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DOGE is All Corruption -- and It's Working [1]

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Date: 2025-02-13

President Musk appears to have won in his battle to destroy the Federal government.

His cronies have absolute control over the payment system to the extent that they can steal already approved and disseminated funds from Blue states and cities. Their plans to gut the federal workforce will almost certainly work, as waiting for the courts is a non-starter for many employees who have families to take care of. They intend to allow only one person to be hired for every four they fire. They have illegally shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and USAID — the latter having already resulted in the death of at least one person. The courts have pushed back, but only in a limited fashion and the Administration is gearing up to ignore them.

Musk, of course, is the big winner here. Not because he has reduced the government or because he has somehow reigned in fraud (they have yet to produce a single instance of public employees committing fraud), but because he now controls a huge patronage machine. Only people and programs that Musk approve will get federal funds. He himself has gotten 400 million for what appears to be armored Cybertrucks, even though the State Department has changed the wording on the award after reporters discovered it. And while it’s possible that the car more dangerous than the Ford Pinto legitimately won a contract, that seems less than likely. It is even less likely that all eleven of the agencies that were investigating Musk all naturally came to the conclusion that everything was fine right after Musk took control of the government. And, of course, with the CFPB ordered not to investigate anything, his payment processing plans for X will not get any scrutiny.

But it is not just him. Musk has directed the GSA, the organization that controls government offices, to sell a bunch of buildings that the government uses today, buildings that are full capacity. That means that the government will need to rent back a significant portion of those buildings back, driving up the cost to taxpayers and enriching the people who buy and then lease back the buildings. And since the entire plan is, in the words of Wired (who is doing excellent reporting that we should all subscribe to if we can) “… unclear if GSA intends to follow the process established by law”, does anyone doubt that such sales will go to businesses that give Trump and/or Musk money? We have already seen the DOJ dismantle tasks forces that handle corruption. And we have seen media companies settle lawsuits they were certain to win against Trump in order to protect their other businesses.

It is a gangland — oh, sorry, private equity— style bust out that is going to benefit Musk, Trump, and whoever Musk approves of. It is illegal, unconstitutional, and likely going to work to a large degree. What we face now is a rearguard action to setup the restoration as much as possible.

The Democrats need to say now, loudly and clearly, that they will build back the government larger than it is today. The federal workforce has shrunk relative to the size of the population for decades, so such an expansion is warranted. But more importantly, it makes it clear to the employees, the companies that will be tempted to indulge Trump and Musk, and the people ordered to do the firings that it will all be undone. The Democrats need to use the debt limit to force Trump to close down Doge and work within the existing laws. And they need to announce that anyone who breaks the law in the service of Doge will be prosecuted. They need to announce that they will create protections for all federal employees so that this kind of purge cannot happen again. They need to make it the law that a President’s assets go into a blind trust whether he or she wants them to or not. They need, while they are at it, to shut down insider trading in Congress.

They need, in short, to come out strongly for a restoration, to not accept the destruction of the federal government and to make it clear that the only reason Musk and Trump are doing so is corruption. We have likely lost the battle to keep major functions of the government. We need to make it clear that a full restoration is coming and that the people who profit from this corruption will be held to account, no matter how minor their involvement. We need to make it clear that they cannot rule as oligarchs, that we will restore what they have destroyed and build it back larger and more laser-focused on corruption than ever before.

We need, in short, to make it clear that their project is fool’s gold that will not survive the test of time. Because the words “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help,” are a reality and a promise. And no Nazi-friendly internet troll should be allowed to break that promise.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/13/2303452/-DOGE-is-All-Corruption-and-It-s-Working?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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