Stupid, pointless destruction. No part of this is efficient. 18F and the USDS were effective tools for modernization.
This is the moment a petulant man-child decided to destroy America:
https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/files/ipa-reports/OIG%20...
The GSA conclusion was...
1. Establish a viable plan to ensure full cost recovery of ASF funds expended by 18F.
2. Ensure that internal 18F projects have appropriate supervisory review.
3. Implement controls over 18F’s reimbursable agreement process to ensure that work is not performed outside of a fully executed agreement.
4. Ensure that GSA CIO reviews and approves, in writing, all 18F IT-related work performed for GSA internal organizations.
5. Implement a comprehensive review of 18F’s past work to ensure accuracy of all billings.
6. Establish reliable internal controls to ensure that 18F’s future billings are accurate.
7. Ensure that 18F’s billing records are retained in accordance with GSA records management standards.Yet, people still seem baffled by what's going on and refuse to accept the maliciousness behind his and Trump's actions. He came out against a public technology service!
It's like Bill Gates being confused about USAID being dismantled and being willfully ignorant that the people dismantling it believe he's part of some sort of global health conspiracy along with Soros.
It's easy to see why they're successful. Their 'opposition' does nothing but roll over.
(Direct File doesn't directly affect them, but the push towards automated tax collection strikes at the heart of their games.)
I don't think that's even it. The goal is to make taxes seem scary and complicated to the public, to build a consensus that taxes should be eliminated or simplified - which inevitably plays out in ways which will largely, if not entirely, benefit the wealthy. And in this light, the reason the wealthy are opposed to Direct File is obvious: having it available reduces the pain that people (and particularly the working class) will feel from having to file taxes, making it harder to drum up popular support for "reform".
Tax fraud is just top of mind because the other day I had to endure a smug rich asshole brag about it over dinner and I wasn't in a position to push back, so I'm venting a bit.
Intuit wants everyone to think it’s so scary that you need to pay them, and the company is run by rich people who would want to pay less in taxes no matter what industry they’re in.
The combination is how you get people arguing for their boss to get a tax cut even if they personally will pay more, because as long as the IRS is a fabled bogeyman they have been told that’s the price of freedom. It took the better part of the 20th century and billions of dollars in funding to teach the point where enough people believed it, but they were patient.
I really find this kind of seemingly performative "confusion" at what's happening by high profile people (politicians, media, etc) irritating. As if they don't know. It's similar to how they use every euphemism for the word "lie", i.e. "misrepresentation", "mischaracterization", etc, rather than call a lie a lie.
Can’t wait for the pitchforks to rise up against the billionaires that created this mess.
These days I'm getting skeptical of these anti-billionaire quips. Sounds like a great segue to "all politicians are the same because they're in the billionaire's pocket," and now look at what that led us into.
I am waiting for all the "good billionaires" to step up and do something about it.
> From the Department of Education, Medicaid, the CDC, and more - Trump and Elon Musk are gutting the agencies and programs that protect Americans every single day.
https://bsky.app/profile/jbpritzker.bsky.social/post/3lisgh4...
By all means, after America kicks out Trump, feel free to discuss billionaires and the tyranny of capitalism and everything. Just not now.
if he weren't a billionaire we might not be in this situation at all
Exiling Musk to the Moon or Mars (at his own cost) would be amusing.