Ole Elon Musk had himself a ball back when Trumpty gave him carte blanche to borrow the two-word line that made Trump famous on TV. I’m not sure we’ve ever gotten a full accounting of how many federal workers DOGE, or as I like to call it (since Musk showed Homer Simpson traits) “Doh!’ge” fired or furloughed but it’s a lot. If you’ve been paying attention the willy-nilly firings caused some serious problems and some firings were rescinded. Others were reinstated by the courts. But this mess is far from over, as Trumpty has again gone begging hundreds of folks he told to ‘pack their trash and GTFO’ to come back.
This latest group that’s gotten the ‘We’re sorry will you please come back?’ memo from the administration are from the General Services Administration. This article from The Independent tells this latest tale of ‘Un-DOGING’ and as I said it’s not going to be the last one. But this latest development is a great example of what was so batsh!t crazy about DOGE in the first place. Conservatives have long raged about ‘faceless bureaucrats’ who did ‘make work’ and collected a government paycheck. The GSA is about as boring an agency most of the time as you can find. PERFECT target for the cut waste and fraud types.
Here’s the thing though. It’s an agency that’s been remarkably free of scandal over the decades. To many what they do might seem boring but their job is to efficiently manage a LOT of government resources. Who do you think deals with all the contracts for renting space for government workers? Or for maintaining and repairing them? All over the country, including helping out with facilities on military bases? That’s right. The GSA. It might not be what people consider cool, or exciting work but like the admin folks at a decent sized or larger company without it problems start piling up and fast.
As the linked article explains, what happened to the GSA has cost taxpayers a boatload. It was getting worse and worse and finally (I assume) someone noticed and told the White House how much was being wasted. Trump I’m sure initially thought what most folks do about the GSA as in they take up space but don’t really DO anything. But they do and someone must have gotten Chief of Staff Susie Wiles a memo that had a dollar amount eye-popping enough she showed it to Trump. And he freaked enough to say ‘get em back to work!’:
Their return will allow the agency, which is charged with managing federal office space and handling purchasing of all manner of supplies from ballpoint pens to bullet-resistant vests, to clear a massive backlog of work that has cost taxpayers an untold amount of money by forcing the government to pay more to stay in properties where leases had been slated for termination or were permitted to expire.
Ah, but all that seemingly boring, innocuous stuff that looked at individually amounts to ‘nothing’ adds up in a hurry. Having people with the right kind of expertise to tend to ‘boring’ tasks saves a lot of money. And when it isn’t getting done or done properly, as I said all of us taxpayers have to foot the bill for the Trump/Musk DOGE publicity stunt. The linked article goes on to say:
The GSA is just one of numerous federal agencies that have in recent weeks moved to reverse course and bring back workers who were ousted or accepted the Musk-backed “Fork in the Road” offer to leave their jobs but remain on the federal payroll through the end of this month.
Last month the IRS backtracked. The Independent says they aren’t the only ones. So has the Dept. of Labor and the National Park Service. They aren’t the only ones I should add. Only the latest. From where I sit the literal ‘Bottom Line’ with DOGE is that it has cost us more money than it saved. We may never know how much but when some MAGA talks about DOGE and the GOP cutting ‘govt. waste’ this is the kind of thing to hit them with.
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They did say there would be a report coming out the next few months from now.
A. I hope they do not come back and they got other good jobs
B. Chainsaw Elon with Milei on stage and now Bessent is offering Milei a quid pro quo if Argentina votes for him then USA bails Argentina out financially. Don’t cry for me!