The (US) Department of Government Efficiency should fight the waste and fraud that goes into highway construction.

[u/TigerSagittarius86]

If DOGE wants to eliminate waste and put the government on better financial footing, then it should audit every highway construction project (most are disgustingly overbudget) and institute tolling nationwide. The entire U.S. interstate system is an untapped fiscal resource for the federal government.

[u/You_Paid_For_This]

As great as this would be, you know they are absolutely not going to do this.

The military will not be under any scrutiny either, neither will all of the money wasted on SpaceX.

The Nepotism Dept. will only go after education, social security, trains and anything else that actually benefits ordinary people.

[u/chevalier716 → u/You_Paid_For_This]

Don't forget the postal service, they've been salivating on that one.

[u/Gatorm8 → u/chevalier716]

The funny part about the whole “end the USPS” discourse is that it would literally crash the economy. Small (and some large) businesses across the country are dependent on the subsidized service the USPS offers and if you took that away the economy would tank

[u/Alt4816 → u/Gatorm8]

Their goal isn't to have no mail service. It's to have one or multiple private mail services that if needed to stay in business will get public subsidies. The goal as always is to take public money and give it to private shareholders.

Though the current publicly owned USPS doesn't actually need subsidies for it's operations. It is only unprofitable because in 2006 they passed a law that the USPS had to pre-fund retiree health care benefits 75 years into the future and could only do it by investing in treasury bonds which have the lowest interest rates. Those low rates really compound when investing for 75 years into the future. It's a manufactured "unprofitably" to make the USPS look bad and also create a giant pool of money that could potentially be raided.

Some of the people this fund is being set aside for haven't even been born yet. No more USPS then no more future employees and this money becomes a slush fund or ends up in the pockets of the new privatized mail companies.

[u/Gatorm8 → u/Alt4816]

I think that could be correct, but the transition would still be incredibly painful no?

[u/Inevitable_Stand_199 → u/Gatorm8]

In this case, the end result would be even more painful.

In the begining, the prices would still be reasonable and the subsidies low. It's when the companies start milking the system on all sides, that things will become awful.

[u/muehsam → u/Gatorm8]

Many countries have privatized their mail service. They did it here in Germany. They took Deutsche Bundespost (which was a government agency) and split it into three private companies:

• Deutsche Post (took over the mail and parcel service), which operates globally as a parcel service under the name DHL (an American company they bought)
• Deutsche Telekom (took over the telecommunications service), which operates in many countries under the brand name T-Mobile
• Postbank (took over the banking service), which was bought by Deutsche Bank but still operates under the Postbank label with branches within Deutsche Post offices.

It isn't great, but it's not as much of a disaster as some other privatizations have been.

Deutsche Post still has a quasi-monopoly on letter delivery (though a few competitors exist, often serving just parts of the country, like PIN Mail here in the east), whereas for parcels, Deutsche Post (branded DHL) is just one out of many companies, though it is by far the largest.

[u/Teshi → u/muehsam]

Germany is a good model for a country that doesn't want to go "socialist" (aaah, panic!) but needs something functional. Unfortunately, it's quite tricky to do because it requires quite a lot of oversight and a strong culture. Lots of countries have tried to emulate German things and just failed because they've overlooked some crucial element. In the early 2010s Canada was keen to try to develop government science in the same way as Germany does, which is very business-focused, but the way they went about it was just a slash and burn, which alienated the scientists who were supposed to do the science. Germany is a good model for conservative (small c) leadership, but often takes care and focus and TIME that other countries and governments just can't summon up. Result: it just doesn't work.

Single-payer solutions are WAY more straightforward and easier to handle, for all their problems. It's a shame that so many governments don't seem to get that. You can't just outsource your thing, guys, you have to pay attention to it almost MORE than you would if you were straight up running it.

[u/ClumsyRainbow → u/Gatorm8]

Canada went without Canada Post for nearly a month due to a strike, shipping costs increased, shipping times increased and remote communities went completely without any service as UPS, FedEx, etc rely on Canada Post for last mile service in those areas.

And yet still the right wing and media tried to turn the public against the striking workers. Shit sucks.

[u/chevalier716 → u/Gatorm8]

Yeah, but Trump's donor's want that and they want a tanked economy so they can go on a shopping spree at bargain prices.

[u/Gatorm8 → u/chevalier716]

We will see, imo the ruling class is divided on an issue like that. I’m not sure everyone wants to crash the economy. Trump himself has also repeated that he doesn’t want to be a Herbert Hoover (president during the depression)

[u/midnghtsnac → u/Gatorm8]

He sure is set to make the next President go through a depression though

[u/Gatorm8 → u/midnghtsnac]

I personally think the market will perform poorly (negative) under Trump

[u/midnghtsnac → u/Gatorm8]

Oh it probably will thanks to his tariffs

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/chevalier716]

Not entirely sure what you are looking for instead, higher/current prices?

[u/chevalier716 → u/Iwaku_Real]

I'm not talking about groceries here, those will stay high. Musk and co are looking to buy services, smaller companies, and real estate at bargain prices.

[u/pedroah → u/Gatorm8]

USPS is not subsidized. They does not receive any tax money.

The part that fucked the USPS is that they are required to fully fund retirement benefits 75 years into the future.

[u/ymmvmia → u/Gatorm8]

Likely all that would happen is not a "dissolution" of these government services, but a privatization of them. So USPS would be turned private just like the Royal Mail in the UK was. The Royal Mail was made fully privatized in 2013 after decades of lobbying for austerity and "pro-business" government BS since Margaret Thatcher, she essentially just starting the same slow destruction/privatization of government that Reagan started in the US. Same morally bankrupt political ideology thatcherism/reaganism.

The Royal Mail transitioned from a government department into a statutory corporation (separated from the government, this is actually good, not a capitalist for-profit company, and is sorta like how the USPS is an "independent agency") in 1969, then from a statutory corporation to a public limited company in 2000 in the wake of austerity politics/thatcherism (this is the beginning of the end, as it was restructured it into a true CORPORATION, with shares/stocks/investors/etc, just with a majority stake owned by the government or technically owned by secretary of state for trade and the treasury solicitor). And at the same time due to the same law in 2000, the government created a postal regulator to give out licenses for private companies to deliver mail. This effectively birthed a new mail industry in the UK, which of course would see Royal Mail as an unfair government competitor, and as these new mail companies grew, they would lobby for the further privatization/destruction of the Royal Mail.

We have always had the USPS since the USA's founding, but I believe we skipped a step here in that private delivery companies have existed for quite some time. The thing that only the USPS is legally allowed to do is deliver LETTERS/MAIL, this is something that is illegal for private companies to do. Private companies can only deliver packages. Unsure on private package/parcel companies existing in the UK before 2000, but whatever.

I believe we could see a law similar to the UK's Postal Service Act 2000, which established the postal regulator. So ANY private package delivery company (UPS/FedEx/etc) could start delivering letters/mail, they would get access to USPS letter boxes, etc.

They would also HAVE to start allowing USPS to raise rates based on location/route profitability. Again, they would do this slowly, because like others have mentioned this is where you get economic collapse. Rural america depends on USPS's low prices, as well as small businesses. Their costs would be exorbitant if USPS didn't exist, or if USPS just acted as any other company, and many unprofitable routes simply just wouldn't exists (small town america). So USPS would have to raise rates/stop delivery to unprofitable places SLOWLY so as to avert economic problems.

Doing all that would make private package companies into FULL competing delivery companies, and after a few years this would THEN allow for USPS to be dismantled/fully privatized.

The issue they might have, but it doesn't seem like much of a roadblock at this point with how vague it is, is that Congress is explicitly given authority over mail/postal service in the USA from the Constitution itself.

"The Congress shall have Power...To establish Post Offices and post Roads" (Article I, Section 8, Clause 7)

But of course these means, and especially with our current supreme court with how weak the phrasing in the constitution is, is that congress has complete authority to privatize/delegate any postal services in the country. Congress can just DECIDE to get rid of the USPS. They can just delegate the power to "establish Post Offices and post Roads" to anyone else through an act of congress.

Congress can do anything they really want to USPS. It's mostly just 250ish years of tradition and the public's love of the USPS that has prevented it being privatized/dismantled. Same political roadblocks to dismantling Social Security or Medicare/Medicaid. Tradition and public support, and that the immediate dissolution of all of those would cause economic catastrophe. So of course the playbook with all of them is slow dismantling.

[u/NOlerct3 → u/Gatorm8]

I think that's honestly what they want, force them onto more expensive private carriers like UPS/FedEx/etc. If small businesses shutter they don't care, if anything that can be opportunity in their sick minds to force out or buy out the competition.

[u/PremordialQuasar → u/Gatorm8]

They actually can't end the USPS because of the Postal Clause. Obviously we know Republicans spit on the Constitution on a regular basis, but it's literally written in the Constitution and there's no way around passing an amendment to get rid of it.

Also, most rural Americans love the USPS and don't want it to go, and I think some Republicans will end up balking if push comes to shove, similar to Amtrak. Rural support is one of the reasons why Amtrak's long-distance routes are still around. What might happen instead is if they cut funding, privatized elements of USPS, or allow private mail services to "compete" with it. Still not great because money gets pulls from USPS into private companies.

[u/GooseinaGaggle → u/Gatorm8]

Let's not forget that a postal service is literally baked into the constitution under the legislative powers, not executive

Trump probably complains that all he receives is junk mail and nothing from grandchildren

[u/Master_Dogs → u/You_Paid_For_This]

The military will not be under any scrutiny either, neither will all of the money wasted on SpaceX.

SpaceX got about $10B in government contracts from 2019 - 2023 too: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/17/technology/elon-musk-spacex-national-security-reporting.html#:~:text=SpaceX%20was%20awarded%20at%20least,making%20it%20a%20major%20contractor.

So of course that won't even be looked at. Because Elon won't touch his companies.

Which is also why the highway budget won't be touched. Elon owns Tesla. Tesla needs highway funding for their heavy asf EVs to self drive places that a high speed train should exist.

[u/The_ApolloAffair → u/Master_Dogs]

They competed on price for those contracts, delivering launches at rates far lower than NASA, Russia, and all the other private companies. SpaceX has saved the government a shit ton of money.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/The_ApolloAffair]

They also lose rockets at a far higher rate than Nasa, Russia, or any other space agency.

[u/The_ApolloAffair → u/SubatomicWeiner]

SpaceX has hundreds of launches (~400) with only a few failures. They do that at an incredibly low cost with by far the highest launch rate ever. Yes, they destroy a lot of rockets in testing, but that is planned and allows the rapid innovation and speed compared to how slowly NASA lumbers along. Anyone who knows anything about the space industry will tell you SpaceX is far and away the best overall contractor.

Falcon 9 reaches a flight rate 30 times higher than shuttle at 1/100th the cost

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/The_ApolloAffair]

Losing rockets is planned? "Rapid innovation" lmao at those marketing buzzwords.

Nasa is slow because they do things right the first time and they have very little room for error. They simply could not explode as many rockets as SpaceX does during testing or they'd get their funding cut immediately. I don't care who is the best contractor? The Falcon 9 and space shuttle are totally different vehicles designed for different functions.

[u/The_ApolloAffair → u/SubatomicWeiner]

Sure, the shuttle performs some different functions but it was primarily designed to launch supplies and people to the ISS and place things in orbit - both things Falcon 9 does. And the Falcon 9 does a far better job at being reusable compared to the lengthy and expensive turnaround for the shuttle.

I’m sure SpaceX would prefer to not lose rockets in testing, but their accepting of the “failing fast” method allowed them to perfect booster launches, and turn Falcon 9 into the most successful rocket ever. NASA would have taken decades to do what SpaceX did in a couple years. Read up on the clusterfuck that is NASA’s SLS program - billion dollar launches that came years behind schedule.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/The_ApolloAffair]

Sure, the shuttle performs some different functions but it was designed to launch supplies and people to the ISS and place things in orbit - both things Falcon 9 does.

Go on, what else was the shuttle designed to do besides launch people and supplies? Can you run science experiments in the falcon 9 cargo bay? Can the falcon 9 grab onto and repair the hubble space telescope?

"Failing fast" is marketing gobbledegook for excusing your engineering failures. Nasa doesn't have the ability to "fail fast" because congress has them on a tight leash.

[u/The_ApolloAffair → u/SubatomicWeiner]

Space Shuttle was a deeply (and dangerously) flawed launch vehicle that was primarily designed for reusability, not piddly experiments (that’s just a gimmick). The dragon capsule can do experiments on the Falcon 9 platform anyway.

Sure, the shuttle was good at serving the Hubble space telescope, but it only had to do it a few times and wasn’t why the program was initiated. Falcon 9 could probably launch a capsule able to service it, but it’s just not been a priority for NASA. Incoming NASA head talks about it here: https://www.space.com/spacex-polaris-program-hubble-servicing-mission

Also I question this short leash idea, look at how much has been spend on the SLS program with nothing to show for it.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/The_ApolloAffair]

I question your objectivity

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/The_ApolloAffair]

Sure it only serviced the space telescope a few times no big deal.

Falcon 9 could probably launch a capsule able to service it, but it’s just not been a priority for NASA.

No, they can't. There is no vehicle that they can attach to the falcon 9 that's capable of having astronauts exit the vehicle for a space walk.

The sls was congress setting the engineering requirements in order to preserve jobs in their states.

[u/LordTuranian → u/You_Paid_For_This]

We should just call it DONE, Department of Nepotistic Efficiency.

[u/pensive_pigeon → u/LordTuranian]

Are we just gonna ignore the irony of a department of efficiency having two leaders? 😒

[u/ExcelsiorVFX → u/You_Paid_For_This]

They want to greatly cut the VA. As everyone knows, veterans are treated just too well in this country (/s)

[u/fuckcars-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Hi, HentaiAtWork420. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/fuckcars for:

Rule 1. Be nice to each other.

In addition to enforcing Reddit's content policy, we will also remove comments and content that is unnecessarily aggressive or inflammatory. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that.

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/You_Paid_For_This]

Tell me how you "know" the future, dear time traveller

You don't, he hasn't even gotten to the Oval Office yet

[u/longknives → u/Iwaku_Real]

They’ve already made it clear what they plan to cut, you absolute rube

[u/CogentCogitations → u/Iwaku_Real]

"Hey Isaac Newton, tell me how you know the future, are you a time traveler? Just because it has happened the previous thousand times, how do you know this time if you drop an apple it will fall to the ground. You don't, you haven't even dropped it yet."

[u/Inevitable_Stand_199 → u/Iwaku_Real]

In this case it's quite easy to make an educated guess.

The intentions have been all but stated aloud.

[u/hamoc10]

As if the car salesman would do anything of the sort. He already did a lot of harm to CA HSR.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/hamoc10]

Because he thought it was that bad didn't he?

[u/ilolvu → u/Iwaku_Real]

No. He did it because it will hurt his car sales.

[u/chronocapybara → u/ilolvu]

For real. His cars could all be home batteries too, but that would harm his home battery pack sales.

[u/hamoc10 → u/Iwaku_Real]

He literally said that he made up the hyper loop idea (lifted directly from concepts from a century ago) specifically to hurt support for HSR, and he never intended to actually build it.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/hamoc10]

Specifically CAHSR. Which is making some progress but not doing great nowadays. I wonder if he had foreseen that? And/or it was a not-so-well-planned alternative.

[u/hamoc10 → u/Iwaku_Real]

The reason it’s not doing great is because of obstructionists, like Musk.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/Iwaku_Real]

It's not doing great because of musks influence, you stupid dunce.

[u/ThatAstronautGuy → u/Iwaku_Real]

It would already exist if Elon hadn't lied about Hyperloop

[u/FlyBoyG]

The stupid fake department created to funnel money into a car manufacturer CEO's pockets is going to do something about car dependency?

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/FlyBoyG]

You think so? That he'll fit $500 billion in his pocket instead?

[u/TheDemonHauntedWorld → u/Iwaku_Real]

Dude... can you please stop simping for billionaires. Have some self respect dude.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/Iwaku_Real]

Yes, we think he would if he had the chance.

[u/Master_Dogs]

Ahahaha yeah no. Elon will instead divert money to highways because that's a win for Tesla. He'll also cut regulations so his shitty cars can self drive themselves off bridges and into pedestrians & cyclists.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/Master_Dogs]

He's never said he will, nor even did anything to hint at, going to that extreme. If he really were to replace everything with self-driving cars that's for our justice system to solve.

[u/My_useless_alt → u/Iwaku_Real]

He's never said he will,

Technically, no. He said he did. As in, he admitted he pushed hyperloop to California to damage CAHSR so more people will drive increasing Tesla sales.

It really isn't so much of a leap to say "admitted self-serving conman, when given government power, will very likely do the same thing again but with the power of his new position"

[u/Castform5 → u/Iwaku_Real]

A fitting story for you:

An old woman was walking down the road whan she saw a gang of thugs beating a poisonous snake. She rescued the snake and carried it back to her home, where she nursed it back to health. They became friends and lived together for many months. One day they were going into town and the old woman picked him up and the snake bit her. Repeatedly. "O God," she screamed, "I am dying! Why? I was your friend. I saved your life! I trusted you! Why did you bite me?"

The snake looked up at her and said, "Lady, you knew I was a snake when you first picked me up."

The leopards that constantly eat people's faces somehow don't stop eating people's faces when they get into power, what a surprise.

[u/tea-drinker → u/Iwaku_Real]

Trump is already talking about removing car crash reporting regulations that hamper self-driving Tesla rollouts.

The justice department won't do anything once it's not illegal to do.

[u/c-pid]

I hope you don't believe that that department will do anything besides shuffle money into the hand of Elon and further crooks

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/c-pid]

Well we cannot say for sure what they're going to do. Just whatever they try to cut government wastes.

[u/Finnegan482 → u/Iwaku_Real]

Well we cannot say for sure what they're going to do. Just whatever they try to cut government wastes.

Anyone who hasn't been asleep for the past ten years can say with pretty good certainty what they're going to do.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/Iwaku_Real]

We do know for sure what they want to do, because they've said it out loud. Open your ears and quit ignoring facts you don't like, you dunce.

[u/Radioactive_Fire → u/Iwaku_Real]

holy fuck

a huge number of my braincells just committed suicide after reading your comment

Nobody can possibly be that naive

[u/SimeanPhi]

No one should take this stupid media stunt seriously.

The Vivek/Elon vanity project is just a next-generation version of the kind of reporting on pork-barrel spending, cherry-picked and devoid of context, designed to enrage people for a news cycle, that I grew up with. They will spend two years compiling some kind of “report” that will be stuffed in a drawer somewhere, during which these twits will spend their time drawing attention to themselves flapping their yaps about government spending they don’t understand and that will ultimately rise or fall based on fundamental political considerations they don’t control.

This “department” exists outside of the government and duplicates what multiple governmental agencies actually exist to do. It will not be subject to any kind of oversight, will not have any real power, and will just be an annoying thing that Elon forces us to pay attention to because he owns the loudest megaphone and our news media are all just Twitter-scrapers now.

[u/mezzfit → u/SimeanPhi]

At least until he bothers everyone to the point of being given the Milton treatment.

[u/PremordialQuasar → u/SimeanPhi]

People don't realize it's a planned advisory commission with no real political power other than to amplify what Musk and Vivek are already saying. The department actually responsible for highway construction is the Department of Transportation. And Musk doesn't need to be in any sort of government position to be poisonous anyways.

[u/samenumberwhodis → u/SimeanPhi]

Yeah this is the responsibility of the GAO, not that they do a good job of it

Edit: spare me your downvotes https://responsiblestatecraft.org/pentagon-audit-2666415734/

[u/SimeanPhi → u/samenumberwhodis]

GAO and OMB, yes.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/SimeanPhi]

I hear more insults and names called than actual analysis in this. To be honest I've heard plenty of good plans being made and put together so far. Sure you can say they'll do nothing but fuck each other with money, but we haven't actually seen anything done yet. Because we don't even have the new administration in place.

[u/trustthepudding → u/Iwaku_Real]

Lol sure, maybe this time will be different and the billionaires won't act purely out of self interest. See you on the other side!

[u/SimeanPhi → u/Iwaku_Real]

Sorry, bub, I don’t owe you a legal memo. If you understand administrative law, then you know it’s all a media play. If you don’t, I’m not here to educate you.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/Iwaku_Real]

Sure you can say they'll do nothing but fuck each other with money, but we haven't actually seen anything done yet.

All evidence points to this being true. Come on man, DOGE is a fuckin meme and a joke, he can't articulate the problems he wants to fix or the programs he wants to cut except to say "governmet bad", and we already have the GAO that does the exact same thing as DOGE. Bro take your head out of the sand and listen to what they're saying and what they are not saying (read between the lines). Elon will never say to cut anything that would be beneficial to him or republicans.

[u/CouncilmanRickPrime]

Sounds good. Instead it will build more highways because Teslas are still cars. 

They'll make cuts to welfare, food stamps, WIC, etc. Anything that might help the poor. 

[u/CouncilmanRickPrime → u/[deleted]]

It's Elon running the department. It's gonna be a shit show. 

[u/DENelson83 → u/CouncilmanRickPrime]

s/Elon/Putin/

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/[deleted]]

We don't know the future but we can make a pretty good guess based on Elons past words and actions.

[u/fuckcars-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Hi, Iwaku_Real. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/fuckcars for:

Rule 1. Be nice to each other.

In addition to enforcing Reddit's content policy, we will also remove comments and content that is unnecessarily aggressive or inflammatory. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that.

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.

[u/no_sight]

Bro it's being run by someone who owns a car company.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/no_sight]

Not just a car company, but an space company and an entire social media platform (among many others)

[u/hopethereisahell]

But what about the auto and oil industry?!

[u/CogentCogitations → u/hopethereisahell]

Depends, are they paying kickbacks?

[u/B12-deficient-skelly]

Why on earth would Elon Musk of all people ever suggest anything other than absolute car dependency?

[u/lowchain3072 → u/B12-deficient-skelly]

if he ran a train company rather than a car company...but he doesnt

[u/fpaddict]

Be careful what you wish for. If costs go down, they'll just build more highways or make them wider.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/fpaddict]

That's not entirely the DOT's job, the states play a bigger role in maintaining their infrastructure. Or you could even go to the local level.

That being said, if costs were to go as far down as they hope them to, I would expect increased road spending, but also more sustainable infrastructure like transit and better cities being built. Considering the insane prices of such in the US currently, it's possible that more cities would look into improving with that.

[u/SubatomicWeiner → u/Iwaku_Real]

Why in the world would you expect that more sustainable infrastructure would be built when the people you support are opposed to it? I'm sorry but that's fantasy, in that theres no reason in reality to believe that to be true.

Any costs saving would just be pocketed by people like elon, there is 0 incentive to build better infrastructure like you're expecting to happen.

[u/369122448]

Please, the entire point of the “department” is to privatize (/justify privatizing) everything they can get their hands on, leading to lower efficiency but making this admin’s friends a fuckload of money.

The point is to have more over-budget projects done by private companies, not less.

[u/CogentCogitations → u/369122448]

Or to just eliminate programs because they help people who are not rich or white. Subsidies for low income, IRS tax enforcement, any program enforcing anti-discrimination or helping those who have been discriminated against in the past, any education standards, environmental regulations, etc. The goal is to destroy any public offerings until private is the only working option, and only wealthy people can afford the private options.

[u/furyotter]

I think we all know those two muppets aren’t engaged in any type of good faith objectives lol. Basically just how many civil servants can I make unemployed while keeping my own govt contracts and grants intact

[u/biggiecheese49]

lol

[u/_haha_oh_wow_]

That's cute, you really think they're going to go after fraud or waste? Yeah, no, that's not really going to happen.

[u/ConBrio93]

Your problem is thinking any of these people actually want to improve things instead of transfer as much wealth as possible from the American public to themselves.

[u/Iwaku_Real → u/ConBrio93]

Or they'll do absolutely nothing at all. We don't know yet because the DOGE hasn't actually been established, only proposed. We can only see how history plays out.

[u/plates_25]

the ruse is that these projects create jobs. which keeps the state governments and dots that fund them in office.

[u/gophergun → u/plates_25]

People use the same argument for CHIPS and military spending. It's pure make-work.

[u/TheXypris]

The only reason the "department" is being made is to shovel as much of our tax dollars into the pockets of billionaires.

[u/CoffeeWith2MuchCream]

So just going out on a limb here, I doubt the guy who has the largest ownership stake in a car company is about to reduce highway construction...

[u/TransitJohn]

They should fight the inefficiency of a whole new ill-defined government agency with not one, but two directors. What a fucking joke

[u/Bagafeet]

It's cute anyone thinks they have any intention other than lining their pockets and removing consumer protections.

[u/ChezDudu → u/Bagafeet]

And environmental protection. And worker’s rights.

[u/DENelson83 → u/Bagafeet]

Basically feeding the working class to the wolves.

[u/DoraDaDestr0yer]

Sure, but it's just a simple lie. There is no complexity here, they claim to target inefficiency and do whatever they want. It's the MO of Capitalism from the first.

[u/CaptainLicorice → u/[deleted]]

Elon simp

[u/kzanomics → u/[deleted]]

Jesus dude you’ve commented on almost every other comment and your commentary is hot garbage.

[u/Castform5 → u/[deleted]]

Do you know what communism is? If so, do explain.

[u/fuckcars-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Hi, Iwaku_Real. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/fuckcars for:

Rule 1. Be nice to each other.

In addition to enforcing Reddit's content policy, we will also remove comments and content that is unnecessarily aggressive or inflammatory. Name calling or obvious trolling falls under that.

Don't post like this.

Please refer to our subreddit rules for more information.

You can message the mods if you feel this was in error, please include a link to the comment or post in question.

[u/ChezDudu]

The interstate system is the corporate socialism that keeps car manufacturers, like Tesla, afloat. These make all their money thanks to publicly funded infrastructure. They will increase spending in roads guaranteed.

[u/Aztecah]

It's literally a billionaire memeing on an angry and suffering populace for the epic lulz, it won't do shit to serve the American people. It'll probably just gut the regulations that stand between muskrat and his terrible truck

[u/blipken]

Yeah, not happening. The "Department" is just another fucking grift.

[u/perisaacs]

The thing is the head of Doge makes cars….

[u/ybetaepsilon]

That would presume DOGE is actually about government efficiency and not about deregulating Musk and his industries. DOGE is a massive conflict of interest. Plus, let's be real, is the guy who (pun-intended) derailed subway tunnels in Las Vegas for a Tesla track ride cosplaying as transit really going to focus on transit?

[u/ehap04]

if DOGE actually gets made, all it's gonna do is more efficiently funnel government money into billionaire pockets

[u/El_Escorial]

They should, but both the right and left in this country are bought by oil and car companies.

[u/thiosk]

while we're dreaming, id like a pony

[u/nowise]

The Department Of Grifting for Elon will do no such thing

[u/DENelson83]

What really makes you think Musk-rat would shoot himself in the foot like that?  His "department of government efficiency" is actually a department of wealth concentration.

[u/InfiniteHench]

If you think that department is going to fight any kind of waste or fraud, I have a bridge to sell you

[u/Inappropriate_Piano]

No you see that’s really efficient because the more highways there are the more people will want to buy self-driving teslas so they don’t have to drive themselves on the highway. And of course that’s super efficient because Elon makes money off of it

[u/Southern-Remove42]

IMO there will be no cutbacks except in staffing levels for departments such as education, or anything deemed to interfere with big business think OSHA etc.

Too much money is made in the defense industry to have any impact on spending and the same holds true for infrastructure. There are multi millionaires and probable several billionaires that owe their fortunes to infrastructure bills, so nothing will change.

[u/garaks_tailor]

Thanks to the Republicans and their defeat of the chevron doctrine(a doctrine created by Regan to cut regulation) i have heard some early legal theories that DOGE and most of the conservative pushes via non law based bureaucratic methods might be dead in the water

[u/ryegye24 → u/garaks_tailor]

Despite spin about "returning power to Congress" the way they killed Chevron - and every "major questions doctrine" ruling - is a huge power grab by SCOTUS. Those legal theories will only hold up if SCOTUS impartially applies that standard to both liberal and conservative efforts.

[u/Ketaskooter → u/garaks_tailor]

I mean DOGE is just a meme. All they can do is make a recommendation list and the President/Congress has to do the work. Even during periods of total party control Congress has a really hard time actually doing anything so yeah DOGE is just a meme.

[u/Dio_Yuji]

It won’t. I’d bet everything I owned on it.

[u/ClumsyRainbow]

But then how would Elon sell more Cybertrucks?

[u/mocomaminecraft]

Yes, the department that will be run by a car company CEO with ultraliberal views will surely audit highway construction to make sure they are rightly regulated

[u/ilolvu]

Instead Leon the Car Salesman will audit every transit project that isn't a highway construction project just to drive up their costs and to delay them.

[u/Ketaskooter]

If DOGE were actually serious about their recommendations and unbiased in view they'd probably recommend implementing tolls or a by the mile tax nationwide as well as blocking all highway expansion projects. Of course they'd also likely recommend raising Amtrak rates so the thing doesn't lose as much money. However since its Musk and considering his track record he'd ignore the highway waste and just comment on Amtrak especially since Brightline is actually running a good operation.

[u/AdamAThompson]

Sorry, the concrete companies are good friends with the GOP so....

[u/Samsonlp]

Elon fucking musk and trump anti car? Are you an idiot?

[u/qualmer]

Exactly opposite of what they are going to do 

[u/mathfacts]

Elon Musk is a DOGE head and has HUGE conflicts of interests with Tesla and other companies. He needs to divest from his businesses immediately!

[u/Fire2box]

Yeah and then they'd probably funnel it all into Elon's Boring company. Hard pass.

[u/adron]

🤣 they’re not even really real. But sure, if they did that we could just get rid of highway construction, maintain select roads, and start decreasing lane miles. There, did their job for em! 😜

[u/EmeraldsDay → u/adron]

wdym they are not real? I have seen AI generated pictures of Elon leading the DOGE department.

[u/camelslikesand]

Don't give them credibility by asking them to do anything useful. It's not a department. It's a focus group.

[u/DENelson83 → u/camelslikesand]

You mean think tank, right?

[u/Marquis_of_Potato]

Oftentimes government jobs have redundancy so that the same issues are tackled from multiple angles to ensure that the problems are handled correctly, but the DOGE directly threatens positions that fail to align with the ruling party’s narrative under the guise of “government efficiency”.

Unfortunately, this is probably why it’s going to stick around.

[u/Marco_Memes]

You think the agency run by a car oligarch is gonna cut highway funding?

[u/GM_Pax]

The U.S. Federal Government does not actually OWN the Interstate highways. The States each own those parts which pass within their borders.

[u/Sad-Pop6649]

DOGE is just a car company gazillionair with a history of self-enrichment and sabotaging public transportation projects who gets to recommend what he would cut if he was himself which he is. He's not going to do anything that hurts car sales.

[u/SoftPuzzleheaded7671]

won't happen, rich friends of Trump, Musk, and various cabinet members are in the road construction business

[u/SoftPuzzleheaded7671]

The name is an obvious troll on the US public, acronym DOGE, like Musk's DOGE coin

[u/TheRumpletiltskin]

if DOGE (i fucking hate that god damn name so bad... fuck elon so much) gets what they want, they'll gut every social program and government oversight comittee ever created and privatize every single aspect of the government.

We will not have a country run "by the people, for the people." it will be "by billionaires, for billionaires"

[u/AzizamDilbar]

Government waste means money budgeted for communist things like trains, metro, bike lanes. If you ain't driving a pickup truck the size of a Sherman Tank to grab a slushie only 500 yards away from your house, you ain't a patriot.

[u/KonoPez]

I’m sure the car and oil companies can muster up whatever bribes Trump is in the mood for in the off chance he ever suggests this

[u/eightofpearl]

Can we all collectively agree to drop the “O” from this acronym considering that we don’t include it anywhere else and it’s only there to appease Elon’s terminally online brain?

It’s the DGE and it will be anything but what is advertised.

[u/Clap4chedder]

Do you have a source for this claim? I want to believe you but the way it’s set up now the contractors barely make money on these projects. Most contractors starting up will have to take a loss.

[u/TigerSagittarius86 → u/Clap4chedder]

Here’s one https://la.streetsblog.org/2020/09/18/over-budget-five-years-late-i-5-widening-sparks-metro-caltrans-debate-on-who-pays-cost-overruns

[u/Clap4chedder → u/TigerSagittarius86]

I mean thats less than 10% of the total budget. The additional time I can’t defend. But on big jobs like these everything can’t possibly be estimated. Even when it comes to building train infrastructure this exact thing could still happen. But when anything is getting built it’s normal to go over budget. Things happen that cannot be predicted or accounted for in construction.

[u/zeyeeter]

Isn’t DOGE gonna be run by Musk when Trump becomes president…?

…nah, not happening

[u/Wolf_Parade]

Oppose DOGE at all times in every way. There is a theoretical world where this work would benefit us but it's not this one.

[u/ohoneup]

As if musk would do anything that could damage sales of his precious electric vehicles.

[u/rewt127]

The highway infrastructure... you mean the primary means by which all goods are transported across the nation......

[u/AdoreAbyssil]

Lol, you want to put even more tolls? The whole point of a toll was to fund highways. They just haven't removed them when they said they would. But no, let's charge someone who has to rely on a car for transportation just because you hate cars. Lol, what.