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For obvious reasons those responsible for, or benefitting from, government waste, fraud, and abuse, are furious about the work being done by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). They, and government employees at risk of losing their jobs, are the only people in America who have a right to be concerned by DOGE’s audits. The rest of America, every one of us, will benefit when unconscionable government corruption is identified, corrected, and punished. But those who hate Trump and Elon Musk, are turning a blind eye, preferring to watch their country go bankrupt as opposed to giving Trump or Musk credit for anything.

In 2003, conservative political columnist, Charles Krauthammer, coined the phrase “Bush Derangement Syndrome”. He defined it as “the acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency-nay-the very existence, of George W. Bush.” Later, Fareed Zakaria, a political commentator and host of a CNN television program bearing his name, updated the term to “Trump Derangement Syndrome” (TDS). He defined TDS as “hatred of President Trump so intense that it impairs people’s judgment”. I’ve never known a hatred so deep that it could alter my ability to reason. It is difficult to understand that such hatred actually exists. After watching thousands of people march in the streets chanting “Hands Off!” it is undeniable that their ability to reason, or to show good judgment, has been altered.

It may be fair to assume that some of the people involved in the marches were paid agitators/organizers. They may not be infected with TDS. They’re nothing more than professional troublemakers. As for the rest, they suffer from either TDS, naivete, or acute ignorance. The “Hands Off!” website professes the march was organized to stop Trump, Musk, and their billionaire cronies from completing an all-out takeover of our government. Some of their issues: 1. Trump and Musk are trying to dismantle Social Security and Medicare. The truth is they are working to identify the waste and fraud that is rampant in these two agencies. In so doing, they will be able to keep both programs solvent, ensuring that recipients can depend on them into the future. 2. Forcing us to pay higher prices for food, rent, and healthcare, while giving trillions to billionaires. Are these people newborns, or did they not have access to information while living under their rock? During the last 4 years, in every state in the Union, Americans paid the highest price for gasoline in our nation’s history! Inflation hit the highest level in 40 years and grocery and utility prices rose more than 20% during that time. 3. They will fire essential workers and gut Medicaid. Unless you count stripping away the billions in waste, fraud, and abuse, or removing people who don’t qualify for the program, as gutting Medicaid, Trump has said there will be no cuts to Medicaid. Firing essential government workers? During the last government shutdown in 2018-19, approximately 800,000 workers were deemed “nonessential”. That is more than one third of the non-military government work force. Of those, 380,000 were furloughed and later received back pay for doing absolutely nothing during the shutdown. So, let’s not worry about losing essential employees until the number fired rises above 380,000.

The leaders of the Democrat Party, and the talking heads at Progressive Left press/media outlets, are still claiming that Trump and DOGE are going to get rid of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. While their statements are patently false, they frighten the most vulnerable among us. If you doubt that, take a look at the participants in the “Hands Off!” marches. They were disproportionately populated by the misinformed, and blue haired elderly ladies and old geezers. I am sure that if grandma and grandpa knew their Social Security and Medicare benefits were secure, they would have stayed home. What follows are just some of the nefarious activities uncovered by DOGE at the Social Security Administration. In a presentation made by a leader of the DOGE team it was pointed out that one government employee emailed 400,000 S.S.#s to himself. One needn’t be terribly astute to recognize nefarious intent. He reported that in 2024, 2.1 million illegal aliens received S.S.#s. He said there are currently over 5 million people who entered our country illegally and are in possession of S.S.#s. Does that give them access to disability and unemployment benefits? How about SNAP and WIC benefits? Does adding 5 million illegals to the rolls of these programs diminish the solvency of the programs? Will it increase their opportunity to access the voting booth? You can decide that for yourself. He reported that DOGE identified 1.3 million illegals in possession of a S.S.# are already on Medicaid. If we want to protect these safety net programs for citizens who need them, we must get rid of the fraud. If the “Hands Off!” protestors were properly informed they would have taken to the streets sporting signs and chanting, go DOGE go! Alas, these low information, frightened sheeple, give credence to the old saying: It is easier to fool the people than it is to convince them they have been fooled.

Detractors continue to warn that DOGE will bankrupt our government and give our money to their friendly billionaires. Apparently, there are good billionaires and bad billionaires. It seems that the theft of our tax dollars over the past few decades were completed by “good” billionaires because there wasn’t an uproar. Perhaps if the looting is being done by decamillionaires, you know, the less fortunate, it is permissible. We have plenty of people who are true public servants. But too many elected officials have gotten unbelievably wealthy while “sacrificing” their lives to public service. I spent 40 years of my life licensed in the securities industry. I can tell you it is next to impossible to amass a net worth in the tens of millions of dollars on a salary of $174,000 a year. One of the ways they have enriched themselves is by investing in companies that will be helped, or harmed, by actions taken by Congress. That is commonly known as trading on inside information. Insider trading is against the law for anybody outside of Congress.

They have also become incredibly adept at figuring out how to hide “laundered money”. One of the most popular methods is by using vehicles known as Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs). (If you have a child or grandchild who needs an example of an oxymoron, feel free to use this example). There are currently around 1.5 million of them in the U.S. NGOs are typically non-profit private organizations managed by private individuals and operated independently of the government. Despite being independent of the government, many of them receive most of their funding from government entities. (Ergo the oxymoron). A politician approves funds for an agency, say USAID, aimed at education. USAID then deposits those funds into NGO “A”. Then NGO “A” redirects that deposit equally to NGOs #1, 2, and 3. After being divided yet again, the funds in one of the 3rd generation NGOs are spent creating a knockoff of Sesame Street in Iraq (true story). Remaining funds conveniently find their way back to the campaign coffers of the original approving politician. It would take a dedicated audit team, enter DOGE, to track the funds in these transactions. These nifty little laundering machines are also gaining in popularity with politicians who want to gain control of funds without having to divulge their donors, or the unlimited amount of money donors are allowed to contribute.

To the best of my knowledge there has never been an outside audit of the federal government. (For what it’s worth, I am in favor of a DOGE-like audit of all 50 states). If those infected with TDS want to argue there is a better way to root out waste, fraud, and corruption, I’d be happy to listen to their plan. We could have asked Department heads to pretty please stop wasting and/or pocketing our paychecks. We might have asked government Inspectors General who have continually failed us to try harder. The fact remains that for decades presidents have pledged to end this terrible abuse of our hard-earned tax dollars. None of them tried. We finally have a president who understands the critical nature of our mountainous national debt and is following up on his pledge. DOGE has already found well over $100 billion in waste and fraud in the first 3 months of its existence. What is not discussed is that most of that waste has been occurring every year and would have continued to occur well into the future. That’s at least $100+ billion we’ll save every year going forward. Nobody is going to save us from the existential debt bomb hanging over our heads. There will be no pixies dropping magical fairy dust over our country. We need Trump, Musk, and DOGE to get this job done. If your hatred for 2 men is greater than your love for your country, you need to reexamine your priorities.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts. Bob