Politics

[Red Leg]

Have you ever heard the old saying, “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket?”. Hopefully you had investments that did well and softened the blow your defense stocks took.

Of course. That isn't the point. I am simply reporting what the President said as opposed to what his unquestioning followers with TWS choose to believe. Biden was a disaster for this country. I am truly hoping this administration turns out better.

 

[roverandbrew]

Any idea where the cuts were (maintenance, IT, food service, Dr's, Nurse's, etc.) or are you just pissing and moaning because you have TDS and regurgitate the lamestream media's nonsense to get veterans fired up? If you click the link below, you'll find that there are over 2500 positions available, even after the 1000 that were just cut.

Jobs currently available at the VA.

Had an appointment at the McGuire VA facility yesterday. 2 incidents of note.

1. Watched a veteran in a wheelchair try to get checked in for more than 20 minutes. Receptionist didn't acknowledge him until he made a scene. Same idiot receptionist I had an issue with for the same reason a year ago. Liked it better when there were kiosks and we didn't need to wait to get checked in, but during the Biden admin, someone removed them and hired more people to handle check-ins instead. A useless position! Probably a few thousand of those sitting around that could be put on the chopping block.

2. Overheard a female employee talking to her significant other on the phone while waiting for the elevator and during the ride to the 2nd floor. She was complaining because her supervisor caught her listening to music while she was supposed to be working, which implies she wasn't allowed to do so or she wasn't completing the work given to her. Dude on the phone gave her a great answer though. "you listen to your music during your own time". Made me and the wife laugh afterwards because he was absolutely right.

The amount of BS that we vets deal with is astounding and honestly disgusting. Most veterans are easy going and just roll with it because we can adapt, but at this point I'd say the entire VA needs to go away and simply issue insurance to veterans so we can get our own care local to us.

I am a veteran. Not a one or two or three or four tour guy. I would say I earned my status. I am not pissing and moaning. I am not tracking every line number for the cuts but what I continue to ask from everyone is what is the way ahead. If you ask the VA they have zero clue on any plan. Right now its just chaos.

Task and Purpose had an interesting story on the topic.

A Marine vet thought he found a 'home' working at the VA. Now he's one of 1,000 fired.

Andrew Lennox, who was terminated from the VA, noted the irony of the VA claiming it had fired some veterans to help veterans.

taskandpurpose.com

 

[Doubleplay]

You are fine with the past performance and status quo. That’s fine. Many of us are not.

We as a nation are broke. Fat. diseased. And artificially feeling free and safe.
Staying on this trajectory is unsustainable.

Yes it would’ve been nice to start this and do it gradually over the last 40 years, but that hasn’t happened. And never will if certain people have their way

I'm not fine with the past performance but I'm also not fine how this administration is handling some things.
They are making a lot of rushed and not very well thought decisions just for the sake of showing that something is being done.

 

[Altitude sickness]

Everyone that is upset about groups and organizations being optimized or reduced or removed, can still send personal checks to those organizations.

 

[wesheltonj]

Need for more Physicians? It's cost prohibitive. Here's the cost for the one of newest medical school in Texas.

• Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
  The cost of this medical school increased from $334.5 million to $436.4 million. The project included a medical office building, parking garage, research, educational, and administrative facilities.
  

Not something every University can do. I think TCU was able to escape most of the costs, as they originally partnered with UNT School of Osteopathic Medicine.

I doubt it was physicians that the VA cut. If was me, I would merge the Public Health Service, VA, Army, Air Force and Navy medical systems into one giant system and try to achieve cost savings on administrative overhead and purchasing.

 

[Beaufort]

I'm not fine with the past performance but I'm also not fine how this administration is handling some things.
They are making a lot of rushed and not very well thought decisions just for the sake of showing that something is being done.

Such as?

 

[roverandbrew]

I would love for this forum to be a discussion on understood plans and policy as opposed to party loyalty. We are debating passions here and not policy. Hearing opposing viewpoints and analysis on written or spoken policy would be great. I really think we have way more in common than appears on this thread.

 

[Beaufort]

Need for more Physicians? It's cost prohibitive. Here's the cost for the one of newest medical school in Texas.

• Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
  The cost of this medical school increased from $334.5 million to $436.4 million. The project included a medical office building, parking garage, research, educational, and administrative facilities.

Not something every University can do. I think TCU was able to escape most of the costs, as they originally partnered with UNT School of Osteopathic Medicine.

I doubt it was physicians that the VA cut. If was me, I would merge the Public Health Service, VA, Army, Air Force and Navy medical systems into one giant system and try to achieve cost savings on administrative overhead and purchasing.

If you’re worried about the lack of access to doctors, you can partially blame Jimmy Carter for that. In 1980, just his presidency was winding down, the federal government surmised that there were too many people attending the nation’s teaching hospitals. They projected a surplus of 20,000 by 1990. So, they throttled the number of students who could attend those teaching hospitals. What they failed to account for was population growth. There are roughly 100 million more people in the US today than there was 45 years ago.

As I’ve said numerous times; If there’s something wrong in our country, you can almost be assured it was the government’s fault.

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

They are making a lot of rushed and not very well thought decisions just for the sake of showing that something is being done.

I don't believe for a second it is "just for the sake of showing that something is being done." It is in fact to bypass all the usual government bullshit that prevents things from getting done and accomplish something. Especially when Trump can only count on 2 years to do so, 4 if he's lucky.

The speed at which this is happening.....yah a few dishes and tea cups in the China shop are likely to get broken as the bull makes it way thru. I don't want to see the baby thrown out with the bath water as it were, but at some point you have to say enough is enough. And what we've seen so far coming out of DOGE is crazy and we long since passed the point of someone independently looking at the books.

Accountability is something only to be feared if you're a crook, it's something to embrace if you're honest. The idiot Dems fighting against accountability tells me everything I need to know about them.

I'll take a few broken dishes to get there.

 

[Beaufort]

I would love for this forum to be a discussion on understood plans and policy as opposed to party loyalty. We are debating passions here and not policy. Hearing opposing viewpoints and analysis on written or spoken policy would be great. I really think we have way more in common than appears on this thread.

Unfortunately, I think our nation has moved beyond that. In days of old, the Republicans and Democrats weren’t that far off in terms of how they viewed what was important for America. They both believed in the inherent good of our nation, national defense, good schools, etc. They just had a different idea about how to achieve those things. They would argue like cats and dogs during the day and then meet up for drinks afterwards.

I don’t see that today. I think the Democrats have drifted further to the left. Their goals of flooding our nation with immigrants who don’t share, or even have an interest in, our culture, who want to indoctrinate our children to believe America is not an exceptional place in the world, who want to push radical agendas such as transgenderism as the norm, who want to censure us so that they control the narrative, who want to weaken our position in the world and more. How do you reason with that? How do you find middle ground with people who have such radical ideas and are not flexible in promulgating those ideas?

 

[wesheltonj]

If you’re worried about the lack of access to doctors, you can partially blame Jimmy Carter for that. In 1980, just his presidency was winding down, the federal government surmised that there were too many people attending the nation’s teaching hospitals. They projected a surplus of 20,000 by 1990. So, they throttled the number of students who could attend those teaching hospitals. What they failed to account for was population growth. There are roughly 100 million more people in the US today than there was 45 years ago.

As I’ve said numerous times; If there’s something wrong in our country, you can almost be assured it was the government’s fault.

Flexner report in 1910 closing down more then half of the medical school in the USA and "encouraging" to affiliate with a University did not help either.

 

[Beaufort]

I don't believe for a second it is "just for the sake of showing that something is being done." It is in fact to bypass all the usual government bullshit that prevents things from getting done and accomplish something. Especially when Trump can only count on 2 years to do so, 4 if he's lucky.

The speed at which this is happening.....yah a few dishes and tea cups in the China shop are likely to get broken as the bull makes it way thru. I don't want to see the baby thrown out with the bath water as it were, but at some point you have to say enough is enough. And what we've seen so far coming out of DOGE is crazy and we long since passed the point of someone independently looking at the books.

Accountability is something only to be feared if you're a crook, it's something to embrace if you're honest. The idiot Dems fighting against accountability tells me everything I need to know about them.

I'll take a few broken dishes to get there.

Agreed. Also, Trump really only has two years. If the Dems regain control of the House or Senate at the midterms, it could be a lot more difficult to push his agenda through. That’s why they are having to work at a breakneck pace.

 

[YancyW]

The VA just fired a 1000 people when they were already short staffed. Actions speak louder than words.

The quote below from that link lets me know this is more propaganda from the administration.

"Collins reinforced VA’s dedication to fulfilling its mission under President Trump’s leadership and concluded his message with an assurance of ongoing transparency regarding developments at VA."

The VA has 440,000 employees. 1000 is .002% of the work force.

 

[1dirthawker]

No one is arguing that. I have done the same sort of thing. But I gave my subordinate leadership that I was retaining manpower goals to meet, my desired productivity end state, and them the latitude to ensure it was dead weight we were cutting and not productive employees. In my experience, that requires more than a weekend.

I think that is a thoughtful and reasonable approach. so, how does the current administration get that done? currently, the mere observation and identification of wasteful spending has people (largely on the left) screeching, moaning and obstructing at every turn.

some agencies refused to even open their books for the audits. the military has FAILED audits for years, for years! and yet nobody has been willing or able to "ensure it was dead weight we were cutting and not productive employees" (or programs) i agree that your way of doing things was a proper function of leadership, but, it appears in this environment the "leadership" is being foiled or ignored by the institution (CIA, DOJ, USAID, DOE, etc) and, this leadership has a limited time to act.

YOU were able to fire the dead weight immediately. apparently no union protection, or congressional meetings, or news that misstated your objectives, maybe no frivolous lawsuits.

so how would YOU propose the president and his minions make meaningful changes, cuts, "desired productivity end state" objectives in only 2 years (that's as long as trump is likely to have both houses) and get all the other side of the aisle to agree and not fight you every step of the way?

i have no doubt that you were an effective leader. so how would you get downsizing and/or reducing waste done? AND without firing some of the good people? removing obvious waste and fraud from USAID seems simple,(and yet a firestorm of objection and obstruction over obvious waste) but how would YOU get it done with the DOD? it sounds from the comments earlier that there is no way to do it without ruining the effectiveness of the military. so how does one reduce the waste there? the DOD has had years to get it done and failed. they have a compliant workforce that HAS TO follow orders. they have a work force that HAS TO go to work and cannot work from home. (although they have contractors that can and DO refuse to come back to work at the office.)

i am not saying that trump is doing this DOGE thing perfectly. but, he is trying to fix some things with very little help from anyone outside his party. heck, i thought that saving money and avoiding waste is a bipartisan thing, not a democrat or republican thing.

this is NOT meant as a direct attack at you, it is an honest question to someone that has obvious ties to the DOD and has been a leader at a high level. it is a complex problem across multiple agencies and both domestically and in a foreign theatre.

the one thing i DO believe is that we as a nation could not continue down the road we were on with biden/harris. if there was something they missed on wrecking our nation, i don't know how they could have done a more effective job. sure, some of us would have done well with our investments, but our children and grandchildren would suffer from the massive debt we have compiled, the lack of education and health.

trump has not been perfect for sure, but i'll take this (current direction) over our last 4 years every time!

 

[Red Leg]

I think that is a thoughtful and reasonable approach. so, how does the current administration get that done? currently, the mere observation and identification of wasteful spending has people (largely on the left) screeching, moaning and obstructing at every turn.

some agencies refused to even open their books for the audits. the military has FAILED audits for years, for years! and yet nobody has been willing or able to "ensure it was dead weight we were cutting and not productive employees" (or programs) i agree that your way of doing things was a proper function of leadership, but, it appears in this environment the "leadership" is being foiled or ignored by the institution (CIA, DOJ, USAID, DOE, etc) and, this leadership has a limited time to act.

YOU were able to fire the dead weight immediately. apparently no union protection, or congressional meetings, or news that misstated your objectives, maybe no frivolous lawsuits.

so how would YOU propose the president and his minions make meaningful changes, cuts, "desired productivity end state" objectives in only 2 years (that's as long as trump is likely to have both houses) and get all the other side of the aisle to agree and not fight you every step of the way?

i have no doubt that you were an effective leader. so how would you get downsizing and/or reducing waste done? AND without firing some of the good people? removing obvious waste and fraud from USAID seems simple,(and yet a firestorm of objection and obstruction over obvious waste) but how would YOU get it done with the DOD? it sounds from the comments earlier that there is no way to do it without ruining the effectiveness of the military. so how does one reduce the waste there? the DOD has had years to get it done and failed. they have a compliant workforce that HAS TO follow orders. they have a work force that HAS TO go to work and cannot work from home. (although they have contractors that can and DO refuse to come back to work at the office.)

i am not saying that trump is doing this DOGE thing perfectly. but, he is trying to fix some things with very little help from anyone outside his party. heck, i thought that saving money and avoiding waste is a bipartisan thing, not a democrat or republican thing.

this is NOT meant as a direct attack at you, it is an honest question to someone that has obvious ties to the DOD and has been a leader at a high level. it is a complex problem across multiple agencies and both domestically and in a foreign theatre.

the one thing i DO believe is that we as a nation could not continue down the road we were on with biden/harris. if there was something they missed on wrecking our nation, i don't know how they could have done a more effective job. sure, some of us would have done well with our investments, but our children and grandchildren would suffer from the massive debt we have compiled, the lack of education and health.

trump has not been perfect for sure, but i'll take this (current direction) over our last 4 years every time!

Sure, and tell you without using all caps, bold font, or 500 words.

I worked in government as well. One command was made up of about 15k employees of which 90% were civil service.

Give me a RIF requirement of X %. Give me the eight month early out tool to use selectively. Give me six-months to accomplish it. At the end of that time I would have cleared out the least productive and probably the longest tenured and most costly employees. I certainly would not have arbitrarily cut my new, less expensive, and typically more motivated employees.

That is basic management 101.

Of course it wouldn’t excite the base as much.

 

[John Wasmuth]

I think that is a thoughtful and reasonable approach. so, how does the current administration get that done? currently, the mere observation and identification of wasteful spending has people (largely on the left) screeching, moaning and obstructing at every turn.

some agencies refused to even open their books for the audits. the military has FAILED audits for years, for years! and yet nobody has been willing or able to "ensure it was dead weight we were cutting and not productive employees" (or programs) i agree that your way of doing things was a proper function of leadership, but, it appears in this environment the "leadership" is being foiled or ignored by the institution (CIA, DOJ, USAID, DOE, etc) and, this leadership has a limited time to act.

YOU were able to fire the dead weight immediately. apparently no union protection, or congressional meetings, or news that misstated your objectives, maybe no frivolous lawsuits.

so how would YOU propose the president and his minions make meaningful changes, cuts, "desired productivity end state" objectives in only 2 years (that's as long as trump is likely to have both houses) and get all the other side of the aisle to agree and not fight you every step of the way?

i have no doubt that you were an effective leader. so how would you get downsizing and/or reducing waste done? AND without firing some of the good people? removing obvious waste and fraud from USAID seems simple,(and yet a firestorm of objection and obstruction over obvious waste) but how would YOU get it done with the DOD? it sounds from the comments earlier that there is no way to do it without ruining the effectiveness of the military. so how does one reduce the waste there? the DOD has had years to get it done and failed. they have a compliant workforce that HAS TO follow orders. they have a work force that HAS TO go to work and cannot work from home. (although they have contractors that can and DO refuse to come back to work at the office.)

i am not saying that trump is doing this DOGE thing perfectly. but, he is trying to fix some things with very little help from anyone outside his party. heck, i thought that saving money and avoiding waste is a bipartisan thing, not a democrat or republican thing.

this is NOT meant as a direct attack at you, it is an honest question to someone that has obvious ties to the DOD and has been a leader at a high level. it is a complex problem across multiple agencies and both domestically and in a foreign theatre.

the one thing i DO believe is that we as a nation could not continue down the road we were on with biden/harris. if there was something they missed on wrecking our nation, i don't know how they could have done a more effective job. sure, some of us would have done well with our investments, but our children and grandchildren would suffer from the massive debt we have compiled, the lack of education and health.

trump has not been perfect for sure, but i'll take this (current direction) over our last 4 years every time!

Exactly,

 

[PHOENIX PHIL]

Sure, and tell you without using all caps, bold font, or 500 words.

I worked in government as well. One command was made up of about 15k employees of which 90% were civil service.

Give me a RIF requirement of X %. Give me the eight month early out tool to use selectively. Give me six-months to accomplish it. At the end of that time I would have cleared out the least productive and probably the longest tenured and most costly employees. I certainly would not have arbitrarily cut my new, less expensive, and typically more motivated employees.

That is basic management 101.

Of course it wouldn’t excite the base as much.

And I'll bet not one single person serving under you had the balls to say "No General, we're not going to give you that information." And only your superior was who held you responsible for your actions.

 

[Red Leg]

Not to change the subject, but wasn’t there something about a Trump ultimatum today and all hostages being released? Just asking.

I wonder if Xi or Putin will believe the next one?

 

[WAB]

Need for more Physicians? It's cost prohibitive. Here's the cost for the one of newest medical school in Texas.

• Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin
  The cost of this medical school increased from $334.5 million to $436.4 million. The project included a medical office building, parking garage, research, educational, and administrative facilities.
  

Not something every University can do. I think TCU was able to escape most of the costs, as they originally partnered with UNT School of Osteopathic Medicine.

I doubt it was physicians that the VA cut. If was me, I would merge the Public Health Service, VA, Army, Air Force and Navy medical systems into one giant system and try to achieve cost savings on administrative overhead and purchasing.

Personally, I would be skeptical of merging government agencies into a larger agency. I think that the suggestion made earlier, providing access to private sector care, would have a better outcome. I have no faith in the government’s ability to administer something like health care.

 

[Altitude sickness]

I agree, he should hit Hamas/Al Qaeda hard today. But Israel agreed to the release of 3 today.