Donald Trump’s straw boss, Elon Musk, is proud of the number of people he has fired from the government. This noble feat was accomplished without the time-consuming burden of evaluating the qualifications of those he tossed out.
His actions required no brains or skill, two qualities not needed or wanted in the Trump administration. Seemingly, the salary savings alone are justification enough and damned be the repercussions.
For those who have managed companies without experiencing six bankruptcies or multiple fines and penalties, it is clear that losing valuable employees is detrimental to any organization.
Of course, Trump had a different experience: “Fail, fail, fail, then ask Daddy to bail me out.”
Sadly, there is no bailing out for the people damaged by Trump’s and Musk’s ignorance.
ANOTHER VIEWPOINT from the March 24 Sun Sentinel Let’s scrap science. What’s the worst that could happen?
By Logan Suits
In 1800, about 50% of all children born didn’t see their fifth birthday. Over 200 years of science and advancement later, that number is less than 1%. Science saves lives — which is why the attempts to cut it are so appalling.
Today, researchers are working hard in thousands of laboratories across the country. They’re working for you — so that next time you go to the doctor, your doctor will be able to help you.
Whether it’s new treatments for emerging infectious diseases or innovative ways to treat things that have ailed humans since the dawn of time — like cancer and heart disease — these researchers are working on finding answers to diseases that claim thousands of lives. Diseases that you might have one day.
Their work is in danger. Recent funding cuts have made labs across the country worried. The National Institutes of Health, which funds the majority of laboratories in universities, has recently made drastic changes to funding that will make it impossible for some labs to function.
Worse, scientists have been reporting that meetings to review their funding applications have been canceled, leaving their funding in limbo.
What would happen if we stopped this progress?
First, we’d stop going forward. We’ve made huge strides in important issues that we should keep making. Since 1990, recent medical advancements saved an estimated 200,000 children in the U.S. alone. There’s still more work to be done, though — child mortality remains higher in the U.S. than in other highly developed countries.
We need to keep moving forward.
Second, and perhaps worse, we’d start going backward. New strains of bacteria that are resistant to every drug we use to treat them (so-called “superbugs”) are becoming more and more prevalent.
Some scientists are worried that you could get a paper cut, the wound could get infected with resistant bacteria, and there’d be nothing a hospital could do to cure it.
We could be moving toward a world where a healthy adult could die from a scratch — just as it was before penicillin. Scientists estimate that by 2050, 39 million people will die from antibiotic resistant infection.
In this world that requires new medical solutions to difficult challenges, the United States could choose to be a leader. Becoming a leader in this is not the costly investment some believe. For every dollar invested in medical research, there is $1.24 saved in health care cost, and over two dollars of economic activity created.
Financial issues are always a concern, but failing to fund research means the government will pay more in health care cost and collect less in taxes.
Funding cuts to medical research aren’t just amoral for the lost lives; they also don’t make financial sense. With the broad funding cuts being considered, it’s important that we look back and see how things used to be, and how far medical science has taken us.
Research has been one of the best investments the United States has ever made, and we shouldn’t ever forget it.
Logan Suits is a Tampa native and a Ph.D. candidate studying antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus aureus.
Musk’s belief is that virtually all federal agencies are teeming with lazy, useless employees doing nothing but wasting taxpayer money. His “solution” is to randomly fire at least half the employees, regardless of their quality and accomplishments.
Thus, he was saved the effort of actually understanding what the agencies and their individual employees did. This approach, “if the horse is too slow, cut off two legs,” did nothing to improve efficiency. Quite the opposite, it guaranteed reduced efficiency.
What mayhave improved Twitter’s profits does not work with a federal agency that has no profit motive but rather a service motive. It has quite a different goal.
The idiocy of this juvenile approach is ignorantly:
Assuming random federal agencies must be inefficient, without any measure of “efficiency” for each agency. The measure will differ depending on the agency.
Assuming there is no difference between productive and non-productive people so, “Fire ’em all.”
Failing to install new systems that would improve efficiency, but rather, assuming that fewer employees will be more efficient.
Failing to set goals for the agency and the employees, so the efficiency can be measured.
Wrongly claiming that federal taxpayers will benefit from reduced federal spending. (In reality, federal taxpayers benefit when the government spends more- i.e., adds more growth dollars to the economy- than when the government spends less.
While they take billions from the federal government, Trump and Musk have caused irrecoverable damage to the economy, federal employees, and taxpayers.
Presumably, that was the plan all along, a plan to widen the income/wealth/power Gap between the rich and the rest.
“It is absurd to say our country can issue bonds and cannot issue currency. Both are promises to pay, but one fattens the usurer, and the other helps the people.”
This quote reflects his critique of the financial system, emphasizing that issuing currency directly benefits the public, while issuing bonds primarily enriches the wealthy.
A Monetarily Sovereign nation’s economic health relies on the central government’s running deficits- large deficits- to pump growth dollars into the private sector.
The U.S. government does not need to borrow and, indeed, does not borrow.
You gotta love it when the Trump administration brags about doing absolutely nothing, and the MAGAs buy into the idiocy.
It’s low comedy on a national scale.
Consider the chest beating that the price of eggs has come down to “only ” triple what it was when it was quadruple previous prices.
Ask any MAGA what Trump did to achieve this pitiful result, and you will receive the usual angry, but blank, stare.
Of course, he did nothing, but hey, does that really matter to the cult zombies?
I mention this because of an article from MSM.
As you read the article, remember that because the U.S. government is Monetarily Sovereign, it has the infinite ability to create dollars merely by pressing what Elon Musk, in his ignorance, terms, “Magic Money Computers.”
Yes, the guy in charge of unnecessarily saving moneyfor the government doesn’t realize that the federal government creates dollars by pressing computer keys.
All his economy-damaging efforts accomplish nothing but . . . well, damaging the economy.
In just one day, the government earned $5 billion, informs Financial Express, citing US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick.
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that each card costs $5 million. Despite the high price, 1,000 of these cards were sold in a single day, generating $5 billion for the budget.
According to forecasts from the administration of US President Donald Trump, this initiative could bring in $5 trillion if 1 million cards are sold.
Congress could create $5 trillion or $500 trillion by a simple majority vote. The whole process would take as little energy as a 5-watt LED bulb uses in a second.
In total, 37 million people worldwide are considered potential buyers who can afford such an investment.
This program is known to be an alternative to the EB-5 investor visa, which the Trump administration plans to replace. The US government says the proceeds will be directed towards reducing the national debt, which has surpassed $36 trillion.
The US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, doesn’t understand (or doesn’t want youto understand) thatFederal income does not fund federal spending. Unlike monetarily non-sovereign state/local governments, the federal government creates new dollars, ad hoc, to pay all its bills.
As a reminder, at the end of last month, President Donald Trump proposed replacing the visa program for foreign investors with the so-called “golden card.”
At that time, the website of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) noted that the EB-5 investor visa program, managed by USCIS, was established by Congress in 1990 to “stimulate the US economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors.”
US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick stated that the “EB-5 program was full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low price.”
Speaking of “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud, and it was a way to get a green card that was low price,” Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister’s method was to “accuse the other side of that which you are guilty.”
Trump’s sale of green cards will import rich people, a dubious accomplishment, especially while he deports the workers who do the bidding of the rich.
It’s like an army composed solely of generals, lacking privates, corporals, and sergeants.
The sale of green cards will not lower your taxes and/or pay for anything. But fear not. Surely, all those rich new people will do the strenuous physical jobs that the deported aliens had been doing.
The Trump/Musk/DOGE troika has done incredible damage to America and it promises to do even worse, all in the name of saving taxpayers’ money.
Yet, despite the sound and fury, firings, and lawsuits, no taxpayer has seen even a penny in savings, nor ever will.
The reason is that federal taxpayers do not pay for federal spending, so saving the federal government money does not translate into savings for federal taxpayers.
State and local governments are “monetarily non-sovereign.”They cannot create dollars at will. They rely on taxes and borrowing to pay their bills.
The dollars in your paycheck and/or checking account are part of the M2 money supply measure. When they reach the Treasury, they cease to be part of any money supply measure. They simply disappear into our Monetarily Sovereign government’s infinite supply of money.
Whether you send $1 or $100 Trillion to the Treasury, the wealth of the U.S. government does not change.
Although sending your dollars to the federal government will make you poorer, it won’t help the government pay its bills—not even by a penny.
Don’t believe it when Elon Musk and Donald Trump tell you they are saving you money. They are cutting staff to destroy the safeguards that protect you from a dictatorship.
Everything Trump and his minion, Musk, do is to increase their personal wealth and power. In their philosophy, you will see no room for compassion or concern about the people.
Let’s face it: Blindly firing thousands of people while having no knowledge of what they do or how good they are at their jobs does not bespeak “efficiency,” no matter what the Department of Government Efficiency tells you.
Quite the opposite, it indicates the desire to replace law and commonsense with absolute power.
#Monetary Sovereignty - Mitchell 