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Update on the continuing dramatic saga of DOGE: apparently the Department of Education no longer exists.
Now this could be a sensationalist media headline, but if not I am shocked that the DOGE team and Trump's cadre et al are going this hard, this fast. They must basically be saying they're going to get a ton of legal challenges anyway, so they might as well do as much as possible and keep up the momentum, destroying everything before the dust clears. It's a bold strategy, and frankly as a spectator it's incredibly exciting, I must admit!
Curious for people's thoughts on the Dept of Education getting shut down? Personally I think it's a good thing - our education system has had terrible outcomes with no accountability for far too long.
In other related news, FEMA send $59 Million dollars to house immigrants in luxury hotels in NYC last week, and Social Security has been sending money to dozens of people over 150 years old, among other issues like the system for SSNs not being re-duplicated.
I must admit Musk has really invigorated the news coming from the US. My wildest ideas of how Trump could gut DoE that I wrote on The Motte no longer look so far-fetched. Elon is driving a bulldozer through every Chesterton's fence he can find in D.C.
If he manages to roll out a biometric national ID card to digitize access to government benefits before the end of Trump's term I'll start a petition to make his position of the man behind the curtain permanent.
The opposition to this would come from republicans, because republican voters expect expanded state capacity to be used against us first, and provide its promised benefits never. AKA Trump will not do this.
a) you can't eat your cake and have it, too. If you want stricter enforcement of immigration laws, you need a surefire way to tell if someone is an illegal immigrant or a citizen. ICE building a case against every single person they want to apprehend and deport will never scale. ICE deporting every single person that cannot produce a valid ID card will.
b) Who cares about these Republican voters? I assume you mean red tribesmen of the "don't tread on me" sort. How many of them are in the swing states? Will they even outnumber the "law and order" types that will support this policy because it cuts down on voter fraud and lets them renew their driver's license online?
Free citizens don't carry IDs in their own country. I'm aware that there are countries where this is required, and I'll leave the modus tollens as an exercise for the reader.
Seems to me that ICE can make good progress focusing on jails and employers.
Then free citizens don't drive cars. The ID row in the US is stupid because the US (entirely reasonably, given the risks) requires ID for drivers, and is a society where driving is effectively compulsory.
FWIW, I think the right-wing noise machine has ginned up enough anger about non-citizens allegedly voting in large numbers that the MAGA base would now support national ID. According to establishment conventional wisdom (which may or may not be correct), the group who would actually oppose national ID from the right are evangelicals who think that mandatory ID is the Biblical Mark of the Beast.
Driving a car is an activity that requires a license. Is the implication that existence itself also requires a license?
I don't think the existence of a national id implies that people must carry it around all the time. It seems perfectly legitimate for a national ID to be required when you use government services or vote, but having to carry around papers every time you walk out the door lest a commissar stop you is a bridge too far.
"Deport all illegals now" implies that existence within the bounds of a country requires a license. If you don't have some form of constitutional birthright citizenship, it is a license that can be withdrawn by ordinary legislation.
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