How in the world did the government spending get so far off the tracks? In less than a month Elon will and his 20 year olds will pry 1 trillion dollars out of the politicians cold dead hands. will

[uncle bernard]

1 hour ago, jross said:

If DOGE found zero additional savings, was it worth it?

100% Yes!

 

We were funding studies where mice are given cross-sex hormones?  WTF!

[Scouts Honor]

so you think we shouldn't rotate crops.

good. have the govt study it

oh wait, more spending to confirm something we already know

crop rotation is better 

[jross]

@uncle bernard

I either don't understand bluesky lingo or I do understand and its lame.

Maybe I am Jeff here concerned about micromanaging bean rotation.  I don't think you are talking about crop rotation, but that actually is important whereas cross-sex hormone study in mice is stupendous.  I'm a tightwad.  I don't want my money going to studies that support mental health issues caused by the Charlize Theron and Megan Fox of the world.

[1032004]

2 hours ago, Scouts Honor said:

why do you trust govt? 

I trust that there are some people among the 2 million that are not making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.

Isn’t it odd that DOGE apparently has the power to change expense spending limits to $1?  Sounds like a story you’d hear out of communist China

[Caveira]

36 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

I trust that there are some people among the 2 million that are not making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.

Isn’t it odd that DOGE apparently has the power to change expense spending limits to $1?  Sounds like a story you’d hear out of communist China

People who shouldn’t be on an expense account shouldn’t be on an expense account.   
 

I have one.  And occasionally there are freezes for arbitrary next quarter “travel ban” or no more “dinners” or whatever depending on how the company is doing.  
 

I expect that you work in the real world.  You don’t see stuff like this in private companies?   Often they hire third parties (Deloitte or Accenture or e&y) and these third parties interview and terminate people / groups rapidly.   It’s easier with a third party because they don’t have a soul and can do that without emotion.   
 

do you know the Bob’s in office space.   They are real.   

Edited 2 hours ago by Caveira

[1032004]

9 minutes ago, Caveira said:

People who shouldn’t be on an expense account shouldn’t be on an expense account.   
 

I have one.  And occasionally there are freezes for arbitrary next quarter “travel ban” or no more “dinners” or whatever depending on how the company is doing.  
 

I expect that you work in the real world.  You don’t see stuff like this in private companies?   Often they hire third parties (Deloitte or Accenture or e&y) and these third parties interview and terminate people / groups rapidly.   It’s easier with a third party because they don’t have a soul and can do that without emotion.   
 

do you know the Bob’s in office space.   They are real.   

I do, and have always had a corporate credit card.  We’ve had travel freezes across various companies I’ve worked for, but it was just a verbal direction, pretty sure they never actually shut off or drastically reduced the limit on the card (or reduced the limit at all for that matter).  And I only worked for companies selling products, not running the government.

So yeah, thanks for proving the point that this is pretty unprecedented…

[WrestlingRasta]

3 hours ago, Scouts Honor said:

2. $105 billion per month... i wish i could make that much

 

3 hours ago, Scouts Honor said:

why do you trust govt? 

Don’t you find these back to back posts kind of ironic? 

[Caveira]

4 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

I do, and have always had a corporate credit card.  We’ve had travel freezes across various companies I’ve worked for, but it was just a verbal direction, pretty sure they never actually shut off or drastically reduced the limit on the card (or reduced the limit at all for that matter).  And I only worked for companies selling products, not running the government.

So yeah, thanks for proving the point that this is pretty unprecedented…

It’s probably precedented if the orgs are hostile to the net new changes …. I.e.  is management playing ball here?   I’ve no idea but stonewalling in the government seems easier than stonewalling in corporate America (although that happens too).    
 

I often laugh when the public is like I have no idea why agency xyz won’t follow order 123 to share some docs.    Lol.   Departments within a company often won’t share stuff with other departments.   

[Scouts Honor]

23 minutes ago, WrestlingRasta said:

Don’t you find these back to back posts kind of ironic? 

not at all... the govt is bilking us 

the posts go together perfectly well.

 

[Scouts Honor]

1 hour ago, 1032004 said:

I trust that there are some people among the 2 million that are not making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.

Isn’t it odd that DOGE apparently has the power to change expense spending limits to $1?  Sounds like a story you’d hear out of communist China

now do a private business that finds it's employees have been abusing the credit line while they wine and dine

but think about it

at $1 per day, 3 million employees... 

in a year thats a billion in incidentals a year 

and thats just $1

[1032004]

9 minutes ago, Scouts Honor said:

now do a private business that finds it's employees have been abusing the credit line while they wine and dine

but think about it

at $1 per day, 3 million employees... 

in a year thats a billion in incidentals a year 

and thats just $1

I doubt they’d shut off credit cards for the overwhelming majority of the organization because they found some people were abusing them…. So yeah, thank you as well for proving my point.

The other difference between your made up scenario and what’s actually happening of course is that I don’t believe President Musk has cited actual evidence of fraud with the credit cards.  All DOGE has said is that there are more credit cards than employees.  I’d wager the extras are just inactive and likely don’t even have any spend on them 

[jross]

1 hour ago, Caveira said:

People who shouldn’t be on an expense account shouldn’t be on an expense account.   

I have one.  And occasionally there are freezes for arbitrary next quarter “travel ban” or no more “dinners” or whatever depending on how the company is doing.  

I expect that you work in the real world.  You don’t see stuff like this in private companies?   Often they hire third parties (Deloitte or Accenture or e&y) and these third parties interview and terminate people / groups rapidly.   It’s easier with a third party because they don’t have a soul and can do that without emotion.   

do you know the Bob’s in office space.   They are real.   

Once upon a time, in a land of plenty, the profits flowed, but the overlords still demanded sacrifice.

We were once coerced by management to spend the unneeded funds so that we could retain the budget the following year.  So we'd buy education, books, team outings, etc. to spend the left over budget.

Then we cut back on travel and budget.

Then spending required senior leadership approval.

Then the activist investor came and layoffs occurred.

Then the business sold.

More layoffs.

Good luck with a raise or promotion.

And we were profitable throughout, just missing operating margin targets.

Edited 1 hour ago by jross

[Scouts Honor]

6 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

I doubt they’d shut off credit cards for the overwhelming majority of the organization because they found some people were abusing them…. So yeah, thank you as well for proving my point.

The other difference between your made up scenario and what’s actually happening of course is that I don’t believe President Musk has cited actual evidence of fraud with the credit cards.  All DOGE has said is that there are more credit cards than employees.  I’d wager the extras are just inactive and likely don’t even have any spend on them 

did i say they would shut them all off if they KNEW who was doing it?

is there any corp in the world that has 3 million employees? 

[mspart]

1 hour ago, 1032004 said:

I trust that there are some people among the 2 million that are not making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.

Isn’t it odd that DOGE apparently has the power to change expense spending limits to $1?  Sounds like a story you’d hear out of communist China

So by extension you trust that there are some among the 2 million that ARE making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.  But we shouldn't root those out?

mspart

 

[Scouts Honor]

7 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

I doubt they’d shut off credit cards for the overwhelming majority of the organization because they found some people were abusing them…. So yeah, thank you as well for proving my point.

The other difference between your made up scenario and what’s actually happening of course is that I don’t believe President Musk has cited actual evidence of fraud with the credit cards.  All DOGE has said is that there are more credit cards than employees.  I’d wager the extras are just inactive and likely don’t even have any spend on them 

the other part of this that is complete crap... is your statement

'i dont' believe' 

you dont believe anything

[jross]

It is guaranteed there are metric tons of wasteful expenditures.

More coffee please.

[1032004]

7 minutes ago, Scouts Honor said:

the other part of this that is complete crap... is your statement

'i dont' believe' 

you dont believe anything

The only part where I said “I don’t believe” was in reference to Musk citing evidence of fraud on the cards.  Has he provided that?

[1032004]

13 minutes ago, jross said:

It is guaranteed there are metric tons of wasteful expenditures.

More coffee please.

Wasteful?  Absolutely.  Fraudulent?  Probably not, especially if we’re talking in “metric tons.”  And we shouldn’t need to paralyze the spending of the entire organization to find it 

[Scouts Honor]

3 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Wasteful?  Absolutely.  Fraudulent?  Probably not, especially if we’re talking in “metric tons.”  And we shouldn’t need to paralyze the spending of the entire organization to find it 

i disagree, until we find out where the leaks are 

[1032004]

24 minutes ago, Scouts Honor said:

did i say they would shut them all off if they KNEW who was doing it?

is there any corp in the world that has 3 million employees? 

Part of the reason why this is unprecedented.  

Ok so you’re saying they’d only shut off the cards of the people that were abusing them, right?  I agree, that’s what should happen!

[Scouts Honor]

after they figure out who is doing it

[1032004]

29 minutes ago, mspart said:

So by extension you trust that there are some among the 2 million that ARE making fraudulent purchases on their government credit cards.  But we shouldn't root those out?

mspart

 

Yeah there probably are some and we should root them out.  But again, we shouldn’t have to shut off nearly everyone’s card in order to find them…

Edited 55 minutes ago by 1032004

[1032004]

1 minute ago, Scouts Honor said:

after they figure out who is doing it

So they knew people were fraudulently “wining and dining” (pretty specific example), but not who was doing it?

You do know how credit cards work, right?

[fishbane]

3 hours ago, jross said:

Yes you are correct.  I apologize.  I'm obviously a super fan of the DOGE efforts and the topic title didn't mention 1 month.  The OP does list 1 month.  

They both say "less than a month." It appears the title was edited at some point presumably within 20 minutes of posting. I don't know what it read before that. The point is that it was widely optimistic and now this topic is a month old and DOGE is nowhere near that mark even by their own generous accounting.