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I thought the interesting thing was this quote from Hegseth: > The contracts "represent non-essential spending on third party consultants" for services Pentago

I thought the interesting thing was this quote from Hegseth: > The contracts "represent non-essential spending on third party consultants" for services Pentagon employees can perform, Hegseth said in the memo released late on Thursday. I obviously don't know the details of these specific contracts, but the general sentiment that qualified federal employees can do better than overpriced private contractors is something I agree with, at least in broad brushstrokes. But, that said, this would appear to be in direct opposition to DOGE and the Project 2025 playbook - here is a recent article, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/30/doge-privatize-government-usps-trump/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/03/30/doge-pr.... This is why I hate what DOGE is doing. I could definitely get behind a coherent effort to streamline the federal government and save money - BTW, this was done rather successfully by Clinton and Gore in the 90s, who eliminated a huge portion of the federal workforce, they just didn't go on stage with chainsaws to promote it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Reinventing_Government https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Partnership_for_Reinv.... But now it's just "throwing bombs", and the overt corruption of the administration leaves me little faith that government will actually become more efficient with this current kakistocracy.

1024core 2y ago
The Government _can't_ be streamlined because the right incentives are not in place, and human beings respond to incentives. For example: if a bureaucrat does not use up their budget, it is (often) reduced proportionately in the next iteration. So these people have an incentive to use up the entire budget, if they want to have any hope of getting their requests next year. As a result, they will often do wasteful spending. I know this from experience, because in my previous life as code monkey in a small-ish government contractor, my boss had made it an art form to figure out who had extra money left over near the end of the fiscal year and pitch them ideas. A few 100K here, a few 100K there and the company was making decent money just mooching off of the leftovers from Federal budgets. If you want to fix the Federal government, you have to incentivize the officials to be rewarded for saving money.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  Wait till you find out the exact same budget thing happens in the private sector. It is the world that needs streamlining not just government.
  - r00fus 2y ago
    The capitalist world perhaps. Some countries properly invest in infrastructure and people because they're not captured by private equity.

1024core 2y ago

The Government _can't_ be streamlined because the right incentives are not in place, and human beings respond to incentives. For example: if a bureaucrat does not use up their budget, it is (often) reduced proportionately in the next iteration. So these people have an incentive to use up the entire budget, if they want to have any hope of getting their requests next year. As a result, they will often do wasteful spending. I know this from experience, because in my previous life as code monkey in a small-ish government contractor, my boss had made it an art form to figure out who had extra money left over near the end of the fiscal year and pitch them ideas. A few 100K here, a few 100K there and the company was making decent money just mooching off of the leftovers from Federal budgets. If you want to fix the Federal government, you have to incentivize the officials to be rewarded for saving money.

kjkjadksj 2y ago
Wait till you find out the exact same budget thing happens in the private sector. It is the world that needs streamlining not just government.
- r00fus 2y ago
  The capitalist world perhaps. Some countries properly invest in infrastructure and people because they're not captured by private equity.