Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Elon Musk's DOGE Seems to Be Losing Steam as He Prepares to Retreat to Tesla - Gizmodo
The early days of Elon Musk’s time at the Department of Government Efficiency were defined by big, flashy actions, promises of massive cuts, and dubious legality. As his 130-day cutoff as a limited government employee approaches, it seems he’ll be leaving with a thud. On top of significantly cutting the expected “savings” that his pseudo-agency will produce, other signature policies like the “5 things” email that went out at the start of DOGE’s operation have fallen entirely by the wayside, according to the Washington Post.
Musk and his team of large toddlers at DOGE made waves back in February when they sent an email with the subject line “What did you do last week?” to every government employee, demanding they list five accomplishments that had been made over the previous week or face termination for failing to respond. That never came to fruition and, according to the Washington Post, was never even a real threat. Almost immediately, the Office of Personnel Management told agencies the initiative was voluntary and noncompliance would not result in resignation. The agency also never did anything with the emails it received.
As tends to happen with feckless policies, people started ignoring the emails altogether. Per the Post, some agencies still require responses to the emails, which have apparently continued months later, but others have stopped mandating responses and don’t check which employees have replied or not. And, most notably, there does not appear to have been any consequences for the mix of responses (or non-responses).
DOGE has become a microcosm of how most Musk-led operations tend to go. Not only did it take weeks for the agency to reveal who was allegedly at the helm, but the lack of any real leadership has resulted in chaos basically every step of the way. The department has run on the Silicon Valley standard of “move fast and break things,” and has definitely accomplished the latter, resulting in a litany of legal challenges along the way. Meanwhile, Musk’s big pledge of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending has been revised down to $1 trillion and now $150 billion—all while the cuts that have been made have failed to make any actual dent in the deficit. A classic Muskian “over promise and under deliver” move.
Musk and his team of large toddlers at DOGE made waves back in February when they sent an email with the subject line “What did you do last week?” to every government employee, demanding they list five accomplishments that had been made over the previous week or face termination for failing to respond. That never came to fruition and, according to the Washington Post, was never even a real threat. Almost immediately, the Office of Personnel Management told agencies the initiative was voluntary and noncompliance would not result in resignation. The agency also never did anything with the emails it received.
As tends to happen with feckless policies, people started ignoring the emails altogether. Per the Post, some agencies still require responses to the emails, which have apparently continued months later, but others have stopped mandating responses and don’t check which employees have replied or not. And, most notably, there does not appear to have been any consequences for the mix of responses (or non-responses).
DOGE has become a microcosm of how most Musk-led operations tend to go. Not only did it take weeks for the agency to reveal who was allegedly at the helm, but the lack of any real leadership has resulted in chaos basically every step of the way. The department has run on the Silicon Valley standard of “move fast and break things,” and has definitely accomplished the latter, resulting in a litany of legal challenges along the way. Meanwhile, Musk’s big pledge of cutting $2 trillion in federal spending has been revised down to $1 trillion and now $150 billion—all while the cuts that have been made have failed to make any actual dent in the deficit. A classic Muskian “over promise and under deliver” move.
https://gizmodo.com/elon-musks-doge-seems-to-be-losing-steam-as-he-prepares-to-retreat-to-tesla-2000592185
7 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
