:

One of Donald Trump’s first acts as president was to commute the sentences of or pardon nearly every single Jan. 6 prisoner, setting them all free. But multiple prisons and halfway houses have resisted complying, with the D.C. gulag holding multiple prisoners hostage and refusing to release them.

Trump’s historic order commuted the sentences of about a dozen individuals and pardoned “all individuals convicted of offenses related to event that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” It ordered that those “currently held in prison are released immediately.” But the thugs who have so abused and trampled the rights of the J6ers under the Biden-Harris administration for four years are defying the law one last time. J6ers and friends reported prisons and halfway houses across America slow-rolling prisoners’ releases, and the infamous Washington, D.C., jail nicknamed the Gulag flat out refused to release multiple J6 hostages.

Even Elon Musk responded to families’ pleas, resharing a message urging them to bring Trump‘s pardon with them to the prison and requesting to be notified if they continued to encounter resistance in the release of their loved ones.

One prisoner reported on the events:

Early Tuesday morning, Lang (Jake Lang) posted an update: “Hey @elonmusk they are STILL HOLDING me & 20 other J6 Political Prisoners hostage inside the Washington DC Jail Gulag & WONT LET US LEAVE!!!” He reiterated the accusation of assault. “I was swarmed & assaulted by prison officials including Lt. Allen & his Emergency Response Team (ERT) Thugs last night while sitting all packed up to leave!!!! Our were families are standing outside in below freezing 10° weather until 1am when they released 2 hostages, there are still 20 of us in here!!! [sic]”

The article concludes:

This is completely unacceptable and illegal. Prison authorities are openly defying presidential pardons and orders. This is one more disgusting and shameful illustration of how abusive, dishonest, biased, and vindictive our prison system is in America now. Biden pardoned or commuted the sentences of literal murderers, Chinese spies, and pedophiles, but when Trump pardons innocent patriots, the jails hold them hostage.

All those involved in preventing the release need to be charged with a crime and arrested.

How To Bring Prosperity Back To Average Americans

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The American economy was designed to be based on free market capitalism. Somewhere along the way it began to look more like crony capitalism. That is what I think we have become. So how do we get back to the place where every man has an equal opportunity to become wealthy? Oddly enough, Elon Musk has a few ideas on the subject.

On Tuesday, Townhall reported:

What people actually paying attention know? Is Big Business and Big Government work in tandem – to their ongoing mutual benefit. And the country’s destruction.

Big Business writes laws making Big Government bigger.  Which Big Government then passes.  Bigger Big Government then works to make Big Business even bigger.  Bigger Big Business then writes laws… Lather, rinse, repeat…

Nauseatingly over-remunerated Big Bank employees become Big Government bureaucrats.  Who then help the Big Banks get even bigger.  Then the Big Government bureaucrats are rewarded by becoming nauseatingly over-remunerated Big Bank employees. Who then become…  Lather, rinse, repeat…

To wit: I give you the United States’ financial sector.  The Big Banks are titanic, dominant forces that control great and growing percentages of the market.  The Big Government agencies that allegedly exist to prevent Big Bank abuses?  The Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) chief amongst them?  Are titanic, dominant forces that control great and growing percentages of the market.

Together?  They dominate and have destroyed their huge portion of the US economy.

The article reminds us:

Dodd-Frank massively increased the power of the unconstitutional, unaccountable Fed.  And created the unconstitutional, unaccountable CFPB.     

The allegedly “independent” Fed and CFPB have now been so powerful and so unaccountable for so long?  Their bureaucrats respond with anger and revulsion to even the thought of anyone even prospectively reining them in.  

Fed chairman Jerome Powell is a government villain too cartoonish even for Ayn Rand: 

“Jay Powell says Donald Trump couldn’t fire him even if he tried….’Not permitted under the law,’ the central bank chair said Thursday in curt but clear responses to reporters who asked about his views on any legal authorities Trump might have in terms of firing or demoting him or any other top Fed officials.”  

The article concludes:

Which brings us back to the Trump Administration and its DOGE – The Department of Government Efficiency.  

One of the two co-czars of DOGE is Elon Musk.  Who has said some VERY promising things about both the CFPB and the Fed.

Musk Calls for End to CFPB

Elon Musk Reposts Call to End the US Federal Reserve Bank 

Yes, please.  And yes, please.  

The first two letter of DOGE are “DO.”  As in it let’s DO it.  Times two.

Just a reminder:

Unintentionally Or Otherwise, America Is Leading The Way

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The progressive movement is slowing down worldwide, if not stopping. On Saturday, Ed Morrissey at Hot Air quoted a Wall Street Journal article on the subject of the decline of the progressive movement.

The article reports:

This past year showed that the progressive politics that dominated most industrialized countries over the past two decades or more is shifting to the right, fueled by working-class anxieties over the economy and immigration, and growing fatigue with issues from climate change to identity politics. …

Part of the shift is the normal pendulum of politics swinging back and forth between established parties on the left and right. The difference this time is a strong strain of populism and a growing rejection of traditional parties. 

In country after country, many working-class voters—especially those outside the biggest cities—are signaling the same thing: They mistrust the establishment—from academics to bankers to traditional politicians—and feel these elites are out of touch and don’t care about people like them.

Years of increased migration and trade, coupled with low economic growth, have led to a backlash and a rise in nationalism, where people want more of a sense of control, political analysts say. The rise of social media has exacerbated divisions and led to an upsurge in antiestablishment parties.

The monopoly that the political left has had on the media ended on the radio when The Rush Limbaugh show went national and on the internet when Elon Musk bought Twitter. There is still some censorship on Twitter, but it is nothing compared to what it was before Elon Musk bought it.

The article at Hot Air reminds us:

Economics are part of this too, but are more of a symptom than a root cause. Western economics has suffered from climate-change hysteria pushed by the progressive Left as a means to seize control of energy production. Where that has succeeded, in Germany and the UK to some extent, it has produced economic hardship and promises more of the same for the future. Germany in particular has a crisis on its hands which will shrink its income and wealth unless it takes rapid steps to return to reliable and scalable energy production. The US went in this direction to a lesser extent in the Obama and Biden years too, but they didn’t have enough buy-in to do the kind of extensive damage that the radicals did in Germany.

Add in the lies about the pandemic, transgenderism, forced multiculturalism through open borders, and wokery in general. Those are the first causes of the rejection of the progressive “moment” and of the neo-Marxists who seized power through it. When it began to damage economies enough for voters to notice, not to mention all of the other quality-of-life indicators that matter to the electorate, then the rejection was not just predictable but long overdue.

People around the world welcome a change to work and become economically successful. The progressive movement historically has transferred wealth to a favored few.

Some Of The Spending Cuts Are Obvious

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On Wednesday, The Epoch Times posted an article about some of the federal budget cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) could investigate.

The article reports:

In a letter sent on Monday to DOGE advisors Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) outlined her “instruction manual” of ways to eliminate government waste.

“With $3 billion of interest being added to our national debt every day, the longer we delay tackling the problem, the further away the finish line gets,” Ernst wrote in the letter. “To give you a head start, here are a trillion dollars’ worth of ideas for trimming the fat and reducing red ink.”

Ernst pointed out that the cost of maintaining and leasing government buildings costs $8 billion every year.

She noted that the federal workforce still works remotely and “not a single headquarters of a major government agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full.”

Ernst targeted the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in her blueprint of cost-cutting targets. She cited her audit of the tax collection agency which revealed that 5,800 employees and contractors owe nearly $50 million themselves.

The lawmaker also called for the DOGE to act as the “Grinch” on the government’s end-of-year “use it or lose it” spending spree which she called “Christmas in September.” The senator said that Sept. 20 every year marks the deadline for the federal government to spend money left over at the end of a fiscal year.

Part of the problem is baseline budgeting–your budget for next year starts with this year’s spending as the bottom line–thus the rush to spend all of your budget. Therefore, if you ask for a 10 percent increase and only get a 5 percent increase, you can say that you budget was cut 5 percent even though your budget grew. It’s very similar to the wife who goes shopping, spends $300, and tells her husband she saved $100.

There is hope that we will finally see government spending cut in the upcoming Trump administration.