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During the conversation on X between Musk and Trump, they floated the idea of Musk leading a 'government cutting commission' or basically a setup where Musk would come in and cut the fat from the government.
This idea fascinates me, and while I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons it may be terrible, I fear that financially the U.S. may need to do something dramatic like this in order to get the debt under control, etc etc. Also I, along with many other mottizens, am just pretty bearish on the efficacy of most government. Especially federal officials.
The question for me is - how would this work? Which areas do you think would get cut the most? (education was mentioned here specifically) Which areas are critical and should remain mostly untouched? (post office?)
On top of that, if this were to happen, what would be the primary blockers? Do you think Elon is the right man for the job without political connections? Are there ways in which the President can be prevented from firing large swathes of the federal admin? Potential disasters that could happen if critical employees are in fact fired?
In a perfect world? Some third-party group (or, ideally, groups) with a lot of credibility provides review of spending by target and by effectiveness and by necessity of underlying goal, which Congress analyzes seriously, and implements in the next budget with enough detail to have a serious result, after which the President faithfully implements it.
In a merely-ridiculously implausible one, rather than pigs-flying-and-hell-freezing-over one? Someone points to Bad Departments, and the President just refuses to spend money wherever he feels like it and doesn't have an active contract already implemented, while prohibiting those in the agency from signing new contracts or issuing new RFPs. And probably gets Impeachment 3: Electric Boogaloo for it.
I'm... not optimistic, even on top of the issues re: Trump biting, political viability, and a thousand other problems. Anyone trying this would get absolutely wrecked politically. If you think the Washington Monument strategy is bad when the national parks service applies it, you're gonna have a Real Fun Time when the DoE starts talking about dumping low-level 'nuclear waste' somewhere. And things like federally guaranteed student loans are both a massive time bomb and also the sort of thing where trying to rip off the band aid completely screws over a third of a generation without a much better plan than anyone in federal office is able to conceive of.
Trump might still do it by accident -- he's been promoting fucking with foreign aid to incentivize foreign countries to take certain deportees -- but even if that happens it's gonna get slapped back, and the areas he cares about most are the smallest for spending.
The Post Office is actually in a weird place; it's theoretically independent and self-funded (since 1971), though there's some cash infusions for infrastructure and that make that a little fuzzy in the edges. ((Though its finances make so little sense that its advocates have spent the last decade trying to come up with justifications for tweaking its mandate into something that could justify a vast cash infusion; as it is, the entire business model depends on junk mail.))
Hey, don’t forget important insurance and government documents that arrive at least a week after I need to take action on them!
And the entire business model, insofar as there is one, of the telephone network is the same: doctor’s offices and scam calls.
It’s kind of remarkable how our entire communications infrastructure has collapsed into email and live chat. And our use-cases for old telecommunications wiring has been, “let’s see if we can pipe Ethernet over this.” My house has no less than three generations of telecom hookups: an old POTS box from Ma Bell, a cable hookup from the local Evil Cable Company, and now the fiber line from Remarkably Good Fiber, Inc.
Does anybody even use letters to communicate any more? The post office is like that unused POTS box attached to the side of my house, doing nothing.
I've sent letters and postcards to my friends for many years. People are usually delighted to receive mail from someone they actually know. It also makes a durable store of memory when you receive them.
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