this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2025
456 points (99.8% liked)

politics

26872 readers
1662 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 21 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 79 points 6 days ago (3 children)

My guess is now agencies are having to pay out a fuck ton in overtime and temp/traveler positions. ...which was an expected outcome from day one. Don't think of this as a blunder: Elon, Trump, etc are enemies of the United States, and crippling our mission while simultaneously making it even more costly was their goal.

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 35 points 6 days ago

A lot of the "cuts" were for programs that had already been funded... the money was already spent. Agreements and contracts were cancelled. Some of those surely had penalties involved. Some were for things they actually needed, and so they've had to renegotiate again with worse terms because the government just proved it can't be trusted.

[–] frog_brawler@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

No, for the most part, those agencies are prohibited from paying overtime. A lot of what was supposed to happen was jobs being replaced by AI. That doesn't mean the AI works or is effective. It just means it replaced.

[–] leadore@lemmy.world 33 points 5 days ago

But it did achieve the actual goal, which is that it created a cloud of confusion where a lot of money was moved around and huge amounts wound up in the private pockets of oligarchs, who laughed while hundreds of thousands died.

[–] RePsyche@lemmy.world 22 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I feel like this is missing the point. What did ‘doge’ accomplish for musk, and others, what was the value of that, and what is the value of the harm done in cancelling those very specific programs? Firing all those people, etc etc, it’s straight up crime. Somebody , pretty obvious who, is making out like a bandit, giggling to the bank.

[–] JasonDJ@lemmy.zip 14 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I think a lot of it, especially SSA, was probably covering up how they stole the election.

That's my pet conspiracy theory, anyway.

Gotta wonder how many of those 125 year olds that they purged voted Trump 3x.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

People are certainly making bank, but I think a significant amount of these people are ideologically driven. Look at tpusa and the Heritage Foundation

[–] Archangel1313@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] SparkyBauer44@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Autopen! Signatures don't count!

[–] shiroininja@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago

Dude in 3 of the 70 EOs trump did in his first week he gave at least 1.5 billion to AI companies, about $500 million to each.

[–] WatchfulConsole@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

That's the point. With the government nearly broke, he's trying to pump out the last of the wealth there by gutting the welfare state to free up more capital for his investments. He's since been mostly sidelined, but the corporatist wing of the MAGA coalition are working on a lot of the same plays behind the scenes still.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pUKaB4P5Qns

[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Spending always goes up under republican administration. They only know how to steal. Their supporters are too ignorant to notice.

[–] PattyMcB@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Is our government efficient yet?

It'll get there, we just have to spend more money first. Any day now!

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Yes, but the money was probably directed at the "right" type of people.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 5 points 5 days ago

Do more less with more more! Efficiency doubled!

[–] TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Federal spending to try to get rid of federal spending! You have to spend more to spend less!

[–] tym@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Bernie Madoff was ahead of his time