DOGE Is What Happens When Trust In Government Hits Zero
Submitted by QTR’s Fringe Finance
Multiple people over the last week or two have asked me – as a Trump voter in this last election – what I think about President Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) having access to all types of critical government systems, including those at the Treasury and the Social Security Administration. Most recently, I talked about it last night on a podcast with George Gammon.
The way I, and people on both sides of the political aisle, feel about DOGE is mostly irrelevant. Like most Americans, I’m sitting by and watching them gain access to and burrow through critical government infrastructure under the guise of looking for waste, fraud, and abuse. Like I do with my thoughts when I’m meditating, I’m just watching for the time being. I’m observing without judgment.
And yes, I do feel a bit conflicted. Part of me knows that sending teenagers named “Big Balls” deep into these government databases to try and unearth fraud isn’t a thoughtful or nuanced way to deal with the situation. But the other part of me can’t help but throw my hands up in the air and exclaim, “That’s what we get.”
Remember, the “adults” were supposedly already in charge over the last four years and, to me, it’s inconceivable how things could possibly get any worse from our country’s fiscal management standpoint. The “adults” ran up the debt at record speed. The “adults” opened our border and welcomed illegal immigrants, allowing many of the them to collect government benefits paid for by taxpayers. The “adults” lied to us and told us Joe Biden was mentally fit for office. The “adults” pushed censorship in media and on social media.
I’m a big believer in people, places, and things reaping what they sow, and after all this “adulting”, maybe “Big Balls” is exactly what we deserve.
Donald Trump won the election in a landslide because the Democrats and the Washington, D.C. political machine made it happen. As I’ve pointed out multiple times on this blog, the elites in D.C. may have had overwhelming control, but they lacked finesse in delivering their narratives and failed to hide their true intentions from the American people. Ergo, for better or worse, this led the United States to elect a man widely viewed as a political outsider. Trump campaigned on an agenda that, 15 years ago, would have never held enough water with the American people to get behind it. But thanks to what can only be described as four years of gross incompetence under a barely conscious President Biden, it was all but destiny that Trump would win this election by a landslide.
And with Trump comes the idea of massive government cuts, and DOGE. It has hardly been a secret that the U.S. government has been fiscally irresponsible for decades. This irresponsibility—marked by sending hundreds of billions of dollars overseas in foreign aid while military veterans lay dying on U.S. city streets—has reached a fever pitch where even the everyday American can’t ignore it.
Photo: Inc.
The United States is drowning in debt, running larger and larger fiscal deficits that were only casually mentioned by Treasury Secretary Yellen and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, despite their “runaway train” nature.
U.S. National Debt going parabolic
The expansion of the money supply, the sharp increase in debt-to-GDP, and runaway inflation have made our cowardly fiscal policies something digestible even to the most uninitiated U.S. citizens who would otherwise never track the economy.
Debt/GDP up almost 4x since the early 1970s
When the average American sees a chart of our debt-to-GDP combined with massive inflation, then watches government officials hurriedly clean up the entire city of San Francisco in 48 hours simply because CCP President Xi Jinping was visiting, it makes even the most uninterested financial minds perk up and ask, “What the hell is really going on here?” Surely, if we can clean up San Francisco that quickly for a communist foreign leader, we should be doing it daily for American citizens, right?
On top of that, how come every time I visit a place like Montreal or Europe, their trains, subways, public squares and cities appear cleaner, nicer, newer and far more functional than those in the U.S.? Why is there less homelessness and better social services? Are they really charging that much more in taxes relative to GDP than the U.S.?
Along these lines, Americans have begun asking themselves similar questions, all leading to a central point: “What are we getting for our tax dollars?”
After all, the country is running a massive deficit, and Democrats’ unhealthy obsession with taxation drifted last year into extremely regressive territory—like taxing unrealized capital gains. So, if you’re going to tax gains I haven’t even made yet, can I at least board one – just one – subway car in Philadelphia that doesn’t smell overwhelmingly like human fecal matter?
Yes, Americans like me have been left wondering things like: If the IRS can hire 100,000 new agents to pore over things like $600 Venmo transactions under the guise of scraping together a few extra million dollars in tax revenue, why is it acceptable for billions, and collectively possibly trillions to just — POOF! — go missing, like some kind of magic trick being performed at a 13 year old’s birthday party?
The obsession with taxation piecemeal stands in stark contrast to the huge amounts of tax revenue that either ends up in foreign pockets or disappears without explanation.
These types of situations are what we’ve sown—DOGE is what we’ve reaped.
To say that DOGE is moving fast and breaking things would be an understatement. But in reality, what alternative approach would have been better at this point? The country’s taxation, spending, and fiscal habits are so poorly calibrated that promising minor cuts here and there would accomplish nothing. Letting loose a bull in the China shop of the American government, however, quickly postures up and puts everyone on notice: The gravy train has officially ended, and nothing is off-limits.
Would there be more nuanced and strategic ways to handle the problem? Probably. But that’s not what we deserve at this point. Sadly, in some ways we deserve a bit of mayhem while reviewing how the country is managing its finances. And my answer to “what are your thoughts about DOGE” is irrelevant, because all I can do is sit back and watch it unfold.
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When it comes to public sentiment, I think the gross misuses of taxpayer money that DOGE has—and likely will continue to—uncover will leave the average American so aghast that concerns about how “strategic” DOGE is in its approach could eventually play second fiddle.
To be clear, I’m not condoning the mishandling of private taxpayer information, nor am I endorsing DOGE’s methods. But I do understand how, karmically, this feels like the country getting exactly what it deserves after decades of politicians speaking out of both sides of their mouths about controlling spending and taxation.
Ultimately, once the chaos settles and DOGE has run its course, I believe the government will recalibrate and rebuild in ways it wouldn’t have otherwise. Sure, DOGE is likely wildly overshooting the mark in multiple ways, but I hope that when the establishment reasserts control—whether through the judiciary, midterms, or RINOs turning on the MAGA movement—they will look back at this feeling of discomfort as a reminder not to grow too complacent with the waste, fraud, and abuse, as well as the erratic and irresponsible spending, that our government has made commonplace.
And at least in that regard, I think DOGE will have had somewhat of a positive impact.
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Tyler Durden
Thu, 02/20/2025 – 16:20
