Gastonia, NC The question asks what the first year produced. Before answering it, somebody should note that the organization itself is reported to have stopped existing about eight weeks ago. On the twenty-third of November the director of the Office of Personnel Management told Reuters, when asked about DOGE's status, that it does not exist … Continue reading Has the first year of efficiency politics produced measurable reductions in improper payments and idle programs, or mainly a new argument about who is allowed to look at the books?

Myrtle Beach, SC Overdue upgrade, and the last two months are a lesson in why the upgrade has to be run by people who understand the systems. In February the claim went around that Social Security had millions of people aged well over a hundred marked as alive in its records, some listed at a … Continue reading Is putting modern identity, claims, and audit software against federal benefit systems a long-overdue upgrade, or a privacy-and-error risk that will create a new class of wrongful denials?

Gastonia, NC Core metric, and let me put the actual number down, because this Forum has argued about this for seven weeks without one. The Government Accountability Office puts federal improper payments for fiscal 2024 at roughly a hundred and sixty-two billion dollars. The cumulative figure since 2003, when agencies began reporting, is somewhere around … Continue reading Should improper payments — Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment, disaster aid, pandemic leftovers — be treated as the core waste metric, or is that accounting too narrow for what voters mean by “the swamp”?

Gastonia, NC The question asks about buyouts, freezes, and return-to-office. Those are the three things that were announced. They are not the three things that happened. The buyout happened and produced about seventy-five thousand acceptances — roughly three percent of the civilian workforce, against a stated hope of five to ten percent. The freeze happened. … Continue reading Are large-scale buyouts, hiring freezes, and return-to-office rules a legitimate first cut at a bloated workforce, or a blunt instrument that will hollow out the few functions the public still wants done well?

Myrtle Beach, SC The most informative thing that happened in this story happened three days ago and almost nobody has covered it. David Lebryk was the Fiscal Assistant Secretary at Treasury. Career civil servant, more than thirty years in the department, the senior official responsible for the systems that move federal money. He was placed … Continue reading Should a review team get access to payment files, contractor data, and headcount records — or does that access itself create a new risk that outweighs the audit?

Gastonia, NC Everybody in this argument is debating a recusal wall. Before you can build one you have to know which law is doing the building, and right now the answer is none. The federal conflict-of-interest statute reaches officers and employees of the executive branch. That is the whole of its coverage. It criminalises participating … Continue reading Do Elon Musk’s federal contracts and regulatory exposure disqualify him from directing efficiency policy, or is that a manageable conflict if the scope is disclosed?

Gastonia, NC The question asks whether this will be a permanent function or a brand looking for a building. Both halves have already been answered, in writing, by the people who created it, and almost nobody has read the announcement. The statement on the twelfth says DOGE will provide advice and guidance from outside of … Continue reading After the 2024 election, is a “Department of Government Efficiency” best understood as a serious attempt to build a permanent cost-control function, or as a campaign brand looking for a building?