If DOGE was serious about catching fraud, they could have lent their expertise to catch Medicare fraud like this where unnecessary equipment was prescribed to defraud Medicare.
The function of DOGE was to allow AI companies to extract the extremely valuable data that the federal government keeps on all it's operations and citizens.
This is why I think the lionization of the USDS is absurd. Obama built a monster without any consideration for what future administrations would do with it. It was a massive blunder.
So you think we shouldn't have functional digital infrastructure and information storage because something bad could be done with it in the future? Seems like you could apply that to anything.
So you think the only way on Earth to achieve that was the USDS? We can all agree that something needs to be done, there's obviously a huge conversation to be had about the best way to achieve that, and you're clearly not serious enough to have that conversation.
So you would do what - have engineers hired as part of individual government departments instead of USDS? How would that stop them from being coopted by future administrations? Anybody employed by the US government can't be insulated from changes in who runs the government.
Since you're serious and I'm not, can you propose any specific solution that avoids this issue?
Edit: "The function of DOGE was to allow AN AI company to extract..."
Trump would have been told to stuff DOGE into some other agency if the digital service wasn't there. Did they offer any special access or just provide some vague connection in joe public's mind -"oh, computers" - so MAGA could wave off the abnormality of it all.
DOGE sent people to Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The Maryland Congressional delegation (made up of largely Democrats) condemned DOGE and even sponsored protest rallies. I have no idea how this has evolved, but I think it's fair to say that many people don't want DOGE to be serious about catching Medicare fraud.
Would you let DOGE into your offices after they wantonly and indiscriminately fired huge swaths of our federal workforce and canceled government contracts and research grants based on very little data?
If DOGE had built a reputation of rooting out fraud instead of being a government arsonist I think we would be having a very different conversation.
Bingo. It's like people have no problem calling out the marketing doublespeak in things they don't like (eg "PATRIOT" act, in 2025), but then when it comes to something being pushed by their team it's like "But why are you against Efficiency!!1!"
> … but I think it’s fair to say that many people don’t want DOGE to be serious about catching Medicare fraud.
That’s a leap (if I’m being charitable). I think you could state that most people don’t trust DOGE, especially given DOGE’s apparent lack of concern for the American’s they are technically working in service of. I don’t believe DOGE has the capability of identifying fraud, let alone have the desire to stop it.
DOGE sent people to Medicare for the purpose of cutting off Medicare patients, not rooting out fraud in service providers.
DOGE's actions have actually increased service provider fraud quite dramatically across all agencies, because the existing fraud prevention processes have all been circumvented.
Taking into account the increased costs DOGE has imposed on government agencies, DOGE's net "savings" to date are an estimated negative 100 billion for 2025 alone (meaning, that when all is said and done, DOGE will have caused the government to spend at least $100 billion more than it would have if DOGE had done nothing at all) and negative $500 billion for the remainder of Trump's term if their "cuts" are extended.
DOGE is what happens you put technoidiots in charge of things they know nothing about and think that technology is the magical solution to every problem.
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