The crazy headlines are going to come faster and closer together, like labor pains, as the government as we know it recedes into the background and a new monster is born in its place, via MAGA. It’s official, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk are now in charge of DOGE, which is the Department of Government Efficiency and they are going to implement what Musk alluded to last week as “temporary hardship.” The Hill:
Trump announced Tuesday that Musk and Ramaswamy would lead his “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), an initiative meant to “slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures” and restructure federal agencies.
Trump said that DOGE would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” and partner with the White House Office of Budget and Management (OMB).
“It will become, potentially, ‘The Manhattan Project’ of our time. Republican politicians have dreamed about the objectives of “DOGE” for a very long time,” the President-elect added.
It was not immediately clear whether DOGE would be an official part of the Trump administration or advise the White House from outside the government.
“To drive this kind of drastic change, the Department of Government Efficiency will provide advice and guidance from outside of Government, and will partner with the White House and Office of Management & Budget to drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”
In a statement shared by Trump, Musk said DOGE will “send shockwaves through the system and anyone involved in Government waste, which is a lot of people!”
Shockwaves through the system. That sounds like massive firings to me. Or, do you suppose that those of us on Medicare and Social Security are going to find ourselves without those things in the immediate future? That would certainly send some shockwaves. Or, is DOGE going to just wreck those systems and the Affordable Care Act, for future generations?
Man, I thought things were bad enough when Paul Ryan, the Granny Starver, was Speaker, now I find myself longing for his return. When Ryan has taken on the appearance of rational governance, and you feel nostalgic for him, you know you have fallen a long ways down.
And fallen we have. MAGA is going to put this country into an abyss. But hey, The People want Trump, we are told. At least 51% did, the other 49% still hate his guts, at last glance.
The only problem with MAGA, whether they know it or not, is that it contains the seeds of its own destruction. They’re all crowing and glowing now. Since none of them know any history, maybe somebody could remind them that in 1994, Republicans had a killer victory and Democrats lost control of the House and Senate for the first time in 42 years. Oh yes, those cats were fat and sassy. I remember it well. It was a permanent political realignment they said — just like they’re saying now.
And then two years later, Bill Clinton creamed Bob Dole, winning re-election with 379 electoral votes to 159. So much for that permanent realignment.
Trumpty doesn’t have a landslide except in his mind. Richard Nixon had a landslide, 520 votes to George McGovern’s 17. Ronald Reagan had a landslide, 525 to Mondale’s 13. THAT’s a landslide. Trumpty won fewer electoral votes in 2024 than in 2016. He does not have a landslide.
We lived through Nixon, we lived through Reagan, we lived through Dubya, we shall live through Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump is setting the GOP up for a hell of a fall in 2026.
Ursula, THANK YOU for writing about this. I definitely could not have done this well. The descent into hell continues, and I am really worried about Medicare and Social Security. I am already reading news about Medicare increases. Damn.
You do know that President Biden will be blamed for all that goes wrong.
Does anyone else note the irony of a Department of Efficiency’ having two leaders instead of one?
Oxymoronic as well as moronic.
“create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.”
WTF is this? We don’t want governments to be ‘entrepreneurial’ (whatever they think THAT means)
We want government to GOVERN efficiently, not taking lots of risks, or chancing everything we have for the latest theory on how management can lever opportunities. We want government, (look at that, it includes the word ‘govern’!) to preserve what we have, run the various essential services like police, defense, diplomacy. Most emphatically NOT ‘move fast and break things.’
How many years will it take to repair all this damage when they lose next time?
Truthfully, having read project 2025, does anyone really believe there will be another election? Well, a real election, not ones like Russia has…
I concur. The problem people have is that there’s thoughts we can rely on past rules and laws. They are gone and we’re gone once the immunity ruling was made. Crash the economy and break us into submission as project 2025 says.
As Lawrence O’Donnell brilliantly pointed out, this department does not exist, it has no budget, it has no staff—not even a chair to sit on—and the two overblown ignoramuses are being given 18 months to make recommendations, not issue mandates. Trump couldn’t root out waste in his entire four years, and Reagan couldn’t do it in his eight. Their masterpiece will come out just before the midterms, and even an average MAGAt isn’t stupid enough to run on some great plan like cutting 1 trillion from social security. This looks like a swift boot up the ass for Musk. But we will see what the dynamic duo does—and how long they last.
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose…Kris Kristofferson…looks like we’re headed to be the land of the free. Hard to imagine another election where the choice was or will be so stark. After nine years of this fascist pig, our fellow citizens give him ultimate power for God only knows how long. I hope someone can figure a way out…hard to see it after Trump and cronies burn the temple down and our country being full of self delusional morons. Prayer is all I got, yet I remind myself it didn’t save the 11 million killed in Hitler’s camps. Still its all I’ve got to keep hope alive.
I don’t know if they will directly eliminate social security, Medicare, etc. Maybe the ACA. But what will happen is that they will run out of funds due to mass firings and deportations much sooner than expected.
We are becoming a banana republic thanks to all my fellow citizens. Phuck you nazi morons. When you get your enemy of the trumpstate list together be sure my name is on the list. No one knows what happens when we die and thats a FACT. That being said, if there’s a divine judgement I want my name on the official list of enemies for this American version of nazi Germany. Let the horror begin. Oh and let’s remember the quaint saying Dante put over the entrance to HELL: abandon hope all ye who enter here. Land of the free? Home of the brave? More like land of the poorly educated and home to comfortable cowardly materialistic morons. That’s America. Shining light on the hill? Nope. More like a dirty 30watt bulb hanging in a nasty roadside gas station. Let the darkness roll in. Enjoy it. You asked for it and you’re going to get it in spades.
I thought it was bad when W gutted FEMA and then Katrina hit. That’s going to be small potatoes if they get their way on this.
Sorry…the ‘if’ is dead. The dumbass citizens have stood by for a decade and given them the three branches of what used to be our democracy. It died a week ago. They will do whatever their evil hearts desire. The devil takes no prisoners.
Regarding……”But hey, The People want Trump, we are told. At least 51% did, the other 49% still hate his guts, at last glance.”
There’s another way to calculate this: The population of the United States is 335 million. Even if you go along with 75 million voting for Trump (I don’t buy it), that amounts to only 22% of the US people wanting Trump. More likely the true total before mass election fraud vote switching 15-20 million votes from D > R by attaching Putin’s magnetic devices to e-voting machines that respond to Elon’s star-link satellites that are programmed by AI + adding in millions not counted/thrown away mail-in and provisional votes in swing states… the true total of US population voting for Trumplethinskin The Coward was ~17% of the population.
We are currently repeating the timeline for the ascent of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis to control Germany as a Dictatorship – with a small minority illegally wrestling away control of the much larger majority. We are at the equivalent of March-April 1933 Nazi Germany here in the US – instead Germany’s Hilter & the Nazis we have Putin’s Kremlin and FSB controlling the GOP-Nazi Party Trumpist Originalists.
The only things standing in the way of 100% totalitarianism dictatorship in the US now is The US Generals + Military, the CIA & FBI, and the US House which currently requires 60% majority to pass most bills since Cloture was invoked…. assuming Cloture remains in place.
steve…whatever reins in ‘decent’ people isn’t worth spit where these christo-fascists are concerned. There’s no guardrails left. Luckily there are 400 million guns on the street when the concentration camps get filled and the executions start.