By Free Republic | Created at 2024-11-19 17:12:22 | Updated at 2024-11-24 01:19:51
4 days ago
Advice to Vivek and Elon: Don’t Create the DOGE!
American Thinker ^ | 11/19/2024 | Thomas B. Modly
Posted on 11/19/2024 8:36:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I vividly recall walking through the corridors of Saddam Hussein’s palace in the Green Zone in Baghdad in 2006. I was there as part of a team helping to develop a strategy to reinvigorate Iraqi businesses that had been decimated by war and the dysfunction of Iraq’s state-run economy. The palace had been occupied and renamed the temporary U.S. Embassy in Iraq. The wide corridors and ornate offices were occupied by U.S. government employees and military personnel.
As I walked down one of the corridors, I came across a startling sight. Adorning the wall outside an office door was an official photograph of a U.S. State Department official. Above the photo was this inscription: “Welcome to U.S. Embassy Baghdad, our new Embassy Diversity Officer.” The incongruence of what was happening outside the Green Zone with what was happening inside it was depressing — insurgents were attacking and killing U.S. service members and civilian aid workers on a daily basis — yet enlightening. In that moment, I thought, we may fail to bring peace and stability to Iraq, but we haven’t failed in planting our bloated bureaucracy right in the heart of it.
Recently, many have been buoyed by the appointment of Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead something named the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE). The name immediately recalls the Monty Python sketch about “The Ministry of Silly Walks.” The promise of an empowered set of fresh eyes, taking a hard look at waste and inefficiency in our federal government is certainly something we should all cheer.
But as a two-time veteran of such efforts during the Bush 43 and Trump 45 administrations, I offer this unsolicited advice to Messrs. Musk and Ramaswamy: don’t create the DOGE!
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: doge; musk; ramaswamy
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Creating a new federal government agency to facilitate this effort is a waste of time and will be counterproductive to the mission that must be performed.
All that is needed is a small team of highly motivated and smart people who are used to doing things at the pace at which the world is changing — not the pace at which government moves.
No offices, no H.R. department, no financial management system or ERP, no department logo, no invitations to Cabinet meetings, no Senate advice and consent requirements, no department coffee mugs or ID card lanyards, no federal advisory commission rules, and no diversity officers.
1 posted on 11/19/2024 8:36:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
To: SeekAndFind
Some people don’t read past the headlines, like the author. DOGE is NOT a federal agency.
2 posted on 11/19/2024 8:37:49 AM PST by nwrep
To: SeekAndFind
“American Thinker” isn’t thinking very much these days.
3 posted on 11/19/2024 8:38:19 AM PST by nwrep
To: nwrep
I like American Thinker, but this article missed the mark it was aiming for.
4 posted on 11/19/2024 8:39:12 AM PST by rlmorel ("A people that elect corrupt politicians are not victims...but accomplices." George Orwell)
To: SeekAndFind
New agencies have a penchant for metastasizing into cancerous masses spread throughout the body in short order.
Unless there is a specific, irrevocable clause in the establishing documents which either sundown the agency after a specific time, or when a reasonable, objective goal has been reached, I tend to agree with this thesis.
5 posted on 11/19/2024 8:40:09 AM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
To: nwrep
RE: “American Thinker” isn’t thinking very much these days.
Can you please elaborate...
6 posted on 11/19/2024 8:40:43 AM PST by SeekAndFind
To: SeekAndFind
With no power and no authority.
Should work great if it happens that way :)
7 posted on 11/19/2024 8:42:16 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
To: SeekAndFind
“creating a new federal agency to cut bureaucracy is itself a bureaucratic exercise that will only frustrate, delay, and ultimately stymie the effort. It is best not to do it. Otherwise, the organization itself will become mired in the rules, laws, regulations, and inefficiencies governing such entities that it has been tasked with eliminating.”
Well, that makes sense. I hope those 2 see this or have thought of it.
8 posted on 11/19/2024 8:42:22 AM PST by CottonBall (Next Jan, there’ll be a lot of housecleaning to do. Probably will need a lot of garbage trucks.)
To: SeekAndFind
The primary goal of any organization is to perpetuate itself.
9 posted on 11/19/2024 8:43:40 AM PST by oldbrowser ( Democracy = "of the people, for the people, by the people")
To: fwdude
It is NOT a federal agency ...
10 posted on 11/19/2024 8:43:51 AM PST by TexasGator (-11)
To: SeekAndFind
I had to read dozens of government contracts. There were requirements totally unrelated to the product being purchased. Every one was political. Establish and fund a diversity department. Train all employees in LGBT , sexual harassment, etc. Switch your power generation to solar. The list was long and expensive. Each senator threw something in to please his donors. Until you deal with that all talk about ending waste is theater.
11 posted on 11/19/2024 8:44:10 AM PST by Gen.Blather (Wait! I said that out loud? )
To: SeekAndFind
This guys’ whole article is based on the false premise that DOGE is another government agency. Why did the editors at American Thinker publish such nonsense?
To: SeekAndFind
Yes, there should be no federal agency named DOGE. Keep it small, lean and operating out of the Presidents offices.
13 posted on 11/19/2024 8:46:45 AM PST by Wuli
To: TexasGator
It is NOT a federal agency ...
Understood. But where does it get its funding or authority to do anything?
Established think tanks like this have the potential to become official, or de facto agencies is my concern. We need fewer, not more agencies.
14 posted on 11/19/2024 8:48:51 AM PST by fwdude (Why is there a "far/radical right," but damned if they'll admit that there is a far/radical left?)
To: SeekAndFind
It’s not a Federal agency. No excuse for anyone not knowing that by now.
15 posted on 11/19/2024 8:48:53 AM PST by Mr. Mojo
To: SeekAndFind
> But as a two-time veteran of such efforts during the Bush 43 and Trump 45 administrations… <
Well, that’s two strikes against the author right there. That doesn’t mean he’s not making sense here. But working for the Bushes makes his motivation a bit suspect.
16 posted on 11/19/2024 8:49:21 AM PST by Leaning Right (It’s morning in America. Again.)
To: SeekAndFind
Best I can tell, when avoiding the “future prediction” opinion and news, is that this group of people would make recommendations to the president regarding such, and there was a call for volunteers in that regards to scrutinize agencies and sub-agencies.
As to the author -- "Thomas B. Modly is an American businessman and former government official who served as acting United States Secretary of the Navy from November 24, 2019, to April 7, 2020."
About four and a half months in an "acting" position. Previously he was a NATO sort of guy. So the opinion seems quite "DOD."
To: nwrep
True
The Doge will not be denied.
18 posted on 11/19/2024 8:51:50 AM PST by HombreSecreto (The life of a repo man is always intense)
To: SeekAndFind
DOGE has a mandate to deliver a set of cost cutting recommendations by 07/04/2026. Once that is fulfilled, it dissolves.
19 posted on 11/19/2024 8:53:47 AM PST by ProudDeplorable (Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty. ~ Ronald Reagan)
To: fwdude
Musk to Trump to Congress
20 posted on 11/19/2024 8:55:45 AM PST by TexasGator (-11)
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