5mo ago

Will Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy's new 'department' actually be able to do anything?

www.nbcnews.com

Summary

The "Department of Government Efficiency" won't be a real government agency. In fact, it won't even be part of the federal government.

Led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the advisory commission aims to cut $2 trillion in spending, reduce regulations, and downsize the federal workforce.

Critics question its effectiveness, given its outsider status, potential conflicts of interest with Musk's businesses, and Ramaswamy's focus on mass layoffs and agency eliminations.

While some praise its potential for reforms, others warn it may undermine civil service and prioritize "slash-and-burn" cuts over thoughtful changes.

28 comments

I love the irony of putting two people in charge of an efficiency department. Satire is dead.
- A redundant efficiency department with no direct way to make changes, it's like nominating a sex trafficker to be the attorney general or something
  
  Or a known Russian asset to head national intelligence.
  
  Or hiring two guys to be co-referees for the no holds barred orgy that's about to start.
- They should start calling it the Department of Government Efficiency Department.

Seriously, a bunch of people who don't know the GAO exists.
- But the GAO doesn't have an acronym that is also a funny meme. How is Elon meant to give a shit about it if it doesn't make the 14 year old boys laugh?
  
  Hey it's not just a meme, it's DeCeNtRaliZeD fInAnCe. I bought some DOGE as a joke several years ago, now it is worth real money. I sold some the last time it was at $0.69, because of course I did.
  I have some left, the price is currently $0.36 but maybe Elon can meme it up to $4.20 and I can retire early.
- It's the GAO but with more corruption, blackjack and hookers. Oh and it's not actually part of the government.
  
  actually, forget the GAO
- Shhhh. I don't want these two anywhere near an office or department with merit.

It doesn’t matter, that’s not the point. The point is precisely that it’s not part of the government. It’s the manifestation of the sort of private capture that has made Musk so rich. They are explicitly taking a governmental responsibility - managing the budget - and moving it out of the government. Away from oversight, away from regulation, with unclear (and therefore definable by them) power and authority, free from any obligation to actually DO anything.
- taking a crime and moving it somewhere else is also the entire schtick of silicon valley techbros. see, it's not a pyramid scheme or securities fraud, it's Future of Finance™. it's not copyright infringement or criminal conspiracy if it's done by chatbots, and they're not liable anyway, why have you trusted the lying boxes
  
  They’re just disrupting governance by upleveling inefficient “budgeting” and “oversight” to a blockchain-driven web3 AI powered crypto GaaS (government as a service) product called F.A.R.T.S, or the Federal AI Recurring Transaction System. FARTS will take your dollars and give it directly to four billionaires, cutting out the inefficient “procurement” process we use now to funnel taxpayer money to rich demons.

A department led by anthropomorphized ketamine and cocaine. What could go wrong?
(No idea if Ramaswamy is on coke, but he sure gives off coked-up, business school frat boy vibes)

Elons two main businesses only exist because of government handouts. 7500 electric vehicle tax credit over 100,000s of cars is well into the billions. With how close Tesla came to insolvency, the ability to reach more customers surely saved Tesla.
And spaceX (and more money for starlink) he has got billions more directly and is slated to receive even more even though SpaceX has missed deadlines over and over and the goal of propping up SpaceX was so we could have a cheaper option than Russia to getting people to the ISS is now not even on the table.
What's the over/under twitter gets government subsidies with some paper thin argument like "it's the public square of the Internet, so it's basically a park, and since we get 10x the yearly visitors than the grand canyon, we deserve 10x it's budget to help maintain our "free speech" park"

If they say to Trump "cut FBI, cut NASA", Trump will do it, and all fund for space exploration will got to SpaceX by the way.
- The DoD and NASA are the ones that pay SpaceX through government contracts. If he cuts NASA, then that is less money for SpaceX
  
  I guess the full 25 billions$ will go to Musk/SpaceX

“Don't worry, Trump will be stopped because of the LAW”, has to be the stupidest argument that people are touting lately. When has that ever mattered?

This only matters if people in the federal government are willing to say "You don't have any legal authority to tell me to do anything and I don't want to help you, so go away" which I wouldn't count on always being the case

Of course, they'll be able to do tremendous amounts of irreparable damage to society.

Not with two dipshits behind the wheel, it won't.

Their faces look like they're both trying to molest the same small child and they have to somehow come to an agreement over how to take turns.
Why do these types always have that child rapist look in their eyes?

You don't have to be able nor smart, to destroy.

This helps explain the low pay high workload mantra.

28 comments