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  • By GAO, lol. The only reason they'd do the reports is because DOGE isn't there to respond. Because it was in DOGE's design to not become just an instrument of furthering the problem it was designed to combat, unlike GAO!

    The spirit of DOGE lives on though. The basics of just having to at least have a reason what an expense is for did wonders, and DOGE did save a ton, even if it'd benefited from more freedom. Another time.

    by maxlin
  • Wasn't GAO the leading us org in that big simplification/trim of the Clinton admin? I know for budget hawks of my country (my uncles and whoever informed them for full transparency) it was the only good thing Clinton did and we should have done the same (the US budget was balanced for the first time since Reagan or something, without reducing social aid).

    I think that's the best way to find out btw. Did the US budget increase in the last two years. If yes, Doge failed.

    by orwin
  • It's weird that serial liars have such a rabid fanbase. Keep it up!
    by k12sosse
  • What’s notable about this article is not its literal conclusion, which is obvious to any casual observer, it’s the publisher - I haven’t been following it lately, but for decades National Review was the preeminent Limbaugh-school right-wing magazine in America, so for its editors to be taking this position so clearly feels significant. These days the Trump Right has rags like The Epoch Times, so maybe they don’t need Buckley’s soapbox anymore?
    by nxrabl
  • National Review has been a critic of Trump since before he was elected for his first term in 2016.
    by litoE
  • Although it seems to have been a flop in practice, I do appreciate the spirit of making good use of tax dollars. I only wish the program was more carefully guided, since the motive behind it did seem genuine.
    by hallole
  • Sure there were some people involved in DOGE that had good motives, but overall they assumed that history began yesterday and that they were the only people that had thought about reducing the size of government. This was a recipe for disaster.
    by barney54
  • I mean I surely disagree, but also I don’t think the motive really matters - the decisions made and actions taken very much speak for themselves.
    by mock-possum
  • > the motive behind it did seem genuine

    put down the Kool-Aid my friend

    by insane_dreamer
  • DOGE was putting the fox in charge of hen welfare. The “spirit” was just a bare minimum facade so they could redirect funds towards billionaires bank accounts.
    by Gigachad
  • That's why the GAO already exists, and what its job is! There's even an international association and conference of these bodies across countries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_of_...
    by eqvinox
  • It was never about saving money. It was about sabotaging programs they were ideologically opposed to, stealing data, and possibly messing with internal investigations into Musks "unsavory" business practices.

    There already is a "DOGE", it's called the GAO.

    And lastly, if anybody is actually concerned about government efficiency, they should be prepared to have it audit favored programs as well. Let's not forget that the Pentagon has never truly been audited.

    One of countless cases of "trust me bro!": https://www.cnbc.com/2011/10/26/The-$40-Billion-Iraqi-Money-...

    by pstuart
  • But closing USAID did result in lots of deaths around the world as life saving aid was just cutoff with no warning. Was done with no regard to consequences or Congressional approval.
    by goatlover
  • I do understand your point. But obviously us foreign aid doesn't (didn't) exist in a vacuum. The stuff you're talking about that would get these countries off the dole was in things like IMF contracts. And in trade deals. The state department actually had a plan. It gets me that somehow you don't know that, but feel entitled to complain about that plan.

    Edit: wrong reply, sorry

    by halJordan
  • So, the U.S. would've had to supply foreign aid for eternity, then? Instead of appreciating the vast sums given by the U.S. and her taxpayers, there's only vitriol for the stream of aid money having been cut off.
    by hallole
  • Link to the GAO report that actually analyzes the spending: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-26-108615
    by chabad360
  • Maybe they didn’t save any money but they did manage to exfiltrate huge amounts of info on citizens and residents that had been provided under the understanding that it would be held in confidence and that was siloed to event cross-correlation and privacy violations.

    So at least they accomplished that even if they failed to accomplish the cover story.

    by gumby
  • Ya have to wonder if there is a DOGE-Musk-Palantir connection.
    by euroderf