Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency is a good start but so much more needs to be done

Posted: November 21, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

The internet has been buzzing with news and analysis of President Trump’s proposal to cut 2 trillion dollars from the federal budget.  This Townhall article contains the best analysis I have yet found: The DOGE Initiative Is Clearly Needed but It Is Not Enough

President-Elect Trump recently announced his intention to create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that will be led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. This will be an external initiative to identify ways to improve the economy, efficiency, and hopefully the effectiveness of the federal government from an organizational and operational perspective. Stated differently, it seems to be an expedited and expanded Grace Commission type effort with a reporting date of July 4, 2026, which is America’s 250th birthday. 

This initiative is much needed and long overdue. In fact, I called for a Government Transformation Initiative over twelve years ago. An initiative designed to streamline and simplify the organization of the federal government, attack fraud and waste, devolve certain functions and activities to the states, leverage technology, and implement modern planning and management practices, including human capital practices. 

The DOGE can help to shed light, create heat, and make recommendations to improve federal government operations. Its recommendations will need to be sent to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and designation regarding, which can be done through an Executive Order, which would require legislation, and which would require a Constitutional Amendment. 

The last paragraph of the quote highlights the main limitations of the DOGE.  It lacks teeth, requiring many improbable actions before significant cuts can be made.

Restoring fiscal sanity and sustainability will also require a comprehensive review and reassessment of current mandatory and discretionary spending programs as well as tax policy. Attempting to perform this type of review and reassessment cannot be done on a piecemeal basis through the regular order. Congress cannot even pass the annual appropriations bills on time! 

While we need to adopt more pro-growth-oriented policies which can help to ease our burdens, our fiscal gap is too great, and our financial hole is too deep to simply grow our way out of this challenge. Tough fiscal choices are needed sooner versus later. 

Republicans in both Houses of Congress need to put on their big boy pants start doing what should have been done many decades.  They need to eliminate each and every federal bureau, agency, and department that is not directly by the Constitution.  The entire administrative state must be eliminated.  This will require legislation which RINOS will balk at.

Trump’s Post Kasserine Administration

Posted: November 16, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

In Tunisia the Americans had to pay a stiff price for their experience, but it brought rich dividends.

Erwin Rommel

Because Donald Trump will now be serving a 2nd term I’m going to have to re-evaluate my ranking of him as president since there will be two terms to judge rather than one, but one of the best signs I’ve seen has been his ability to hit the ground running even before being sworn in.

Don Surber noticed the difference in speed and number of people who have been appointed to positions:

Make that 9. Just before my bedtime last night, The Calvin Coolidge Project tweeted, “President Trump has announced that Doug Burgum will be his Interior Secretary.”

At this point 8 years ago, Trump had appointed no one. He was waiting for recommendations from the Republican Establishment.

Donald Trump came into office having had to deal with various government agencies in his capacity as a businessman but had no clue as to how deep the deep state was. He was confident in himself but inexperienced so while he had a lot of success he made mistakes that his enemies were able to exploit

The most solid comparison would be to the US Army landing in Africa. Their first fight was the Battle of Kasserine Pass. Rommel took the inexperienced army and spanked them fairly well but they not only learned but resulted in a change of leadership. As the Encyclopedia Britannica notes:

Rommel, who at first scorned his untested American foe, had a different opinion of them at the end of the clash, later recording in his journal, “The tactical conduct of the enemy’s defense had been first class. They had recovered very quickly after the first shock and had soon succeeded in damming up our advance by grouping their reserves to defend the passes and other suitable points.”

The Battle of Kasserine Pass—more correctly stated, the operation, consisting of a series of battles—was a shock to the Americans, though it had little effect on the continuing advance on Tunis. But one final casualty was General Frendendall, who was replaced on March 6 by the considerably more aggressive Major General George S. Patton. Another outcome was a new combat doctrine promulgated by American commanding general Dwight D. Eisenhower, requiring all future land operations to be strongly supported by the Americans’ superior air forces.

This time around Trump has learned from his first term and has bypassed the deep state and the self serving “experts”. It appears he learned a lot more from his “defeat” than he learned from his initial victory.

Will this mean success for the country? I have faith, we will see.

Closing Thought: Faith isn’t believing in God’s existence, that’s is fact. Faith it believing that God knows what he’s doing even if he hasn’t told you.

100 Word Fan Fiction: Guilt Trip

Posted: November 15, 2024 by datechguy in Uncategorized
Tags:

“You understand General offically I am not here at all.”

“I quite understand” Burkhalter eyed the Gestapo Oberst. He had seen many over the years and had yet to meet one he liked.

“For the highest state reasons, what happens, must happen without any notice from you. It simply remains to pick a Stalag whose Komandant is completely expendable in case of failure.”

“I have just the camp and man you need.” said Burkhalter suddenly taking a liking to the Oberst, who unbeknownst to him, knew his next stop was Stalag 13 & Col Wilhelm Klink.

Previously Paper Birth, Next: Playing Post Office

Now that the Republican Party controls both Houses of Congress they must stop being the stupid party

Posted: November 14, 2024 by Jon Fournier in Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

Every time the Republican Party gains control of Congress they perform rather badly.  Individual Republicans are elected to office when they promise to support individual liberty, free market capitalism, and the Constitution.  Thanks to the Republican Party establishment they usually fail to deliver.  The Republican Party establishment wields way to much power over what takes place in Washington DC and it is exceedingly corrupt.  The Republican Party establishment is the reason why the Republican Party is the stupid party.  That cabal of elites cares nothing for Conservative principles. All they care about is power.  They are far more to the political left than those that vote for Republicans.

During President Trump’s first term the Republican Party establishment in both Houses repeatedly undermined President Trump, stabbing them in the back over and over again.

Conservatives on social began calling for the selection of a true Conservative as Senate Majority Leader immediately after it became clear that the Republicans would gain control.  As you can see from this article, After Trump Landslide, GOP Senate Votes For Business As Usual, they were ignored

Republicans elected a reincarnation of retiring GOP Senate chief Mitch McConnell to lead the upper chamber on Wednesday following former President Donald Trump’s overwhelming win last week.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota was promoted from Republican Senate whip to majority leader on the second secret ballot with 29 votes in a contest against Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who received 24. The two lawmakers edged out a challenge from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who only captured three more votes for his candidacy for leader compared to his previous challenge to McConnell in 2022. Scott had run two years ago after McConnell funneled scarce campaign resources to win safe seats in the midterms while competitive candidates in key states were stripped of funding over their opposition to the incumbent Senate chief.

Senator Thune said the right things upon being selected: John Thune: Senate GOP ‘Excited’ to Put Trump’s Agenda into Action

Just got off the phone with [Donald Trump.] Senate Republicans are excited and ready to get to work implementing President Trump’s agenda on behalf of the American people,

We have a mandate from the American people, a mandate not only to clean up the mess left by the Biden-Harris-Schumer agenda but also to deliver on President Trump’s priorities,

We will make sure that the President and his team have the tools and support that they need to enforce border security laws and to remove the violent criminals who are wreaking havoc in every one of our states. We will work to make America prosperous again by streamlining the bureaucratic machine and overturning costly Biden-Harris regulations, and we will work to restore American energy dominance, not just our energy security, but energy dominance, which will lower costs and bolster our national security.

I do not believe Senator Thune will follow through on any of President Trump’s agenda.  The Senate will be the same circular firing squad.  I hope I am wrong.

Older Entries
Newer Entries