XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.corruption, alt.politics.usa   
   XPost: talk.politics.usa   
   From: weberm@polaris.net   
      
   Democrats have their panties in a wad over the work that Elon Musk and DOGE   
   are doing to control government spending.   
      
   But despite all the hoopla, what’s actually going on is straightforward stuff   
   that most people probably — but wrongly — assumed the government was doing   
   all along.   
      
   Musk wrote on X Saturday that DOGE and the Treasury Department have agreed to   
   take the following steps:   
      
   * All outgoing payments must have a categorization code in order to be paid.   
     That’s supposed to already happen, but Musk has found the code is often   
     left blank, making audits nearly impossible.   
      
   * All payments must have an explanation attached — another procedure that   
     has been routinely ignored, making it hard to determine what or who federal   
     payments are actually for.   
      
   * Every payment must be checked against an up-to-date “Do Not Pay” list of   
     known frauds, terrorist groups, deceased people and expenditures that do   
     not match congressional appropriations.   
      
   “The above super obvious and necessary changes are being implemented by   
   existing, long-time career government employees,” Musk noted. “It is   
   ridiculous [these rules] didn’t exist already!”   
      
   Yes, it is.   
      
   President Donald Trump raises his fist upon arrival in West Palm Beach,   
   Florida, U.S., February 14, 2025.   
   Musk went on to express disbelief that more than $100 billion worth of   
   entitlements every year are going to “individuals with no SSN or even a   
   temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious.”   
      
   “When I asked if anyone at Treasury had a rough guess for what percentage of   
   that number is unequivocal and obvious fraud, the consensus in the room was   
   about half, so $50B/year or $1B/week!” he exclaimed.   
      
   Former President Donald Trump clapping as Elon Musk, in a suit and black hat,   
   departs from a campaign event at Butler Farm Show in 2024.   
   President Donald Trump claps as Elon Musk prepares to depart after speaking   
   at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show on Oct. 5. AP   
   On Sunday, Musk vented about another discovery: That the Social Security   
   Administration has no mechanism to prevent duplicate Social Security numbers   
   from being issued — “which further enables MASSIVE FRAUD!!” he wrote.   
      
   This is all very basic stuff necessary to safeguard our taxpayer dollars, yet   
   up to now our federal government just hasn’t bothered.   
      
   Why not?   
      
   I’m hearing plenty of excuses, mainly on the order that the federal   
   government is big, and that many people who work for it are incompetent and   
   can’t be expected to do better.   
      
   I don’t actually believe that.   
      
   Yes, the government is big. And of course when you’re writing lots of checks,   
   there will be some errors.   
      
   But the system should be designed to minimize mistakes and catch them when   
   they happen, not to make them easy and undetectable.   
      
   Generally, when auditors find that an organization’s accounting system makes   
   errors easy to commit and difficult to spot, they assume the system is   
   designed that way because it is intended to facilitate fraud.   
      
   Maybe that’s not true here. Maybe the federal government is simply   
   incompetent.   
      
   If that’s the case, though, then maybe it shouldn’t get so much of our money.   
      
   But as Musk also noted, he’s getting a lot of help from lower-level officials   
   who have wanted to do this for many years, but have been stopped by prior   
   management.   
      
   So maybe the problem isn’t incompetence. Maybe the system is in fact set up   
   to facilitate fraud.   
      
   With trillions of dollars passing through the federal government every year,   
   there are a lot of opportunities for crooks and financial predators to siphon   
   some off.   
      
   New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy lied about hiding an illegal immigrant in his own   
   house.   
   A cynic might even speculate that the people screaming the loudest about   
   DOGE’s audits are the people most invested in the fraud.   
      
   A cynic might.   
      
   At any rate, we’ve often heard it’s impossible to achieve meaningful savings   
   by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government.   
      
   But in just a couple of weeks, DOGE has identified low-hanging fruit   
   everywhere it’s looked.   
      
   A General Accounting Office report from last April estimated that the federal   
   government loses $233 billion to $521 billion to fraud every year, and now   
   that figure seems likely to be low.   
      
   When you subtract the money being lost to fraud, perhaps closer to a trillion   
   dollars when all the news is in, and then you get rid of the money we   
   shouldn’t be spending at all — with USAID, and all its efforts to reward   
   compliant media, foment revolutions and promote global censorship, as just   
   one example — it seems like Musk’s boast that he could cut federal spending   
   by $2 trillion may turn out to be pretty accurate.   
      
   Not everyone will be happy, since all that money is going to somebody,   
   whether it’s a fraudster or some NGO official in a $500K job funded by   
   government grants.   
      
   But the people paying the taxes, who are more likely to be making $50K a year   
   than $500K, are likely to feel differently.   
      
   Bring it on.   
      
   --   
   Not a joke! Don't jump!   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)