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National/Breaking News / SEMI-NEWS/SEMI-SATIRE: February 16, 2025 Edition
« Last post by John Semmens on Today at 09:41:24 am »Dem Threatens to Shut Down Gov't
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif) went on "MSNBC Reports" to complain about "the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) irresponsible slashing of fraud, waste, and abuse that has been taking place in the various federal agencies. These expenditures have been in in the federal budget for years, sometimes for decades with the full consent of Congress. They can't be cut or eliminated without the full consent of Congress. If Trump doesn't restore the grants, contracts, and subsidies that have traditionally been authorized we won't approve the debt increase that is needed to keep the government open."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that "Rep. Swalwell might want to rethink his strategy. During government shutdowns essential services like the military, law-enforcement, and Social Security payments are always continued. What isn't included is unnecessary expenditures of the type that DOGE is discovering in their audit. A year ago the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the federal government made $236 improper payments during the 2023 fiscal year and a total of $2.7 trillion improper payments over the past 20 years. Eliminating these improper payments should leave enough funds to pay for essential services."
"I believe a sufficient number of Republicans will support a Democrat-sponsored measure to block using any savings from reducing fraud, waste, and abuse from being used to fund essential services," Swalwell boasted. "Trump may believe he has a mandate from voters to slim down the federal government, but he doesn't have a mandate from the permanent government--both the bureaucracy that sends out the checks and the Congress that has appropriated the money."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) declared that "DOGE's dismantling of the federal government is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like. Stopping payments individuals and corporations have come to count on and firing federal employees who have no marketable skills in a relentless campaign to promote efficiency and reduce costs will disrupt a way of life that has become customary for tens of millions of people who live in America. It is merely a resumption of the insurrection Trump attempted after losing the 2020 election."
Even more alarming, several "red" states are joining the hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Republican-majority legislatures in Idaho, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri are creating special DOGE-like efforts. Gov. Stitt explained "everyone who's spent any time inside the government knows it has not been operating efficiently. We have an obligation to our taxpayers to weed out the waste of their hard-earned money on non-essential spending."
Dem AGs Claim DOGE Is "Unconstitutional and Illegal"
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel along with the AGs of 13 other "blue states" is suing to have a "federal court declare the establishment of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and the appointment of Elon Musk to head it is unconstitutional and illegal. First, Congress has not approved the establishment of this agency. There is no designated set of officers to run it and no appropriation of funds to pay for its activities."
"Second, heads of federal Departments must obtain the consent of the Senate," Nessel pointed out. "Consequently, Musk has no authority to act on behalf of the government until Senate consent has been achieved. Trump hasn't even presented a request that the Senate advise and consent to Musk's role as Secretary of DOGE."
"Third, DOGE's unauthorized activities are solely focused on cutting government expenditures and staff," Nessel complained. "As I read the Constitution, I see that Congress has the power to spend. I don't see any clause granting Congress the power to save. So, even if Trump wanted to get Congress to approve the creation of DOGE, there is no explicit grant of such power in the document."
"Fourth, under the law there is a right called an 'easement' where continued use of someone else's property for an extended period of time creates a permanent right to use that property," Nessel asserted. "Since the Government Accountability Office admits the fraudulent payments have been made for decades the recipients of those payments now have a permanent right to continue receiving them. No actions taken by DOGE or President Trump can be allowed to take away these rights."
Obama Admin Alums Express Regret
A pair of former President Obama's speechwriters--Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau--appeared on an episode of "Pod Save America" to express regret that "we weren't able to achieve the kinds of efficiencies Trump's DOGE team seems to be making. We knew that efficiency is an admirable goal, but President Obama's directive said that it must be accomplished without laying off people or cutting the budget. He felt that hard-working government employees shouldn't have to sacrifice their jobs and that any money saved should be reinvested in programs to redistribute money more equitably and in planet-saving businesses."
"Now those planet-saving businesses we subsidized are going bankrupt," Lovett lamented. "The wind turbines chopped up tens of thousands of birds and the solar farms fried tens of thousands more. The energy generated was more expensive than we envisioned, less reliable than coal-generated electricity, and insufficient to meet the economy's need for energy. The loans the government gave out can't be repaid and the toxic materials left over from decaying turbines and solar panels are damaging the environment."
"Yeah," Favreau said. "It seems that the President's assumption that the pace of spending would be a good measure of the success of our approach was flawed. Leaving out certain fields in the Treasury's database sped up the disbursement process, which was good. However, it also made the system vulnerable to the widespread fraud--hundreds of billions of dollars per year it appears--that Trump's DOGE auditors are now finding. Our intentions were good. We had an ethnic, racial, and gender balanced team, but unlike Musk's team, we weren't all geniuses."
"Maybe that was the key missing ingredient," Lovett interjected. "Maybe being super smart enables a person to understand more things more quickly and devise more successful solutions to problems, but that would put solving problems ahead of equity considerations. Regrettable as it is, I think sacrificing efficiency to achieve equity is a price we should willingly pay. It's more humane."
Dems Rally Against Audit of Social Security
This week Democrats rallied outside the Baltimore office of the Social Security Administration demanding "Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security." Those in attendance at the demonstration included Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland Representatives Kweisi Mfume, Johnny Olszewski and Sarah Elfreth.
Musk replied "my hands aren't the ones stealing a large portion of the annual 'entitlement' payments being made. We have discovered that more than $100 billion worth of entitlements every year are going to individuals with no Social Security Number or even a temporary ID number. This is extremely suspicious. Officers of the agency estimate that at least half of these payments are fraudulent. I would think that elected Democrats would want to know who is stealing benefits meant for their constituents."
Sen. Van Hollen insisted "I'd trust the vastly more experienced federal workers managing the payment system than a novice outsider like Musk and his teenage geniuses. Finances are different for profit-making businesses like Tesla or Space X than they are for non-profit government social services. If Musk really cared about folks living off their meager Social Security checks he'd be calling for higher taxes on billionaires to shore up the Social Security Trust Fund instead of wasting his time snooping around where he shouldn't be."
"Well," Musk replied, "the vastly more experienced workers at the Social Security Administration agree with me that the following safeguards will be implemented: (1) All outgoing payments must have a categorization code in order to be paid. That's supposed to already happen, we have found the code is often left blank, making audits nearly impossible. (2) All payments must have an explanation attached — another procedure that has been routinely ignored, making it hard to determine what or who federal payments are actually for. (3) Every payment must be checked against an up-to-date 'Do Not Pay' list of known frauds, terrorist groups, deceased people and expenditures that do not match congressional appropriations."
The Senator questioned "how adding more red tape can be called an 'efficiency improvement?' I haven't received one complaint from a constituent about fraud, but I've had plenty of complaints about how small the checks are and why the rich aren't paying their fair share. It was the Democratic Party that advocated this position. It was Musk who campaigned and voted against this position. He's the one who should be fired."
In related news, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has assembled a "Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration. There are far too many people in this country struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. The obvious solution for this problem is for the government to starting sending paychecks to more people. Trump's determination to cut government spending and lay-off employees is opposite of what we need right now."
Blinken Explains Ukraine Aid Discrepancy
The official US records indicate that $172 billion in aid was transferred from the US Treasury to Ukraine. President Zelensky insists he only received $70 billion of this aid.
Former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained "we were covertly contacted by a Ukrainian official named Boris Badenov and instructed to send $102 billion of the aid directly to him in the form of Visa gift cards. He said this would be the most effective method of getting the funds to where they were most desperately needed as quickly as possible. I can only speculate about President Zelensky's claim that he never received this money. Making my speculations public would be undiplomatic. In any case, now that I am a former Secretary of State it is no longer my problem. I wish my successor Marco Rubio good luck in his efforts to solve this riddle."
In related news, Zelensky defended his opposition to holding elections until the war is won, saying "all the polls say I will lose the election. Voters are tired of the war. They are tired of being bombed. They don't want to be drafted to fight in the war. They want Trump to negotiate a peace deal with Russia. Since I have the sole authority to call for elections why should I when it is clear that I will lose if the people are allowed to vote?"
Judge Blocks Trump's Access to Treasury Data
Paul Engelmayer, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has unilaterally forbidden all of Trump's political appointees—including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—from accessing Treasury Department data.
The Judge explained that "following the voters' insanely irrational choice to elect Donald Trump president, the judiciary is now the last line of defense against his attack on democracy. By blocking all his access to the financial information held by the Treasury Department he and his minions will have no way of knowing the amount of funds available to operate the government and will be unable to run the government."
"I realize that I could be impeached by a Republican majority House of Representatives, but I also know that two-thirds of the Senators will not vote to convict me," Engelmayer said. "The process will still take time. This will quell the momentum of Trump's intended efficiency improvements allowing the spending priorities of President Biden to continue for the near future. Meanwhile, the legacy media will batter Trump as a usurper and enemy of democracy on a daily basis. Perhaps this will persuade voters to turn against him and undermine whatever mandate he thinks his reelection has given him."
"Meanwhile, members of the permanent government will have the opportunity to erase any records that could be used by Trump to try to justify the downsizing he wants to carry out," Engelmayer added. "His reforms will be attenuated if not wrecked. His popularity will decrease and the path charted by the more enlightened visionaries inside all the federal departments and agencies can resume its previous course."
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif) went on "MSNBC Reports" to complain about "the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) irresponsible slashing of fraud, waste, and abuse that has been taking place in the various federal agencies. These expenditures have been in in the federal budget for years, sometimes for decades with the full consent of Congress. They can't be cut or eliminated without the full consent of Congress. If Trump doesn't restore the grants, contracts, and subsidies that have traditionally been authorized we won't approve the debt increase that is needed to keep the government open."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested that "Rep. Swalwell might want to rethink his strategy. During government shutdowns essential services like the military, law-enforcement, and Social Security payments are always continued. What isn't included is unnecessary expenditures of the type that DOGE is discovering in their audit. A year ago the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimated that the federal government made $236 improper payments during the 2023 fiscal year and a total of $2.7 trillion improper payments over the past 20 years. Eliminating these improper payments should leave enough funds to pay for essential services."
"I believe a sufficient number of Republicans will support a Democrat-sponsored measure to block using any savings from reducing fraud, waste, and abuse from being used to fund essential services," Swalwell boasted. "Trump may believe he has a mandate from voters to slim down the federal government, but he doesn't have a mandate from the permanent government--both the bureaucracy that sends out the checks and the Congress that has appropriated the money."
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) declared that "DOGE's dismantling of the federal government is what the beginning of dictatorship looks like. Stopping payments individuals and corporations have come to count on and firing federal employees who have no marketable skills in a relentless campaign to promote efficiency and reduce costs will disrupt a way of life that has become customary for tens of millions of people who live in America. It is merely a resumption of the insurrection Trump attempted after losing the 2020 election."
Even more alarming, several "red" states are joining the hunt for waste, fraud, and abuse. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Republican-majority legislatures in Idaho, Texas, Kansas, and Missouri are creating special DOGE-like efforts. Gov. Stitt explained "everyone who's spent any time inside the government knows it has not been operating efficiently. We have an obligation to our taxpayers to weed out the waste of their hard-earned money on non-essential spending."
Dem AGs Claim DOGE Is "Unconstitutional and Illegal"
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel along with the AGs of 13 other "blue states" is suing to have a "federal court declare the establishment of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency and the appointment of Elon Musk to head it is unconstitutional and illegal. First, Congress has not approved the establishment of this agency. There is no designated set of officers to run it and no appropriation of funds to pay for its activities."
"Second, heads of federal Departments must obtain the consent of the Senate," Nessel pointed out. "Consequently, Musk has no authority to act on behalf of the government until Senate consent has been achieved. Trump hasn't even presented a request that the Senate advise and consent to Musk's role as Secretary of DOGE."
"Third, DOGE's unauthorized activities are solely focused on cutting government expenditures and staff," Nessel complained. "As I read the Constitution, I see that Congress has the power to spend. I don't see any clause granting Congress the power to save. So, even if Trump wanted to get Congress to approve the creation of DOGE, there is no explicit grant of such power in the document."
"Fourth, under the law there is a right called an 'easement' where continued use of someone else's property for an extended period of time creates a permanent right to use that property," Nessel asserted. "Since the Government Accountability Office admits the fraudulent payments have been made for decades the recipients of those payments now have a permanent right to continue receiving them. No actions taken by DOGE or President Trump can be allowed to take away these rights."
Obama Admin Alums Express Regret
A pair of former President Obama's speechwriters--Jon Lovett and Jon Favreau--appeared on an episode of "Pod Save America" to express regret that "we weren't able to achieve the kinds of efficiencies Trump's DOGE team seems to be making. We knew that efficiency is an admirable goal, but President Obama's directive said that it must be accomplished without laying off people or cutting the budget. He felt that hard-working government employees shouldn't have to sacrifice their jobs and that any money saved should be reinvested in programs to redistribute money more equitably and in planet-saving businesses."
"Now those planet-saving businesses we subsidized are going bankrupt," Lovett lamented. "The wind turbines chopped up tens of thousands of birds and the solar farms fried tens of thousands more. The energy generated was more expensive than we envisioned, less reliable than coal-generated electricity, and insufficient to meet the economy's need for energy. The loans the government gave out can't be repaid and the toxic materials left over from decaying turbines and solar panels are damaging the environment."
"Yeah," Favreau said. "It seems that the President's assumption that the pace of spending would be a good measure of the success of our approach was flawed. Leaving out certain fields in the Treasury's database sped up the disbursement process, which was good. However, it also made the system vulnerable to the widespread fraud--hundreds of billions of dollars per year it appears--that Trump's DOGE auditors are now finding. Our intentions were good. We had an ethnic, racial, and gender balanced team, but unlike Musk's team, we weren't all geniuses."
"Maybe that was the key missing ingredient," Lovett interjected. "Maybe being super smart enables a person to understand more things more quickly and devise more successful solutions to problems, but that would put solving problems ahead of equity considerations. Regrettable as it is, I think sacrificing efficiency to achieve equity is a price we should willingly pay. It's more humane."
Dems Rally Against Audit of Social Security
This week Democrats rallied outside the Baltimore office of the Social Security Administration demanding "Musk, keep your hands off of our Social Security." Those in attendance at the demonstration included Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Maryland Representatives Kweisi Mfume, Johnny Olszewski and Sarah Elfreth.
Musk replied "my hands aren't the ones stealing a large portion of the annual 'entitlement' payments being made. We have discovered that more than $100 billion worth of entitlements every year are going to individuals with no Social Security Number or even a temporary ID number. This is extremely suspicious. Officers of the agency estimate that at least half of these payments are fraudulent. I would think that elected Democrats would want to know who is stealing benefits meant for their constituents."
Sen. Van Hollen insisted "I'd trust the vastly more experienced federal workers managing the payment system than a novice outsider like Musk and his teenage geniuses. Finances are different for profit-making businesses like Tesla or Space X than they are for non-profit government social services. If Musk really cared about folks living off their meager Social Security checks he'd be calling for higher taxes on billionaires to shore up the Social Security Trust Fund instead of wasting his time snooping around where he shouldn't be."
"Well," Musk replied, "the vastly more experienced workers at the Social Security Administration agree with me that the following safeguards will be implemented: (1) All outgoing payments must have a categorization code in order to be paid. That's supposed to already happen, we have found the code is often left blank, making audits nearly impossible. (2) All payments must have an explanation attached — another procedure that has been routinely ignored, making it hard to determine what or who federal payments are actually for. (3) Every payment must be checked against an up-to-date 'Do Not Pay' list of known frauds, terrorist groups, deceased people and expenditures that do not match congressional appropriations."
The Senator questioned "how adding more red tape can be called an 'efficiency improvement?' I haven't received one complaint from a constituent about fraud, but I've had plenty of complaints about how small the checks are and why the rich aren't paying their fair share. It was the Democratic Party that advocated this position. It was Musk who campaigned and voted against this position. He's the one who should be fired."
In related news, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has assembled a "Rapid Response Task Force and Litigation Working Group to protect and defend everyday Americans from the harm being inflicted by this administration. There are far too many people in this country struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. The obvious solution for this problem is for the government to starting sending paychecks to more people. Trump's determination to cut government spending and lay-off employees is opposite of what we need right now."
Blinken Explains Ukraine Aid Discrepancy
The official US records indicate that $172 billion in aid was transferred from the US Treasury to Ukraine. President Zelensky insists he only received $70 billion of this aid.
Former US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken explained "we were covertly contacted by a Ukrainian official named Boris Badenov and instructed to send $102 billion of the aid directly to him in the form of Visa gift cards. He said this would be the most effective method of getting the funds to where they were most desperately needed as quickly as possible. I can only speculate about President Zelensky's claim that he never received this money. Making my speculations public would be undiplomatic. In any case, now that I am a former Secretary of State it is no longer my problem. I wish my successor Marco Rubio good luck in his efforts to solve this riddle."
In related news, Zelensky defended his opposition to holding elections until the war is won, saying "all the polls say I will lose the election. Voters are tired of the war. They are tired of being bombed. They don't want to be drafted to fight in the war. They want Trump to negotiate a peace deal with Russia. Since I have the sole authority to call for elections why should I when it is clear that I will lose if the people are allowed to vote?"
Judge Blocks Trump's Access to Treasury Data
Paul Engelmayer, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, has unilaterally forbidden all of Trump's political appointees—including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent—from accessing Treasury Department data.
The Judge explained that "following the voters' insanely irrational choice to elect Donald Trump president, the judiciary is now the last line of defense against his attack on democracy. By blocking all his access to the financial information held by the Treasury Department he and his minions will have no way of knowing the amount of funds available to operate the government and will be unable to run the government."
"I realize that I could be impeached by a Republican majority House of Representatives, but I also know that two-thirds of the Senators will not vote to convict me," Engelmayer said. "The process will still take time. This will quell the momentum of Trump's intended efficiency improvements allowing the spending priorities of President Biden to continue for the near future. Meanwhile, the legacy media will batter Trump as a usurper and enemy of democracy on a daily basis. Perhaps this will persuade voters to turn against him and undermine whatever mandate he thinks his reelection has given him."
"Meanwhile, members of the permanent government will have the opportunity to erase any records that could be used by Trump to try to justify the downsizing he wants to carry out," Engelmayer added. "His reforms will be attenuated if not wrecked. His popularity will decrease and the path charted by the more enlightened visionaries inside all the federal departments and agencies can resume its previous course."