Subject: Re: One Possible Tariff Endgame
I also seem to recall reading that Elmo and DOGE were going to save the federal government $2 trillion only to have it turn out to be closer to $150 billion.

You have “save’ doing some pretty theoretical lifting there, as we don’t know, and I suspect even DOGE doesn’t know what they’ve really cut. They’ve chopped Alzheimer’s trials in midstream, taking years’ worth of research and throwing it in the trash bin. That’s “waste”, not “saving”.

They’ve chopped thousands of IRS agents, but we all know that those people bring in more than their salaries in chasing down scofflaws and tax cheats, so that “saving” is going to cost money when it’s all accounted for.

They’ve made cuts to mine safety administrators, the CDC unit in charge of norovirus prevention on cruise ships - during the worst norovirus outbreaks on cruise ships ever. That doesn’t cost?

There are so many more, and this is being done by a bunch of software geeks with zero, I say ZERO experience in government, who don’t even know what they’re cutting, but they see a contract and say “OK, cut that.” No thought, no discussion, no deliberation, just meat-axe.

I very well suspect that the $150B “saved” will actually cost more than $150B, and we will never know the real cost as some things that would have been done (like Alheimer’s research that might have led to something) won’t be - and our country will be poorer for it. Meanwhile China will forge ahead, as they are doing strategically in so many areas, and leave us sniffing their exhaust as they roar past us.

And meanwhile the morons applaud.