DOGE - what next? Cutting wasteful spending and staff is the first step - accountability and compliance with rational and valid budgets is next

When a new management tam takes over a company, the new executives will likely have already determined what cost savings and strategy for growing the economy are needed.

These executives may have used “zero-based budgeting” to determine how many staff should be used to achieve the output of the company and all the processes used to get there. A “right sizing” exercise - enabling more productive staff, processes and the identification of new markets and pricing policies - as part of business and marketing strategies.

Running s government has some similarities but is different.

By now, we have some idea of the extent of corrupt and waste at the federal level. The Harris/Biden (and Obama) Administration blew out spending and implanted corruption and waste across the entire Federal system - creating it, rather than reducing or even eliminating it.

DOGE is identifying the most egregious examples using simple techniques. These may be called algorithms and use AI, but thr principles of sound management are unchanged from those used over centuries,

Essentially, Democrats have created a few trillion of MORE corruption and waste - and DOGE will seek to remove it.

What we are now painfully aware of, is that all those Congressional Oversight ad Budget Committees are not worth the candle. They failed to oversee the waste and corruption and indeed contributed to it - in the name of big government “politics”,

Announcements prior to the authorisation of thousand page “Bills” - half an hour before a House floor vote - with words like “you will have to vote for the Bill to find out what’s in it”.

The ”magic money tree” of debt and taxes, to fund fiscal deficits,

One would think that DOGE should be an adjunct of the Government Accountability Office (GAO), but it isn’t - the new broom might need to take a look at that!

The initial work of DOGE may address over-staffing and that over-staffing may result in the reductionom in spending of taxes on lunatic “pet projects” rather than projects that actually make people better off, by reducing corrupt spending of taxes for the benefit of the chosen many, but three is a deeper issue.

Not just the political projects costing tens of billions, but the cost over runs from the projects themselves.

Each US State would benefit from a serious DOGE’ing to reduce State deficits and potentially local taxes stripped from residents, but we can use a State infrastructure project as an example.

Th merits of this project are dubious, but the over runs on the budget point to the issue.

Per Brave AI:

“The California High-Speed Rail project has faced significant cost overruns. As of 2024, the capital cost estimate for the Palmdale to Los Angeles segment has increased from $5.4 billion in 2008 to $19.7 billion in 2024.”

Just that one segment of the rail project is almost four times the budgeted cost - which in itself was dubious in the first place. This is at the State level, now imagine this applied at the national, federal level - with shoddy accountability,

We know that the Department of Defence has not pass=ed an audit in years - its budget is almost a trillion bucks, Trump claims that Ukraine has been given $350 billion of taxes and Zelensky claims he has not received $100 billion of that,

We have seen the “gold bars being thrown off the Titanic” at the EPA. All those gold bricks were spending authorised by the House, the Senate and signed off by POTUS.

Not just the billions spent on dubious pet projects, but the accountability of those taxes has been completely lost, because the money is given to NGO’s (non-government organisations).which are not subject to any of the “checks and balances” of date, source of authorisation, authorising officer, monetary limit of authority of officer, amount, etc - that apply to federal spending of taxes.

Here is a somewhat dated example of federal spending cost over runs from here:

https://www.gordian.com/resources/federal-cost-overruns/

1. Accurate Cost Estimates are a Matter of National Security

2. The Best Results Will Come from Government and Industry Collaboration

3. Keeping Budgets on Track Requires Reducing Uncertainty

4. Design with the End in Mind

5. The Current Human Capital Shortage Will Last

From here:

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

“Cost overruns are common in infrastructure, building, and technology projects. For IT projects, a 2004 industry study by the Standish Group found an average cost overrun of 43 percent; 71 percent of projects came in over budget, exceeded time estimates, and had estimated too narrow a scope; and total waste was estimated at $55 billion per year in the US alone.”

The days of building a Hoover Dam on time and within budget by honest, hardworking Americans are long gone.

Now we have wind turbines claiming to have 25 years of useful life that last only 11 years and this sort of thing:

$7.5 Billion in Biden Funds Yield Only 8 EV Charging Stations

Leave aside the cost of the damned things compared to the contract!

“But the delays in federally funded chargers are caused by “wanting to get it right,” a federal official says. The timing is important, because the slow pace of federal charging build-out has become a political issue.”

The impact on roads from EV usage - that are twice as heavy as hydrocarbon fuelled cars - did not appear in any Federal budgets, nor did the need to strengthen crash barriers from the heavier EVs.

So, how are taxes spent via Federal contracts and “procurement”?

According to Brave AI extracts:

“The process for awarding federal contracts involves several key steps. Initially, federal agencies must publicly list their contract opportunities, and some of these contracts are set aside exclusively for small businesses. The process of requesting proposals, evaluating bids, and awarding contracts should take place on a level playing field, considering bids from any qualified business.”

Compare that to the “gold bars from the Titanic” spending by the EPA to NGOs - how is that even legal???

Who in the EPA had the level f authorisation to dole out a few billion in taxes?

Can the taxes be recovered because those signing contracts exceeded delegated authorities’ ad the accountability standards that govern the spending of taxes?

A little more from Brave AI:

“During the award process, also known as the source selection process, the government evaluates proposals to determine if they fall within the competitive range. If a proposal is within the competitive range, negotiations may occur, allowing the proposer to revise their proposal and address deficiencies or significant weaknesses.

The contracting officer must award the contract to a responsible bidder whose bid offers the greatest advantage to the U.S. Government, considering only price and price-related factors.

If new information causes the contracting officer to determine that the concern referred to the SBA is actually responsible to perform the contract, the contracting officer shall reverse the determination of nonresponsibility and proceed to award the contract.”

How many pf the “contracting officers” are Democratic Party operatives and DEI hires pursuing their own minority agenda?

There are different forms of Federal contract - per Brave AI:

“The proportion of federal contracts issued under fixed terms is not explicitly stated in the provided context. However, the context indicates that fixed-price contracts are used when the cost risk to the government is low and the requirements are well-defined, such as for commercial items or full-on and follow-on production.

Additionally, the government prefers to issue firm-fixed-price contracts, but not all requirements fit this type, and the contracting officer may consider whether a portion of the contract could be issued under a firm-fixed-price arrangement.”

How does this reconcile with cost over runs? That is a question for the experts!

Suffice to say, DOGE (and the GAO) needs to get out in front of these potential wastes of taxes.

US States need to take a careful look at what DOGE is doing at the Federal level and what might come next.

Maybe California is improving from 2020:

California Only State That Fails To Publish Annual Financial Report Due Last Year – California Globe

“California is the only state that has not yet published a Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for the fiscal year that ended more than 12 months ago. That means the latest official data about the state is more than two years old.”

To this - last year:

California's Latest Audited Financials Reveal a Serious Problem | Cato at Liberty Blog

“The State of California finally published its fiscal year 2022 audited financial statements on March 15, 2024, 350 days later than the March 31, 2023 deadline required by the municipal bond market and the federal government. Even worse, the tardy audit revealed that California had overstated its “Net Position” by about $29 billion.”

“… sad irony from the state that houses the world’s most data-driven enterprises. Enterprises fly blind without current data and organizations like ours desire current data with which to evaluate current state performance.”

“Bureaucrats, DOGE thyself!!!

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