Well tRump has some willing and eager partners in the states, it seems.
At least 9 states are creating their own versions of DOGE. One is bad enough, but many? And how much more is there to cut? I would think not much, but obviously, I will be in a minority opinion soon. More teams ripping through state organizations and chopping things right and left, probably also without looking at what that does and creating chaos in its wake. My favorites are still cutting staff for the nuclear program and DOGE having a wide-open website with someone posting specific information about the NRO. Bad news, bad, bad news. I wonder how many more people have hacked in since someone first figured it out. I wonder if they’ve taken out the NRO information yet, with people scrambling to see if their information is now out in the wild.
Then we have immigration fun. Let’s start with the best one first. It is now a crime to be illegal in Florida. How many people on a boat are going to know that? Is anyone going to find a discreet way to help them, or do they have people waiting for boats all along the coastline to immediately take them off to jail? I would think the jails would get pretty crowded with this on top of “regular” prisoners, and I don’t know if there will always be a plane waiting to take them to Guantanamo. I doubt it. That’s not cheap.
There are multiple states passing packages to create state organizations to work with the federal government on immigration enforcement. There are some trying to make it a felony for an official to adopt sanctuary policies, and allow them to be removed from office once convicted. Now that’s a little extreme (and probably unconstitutional) but what do you expect from Republicans?
Across the country, Republican governors and legislatures are taking advantage of the spotlight and friendlier regulatory environment the tRump administration has created, to take care of goals some have wished to pass for a long time. The new administration is someone they are eager to partner with. And let us not forget, that they also wish to portray themselves as eager allies, i.e. more lapdogs.
At this point, we have so many cuts being made and rules and regs incoming that I wonder if we’re going to be able to have normal lives, or if they’re going to be so constricted we only get to breathe for free. Inflation is bad enough. Passing all these new laws, I don’t know if we will. Good grief.
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Except that, Susan, most of this is happening not as “new laws,” but outside of law. Sphincter Face is signing hundreds of Executive Orders, most of which he had zero input on or understanding of, simply because his evil cohorts tell him to! This is being done at high speed and outside of the legislative process because the administration knows that it doesn’t have enough power to get all these things through Congress…razor-thin margins slow down the ransacking of the people’s purse. And, because lightning speed confuses and normalizes behavior. The subjects of the King must be vanquished very quickly!!