Everyone knows there is government waste in these United States.  We should always look for this and remove it wherever we can.  We should not, however, cut the entirety of a program, administrative office, or department without discussing the reasons that this spending exists.  But that is just what DOGE has been doing.  We should instead drill down to the problem then correct it.  To my knowledge, staffing has been cut according to what has been found in files without DOGE having any knowledge from this staff as to what it is for or how it is used.

DOGE has had to rehire supervision when they find out from outside sources what some programs were for.  For instance, supervisors over our nuclear stockpile, managers of the bird flu, managers of the Veterans Crisis Line, people who run the 9/11 health programs, people on the front lines of public health responses, and FDA employees overseeing medical devices, food ingredients and other key areas.  You can find all these and more in an article by Jennifer Bendery dated Feb. 22, 2025, at “www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-doge-federal-workers-fired-rehired_n_67b89cb3e4b09eb937701aa4”

That is the problem when you take a single person, that feels he knows all about technology, and a bunch of young, very bright, people who are very eager, maybe too eager, to please their boss, and put them in a room together.  Everyone starts to feel that they can create programming to “look” for waste; then cuts in jobs and funding happen without any real knowledge of what they are cutting.  This causes chaos for no good reason.  My bet is that the programs they develop are doing the determination and that any review of documents does not happen.

Take for instance USAID.  DOGE and President Trump have said that this office is not needed.  Information provided by Fox News at “www.wfiwradio.com/2025/02/04/white-house-flags-top-usaid-boondoggles-under-elon-musks-microscope/” shows that many programs funded by USAID are, indeed, questionable.  These programs total $9.65 million.  Yet USAID itself had a budget of $21.7 billion in 2024 and this is 0.3% of the federal budget.  These programs constitute .045% of USAID’s 2024 budget.

Now this does not mean that this small of an expenditure should not be investigated, but it does mean we should try to look for larger expenses first.  And I hope these, and a few others were not used to determine whether an agency should be eliminated.  Even if there were another $500 million worth of programs questioned, this would come to only 2.4% of USAID’s budget.  Still small and not a reason to cut an agency.

So, where are the real savings?  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) might be a place to start.  Rather than letting it expire at the end of 2025, the Republicans want to extend it.  This Act has not inspired many jobs that I can observe.  It has, however, given breaks to individuals and families, small and large businesses.  A good way to bring in a large revenue influx would be to let this Act expire for individuals, families, and large businesses making over $500,000.  For individuals, families, and small businesses making $500,000 and less, make the Act permanent.  The $500,000 number could be adjusted higher is there are more small businesses being left out.

I cannot tell you how much this would save each year, but I have no doubt the savings would be substantial.  Maybe it’s time to tell our congress that we want them to do something for middle- and low-income people (as I mentioned above) and let the large corporations and well-to-do people pay their fair share.  After all, we have been giving to the rich through a trickle-down philosophy for 45 years.  Are you able to remember an event, during that time, where trickle-up has occurred?

In other gloomy news, President Trump had President Zelenskyy in the Oval office for a meeting that turned very heated.  This meeting should have been a private one and should never have had the media present.  It is my feeling that it was intended to show the public how President Trump and Vice President Vance can be bullies to a leader of the free world.  Yes, we all want peace for Ukraine, but to say that the only way to it is to capitulate to the United States is wrong.

In my 73 years, I have never heard a President of the United States, in helping another country, want anything in return.  In addition, to demand peace with Russia because Russia has been wronged, is way out there, not to mention being totally wrong.  We have reduced ourselves from a country that had a good part of the world aspiring to be us to a country that no longer has that standing.  We have aligned ourselves with Russia, a dictatorship with fake elections.  Is this our aspiration now?

Have we fallen to the bottom of a hill with a long hard climb to get back to the top or do we want to be there at the bottom hiding behind that hill?  Are we looking to align with Russia instead of doing the work to climb once again?  I’ll let you decide.  Here is an article by Rebecca Shabad and Nnamdi Egwuonwu dated February 28, 2025 on CNN with a video of the confrontation.  It’s at ‘/www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/zelenskyy-trump-white-house-russia-peace-talks-rare-earth-minerals-rcna194118’.  What do you want the United States of America to be?