From "Elon Musk Launches Into American Politics," the new episode of the NYT podcast, The Daily.
And here's the top news story at the NYT: "At Mar-a-Lago, 'Uncle' Elon Musk Puts His Imprint on the Trump Transition/He’s on the patio. He’s on the golf course. Everywhere Donald Trump looks, there is the world’s richest man" (free-access link).
Mr. Musk has assumed an almost mythical aura in Mr. Trump’s inner circle. At Mar-a-Lago one recent evening, he walked into the dining room about 30 minutes after the president-elect did and received a similar standing ovation, according to two people who saw him enter.
Mr. Musk, often with his 4-year-old son X on his lap, has spent most of the last week at Mar-a-Lago, joining not just interviews but almost every meeting and many meals that Mr. Trump has had. He briefly shuttled back to Austin, Texas... before returning on Friday, where he ate in Mar-a-Lago’s dining room and on its patio, roamed the gift shop and spent time on the golf course — all alongside the president-elect.
“I’m happy to be the first buddy!” he replied to a social-media follower this weekend....
On Sunday, Mr. Trump’s eldest grandchild, Kai Trump, put it a little more bluntly with a photo from the golf course: “Elon achieving uncle status.”
This might be adorable to some, terrifying to others. It's certainly interesting as hell. I'll maintain my cruel neutrality and just say that I suspect that Elon has help crafting his public persona, and I think some of that help is AI. Think about when he first leapt onto a Trump rally stage. The NYT podcast describes it like this:
The most amazing thing to me has been watching him at these rallies. The energy in this room is incredible. Right up on stage, he was with Trump.... He was just right out there with him, almost like he was running for president.... Wasn't this man trying to run like six companies and colonize Mars? How did he have time for all of this?
The podcast plays some of Musk's performance. You know it:
"Take over, Elon, take over."
How did he have that rally style spring-loaded and ready to pop out? It's not like his usual interview style, which is oddly awkward and restrained. I suspect that he trained AI on Trump rally performances, derived a way to say what he wanted, and maybe got an acting coach. But perhaps you think that he spontaneously became boyish and overjoyed in the presence of Trump and the crowd.
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161 comments:
He’s not wrong. If it is easier to launch a rocket than do paperwork it’s the paperwork that needs to be fixed.
which is a crazy and really unachievable goal
It’s only unachievable because the swamp won’t let it happen. To suggest we couldn’t find 2 trillion in the budget to cut is just ignorant. We could do it without most Americans seeing a loss in service. In fact service would likely be streamlined and easier for everyone…
It's joyous to see the two of them on their honeymoon, after such an incredible wedding. How sad that we know in 2-3 years there will be an acrimonious and very public divorce.
and cutting as much as $2 trillion in federal spending, which is a crazy and really unachievable goal Stated without evidence, as they say. There is a danger, perhaps, of throwing out something good.
…and he’s correct about regulation. It kills. The best recent evidence is Obama’s New Normal lackluster economy with three months in to the first Trump economy. Excess regulation is a killer. Worse than high tax rates…
The cuts in government bureaucracy need to be done. There will be pushback and resistance from every corner. It will be incredibly difficult but if he can even make a dent in the bloating, he will have done well. Good luck!
Who can forget Elon entering the Twitter HQ carrying a sink--and then laying off 80-90% of the staff?
"Otiose" describes a lot of the Federal bureaucracy. Be gone!
Ah yes, now the NYT's is suddenly concerned about rich men getting involved in politics and having access to the POTUS. How...scary. Unlike Soros, Cuban, Zuckerberg, Yang, Bezos, Sulzberger Ackman, etc. who had access to Obama, Biden, Pelosi, and more or less run the Democrat party. Or own all the media. And get together on skype calls to plot how to help Israel or steer the USA in "correct" direction.
Poor Elon, is now "the bad rich guy". The suspicious oddball. The word has gone forth, and now you have SNL mocking him and Bob Wright being "concerned". If only he'd done handsprings for Biden, and censored twitter the way the ADL and DNC want, then he'd still be the "cool rich guy", who had green electrical cars and shot rockets into space.
If Trump really does require 5 days in the office, a lot of those federal employees will self-deport.
The strategy for transforming the federal government should be pretty obvious - outsource most of its services. Namely, reduce each agency to a core group of contract administrators and project managers but outsource its service functions to private companies (multiple, to drive competition for cost control and service quality) using 5-year contracts with performance clauses for specified results and service quality. I would expect to see cost savings of 25%-50% almost immediately and an elimination of bureaucratic deadwood and ideological/political apparatchiks overnight.
What SpaceX is compared to NASA is the model needed for almost every federal agency. Imagine the US Postal Service replaced by a combination of FedEx and UPS, for example.
THIS would be a genuine transformational strategy and not just the usual temporary cuts in personnel that always seem to grow back. Do it, Elon and Vivek!
I don't Musk will take an official White House position. He has too much on his plate. Much better to pop in and out and be the visiting "Uncle". Also, Trump seems to have been cured of his love for his fellow rich guys, Generals, and Corporate Execs. Very few Tillersons, Kellys, or Espry's this time round. Trump seems to be going with Pols and Ex-pols and in the oddest choice a Fox news personality.
I’m studying AI intensely. It’s a tool. In my case, I’m studying how to correctly form image generation prompts, a rather infuriating task. I wonder if Musk has read “The Power of Positive Thinking?” I think that it was Trump’s bible in his youth. I thought originally that Trump was non-religious, but he isn’t. He’s a believer in the Prosperity Gospel. I’m using AI to form and critique my ideas about public performance as a musician. Musk is undoubtedly using AI to form and critique his public performance. He’s one of the inventors of the tool.
This is my first comment on Alhtouse. What Elon is good at is evaluating people. He has always interviewed new prospects for his projects. I know someone who was hired at Space X after waiting months for the interview. Note how well Space X runs, How well X is running. Evaluating people is his superpower. Right now Musk is using this superpower to evaluate many (if not all) of the Trump picks in the transition. You can call this the making of the Trump 2024 Administration. I also imagine he will be talking to Trump if someone needs to be fired. This administration has the possibility of becoming another Space X or Tesla. He will be talked about for generations.
Yah, maybe AI helped but don’t underestimate the ability of big brains…
People who get their allowance from carlos slims shouldnt throw stones
RCOCEAN II--don't forget Bill and Melinda Gates--classic examples of doing harm while intending to do good. Old Man Buffett was smart enough to back away from both Biden and Harris this time around.
…part of the challenge is the contrast with the typical elite politician, usually what got Cs in school and secretly acknowledges to themselves they have no fucking idea how they made it this far…
Final comment. The focus on "Downsizing the Government" through cutting personel has always been dumb. It reminds me of McCain focusing on 1 billion on earmarks while we were spending 100 billion cleaning up after the banksters in 2008.
Personnel costs are a small part of the Federal Budget. DoD for example, has maybe 1 million federal employees (probably too high a guess) and spends roughly 1,000,000 million dollars. Do the math. Assume 100,000 per employee. Most DoD money goes to Boeing, Northrop, etc. And to maintain and service bases all over the world.
We could do it without most Americans seeing a loss in service.
that's the problem, Right There.
If you start cutting the budget fat, and people don't see it, then the cutting will continue..
What You NEED To DO, is find the Most Visible part of your budget, and make the cut THERE.
If you're the National Park service, and you have to make "cuts", spend time and money putting up barricades on scenic overlooks, so that people can't look at Mount Rushmore.. do NOT reduce the admin staff AT Mount Rushmore.
Hersgeth is more than a Fox News personality.
My choice for oddest appointment is Kristi Noem as head of DHS. Does Donald think she'll treat those feckless bureaucrats the way she shot that dog? Or that goat?
"intending to do good." No. Bill Gates is evil through and through.
The interesting left response to Musk and Trump is to portray Musk as an evil Svengali, although what evil Musk committed is never stated. (It’s allowing free speech on X.) The phrase “shadow president” is commonly used to describe Musk, in an effort to portray consulting with the world’s smartest man as a suspect and sinister thing.
Yes she wont be as sentimental
comments about how he can build his rockets faster than federal bureaucrats can move paper from one side of their desk to the other.
this Just Shows, how much Elon does NOT understand the purpose of industry!
the Purpose of industry IS to move paper from one side of the desk to the other.
WHAT does he think industry is FOR? making things?
COME ON!
that'd be as foolish as thinking that the purpose of schools is to educate students
(instead of employing administrators)
it'd be as stupid, as thinking that the purpose of a campaign having A BILLION DOLLARS,
would be to get the candidate elected (instead of lining pockets)
it'd be like thinking that the purpose of the Ukraine War was to help Ukrainians
" a crazy and really unachievable goal"
Like building rocket boosters that can be reused dozens of times?
Like landing rocket boosters on drone ships?
Like launching the most powerful rocket ever and then catching it in midair?
That kind of unachievable?
The collective left are drooling angry - that a super genius might want to make life better, more transparent and more efficient for everyone.
The left love and are addicted to bureaucratic incompetence and ideological punishment. The left reward ineptitude all the time.
Sad. The left are pathetic and sad.
When I was an undergrad decades ago there were a handful of studies on government spending. Back then the general conclusion was a third to as much as 40 percent of spending was waste, redundancy, mismanagement, squandering. I suspect the figure is larger today with NGOs and CRs but have no idea really since it’s impossible to acquire meaningful data anymore- intentionally. One of the big problems is how funds are allocated. Guesses at budget needs eighteen months in advance aren’t all that accurate, so err on the side of generous, as they always do…
doing harm while intending to do harm..
doing harm while PRETENDING to do good..
take your choice
I'd like to see the insider info on Bill Gates as it pertains to Epstein Island. Just curious.
Really cannot figure out why Trump didn't name him to head up NASA.
You are just as stupid as Elizabeth Warren regarding Pete Hegseth.
Yale & Harvard grad from back in the days when those were great schools. Tours in Iraq & Afghanistan. 2 Bronze Stars. You can read his books if you’re like to get who he is instead of relying on the fake media.
Biggest reason he’ll be great? 1. The military complex was quoted anonymously in Politico something to the effect of “who the fuck is this guy?” and 2. The rank & file will love a guy who isn’t DEI WOKE.
He’ll make changes-I think good ones and hopefully increase recruiting. Another true need.
Vivek’s take is that people who sit in a seat in government do a lot of harm by creating and expanding the need for them to be there. So it’s more than their salaries we’d save. We’d get rid of the gum in the system and reduce the capacity to inject more gum into it.
Good grief, not FedEx. They have a reputation in my neck of the woods for delivering packages to who knows where except to the person listed on the package.
Musk is scarcely the first person to complain about bureaucracy making it impossible to get anything accomplished. Prior to Elon Musk arguably the most famous was George McGovern who discovered the hard way the the costs imposed by bureaucrats doomed his efforts to open a simple bed & breakfast. Here’s his lesson learned:
”For a generation and more, the government has sought to meet our needs by multiplying its bureaucracy. Washington has taken too much in taxes from Main Street, and Main Street has received too little in return. It is not necessary to centralize power in order to solve our problems.”
— George D. McGovern
Is the Noem appointment official?
I would prefer a Department Of Govt Efficacy or Effectiveness rather than Efficiency. But I won't quibble over a word.
Efficiency is about doing things right. Perhaps eliminating the Post Office and doing a good job at it.
Effectiveness is about doing the right thing. Eliminating the Dept of Education (Which we don't need) instead of the PO, (which we do)
John Henry
2 trillion is not even sufficient anymore. Huge slashes to Medicaid, which is fundamentally a fraudulent program. Cut any number of Biden boondoggles. If you can't balance the budget, it's because you weren't trying.
Guesses at budget needs eighteen months in advance aren’t all that accurate, so err on the side of generous, as they always do…<
back in the '90's, my mom was a WIC manager, and she said that at the end of the budget year; you "HAD TO" spend all the money in your budget, or they'd cut your budget by the amount you had left over..
which MIGHT not be enough for next year..
So, at the end of the budget year, she bought lots of office supplies, etc..
we ALWAYS had LOTS of pens at our house.
My mom is one of the main reasons that i am no longer a Democrat
If one billionaire can absolutely crush the ambitions of the Bloombergs and Weinsteins, their position was never as strong as anyone thought it was. Are 1% really 40% of billionaires? Why? And why are they all so scared right now?
There are federal bureaucrats working at home who work hard, but they are pretty rare. Most can accomplish their normal daily tasks in two or three hours and then spend five or six on their side hustle.
New Law: If the federal budget is not in balance, Congressmen and Senators get paid minimum wage.
Watch how fast the unachievable happens.
The Starship(?) launch has been held up for a month until SpaceX can prove that if it falls into the ocean, it will not kill any sharks.
Bizarro regulations like these are the result of too many people with not enough useful stuff to do. They have to come up with things, no matter how ridiculous to justify their existence.
Musk cut 80% of Xs workforce. A few small stumbles right after that but now X is bigger, has more features and works better than ever.
If he did cut 80% of the govt workforce, how much worse would it function?
I would include, possibly, 80% of the non-uniformed military establishment. "Possibly" because a lot of functions that used to be done by uniforms are now done by civilians and those functions might still be mission critical. If not 80%, a large number of civilian DOD employees could be cut.
They can take the jobs the deported aliens were doing. Though not the robbing and rampaging.
John Henry
Running both SpaceX and NASA sounds like a conflict of interest. Better just to outright kill NASA as opposed to the death spiral it's in now.
"looking for ways to eliminate what he considers redundant federal regulations and cutting as much as $2 trillion in federal spending, which is a crazy and really unachievable goal, but that's what he says he wants to do."
Replace "eliminate redundant regulations and cutting spending" with "leave people alone to manage their own lives and let them keep more of the money they've earned". A crazy and really unachievable goal? I'm sure some people hope so.
You bring stuff in-house when the transaction costs of coordinating using the free market become too high. That's why there are companies instead of individual contractors. The trade-off is a battle between internal transaction costs and external transaction costs.
It would make more sense for the IRS to contract its work since it's seasonal and let the market deal with hiring and firing, for example.
Vivek is the co-leader with Elon. I saw him speak four times in Iowa. His former company had to get FDA approvals. He said he would cut 90% from the FDA. Vivek had a plan to lay off 50% of the federal government based upon if your social security number was even or odd.
We are looking at a revolution here.
if you were in a competitive business, and your boss told you:
"slash your budget 10%.. and don't lose any customers.. or you're FIRED!"
your response would NOT be to find the most visible, desired thing you provide and to eliminate that; your response would be to try not to be fired.
The Problem With Government IS: you can't fire them
Who does the Government work for? It works for ITSELF
Around here, Kamala ran ads promising to reduce red tape. Apparently it’s a bi-partisan goal. So Dems should really like this.
Yes, true- their cost may matter less. More important to address is their ability to spend and create new spending. That is why you cut them…
Dr. Ray Stantz: "Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*."
Oh wow, you're probably right Althouse. That's fascinating.
Effectiveness vs. efficiency is a worthy subject of discussion. You can be efficient at doing something that doesn't need to be done. I remember the favorite saying of an quality engineer from my younger days: "Don't automate it, eliminate it." Engineers like to build thingies that look great and do cool things - even things that shouldn't be done. I hope we are not on a path to make government more "efficient." We need to find the (huge) percentage of things the government tries to do that it should not. Getting rid of several billion dollars worth of DEI should be an easy start.
Agreed. Tell that to Javier Milei.
The Twitter analogy is accurate. Imagine if the axe starts swinging all the bureaucrats squealing how invaluable they are…then how they’re proven wrong.
well worth the risk…
More ! Plus- A proper investigation into the Jan 6th committee and - Merrick Garland and the FBI must happen.
FBI hired the Blackrock-ad kid-assassin who killed Cory C and almost killed Trump - in Butler PA
I agree with Breezy. It is not just the individual salary, it is all the money they spend doing their job. Spending money, as opposed to accomplishing any worthwhile goal, seems to be the main function of many of these folks.
So getting rid of the employee who costs (with salary and benefits) $100m/yr will also save $50-100m in support (office, admin, lights etc) but it may also save $100m to 1mm in spending.
John Henry
well worth the risk…
I'm thinking Lizzy Warren and a multitude of other bureaucratic grifters in DC have a renewed passion to stifle Musk's efforts.
I would love to see a collapse of office space occupancy in Washington as whole buildings (campuses?) get emptied out and Federal tax dollars get retained by the states and the taxpayers.
Amen, Hawkeye.
Improving effectiveness in manufacturing is how I make my living.
John Henry
When I saw that on BlueSky I thought it was someone inventing something to badmouth Vivek. Then I saw what he actually said. Amen, brother. Just lay them off at random and using last SS digit is as good a way as any. (Assuming it is truly random)
But he then wanted to lay off 50% more based on first digit. I agree with the sentiment, but the first digit is not random and there are more odd digits (5) than even digits.
First 3 digits are based on geography.
Still his heart is in the right place even if his math is a bit off.
John Henry
No, they won't. But they will be pissed off and eager to throw a wrench in any plans.
Government out control two recent examples. Peanut the squirrel. Costco recalling butter because it does not say its made from milk. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniegravalese/2024/11/12/the-high-stakes-of-labelingcostcos-butter-recall-explained/
That's how it already works. Most agencies are already contractor-heavy, and they have been for decades. Hiring government employees is a long and complicated process, and firing them is even worse. Better to simply hire some "Woman Veteran Owned Small Business" as contractor, sub out toGlobocorp for much of the actual manpower, and bring in people that way.
If a president is going to have an advisor buddy, it may as well be the real-life Tony Stark.
This is a continuation of Trump's "2 for 1" policy the first term. Any proposed new regulation had to be offset by the elimination of at least two old regulations in the same department. This is an advisory non-governmental commission, so no Elon won't be "running NASA" or any other agency. In the short time allotted (the commission expires July 4, 2026) Musk-Ramaswamy will be identifying areas, administrative organizations and personnel that can be eliminated.
To clarify, As I understood him, the second tranche would be based on 1st digit of the SSN. Since there is no leading 0 you have 5 (1,3,5,7,9) odd numbers and only 4 (2, 4, 6, 8) evens. If evenly distributed that would mean firing not half, but slightly more or slightly less than half depending on whether odd or even are selected
And since the first group is based on geography, I don't know if all 9 (1-9) digits are used. I also don't know if they are evenly distributed.
I am assuming that the last digit of the 3rd group is pretty close to random, but someone will probably check before the plan goes into effect.
John Henry
You won't get anywhere without support from Congress. The problems with the government stem from a refusal by elected officials to clarify laws or update as necessary, and a tendency to throw money at every conceivable pet project. Add in civil-service protections which make it nearly impossible to fire a government employee and you create a toxic brew.
Why does the Left always need an evil Svengali? Remember when Dick Cheney was the puppet master, pulling George W.'s strings?
This might be adorable to some, terrifying to others. It's only terrifying to bureaucrats who produce NOTHING and waste everyone's money. Hopefully the days of honoring themselves are coming to an end.
Worse than that, Koot. The label does say it contains milk. What is does not do is carry a separate warning that milk is an allergen and people allergic to milk should not drink it.
Seems silly to you and me, like a peanut allergy warning on peanut butter. But it is required by law.
What strike me as REALLY silly is why Costco had to recall the butter instead of just adding a small allergy warning. Pasted on by store or warehouse employees.
And perhaps a fine.
There is nothing at all wrong with the butter.
John Henry
Yes. Why is it that I’ve never heard this IRS idea before.
why can't USA donate all extra paper to Deutshce Bundesland and protect Demokracy
He doesn't necessarily have to fire them. Just send them all to a giant rubber room where they can't do any harm.
He also doesn't have to hire anyone. I'd love to see him say, once inaugurated but still at the podium, "I am now signing this executive order implementing a new hiring process on all non-military federal positions. All authorization will have to be personally signed by me. I expect to be very busy so it may take a while, maybe 4 years! to get around to signing any. In the meantime, any department needing replacement staff is free to transfer anyone from the rubber room, Oops! Did I say that? I meant employment pool, to fill vacant positions but no pay or position increase."
John Henry
It’s not just federal bureaucrats. My first real job out of college, some 50 years ago, was as a personal property auditor for the City and County of Denver. We were at our desks from 8-10 every morning, then out on audits the rest of the work day. I quickly realized that I could do the job in a couple hours, leaving better than half the day free to do something else. The office average was maybe 1.5 audits a day. I was doing 3-4 within a couple months. The other auditors all had side gigs and the like.
wait for it
rockets will launch on time
also spake the ???""neo fascist muskolini""!!!!!!
^^^^^^^^
There is a guy in the neighborhood who owns a very specialized manufacturing facility that builds motors, initially for the medical community. The Navy somehow discover them and found they would work great in certain applications in submarines. They approached him and offered to have a contract with them, and all he had to do was meet certain administrative and auditing standards, plus added security measures. He told them to f@ck off. So now they have to buy them from a supplier that he sells the motors too. All this sillier does is sell the motors to the Navy. And paperwork. Lots and lots of paperwork.
Agreed. Too bad the name govX is already taken. An entrepreneurial, free market federal government, based solely on meritocracy, that's responsive to its citizens...what a concept.
I'd even like to see if they can make it run a profit and pay us dividends. No joke.
“ No. Bill Gates is evil through and through.”
Remember how Gates got rich. He developed the best compilers of the time, then used his early access to technology to steal it from those who needed his compilers. First it was CP/M, invented by Digital Research and Gary Kildall, that Gates relabeled as DOS, then it was the Lisa/Macintosh interface from Apple that he turned into Windows. Oh, and his browsers, stolen from Mosaic.
We are only 1 comment in from Trail06 and are "dangerously close" to a Drago's Law #n = Just Read What Trail06 Wrote
NOT a big fan of this efficiency stuff. Trump always avoided the trap Republicans step into about "cutting waste" and then forever pleading "I'm not going to cut your Social Security!"
This was not on any voter's list of priorities. (Not to say it's not important. It's just politically stupid.)
It is only unachievable if you refuse to try. Overspending is easy when you use OPM (other people's money) with no oversight.
You're on the right track, Mr. Wibble. I'm not just talking about individual initiatives and side service functions of the agencies, but their entire core admin operation. Outsource it all. They're terrible at staffing & managing it all.
I was a Contracting Specialist and then a Contracting Officer for DoD and a civilian Agency. Hated it. I have lots of stories about inefficiency, graft, etc. IN one case the CO I was working for discovered a man without a degree was getting paid as an Engineer. He went ballistic. It turns out the guy was the inventor of the product we were buying, a very smart man who dropped out of college. He didn't care, we had to pay him as an unskilled engineer tech. Another time, a Deputy Supervisory asked me to send a copy of the Source Selection Plan to "our partners" who would be bidding on the contract. I told her no, it was a Government only doc. So then she asked if they could just be in a room for a day with it to "look it over." In the Civilian Agency, there wasn't one week that went by that me or my employees were asked to do something that the person asking knew was illegal. Fuck them all. I retired early and am much happier. On average, government non-sense adds 20 - 30 percent more to the cost of a contract.
Why are all Govt Departments in DC? Why not move the Dept of Transportation to Chicago -- which is a Transportation hub? Move Health and Human Services to Mississippi. Etc.
One of the big "costs" with anything is how much time is wasted waiting for approval to go ahead. Every layer of approval takes time - not uncommon for a standard flow of 30 days per approval when no rework is required to dot an i or cross a t somewhere. Bureaucrats excell at getting themselves on approval lists.
Bullet point answer:
- Noem is the Gov of South Dakota
- Thune is the McConnell-created establishment creature vying for Senate Majority Leader
- Trump wants Rick Scott as Senate Majority leader
- Thune probably has the votes to beat Scott as it stands right now
- interesting factoid: Thune was thinking about quitting the Senate 2 years ago at his wife's urging to return to grandkids snd family in South Dakota
- Noem accepting the appointment from Trump opens up the SD Gov office for a Special Election...
- ...right at the time Thune has to calculate his next move...
We'll see what happens.
If it's neccessary it will come back.
my ssn starts off with a zero. I believe i was given one as a kid when we lived in New Hampshire.
He has to have someone he trusts with his life. DHS oversees USSS.
If that ratio holds it just so happens that 40% of a $5T budget would be $2T, the amount Musk says he can cut. Look at ANY recent bill and you'll find it larded up with stupid shit, especially State Dept and all the NGOs we pour billions into.
Just remember that Noem said she shot the dog because it couldn't be trained. Perfect mindset for running a federal department.
That's what they said about X.
Looking at the DOGE logo posted by Musk on X, is it pronounce "doggie."
Just don't tell Kristi Noem.
One example: Medicare and Medicaid. The bureaucracy and regulations suck 30% to 40% of the entire budget up. What if that $$ was sent out to the providers? More could be spent and still save money by cutting overhead costs.
Exactly. Move a few to BFE and the sinecures look less attractive to the grifting class. There's a reason 9 out of 10 of the highest INCOME zip codes are around DC. Move some of that wealth out to NE, WY, MT etc.
One of the features of football teams with really good Offensive strength, is that they get back in line quickly for the next play, to continue the drive before the opposing defense can gather their wits from the last play. That's what Trump is doing now, I think. He's got his playbook ready and I hope he keeps the drive going with these rapid announcements. Run right over them, and keep rolling.
Bullshit. The administrative agencies are ALL executive branch. If the chief executive can't actually manage the executive branch then WTF is the separation of powers all about? Congress appropriates money (budget) and writes laws. Executive enforces laws & regulations. Courts adjudicate disputes of law or challenges to them. We don't really have an untouchable fourth branch. That's a progressive myth and slush fund.
When do we get the cool Ironman flying suits?
Well it's a compliment to what Trump ran on and strategically vital. Like Milei in Argentina Trump will need to move quicklyand on so many fronts all at once that the opposition will be constantly on defense but have too many areas of interest to defend. How many fronts? How many cabinet departments and problems are there to address?
Milei is a very good template. Getting familiar with what he has done in Argentina and how quickly it paid off would be a good use of your time. "YOU" in the very general sense of anyone who is interested in the coming Trump Era Part 2.
It's why, when we had a shop, we rarely took government work.
Everyone my age who got their SSN issued in Arizona has 526 or 527 as the first 3 digits.
One of the reasons so many conspiracy theories popped up around Obama's birthplace is that his SSN prefix matches New York or maybe Connecticut rather than Hawaii, although I am willing to accept the explanation that it might be correct for the State Department office that issued it while he was resident overseas in childhood.
The number was not routinely issued shortly after birth in those days, and you did not need one to claim a dependent on your tax return. Often people did not get a SSN until they got their first job as a teenager.
Vivek is probably unaware of the geographic ramifications of the 3-digit prefix of these numbers. The only way I could support layoffs based on these numbers is if he is careful to pick numbers for people born in Wyoming and Utah and rule out people born in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
I predict it will end badly; the question is who will sour on Elon Musk fastest, the Deep State or Donald Trump.
Six Sigma, lean manufacturing, just on time deliveries, OH MY!
The nail was hit slightly askew in the title of this post. The paperwork requirements and regulatory slowdowns that sent Musk over the edge were purposeful actions by regulators who openly stated their dislike of Musk for political reasons and then used their authority to stop launches, delay spaceship improvements and add cost, cost, cost to his SpaceX launches for outright frivolous reasons. In their political opposition to Musk's nastry tweets on X, They abused and weaponized their roles as regulators, because they could get away with it a few times under President Biden's administration and Gov Newsom's administration. They weaponized their roles not because their actions were legal or just or sensible or helped anyone or anything, but over their own sense of personal animus and political grievance.
There are some ( a few) competent people in government. I have been told by one of these that their department would be better run with 50% of the budget with 40% of the people.
Of course, most of spending is interest and entitlements so we need to address those also. Not sure that anyone is focused sufficiently on the spending side.
They already do that. Large swaths of government agencies are staffed by contractors. Entire departments can be 70-80% contractors with a few gov employees in supervisory roles.
we ALWAYS had LOTS of pens at our house.
It is curious how every September, or August in states where the school year starts in August, federal government demand for paper and pens shows a real spike. When I was a child I didn't live in an area with a lot of FEDGOV employees of any kind, so Skilcraft pens were pretty rare, but we knew who had them. I was on active duty when my first children started school. Their schools were flooded with them. Along with other Skilcraft products...
Oh, you mean like the BOIR for FinCEN.gov - an entirely new arm of the U.S. Dept. Of Treasury - which largely duplicates reporting of information already reported elsewhere to Treasury.
My initial report for five entities with identical individuals took about 4 hours. If one individual moves to a different physical address, the entire set must be re-done.
Bureaucratic roadblocks is the number one reason why the United States did not achieve the technological advances depicted in Stanley Kubrick's movie 2001 A space Odyssey. I think the bureaucratic overreach has done more to stunt the creativity of human beings then all of the religious nut bags combined.
The number was not routinely issued shortly after birth in those days, and you did not need one to claim a dependent on your tax return.
There was a huge die off of children when SSNs were first required. According to tax returns. Yet the mortality rate didn't increase. Amazing, isn't it?
It would be nice to see the laws protecting lifetime sinecures for civil servants be tested with this Supreme Court. I think they may be found in conflict with the "Take Care" clause found in Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, among others.
"I suspect that he trained AI on Trump rally performances ...". Well, as usual where AI is involved, you're wrong. If he had "trained AI on Trump rally performances", he would not have been jumping up and down. He would have been doing Trump's little mini-twist dance. AI copies, it does not invent.
I have a friend, now deceased, who showed me a part his company machined for the Navy. Less then 1 cubic inch in size. Someone had drawn up a plan for this part and when the Navy shopped around to it's normal suppliers they said- "Nope, we can't machine that." Somehow they got to his company, and the owner said- "I'll give it to my machinists and let you know." A week later the prototype was machined- and worked like the designer said it would. Not a high demand item, but the Navy needs a constant supply- salt water does a number on them. Paperwork? The owner said- "I can make you the part and sell them to you. This is how much. We don't do paperwork." They are still the sole source supplier.
It is possible to get rid of the paperwork.
I'd love to see Noem decorate her office with a large shotgu, blunderbuss, AR-15 or other scary weapon mounted on the wall behind her desk.
Creep the f**kers out Anyone who is creeped out is asked to resign.
John Henry
That, and the lack of a giant black alien monolith floating at a Lagrange point of Jupiter.
I had a friend who owned a mill supply business. He sold machine tools (Lathes, mills, drill presses and the like) as well as supplies (grinding disks, drill bits and so on) He did not like selling to either state or federal govt. Partly because of the paperwork but mainly because of the paperwork delays and problems getting paid. Normal payment terms are 30 days. The govt would agree to 30 days but would take up to 6 months.
He suggested I adopt his policy. When asked for a quote, he ignored it unless they asked him a second time. Then he figured out the normal pcice and quoted double. He was bewildered that he still got the order many times as low bidder.
Not quoting is not an option. You wind up with auditors, building inspectors etc sniffing up your but.
John Henry
No disagreement that Musk gets it worse for political reasons.
But everything he is complaining about exists for almost everyone who tries to do anything that the govt has any say in. Perhaps not as stringently enforced, but still there.
John Henry
The best American companies are disciplined and unsentimental about identifying and removing their weakest employees and attempting to replace them with stars. The government approach is the opposite.
I predict it will end badly; the question is who will sour on Elon Musk fastest, the Deep State or Donald Trump.
You can't be serious. The Deep State already hates Musk like grim death.
At least in part, Trump owes his Presidency to Musk's willingness to provide a home for uncensored free speech, and moreover, he has immense respect for Musk's world-changing achievements in multiple fields of endeavor.
The former employees who hate Trump typically hate him for threatening their rice bowls and not allowing corruption, hidden agendas, and empire building, or for calling them out on their incompetence or laziness. I don't think either of these are likely to arise in the Trump-Musk relationship.
The military used to have a strict "Up or Out" policy, although it has been corrupted by the DEI nonsense.
I think it would be good for all Federal agencies to be required to dismiss the bottom 10 percent of employees at every GS level, each and every year during Trump's term in office.
Apparently you don't know that the entire discretionary budget is a little less than $2 trillion. Elon has been smoking too much dope or taking too many hallucinogens.
That is actually really crappy evidence since the recession that Obama walked into was caused by a lack of regulation, not because of it. And by apparently going whole-hog on freeing up the crypto market from regulation is a recipe for a financial disaster.
The professional managers are worried that Trump will succeed. I've seen comments from many in Seattle and Portland who are worried that Trump will tackle and solve the homelessness problems. They're saying that would be disastrous for the homeless advocacy agencies. The homeless crisis is a big money maker for those on the left. The last thing they want is for any of those problems to be solved.
That's the same attitude across so many of the bureaucratic agencies. Their incomes are dependent on the continued management of those problems. Not solving them.
Yes, we were there- the whole I Inherited A Mess Gambit(tm). Woe is Barack- a crappy sclerotic economy that lasted…about eight years despite his best efforts. Why didn’t the economy react the way he demanded? Poor guy ☹️…
Of course I’m serious. I know the Deep State loathes Musk, that’s why I wrote the comment. I also know Trump is constitutionally incapable of sharing the spotlight with another human being for any length of time and is less loyal than a two-dollar whore.
Derve Swanson - You don't get it, do you? It is a PITA to do work for the Government, and more costly, both in terms of regulations and quality of life. Gospace - good for him, he is an exception to the rule. I'm thinking it probably isn't something critical that goes into highly sensitive ship compartments and weapon systems. And the motors he builds are highly resistant to corrosion.
I should add: The only reason the Deep State hasn’t buried Musk already is that he does too many useful things that only he can do for them.
"...the recession that Obama walked into was caused by a lack of regulation, not because of it..., he asserted without evidence.
Just thinking of those wetlands regulations that tied up family ranchers for decades......
Wince said...
Looking at the DOGE logo posted by Musk on X, is it pronounce "doggie"?
"Doing It Doggy Style. You come up with that, I'm not the literary guy."
As a professional employee for about 30 years, I don't ever recall having any say-so over the company budgeting. If there are that many Federal Employees that are convinced their demands are a priority over agency mission, then the cause for termination has just presented itself.
Imagine the US Postal Service replaced by a combination of FedEx and UPS, for example.
Including the requirement that they serve every single address in the U.S. (as well as servicemembers all over the world)?
How many Scaramucci’s does Elon last?
“Trump would be 82 at end of term, which is too old to be chief executive of anything, let alone the United States of America. If DeSantis runs against Biden in 2024, then DeSantis will easily win – he doesn't even need to campaign.” ~ Elon Musk (July 2022)
Interesting idea that Elon used AI to improve his rally speeches. I guessed he was feeding off the energy of the crowd. Trump so clearly gets revved up reacting to the crowd - just figured the same energy worked on Elon. I suspect the adoration of cheering crowds is like an amazing drug based on how most public figures respond.
Downsizing the government will automatically downsize the things that those people are dreaming up to force the american people to do. Making the federal government work better for the citizens is always a great thing to do, and getting rid of the chafe will help. Go Elon, Go Vivek!
Has this NYT podcaster never been stuck waiting at the DMV?
In California we had a nutcase shoot up an unemployment office a few years before the pandemic. The state responded by closing every single unemployment office to the public. After that, it was online and waiting on hold for hours only. When the pandemic hit, things go so bad that the Unemployment offices would routinely just hang up on people who had been waiting on the phone for hours and hours. They made things much harder for the law abiding citizens to get unemployment benefits but much easier for the scammers, who learned how to easily scam the system, to steal $20 billion in unemployment benefits.
Apparently you don't know that the entire discretionary budget is a little less than $2 trillion
Oh nice job hon! It was actually about $1.7 trillion in 2023 but add in mandatory spending and debt payments its was a little shy of $7 trillion reported. I suspect with your statement you mean to imply savings cannot be achieved outside of discretionary spending. That’s just false…
Here's the problem with the federal budget: When the pandemic hit, the federal budget jumped by almost two trillion dollars to address the crisis. The federal budget never went back to pre-Covid spending levels when the pandemic ended. All that extra spending made the federal deficit increase massively and created inflation. (And now with the recent high inflation, we're doubly screwed.)
Freder, Amazon, FedEx and UPS delivery trucks drive down my street every day. It would be really easy to get them to drop off residential mail, too.
Also, USPS is not required to visit EVERY address every day. They only visit addresses when there is mail to be delivered there.
If you keep betting against Elon you will most likely lose in the long run. The man gets shit done...
Each regulation requires oversight and enforcement. See how they run.
I have a friend whose property fell under the wetlands regs. Gawdawful stuff.
Bruce Hayden +1. How about database and spreadsheets? Not Billy!
Musk said himself that the assassination attempt on Trump is what changed everything for him, watching Trump stand up and say “Fight!” I think there’s no doubt that’s what brought out the boyishness (and courage) you’re seeing.
Whelp, that was fun while it lasted. ‘Republicans’ just ‘chose’ Thune as next Senate McCain ‘Maverick’ …er, Senate majority leader…
An efficiency expert in government is like an army in Afghanistan. I wish him good luck in this Heart of Darkness endeavour.
Argentina's Javier Milei is thankfully providing a free experiment to learn from. At least he's tamed inflation.
Reckless regulatory requirements and excess paperwork to justify bureaucratic progress and redistributive change schemes, rackets.
I suspect with your statement you mean to imply savings cannot be achieved outside of discretionary spending. That’s just false…
Wait. What? Freder being disingenuous? Say it ain't so!
The efficiency thing reminds me of an old movie where a guy that looks like the president is substituted into office and brings in his regular old accountant and balances the budget.
I think about that scene regularly as I get into my car because of that moment where he cut a guy’s entire department because all he did was make people feel good about their car.
I say the first layoffs (reduction in force) should be those who needed therapy sessions after the election.
I thought he was mocking Walz.
And get real, nobody is laying off half the federal workforce.
I can't know that you're right or wrong about the crackup. Note that the appointment is supposed to expire on July 4,2026. And give some thought to the proposition that major changes weren't going to happen without a shock and awe campaign that coincides with Republican control of the executive and the legislative branches. This can't happen gradually. They need to move decisively.
I keep hoping it is more.
Maybe 80% like at Twitter?
John Henry
Recall the Feds having tens of billions to build EV chargers. After 2+ years there were IIRC 7 on the ground. Give Musk 2% of that money, cut him free from Federal hurtles and you'd trip over the multitude of chargers available and they would be working.
Yeah, Trump will never be president! And Ron Paul, what a cook, he's not going to ever be invited by some Department Of Government Efficiency.
Elon reminded people of a beloved part of The American Myth: “America is the home of the brave.” Even 2 weeks after the election, I shave seen no election notes that accurately describe Trump as displaying, under fire, the Bravery which is a big part of What Makes America Great. His Fighting spirit is lots of things, but especially Brave.
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