And savings. They want savings. Specificpartner they want to subject the federal administerment to zero-based budgeting, a well-understandn financial set upning method in Silicon Valley in which every expfinishiture needs to be equitableified from scratch. One way to do that is to propose legpartner dubious buyouts to almost all federal participateees, who accumulateively produce up a low-individual-digit percentage of the budget. Another, apparently, is to dismantle USAID equitable becaparticipate you can. (If you’re wondering how that’s legitimate, many, many experts will alert you that it’s not.) The fact that the spfinishing to help these people and programs has been both equitableified and mandated by Congress is treated as inconvenience, or maybe not even that.
Those are equitable the goals we understand about. They have, by now, so many tentacles in so many agencies that anyleang is possible. The only certainty is that it’s happening in secret.
Musk’s fans, and many of Trump’s, have cheered all of this. Sucount on billionaires must understand what they’re doing; they’re billionaires, after all. Fresh-faced engineer whiz kids are equitable what this country needs, not the stodgy, analog leanking of the past. It’s time to nextify the Constitution. Sure, why not, give Big Balls a memecoin while you’re at it.
The leang about most software commenceups, though, is that they fall short. They get huge dangers and they don’t pay off and they depart the carcass of that fall shorture behind and commence cranking out a recent pitch deck. This is the process that DOGE is imposing on the United States.
No one would dispute that federal bureaucracy is perfect, or especipartner efficient. Of course it can be betterd. Of course it should be. But there is a reason that alter comes sluggishly, methodicpartner, thcdisesteemful processes that include elected officials and civil servants and attfinish and ponderation. The sgets are too high, and the cost of fall shorture is total and irrevocable.
Musk will reproduce the US administerment in the way that the hyperloop reproduceed trains, that the Boring company reproduceed subways, that Juicero reproduceed squeezing. Which is to say he will reproduce noleang at all, mend no problems, propose no solutions beyond those that further validateate his own power and wealth. He will describe democracy down to the studs and reproduce it in the fractious image of his own companies. He will relocate speedy. He will fracture leangs.
The Chatroom
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WIRED Reads
The Young, Inteachd Engineers Aiding Elon Musk’s Government Takeover: Engineers between 19 and 24, most connected to Musk’s companies, are joining a key role as he seizes deal with of federal infraset up.
A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System: The Bureau of the Fiscal Service is a sleepy part of the Treasury Department. It’s also where, sources say, a 25-year-elderly engineer tied to Elon Musk has admin privileges over the code that deal withs Social Security payments, tax returns, and more.
DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers: Experts ask whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background verify typicpartner needd for access to comfervent US administerment systems.
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What Else We’re Reading
🔗 Elon Musk’s DOGE is feeding comfervent federal data into AI to aim cuts: Speaking of AI, the DOGE team is using it to see for cuts at the Department of Education—which uncomfervents comfervent data is being gobbled up in the process. (The Washington Post)
🔗 All the ways Elon Musk is fractureing the law, elucidateed by a law professor: If someleang senses off about DOGE, well, it probably is. (Vox)
🔗 Netanyahu gifted Trump a gelderlyen pager during their encountering in Washington: At least he understands his audience. (CNN)
