DOGE overstated savings, government watchdog says

cceejayoz about 3 hours ago 52 commentsRead Article on politico.com

⚡ Community Insights

Discussion Sentiment

33% Positive

Analyzed from 802 words in the discussion.

Discussion (52 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

blitzar•about 2 hours ago

You mean they didn't save 25 trillion dollars a year from the 7 trillion annual spend?

I cant believe they would lie about this ... i am sure that this is a totally isolated case and they have been straight forward and honest about everything else.

The DOGE refund cheque is due to arrive any day now.

bix6•about 2 hours ago

And all you techno futurist republicans voted for this. And you’ll do it again cuz money or whatever.

classified•about 1 hour ago

But now they have "startup experience" and can fuck up even worse the next time.

xgulfie•about 2 hours ago

The right's platform has devolved into, essentially, "whatever owns the libs"

saalweachter•about 2 hours ago

Eh, I'm not going to dispute the validity of Cleek's Law, but ~everything Trump, et al, are doing has been an extremely popular idea with different segments of the right for thirty, forty years.

That goes for DOGE, both the idea of "drowning the government in a bathtub" and the specific cuts they made (eg, wrecking foreign aid), that goes for ICE, even the Iran War, which is widely regarded as the unpopular thing that might actually sink the administration, is something a solid 30% of the base has been salivating over since Reagan and are only upset that he hasn't "finished the job" yet.

If you think it's all purely reactionary you haven't been paying attention for the last 40 years.

dgellow•about 1 hour ago

What you describe is the definition of reactionary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary

N_Lens•about 2 hours ago

The amount of damage inflicted by this admin will take over a generation to assess, if circumstances are stable enough to do so.

e2le•about 2 hours ago

Unfortunately Americans remain too comfortable to bother with any serious push back. The destruction of democratic traditions in America will continue and the president will keep using the office to legitimise his scams.

dgellow•about 1 hour ago

Even worse, way too many people are still actively supporting this. That can even been seen in the HN commenting crowd

classified•about 1 hour ago

> the HN commenting crowd

That set also contains elements who will swear that LLMs are conscious, so it does not mean as much as we might want it to.

nutjob2•about 2 hours ago

I think you'll eventually find that the United States has lost much of its credibility and goodwill forever.

amiga386•about 2 hours ago

Post WW2, the US set up some fantastic levers of power that let it establish and maintain its hegemony at arms length: the United Nations and the UNSC. NATO. The petrodollar. Pax Americana could've gone on forever.

However, those levers of power are subtle enough that once the US voted ignorant jackasses into power, they wrongly thought that's just how the world is, they can do what they like, including -- critically! -- dismantling the levers of power.

It's like that image of the idiot sawing off the branch he's sitting on. How else can you explain the US trying to fuck up the UN and NATO?

jermaustin1•about 2 hours ago

> Pax Americana could've gone on forever.

Hubris is the undoing of all empires. And hubris is basically entropy for humanity.

skinfaxi•about 1 hour ago

> How else can you explain the US trying to fuck up the UN and NATO?

At least cynically, there is nothing ignorant about it, it is intentional undermining probably for personal gain.

john_strinlai•about 2 hours ago

for awhile, sure. but we can look at japan, germany, etc. and recognize that it wont be "forever".

edit: woops, i guess everyone apparently still hates japan and germany and will hate them forever, too. does everyone still hate spain?

clark_dent•about 2 hours ago

A good proportion of the older generations still disdain or mock Germany as nazis-in-waiting. There may be an end to the damage done to their global reputation, but it's not here yet 80 years down the line.

ceejayoz•about 2 hours ago

I'd really prefer not to learn the "don't put evil assholes in power" lesson the way Japan and Germany did.

They're basically brand-new countries.

fabian2k•about 2 hours ago

I certainly hope that the US finds a less destructive way of changing their reputation than Germany did.

LoganDark•about 2 hours ago

the hit to practically all its spy programs will set it back years

dgellow•about 1 hour ago

Easily a decade

chevman•about 2 hours ago

They'll just extend the forecast horizon when questioned:

"Oh, those projections were over the life the expected costs,forecast out 10/15/20 years into the future. Everyone knows this is how you calculate such savings..."

akagusu•about 1 hour ago

DOGE was never about saving money, it was about cutting aid to the poor.

TimorousBestie•about 2 hours ago

I won’t be surprised when the GAO’s budget is cut next as retaliation for this embarrassing report.

mingus88•about 2 hours ago

Oh, it saved money for someone all right

fabian2k•about 2 hours ago

The goal wasn't to save money, but to destroy the administrative capacity of the government. And to eliminate programs Musk, Trump and their cronies disliked, while circumventing the legal procedures.

Of course it didn't save any money, and it was obvious from the start that the numbers they put out were entirely fictional.

hn4yci687u•about 2 hours ago

Great context, thanks for adding it

nutjob2•about 2 hours ago

This was fairly obvious from the start.

ChrisArchitect•about 1 hour ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49204510

lorreyfum•about 2 hours ago

No problem just find more. It’s pretty easy.

actionfromafar•about 2 hours ago

It probably saved money for some very special companies.

drcongo•about 1 hour ago

"No shit" everyone else says

metalliqaz•about 2 hours ago

Its purpose was not to save money but to disable government regulation of capital.

dgellow•about 1 hour ago

Specifically on Musk, that directly benefited his companies

classified•about 1 hour ago

If there's a government watchdog left, then Trump, Musk, DOGE, etc... haven't done their jobs. They are all too incompetent to even do a proper work of destruction. Or did someone fail to bribe them right?

ryanmcbride•about 1 hour ago

WOW YOU DONT FUCKING SAY?????????

micromacrofoot•about 2 hours ago

people were saying this literally as the cuts were happening, we need to get over the delusion of powerful men knowing something the general population doesn't

ransom1538•about 2 hours ago

Last night a jam was canceled in Brazil: "bee-conservation musical". People say it's a waste of US tax payer funds (USAID), but they don't understand the real cost. 600 people are now suffering from PTSD and attending survivor therapy after being deprived of the bee-conservation musical. Our homeless can wait, the "bee-conservation musical" must go on.

(Europeans: this is sarcasm)