Latest news with #governmentwaste
The National
3 days ago
- Business
- The National
Elon Musk appears with black eye at White House farewell
The world's richest man is leaving the White House after months of advising the President on cutting government waste
Fox News
4 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
STEVE MOORE: Did Elon Musk drain the swamp or drown in it?
There's an old adage that especially applies to Washington, DC that no good deed ever goes unpunished. And no one has been more victimized by that truism than Elon Musk. Musk is arguably one of the 10 greatest entrepreneurs, wealth-creators and visionaries in world history. His businesses from Tesla to SpaceX are worth over a trillion dollars. His patriotic voyage to Washington to help President Trump was intended to identify the waste, inefficiency, fraud and theft that is rampant in the United States government. Who better to make the government more productive and less wasteful? But from the start, his quest to save money for taxpayers was ridiculed and attacked by the media, the permanent ruling class, and the unaccountable blob in Washington. He attacked the vast bureaucracy in the many agencies of government where well-paid federal employees were taking home $150,000 pay checks or more, but not bothering to show up for work. He exposed the millions of dollars that were being sent out to Social Security recipients of more than 120 years old, and the antiquated computer systems in government agencies like the Air Traffic Control system that were installed in the 1980s. His team found that the government's foreign aid programs like USAID couldn't even account for what happened to hundreds of millions of dollars as those funds got swallowed up by a syndicate of "nongovernmental organizations." He spotlighted for all American taxpayers the outrageous and rapacious way the government bureaucrats and contractors in Washington were serving themselves and not the public. The fact that three of the five wealthiest counties in the United States are in and around Washington, DC spoke volumes to American taxpayers in faraway places like Kansas, Maine, and Montana. In just a few months Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), identified $160 billion in savings by terminating wasteful contracts, modernizing IT systems, such as digitalizing the OPM retirement process." Just think if he had had more time and support from the people who work for the government. He naively believed that he would be seen as a national hero. Instead, his reward for exposing to the American public that the empire of Washington wears no clothes was to create a revolt on the left against Tesla and his other world-class companies. Why the outrage? Because the crooked system is so endemic and the hundreds of billions of dollars that go into this racket and make fraudsters rich from all the graft have created a self-defense mechanism far more powerful than he or any of us thought was possible. Putting a muzzle on a rabid dog is no easy feat. Now Elon is understandably frustrated. He has even done a mea culpa for being "too political." He has concluded that Washington is permanently broken and perhaps even unfixable. After all, if he and Trump can't fix our arrogant, obese and broken $7 trillion enterprise in Washington, who can? In one of his most recent social media posts, Musk concluded that the only way to shrink out debt and Washington's tumor on American life and culture is to "grow our private economy" at warp speed so that, in relative terms, Washington becomes less and less consequential - a deadweight loss that we just write off every year as a cost of doing business. He may be right that economic growth is the only way to fix our nation's finances. The good news is there's nobody better to do that than him.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
As Musk exits with a whimper, Trump makes mockery of fighting government waste
Elon Musk's time in the Donald Trump administration came to an end with little fanfare and some tepid remarks on his social media platform. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Trump no longer cares about eliminating government waste, if he ever did. Among Trump's actions that emphasize this point is his firing of inspectors general and replacing them with unqualified loyalists. Jen Psaki discusses with Mark Greenblatt, former inspector general at the Department of the Interior, and Robert
Fox News
6 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Defense Department workers no longer required to submit DOGE's weekly production reports
Defense Department civilian employees will no longer need to submit a weekly bulleted list of what they accomplished, which the Department of Government Efficiency had demanded of federal employees starting in February. In an email to the Pentagon's civilian workforce, Jay Hurst, who is performing the duties of undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the "five bullet exercise" will no longer be required and that employees should instead submit at least one idea by Wednesday to help improve efficiency or root out waste at the Defense Department. Other agencies have also begun to end the weekly reports, including the National Institutes of Health last month. Workers had been required to submit weekly reports justifying their employment by listing five things they did the previous week, as part of efforts by billionaire Elon Musk and DOGE — which had been led by Musk — to eliminate waste in the federal government. Musk, who recently announced he is stepping back from DOGE and focusing more on his companies, Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, said on Feb. 22 that federal employees would be required to start sending weekly reports of what they accomplished to the Office of Personnel Management as well as their managers. "Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump's instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week," Musk wrote on X at the time. "Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation," he emphasized. Some agencies, including the Defense Department, the State Department and the FBI, initially told employees to hold off on submitting the reports. Days later, the Office of Personnel Management told human resources officers across the government that the emailed reports were voluntary, according to The Washington Post. Officials at the agency also said they did not plan to do anything with the emails they received. But Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a memorandum on Feb. 28 instructing all Pentagon civilian employees to submit the weekly emails requested by DOGE.
Washington Post
19-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
No booze, no flowers: Chinese officials told to tighten their belts
China's ruling Communist Party has ordered officials to cut down on government waste with a range of new rules: Expensive alcohol, cigarettes and gourmet dishes can no longer be offered at work-related meals; guests should not be seen off at airports; and conferences will no longer feature lavish flower arrangements. As China faces economic headwinds — from a continued trade war with the United States and slower growth at home — it has ordered officials to tighten their belts and 'lead the way in living a frugal life.'
