Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

[HenryChinaski]

Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

A former DOGE staffer says he was fired for praising the government's efficiency in an interview, despite the agency's stated commitment to finding waste.

www.latintimes.com

A former employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says he was surprised by "how efficient the government was," and was quietly dismissed after publicly saying so.

Sahil Lavingia, founder of the tech platform Gumroad, joined DOGE in March to help modernize the Veterans Affairs systems, according to NPR. As a coder with no strong political affiliation, Lavingia said he simply wanted to improve the user experience of government services.

Abuse, to me, feels relatively nonexistent," Lavingia told NPR, adding that what many see as waste is more about modernization opportunities than mismanagement.

"I personally was pretty surprised, actually, at how efficient the government was. This isn't to say that it can't be made more efficient — elimination of paper, elimination of faxing — but these aren't necessarily fraud, waste and abuse," he continued.

DOGE, originally led by Elon Musk under President Donald Trump, emphasized transparency. Lavingia said Musk routinely repeated that principle in private and public. So when he gave a blog interview praising the government's relative efficiency, he thought he was following the agency's values. Instead, he was cut off without notice.

His firing raised eyebrows given DOGE's supposed mission to be open and reform-minded. Lavingia said he never received a direct explanation for his dismissal, only a revoked login.

"Letting someone go for being transparent in the most maximally transparent organization," he noted wryly, "is a little bit entertaining."

None of this is surprising.
The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

 

[SCrider]

Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

A former DOGE staffer says he was fired for praising the government's efficiency in an interview, despite the agency's stated commitment to finding waste.

www.latintimes.com

None of this is surprising.
The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

I think Musk also used it to get access to information, which is key to building his AI system.

 

[noonereal]

Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

A former DOGE staffer says he was fired for praising the government's efficiency in an interview, despite the agency's stated commitment to finding waste.

www.latintimes.com

None of this is surprising.
The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

I still don't know what abuse is supposed to be.
I understand waste and fraud, I don't understand abuse.

 

[Mr Person]

Gee, it's almost like Fox is exactly what we know it is: an explicit right wing propaganda machine designed to convince an audience to trap itself in their propaganda world and reject anything that contradicts what they say.

It's almost like the lying piece of shit Republicans do exactly what we've said: take advantage of Fox's lies to cover for them, keep the base riled with culture wars aimed only ever at vulnerable groups, and generally just use the federal government to siphon money from the lower classes and up to the upper crust.

It's almost like Reagan was lying out of his miserable ass when he said "government is the problem, not the solution".

 

[Rogue Valley]

Musk must have known and trusted this DOGE individual.

So a Liberal 'mole' is very unlikely.

 

[Absentglare]

Gee, it's almost like Fox is exactly what we know it is: an explicit right wing propaganda machine designed to convince an audience to trap itself in their propaganda world and reject anything that contradicts what they say.

It's almost like the lying piece of shit Republicans do exactly what we've said: take advantage of Fox's lies to cover for them, keep the base riled with culture wars aimed only ever at vulnerable groups, and generally just use the federal government to siphon money from the lower classes and up to the upper crust.

It's almost like Reagan was lying out of his miserable ass when he said "government is the problem, not the solution".

Reagan was such a piece of shit to pit our people against our own government.

 

[dmpi]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

 

[Hamish Howl]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

Actually, I think I'd prefer to just let them stew in hatred. For the laughs when we find out which one is the craziest.

 

[Ikari]

I'm sure there is some, it likely was never on the level Trump and MAGA tried to sell us on, though.

 

[Ikari]

Actually, I think I'd prefer to just let them stew in hatred. For the laughs when we find out which one is the craziest.

We already know the craziest ones...MAGA.

 

[Deuce]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

Whatever you say grandpa. Drink your tea.

 

[ncguy]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

The incompetents are still working for trump

 

[jpn]

The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

Trump is reported to have asked: “Was [DOGE] all bullshit?”

Answer: Yes. Yes, it was.

Republicans always claim there is tons of "fraud, waste, and abuse” in the government. It's one of their excuses for cutting taxes. "Our tax cuts won't increase the deficit because we're cutting so much waste, fraud, and abuse!!!"

But their promises always fall flat because there just isn’t much waste in the U.S. government.

But you can't tell a Republicans that because:

A) Their hatred of government is not rational, and
B) It's such an easy excuse for cutting taxes.

 

[jpn]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

Let's see, aid to desperate people. Will that have a bad effect on those desperate people? Oh, I gotta think so.

Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts

Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total freeze in US foreign aid funding and programming.

www.bu.edu

 

[Hamish Howl]

Let's see, aid to desperate people. Will that have a bad effect on those desperate people? Oh, I gotta think so.

MAGAs wank to that sort of thing. You're just adding to their spank bank.

 

[WillyPete]

Let's see, aid to desperate people. Will that have a bad effect on those desperate people? Oh, I gotta think so.

View attachment 67574034

Tracking Anticipated Deaths from USAID Funding Cuts

Brooke Nichols has launched online tracking tools that capture estimated increases in mortality and disease spread for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases as a result of the near-total freeze in US foreign aid funding and programming.

www.bu.edu

They make no mention of all the lost good will.

I guess they are learning, the MAGA folk seem to believe good will is a scam, and privation is a solution.

 

[jpn]

The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

The evidence that this is true is now overwhelming.

 

[jpn]

They make no mention of all the lost good will.
I guess they are learning, the MAGA folk seem to believe good will is a scam, and privation is a solution.

Yes. American "soft power" around the world has been savagely undermined by these idiots.

 

[jpn]

Reality:

The U.S. government is hard-working, honest, and efficient when compared to private industry (I have friends who worked most their adult lives for Boeing. Their stories are hair-raising).

This is precisely because people have been worried about waste, fraud, and abuse for over a century, and so there have been repeated major efforts to make government more efficient.

Example: Bill Clinton’s “reinventing government” initiative in the 1990s, which cut lots of federal jobs and reduced red tape and regulation.

 

[TangoNoCash]

Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

A former DOGE staffer says he was fired for praising the government's efficiency in an interview, despite the agency's stated commitment to finding waste.

www.latintimes.com

None of this is surprising.
The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.

I’m sure he also enjoyed reviewing all the bids and proposals from his competitors.

 

[iliveonramen]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

It's always funny seeing "middle America" act superior towards a class of workers that are actually very qualified and have resumes that can get them jobs in plenty of high paying gigs.

It's Joe the Plumber mocking Georgetown Law graduates or Northwestern economists.

 

[jpn]

The DOGE effort has, on net, lost money.

There’s no evidence for many of the cost savings it claims, and the “receipts” it has provided are full of misstatements and errors.

And the disruption it caused almost surely cost taxpayers more than any minor savings it may have found.

Meanwhile, the nation is suffering from its incompetence:

Trump administration races to fix a big mistake: DOGE fired too many people​

Across the government, the Trump administration is scrambling to rehire many federal employees dismissed under DOGE’s staff-slashing initiatives after wiping out entire offices, in some cases imperiling key services such as weather forecasting and the drug approval process.​

 

[W_Heisenberg]

Republicans hate the government unless the government is punishing their perceived political enemies, which for some reason includes people dying of disease and starvation.

 

[Greenbeard]

The left ought to gather up all the incompetent fired has-beens and form the Dept of Sour Grapes and the Dept of I Should Have Been a Contender.

Way to kick Musk when he’s down.

 

[NOLA Dude]

Ex-DOGE Employee Was Amazed by 'How Efficient the Government Was,' Found 'Relatively Nonexistent' Abuse

A former DOGE staffer says he was fired for praising the government's efficiency in an interview, despite the agency's stated commitment to finding waste.

www.latintimes.com

None of this is surprising.
The purpose of DOGE isn't to root out waste, it's to dismantle agencies that the Heritage Foundation is ideologically opposed to and to consolidate power in the executive branch.
And to destroy the agencies that were actively investigating Musk's businesses for multiple violations.