lnofeisone

When I was growing up, we were section 8 in NYCHA. Incidentally, I grew up in the same projects Howard Schultz grew up in, though they took a turn for the worse from when he was there. I know exactly what you are speaking of in terms of drugs, criminal activity, etc. and how hard it can be to get out. Part of the reason why I would never want to deal with section 8 housing. People that do are just built different.

This is one of those things journalists didn't do a good job at. Ontario doesn't have the legal authority to impose tariffs, but they have the legal authority to put a surcharge on exports. The effect is the same. Bloomberg does a good job discerning this nuance in the article but not in the link header. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-03-04/ontario-to-impose-tariffs-on-power-to-three-us-states-wsj-says?embedded-checkout=true

JAVA MAN is based out of DFW and all people are getting laid off are in TX. ABT's USAID is mostly DC but NOAA (Seattle) and CDC (Atlanta) are not. DAI furloughed 400 or so but they are calling some back as they reposition them. Most majors are preparing. Few contracts got hit already and some additional contracts are being offered to the DOGE as sacrificial lambs. There is a scramble to reposition people. Especially technical people. Incidentally, DOGE is killing off small business contractors that offered an insanely competitive price and were major PITAs for the big firms.

I don't do section 8 because of the headaches that come with it, but I have heard anecdotes that fire code violation and limited water pressure to accommodate individuals beyond what's in the lease can be used as a way to evict tenants. That's in DC which a lot of people purport to be a tenant friendly local.

We hurt the ones we love the most. I'm going with grandma over MIL.

One of several reasons why they couldn't produce it is because there are a bunch of people in that database that were born 100+ years ago but there was little or no documentation of their birth or death. So SSA knows these people exist because they worked and paid SS, but they don't have exact birthdates or the documents of their deaths haven't been submitted. It's somewhat recent that death documentation gets sent to SSA (coroners, hospitals, credit card companies are now required to do so). So database has these people but they don't get any checks sent to them. Sure, there might be some grandma stuck in a freezer somewhere and her grandson is collecting her checks but that's not really gov't's fraud, waste, and abuse.

Yeah, this is has been so thoroughly debunked. Turns out SSA was aware of this (not shocking) and chose the smart thing to do, which was to allow the system reach its end of life instead of spending ridiculous amounts to modernize it. Oh, and DOGE and Elon couldn't produce numbers that included people who were over 100, dead, and receiving payments. A straightforward query.

Here we go - https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-newscast/2025/03/national-science-foundation-rehires-half-of-employees-fired-two-weeks-ago/ NSF is now bringing back workers who were illegally let go. They will also be getting back pay, and I suspect there will be lawsuit compensation for them in the future. If only this admin had followed the process and done it the right way, as most of the HR departments had told them to do. Talk about waste and abuse. Throw in DOJ lying to courts on OPM's behalf and you have fraud.

Word on the street DOGE is looking for a 75% cut for all non-essential and non-mission-critical contracts. DEI, etc. 100% cut. The top 10 (and many others) are looking for sacrificial lambs (contracts) to surrender. BAH is in a particularly uncomfortable spot. Some also tried pitching services to DOGE at commercial rates (those are about 3x what Gov't rates would be). The Government taketh with left hand and giveth with right hand.

Finally, we agree on something! Though I'm pretty sure it's because you didn't read the whole thing...thanks for an awesome setup @Saluki.

Ok, understood. You are just spitballing your intuition that may or may not be grounded in any sense of reality.

I live in Washington, DC. I'm not a Washington insider by any stretch. But don't change the subject. You claimed that these workers are already on the payroll. Do you have evidence of this, or would you like to walk back your statement? It's really that simple.

So you don't have facts you can point to that disgruntled federal workers are already on the payroll? I just want to be clear here.

Is this another one of your conjectures or you have facts you can point to?

In completely unshocking news - https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/us-intel-russia-china-attempt-recruit-disgruntled-federal-employees? Congratulations. We played ourselves.

Yes, I read his work including principles, which I don't recommend. Current GDP - 30T, assume 3% growth Government collected funds - 5T Effective tax rate - 16% Government spending - 7T Cutting spending 10% - 700B If you fix spending and say no more. In 4 years, you'll offset your $700B. If you drive the economy into contraction, things get mighty ugly if you try to do cuts or raise tax, but I guess you will get the interest reduction when that interest rate goes down. So how much do you have to reduce interest to get to $700B?

LOL I'm very far from Gov't employee. Sh***y policies from parties impact my business. I'm sorry Biden hurt you. Doesn't mean the rest of the country needs to be brought down to make you feel better.

Crazy idea...grow the GDP. Now re-read what you posted with that in mind.

What a terrible analogy. What's happening now is more like someone going outside, grabbing 20 random people, and subjecting them to chemotherapy. Do they all need chemo? No. But as some on the board would say - we can fess up to errors and unplug the chemo. Is weaponizing Gov't agencies OK by you? Don't you think Dems will ever win WH/Congress and eventually SCOTUS? Be careful what you wish for.

I want a planned (predictable), methodical approach that demonstrates results. Not gloating with numbers that turn out to be off by 99.9%. Put another way, he has overestimated his cuts by a factor of 1,000. Pretend you have an investment and a CEO did this. Would you be long? This isn't something he is forced to do. This is a basic contract and math mistake that a rookie contracting officer could help with. Very clear that this guy is clueless about what he is reporting on the DOGE website. Very clear that he doesn't know what he is doing. I also want these "savings" to go to deficit and debt reduction. Not some idiotic $5k check to everyone. Is that too much to ask for? Clinton cut 400k Gov't employees. I can't wait for you to find something on tweeter about "bump and retreat" for federal employees. I'll let you do the math of how that will increase gov't cost.

Yeah, IRS fired a bunch of their Large Business and International (LB&I) and Small Business (SBSE) Revenue Agents that started in October. This is going to tie up a lot of cases. In some instances taxpayers are due refund which screws with everyone. 1) The taxpayers generally pre-pay potential tax liabilities while arguing with IRS. This is done to avoid penalties and interest if the IRS finds them in the wrong. So now taxpayers don't have funds to spend and may need to wait even longer. 2) IRS pays you interest if they hold on to your refund. They can even issue you a 1099-INT. I got one. It is definitely neat (and also reported as income). That interest is going to go straight into the budget deficit. But, you know, savings according to DOGE.

Is he going to fess up to these errors? "The savings, deleted with no explanation from DOGE or the White House, include: a $232 million cut to the Social Security Administration that actually amounted to only $560,000; an $8 billion cut at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that was actually only $8 million; and three $655 million cuts at the U.S. Agency for International Development that ended up being a measly $18 million. These mistakes all seem to be completely avoidable human errors." https://www.yahoo.com/news/doge-secretly-changes-website-being-203001406.html Also, what a terrible way to make decisions. In my grad school days, one of my advisors had an experiment that pertained to nuclear sensors. The length of the experiment was roughly 10 years and needed daily monitoring and adjustments. Imagine if you "accidently" shut this down and bring the person back 3 days later. Your experiment is wrecked and what will you be doing? Paying for another 10 years of experimental work? He is lucky that nothing bad has happened yet.

SAIC and CACI are comparable in size (CACI is a tad bigger) but SAIC is mostly services. This latest development introduces a bit of uncertainty. I'm convinced that whoever is running the top 10 filter doesn't understand Gov't contracting and just picked "services" NAICS without knowledge that you can bundle services under non-service NAICS and there are nuances that come with every contract vehicle.

I was just about to pull the trigger on CACI. I think I'll hold back until this review is over.

Lets reframe this a little. The rhetoric you get is how they want to save 60m, 6b, 60b. So far they've wasted way more than 6m (i think it is closer to 60m) sending the dumb give me 5 points email. The actual savings have yet to be demonstrated. Oh and the courts ruling that the govt now might need to bring all the people they fired and most likely with back pay. All while the government is losing qualified people, some of whom will find employment in the private industry, domestic or foreign. Some leadership.