“We won. What the f**k did we win? Every day I look at the mailbox for my O.J. prize. Nothing!” ~Chris Rock on the reaction of black people to the O.J. Simpson verdict
This is conservatives and libertarians who originally cheered on the wrecking ball that was DOGE in late January and early February of 2025.
Every day I look at the mailbox for my DOGE check. Nothing!
Do you remember the DOGE checks that Trump and Musk briefly talked about? Some of those great savings were going to be rebated back to the American people in form of $5,000 checks.
There is just a slight problem. There are no “savings”. Any so-called savings have been more than offset by additional increases in government spending elsewhere.
Elon Musk originally said that we could cut the federal budget by $2 trillion per year. Then he said it was probably more realistic to expect $1 trillion per year to start out. Then he went down to something like $150 billion.
$150 billion? That is around a one-month deficit for the U.S. government these days. So, you might be able to balance the budget for one month? What about the $150 billion per month deficit for the other 11 months of the year?
The crazy thing is that we won’t actually see a cut of $150 billion per year. The budget will continue to increase in size.
What Was All This For?
DOGE was a good idea. Even if it accomplishes nothing in terms of budget cuts right now, at least it pointed out some of the egregious stuff that comes out of Washington DC.
It wasn’t just that there is wasteful spending. In those short few weeks of DOGE mania, it exposed that our tax money is actively used against us. It is used to propagandize us, to destroy our culture, and to run the world empire.
Just for the exposure of USAID, we should all be thankful to Elon Musk for this. I don’t believe Musk went in there with bad intentions. From a personal standpoint, he would have been far better off not getting involved in politics. It has actually cost him a lot of money and given him a lot of grief.
You have to wonder what Elon Musk thinks about all of this now? It’s like Edward Snowden spending his life in exile in Russia. Was it all worth it? You expose all of this wrongdoing and you get bad consequences. Meanwhile, much of the American populace just shrug their shoulders if they even pay attention at all.
“Oh well, the NSA has been spying on me. I hope they enjoyed reading my email to Aunt Betty today.”
“Oh well, the U.S. government is funding transgender comic books overseas and funding foreign media companies. I hope those media companies start covering some more things of interest to me.”
Elon Musk has to realize that DOGE is a total flop at this point. When Trump attacked Thomas Massie for questioning a bloated budget and not issuing rescissions for the things DOGE found, Musk had to have known that the honeymoon was over. That’s why he is stepping away and trying to fix his businesses that have suffered.
Chaos With No Benefit
Everything seemed to start out so well at the beginning of the second Trump term for people who care about liberty. It seemed that maybe we would actually get something different this time.
DOGE did many things where even a fiscal conservative could disagree. Forcing government employees back into the office might actually cost more money because you need to provide office space for people who previously worked at home.
Still, the overall spirit of DOGE was that maybe we could apply an ounce of common sense and stop the free ride for so many people living off of Uncle Sam. DOGE was a major disruptor of the status quo.
Most people working at government jobs are not like the elite who rule over us. Sure, some of them have a power complex, but most of them are just going to work and making an income.
Their lives have been majorly disrupted. Maybe you say, “good”.
But what’s it all for? I would rather a major disruption of the military-industrial complex. Instead, Trump is bragging about the first $1 trillion “defense” budget.
Attacking millions of government workers and contractors was not the low hanging fruit. And again, it hasn’t actually produced any cuts. The money has basically just been reallocated.
Trump and members of Congress could demand rescissions of the things exposed by DOGE. But with the exception of a few people in Congress, that isn’t happening. All of that work and political capital was spent to expose this stuff, and we get nothing out of it.
It has created a ton of chaos with no actual cuts.
We aren’t getting DOGE checks. We aren’t getting a reduction in the deficit. We aren’t getting a reduction in overall spending. We got all of the chaos with no immediate benefit.