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snot

(11,017 posts)
Mon Mar 31, 2025, 02:05 PM Monday

What we need from DOGE (potential common ground with some Republicans)

Destruction is easy; creation is hard.

It's easy to go in and slash a lot of jobs and disrupt a system that might or might not be functioning as efficiently as possible but is nonetheless fulfilling functions that we rely on.

It's a thousand times more difficult to rebuild or replace such a system with something that's actually better.

Slashing jobs and functionality that you deem inefficient might produce an instant reduction in apparent costs; but how much will it cost to rebuild or replace the system, and how much better will the new system really be?

In some cases, conservatives freely proclaim their goal of simply eliminating an agency; but in most cases, the functionality that's being destroyed must be restored somehow, somewhere.

Maybe DOGE staff are the wunderkinds of slash and burn; but why don't we require DOGE to actually, successfully rebuild or replace the systems it's already ripped up before we let it destroy any more? Shouldn't it have to prove its ability to create before we give it free rein to destroy agencies that we rely on every day for essential services?

(PS: And when the heck is DOGE going to dig into the role of private companies in our horribly inefficient health care/insurance system, or the military, both gargantuan sinkholes for our dollars???!!!)

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