Mike’s Musings: Send us those $5000 checks, DOGE

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has received a lot of attention in the news lately. Led by Elon Musk, his minions of young computer nerds have found billions of dollars of waste and fraud taking place in our vast bureaucracy. Musk believes that waste can be cut out of all government departments to the tune of $2 trillion dollars.

On the surface this is a tremendous service to the taxpayer. We, as a nation, are $37 trillion in debt, with that number increasing every second and minute of every day. It wasn’t long ago, during the Clinton presidency that we had a balanced budget. How times have changed. We must get a handle on a problem that may bankrupt our nation. Musk, by gutting some federal agencies and NGO’s is making waves and a whole slew of enemies but also cutting back on our runaway debt.

Of course, some of the found money will be used to further reduce debt, but both President Trump and Musk have floated an idea that would actually cut checks back to taxpayers. The thought is since it has been our money that has been utilized by legislators and bureaucrats to spend and create their pet projects, that if they are discontinued, some of that money should come back to us.
I wholeheartedly agree. If you can cut hundreds of billions of dollars in frivolous spending, send a portion back to the taxpayers. The number being floated is $5000 per taxpayer. I don’t know about you, but that’s a substantial amount of change to this taxpayer.

Talk about jump starting the economy. Many of us would turn around and spend that $5000 on goods and services, which in turn would provide a springboard for lower inflation and interest rates. I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of the sticker shock I experience every time of go to pay for groceries.

For Trump and Musk who have taken a lot of heat in their attempt to reduce government spending, it would take away a portion of the argument that they are killing programs and firing good government workers simply to reduce the deficit.
One can’t argue that a few good people have been fired, but as we know the long arm of the bureaucracy reaches across a whole spectrum of big business. Most likely most if not all of these people will land on their feet with better jobs and benefits. Certainly the $5000 and the generous severance packages they are being offered will help them as well.

As far as the programs and NGO’s that have sprung up by the hundreds over the past several years, they can find their own funding. As a taxpayer I want my money to pay for essential services like social security, Medicare and our military. If it is important to fund programs in other countries, let the NGO find money in another way, other than from the taxpayer.

Taxpayers deserve to be compensated. We didn’t send money to the IRS to be wasted on programs that do not benefit us. Send us $5000. It would be a great gesture from a government that is known for taking but not giving.