From My Mind to....

I Feel Safe Knowing the Billionaires ...

... are Concerned For My Welfare. NOT!!!

I am concerned at all the rhetoric (and action) by Musk, DOGE and Pres. Trump regarding cutting funding to many government agencies, including massive layoffs.

On 25 Feb, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins celebrated cuts to 875 contracts that he claimed would save nearly $2 billion. But, as reporters of the Washington Post reported, those contracts covered medical services, recruited doctors, and funded cancer programs, as well as providing burial services for veterans. The outcry was such that the VA rescinded the order today. Still another 1,400 jobs at the VA are on the chopping block. (What is this ... a cooking show?) Those cuts were announced Monday, on top of the 1,000 previous layoffs.<sup>1

1</sup> Excerpt from a Facebook column by Historian Heather Cox Richardson

There are a lot of claims from the DOGE about finding fraud, waste and abuse all across the government. But I ask: WHERE'S THE EVIDENCE?

I have no doubt there's fraud, waste and abuse throughout the government. It's too big a bureaucracy and people are too greedy (and imaginative) to not find ways to line pockets with our tax dollars. But indiscriminate firings of folks across the board to save a few bucks doesn't solve the problem. The chainsaw approach doesn't work. Witness the attempts to un-do and re-hire key necessary folks let go in error.

I have no doubt that many of you have been touched by the firings and downsizing of the various government entities. I'm touched specifically by efforts to decimate the VA Healthcare system. And Social Security.

Pres. Trump has promised not to touch Social Security; Elon Musk has not. And if you believe Pres. Trump will not change his mind and chop Social Security, my friends, I believe you are living in a fantasy world. It took Adolf Hitler just 53 days to dismantle a democracy (Google it). 

We're at 44 days.