The Doge will not be denied.
Posted on 11/19/2024 8:36:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I vividly recall walking through the corridors of Saddam Hussein’s palace in the Green Zone in Baghdad in 2006. I was there as part of a team helping to develop a strategy to reinvigorate Iraqi businesses that had been decimated by war and the dysfunction of Iraq’s state-run economy. The palace had been occupied and renamed the temporary U.S. Embassy in Iraq. The wide corridors and ornate offices were occupied by U.S. government employees and military personnel.
As I walked down one of the corridors, I came across a startling sight. Adorning the wall outside an office door was an official photograph of a U.S. State Department official. Above the photo was this inscription: “Welcome to U.S. Embassy Baghdad, our new Embassy Diversity Officer.” The incongruence of what was happening outside the Green Zone with what was happening inside it was depressing — insurgents were attacking and killing U.S. service members and civilian aid workers on a daily basis — yet enlightening. In that moment, I thought, we may fail to bring peace and stability to Iraq, but we haven’t failed in planting our bloated bureaucracy right in the heart of it.
Recently, many have been buoyed by the appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead something named the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). The name immediately recalls the Monty Python sketch about “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” The promise of an empowered set of fresh eyes, taking a hard look at waste and inefficiency in our federal government is certainly something we should all cheer.
But as a two-time veteran of such efforts during the Bush 43 and Trump 45 administrations, I offer this unsolicited advice to Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy: don’t create the DOGE!
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
All that is needed is a small team of highly motivated and smart people who are used to doing things at the pace at which the world is changing — not the pace at which government moves.
No offices, no H.R. department, no financial management system or ERP, no department logo, no invitations to Cabinet meetings, no Senate advice and consent requirements, no department coffee mugs or ID card lanyards, no federal advisory commission rules, and no diversity officers.
Some people don’t read past the headlines, like the author. DOGE is NOT a federal agency.
“American Thinker” isn’t thinking very much these days.
I like American Thinker, but this article missed the mark it was aiming for.
New agencies have a penchant for metastasizing into cancerous masses spread throughout the body in short order.
Unless there is a specific, irrevocable clause in the establishing documents which either sundown the agency after a specific time, or when a reasonable, objective goal has been reached, I tend to agree with this thesis.
RE: “American Thinker” isn’t thinking very much these days.
Can you please elaborate...
With no power and no authority.
Should work great if it happens that way :)
“creating a new federal agency to cut bureaucracy is itself a bureaucratic exercise that will only frustrate, delay, and ultimately stymie the effort. It is best not to do it. Otherwise, the organization itself will become mired in the rules, laws, regulations, and inefficiencies governing such entities that it has been tasked with eliminating.”
Well, that makes sense. I hope those 2 see this or have thought of it.
The primary goal of any organization is to perpetuate itself.
It is NOT a federal agency ...
I had to read dozens of government contracts. There were requirements totally unrelated to the product being purchased. Every one was political. Establish and fund a diversity department. Train all employees in LGBT , sexual harassment, etc. Switch your power generation to solar. The list was long and expensive. Each senator threw something in to please his donors. Until you deal with that all talk about ending waste is theater.
This guys’ whole article is based on the false premise that DOGE is another government agency. Why did the editors at American Thinker publish such nonsense?
Yes, there should be no federal agency named DOGE. Keep it small, lean and operating out of the Presidents offices.
Understood. But where does it get its funding or authority to do anything?
Established think tanks like this have the potential to become official, or de facto agencies is my concern. We need fewer, not more agencies.
It’s not a Federal agency. No excuse for anyone not knowing that by now.
> But as a two-time veteran of such efforts during the Bush 43 and Trump 45 administrations… <
Well, that’s two strikes against the author right there. That doesn’t mean he’s not making sense here. But working for the Bushes makes his motivation a bit suspect.
As to the author -- "Thomas B. Modly is an American businessman and former government official who served as acting United States Secretary of the Navy from November 24, 2019, to April 7, 2020."
About four and a half months in an "acting" position. Previously he was a NATO sort of guy. So the opinion seems quite "DOD."
DOGE has a mandate to deliver a set of cost cutting recommendations by 07/04/2026. Once that is fulfilled, it dissolves.
Musk to Trump to Congress
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