Musk’s DOGE probed by top watchdog after poking around Uncle Sam's systems The US Government Accountability Office has confirmed it launched audits of Elon Musk's Trump-blessed cost-trimming DOGE unit amid concerns that its access to agency systems may be complicating oversight and involving sensitive data. Since being appointed at the start of the President's second term, the Musk-run task force has …
The Wired article linked to by TFA mentions that they linked a Github repo to the undergraduate who is now in charge of changing the regs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
But sadly, it seems that that CL Sweet account does not have any public repos - there is a ghost floating around the Google search results (for the moment) about an "eCFR Analyzer Case Study" - try searching on "github clsweet ecfr-analyzer-case-study".
So either that Sweet isn't the same one, and is now hiding because he is being hounded, OR the account was sharing something that might be embarrassing - like, just how naff an undergraduate project can be (I remember mine - they were good enough for the course, but not anything that I'd want to have put into production without a lot more work, certainly not knowing what I do now!).
Still, I guess you can't have sensitive government related systems being left open to examination by Joe Public.
I’d expect the same sort of shitshow that followed the (Conservative Government led) abolition of the UK Audit Commission …. and subsequent unaccountable Local Council Debt splurge egged by the Treasury and it’s public works loan board to naively make up central grant reductions with ‘commercial activities’ profits.
DOGE's 'task' is not efficiency, nor even short term saving, but intentional disruption of the few agencies in the US that still stood up to corporate US.
Efficiency would need a careful, slow, studied approach by people who do and not tweet.
Cost saving would mean benefits (by far the largest expenditure) and defense would be cut, and those can't be touched (yet).
So if not those, what remains? Regulating agencies crippled, and for good measure agencies that help those who cannot defend themselves (veterans, housing, ...), because for a billionaire those are not relevant, but can't be tolerated either apparently.
The US government is bloated and out of control pursuing its own agenda not of the people and most of their elected representatives are bought and paid for. Same applies to UK & Europe. The people just don't understand the extent and believe all the media attacks. WIll Trump & DOGE help ultimately? No idea but something has to happen or the West falls into corruption and decay the ultimate end point is lots of people die. So far it hasn't been us but it's getting close. All the media attacks are because they have their snouts in the filthy trough too and it's from our taxes. Our governments lie through their teeth. Those that stand up and say they doing some altruistic policy are usually either lying or doing it for votes or because it allows a skim of money that ultimately comes back to them. The whole government edifice needs pulling down and rebuilding less than half the size. Those who are old enough look back and ask yourself are things better or worse, are people healthier, happier, more productive? I don't mean have you got the latest iPhone by that. Are houses a lower proportion of your salary? We are not receiving the benefits of all the technological improvements where it truly matters. We have a huge tax burden.
So where is the money going?
Those who are old enough look back
I am old enough. When I was a child, there were people in every community suffering the consequences of polio and lots of people with lung problems resulting from smoking or industrial diseases or TB. A child in my class was excused from PE because his parents couldn't afford underwear or footwear other than thin wellington boots. There were gaps in every city resulting from wartime bombing. People were sent to prison for consensual sexual relations but not for brutally beating their wives or children. Spoil from coal mines was dumped on beaches to be washed away by the tide. Sewage was pumped raw into the sea. Houses were cold and the condensation on the single-glazed windows turned into ice overnight in winter - a season in which fruit and vegetables mostly came in cans (apart from potatoes, carrots and swede).
Things gradually got better, despite strikes and political turmoil. Housing improved, health improved, spoil heaps were landscaped, educational opportunities widened. Things turned down again during the Thatcher period which, despite a "loadsamoney" boom for a few saw record hospital waiting lists and set the trend for an accelerating housing shortage and, hence, cost. Things improved gradually again, hitting a (possibly unsustainable) peak under the Blair government but have been declining fairly rapidly since - despite the increase in national wealth.
My experience is that life is generally better for everyone when there is a greater investment in public services.
You're right that housing costs eat up far too much of everyone's disposable income, but that's largely because whereas everyone wants more houses in principle, they don't want them near them and they don't want so many that the value of their own house may be reduced. And that's the problem with blaming politicians: in the end, they can only do what the voters allow them to do, which in our presently fractured society is not very much. This can't be resolved simply by pulling everything down and starting again. The problem is that we don't have a common purpose and until we do there is only squabbling and decline.
Considering previous numbers given by DOGE were rife with errors and falsehoods any claim they make on savings probably should be divided by a factor somewhere between 10 and 100.
The IRS estimates that the disruptions in that agency by DOGE will cost $500B/year. So even using DOGE numbers DOGE is costing the US $350B/year.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
