BHM: “ I just wish you would be equally upset at wasteful spending of any sort and agree it should be curtailed.”

First, any fair reading of the DOGE operation to date shows that it has very little to do with identifying and eliminating “waste, fraud, and abuse” and has much more to do with providing “great TV” by obliterating a few generally unpopular but low-budget programs, such as “foreign aid” (which is rounding error in the federal budget and in fact does many good things) and eradicating any and all oversight of Musk’s government contracts and business operations. That, plus creating a master database with which to harass and intimidate anyone who doesn’t get with the program, including judges, public officials, and the press.

Second, although every business or governmental operation should of course endeavor to spend money efficiently and effectively, by far the biggest problem with the federal budget is not “waste, fraud, and abuse” but rather insufficient revenues with which to fund things that Americans overwhelmingly insist upon. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and paying merely the interest on the ballooning national debt comprise most of the budget. Add in national defense and you’ve spent virtually all of the incoming revenues. We finance everything else the federal government does with the equivalent of cheap payday loans. If the ultra-wealthy 0.1% paid their fair share, we’d all be a lot better off.

That’s the truth. It’s been this way since Reagan, and the debt’s grown more under GOP admins than under Dem ones. I know the federal budget inside and out. I taught university courses on it for 30 years. And I’ve run my household for even longer than that with zero debt. Zero. Because I grew up in deep poverty and I hate debt.

But the facts are inconvenient, so feel free to ignore them if they make your head hurt.