DOGE Isn't Saving Much Money. So What Is Elon Musk Really Up To?

[CitizenZero]

Article on Elon Musk and DOGE.

"If Elon Musk's effort to remake the federal government was ever really about "waste, fraud, and abuse," those DOGE days are over. His quasi-agency has made huge and unprecedented changes to what the federal government does. But ask an economist, historian, or political scientist why, or what it all means, and you'll get a sad-sounding laugh in response.

One thing is clear: There were never many savings to be found. Last year, Musk predicted he could cut $2 trillion from the federal budget. (That was always going to be tough, mathematically, given that the government's entire discretionary budget is $1.7 trillion.) In January, Musk revised his estimate down to $1 trillion. Earlier this month, he revised the revision down to $150 billion.

On the other hand, DOGE has been very good at reducing the number of people who work for the government — as many as 216,000 federal employees and contractors are already out, with more dismissals in the works. Musk has gutted or eliminated agencies that prevent disease, protect us from pandemics, provide aid to our allies, ensure the safety of our food and medicines, and safeguard Americans against toxic chemicals. Every one of those efforts is a proven multiplier of our tax money — every dollar we spend on them redounds to the US economy. Which means that even if Musk succeeds at slashing government spending, he'll actually be adding to the federal deficit: DOGE cuts to the Internal Revenue Service alone are estimated to cost America some $500 billion in lost tax revenue every year."

The rest of the article is at the link--

https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-really-doge-4-080401164.html

[rich7862]

1. If you need to act as to what doge is up to, you have no imaginations whatsoever.

[yourout]

2. Espionage and sabotage for the Russians.

[Irish_Dem]

3. Grift, theft, treason, destruction of the US federal govt.

[al_liberal]

4. Commandeering all of the databases in the federal government.

And sending the data to his own servers. There was never any chance his DOGE toadies could reverse engineer any of the computer systems that run the government programs in a short period of time. They could, however, put hooks into all of the databases and network traffic so they can route it to outside data stores.

[CitizenZero]

5. The Article

I think all of your suggestions are plausible. The article lists four possible theories. It could be a mix of reasons. The article is a bit long, about a 10 or 12 minute read, but worth a look. Espionage and deliberate destruction of the government for various reasons is my bet also. It is a technofascist takeover, I think. Massive data theft obscured by a fake mission to "cut waste fraud and abuse".

[Gore1FL]

6. I would call him evil, but that might break the "No kooky, extremist, or hate content" rule, apparently. nt

[jmowreader]

7. The whole purpose of DOGE...

...is to eliminate government interference in any of Musk's businesses.

[Dulcinea]

8. DOGE was never about saving money.

Eloon Muskovite is getting rid of the parts of the government that the far right has wanted to eliminate for years: the Dept. of Education, USAID, the CPFB, etc. You notice Congressional Repubs aren't uttering a word. They're on board with this.

[Iggo]

9. Doge is stealing money, not saving it.

[CitizenZero]

10. Also

Even if Musk had some "Master Plan", the way that he went about it was idiotic. He initially said he was going to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget when the entire discretionary budget is about $1.7 trillion. That just reflects how little Musk understood about basic facts and the government. I do think that the whole "waste, fraud, and abuse" thing was just a smokescreen to cover the fact that he just wanted to destroy certain parts of the government and steal as much data as he could get. If there was a massive data theft operation, it is probably the biggest computer crime in history. If we ever get back in power, Musk and his DOGE kids could be facing a lot of serious charges.

[appmanga]

11. Information is, and always will be...

...the most valuable commodity. Groups of unvetted, uncleared individuals have had unfettered access to the most sensitive data the government houses. The fallout from this will be far-reaching, and possibly never fully known.