David Marchese

They're coders, they're software engineers, they're sort of people who are close to Elon Musk and go from company to company. And to the degree that they have experience managing large organizations, it's something like Twitter or Tesla or SpaceX, very different organizations. And as big as they are, much smaller organizations than the one they're in charge of now.

Well, look, in the grand scheme of the federal government's budget and in the cuts that Doge is proposing to make, these mistakes are relatively small. But there's something bigger at stake here. Doge is, of course, a team of people within the White House, but it's also an idea, a bigger idea about the shape of government, and it's an idea about how to cut government.

Well, look, in the grand scheme of the federal government's budget and in the cuts that Doge is proposing to make, these mistakes are relatively small. But there's something bigger at stake here. Doge is, of course, a team of people within the White House, but it's also an idea, a bigger idea about the shape of government, and it's an idea about how to cut government.

That's why this look is so important, because this is our one chance, the one window we have to see the world as Doge sees it, to see what they know, what they don't know, to see what they understand and what they don't understand. And looking closely at that,

That's why this look is so important, because this is our one chance, the one window we have to see the world as Doge sees it, to see what they know, what they don't know, to see what they understand and what they don't understand. And looking closely at that,

I think gives us a lot of clues about what actually motivates Doge, what actually motivates the cuts they're making, and some sense of where their effort is going to go from here.

I think gives us a lot of clues about what actually motivates Doge, what actually motivates the cuts they're making, and some sense of where their effort is going to go from here.

The most important lesson I think we can learn from the mistakes we're seeing here is that we should throw out the idea that Doge is somehow able to process this huge amount of government data and find insights that no other people have had. What Doge has been sold to us as is like it's tech support. That's what Elon Musk calls it. You know, these are like the geek squad for the government.

The most important lesson I think we can learn from the mistakes we're seeing here is that we should throw out the idea that Doge is somehow able to process this huge amount of government data and find insights that no other people have had. What Doge has been sold to us as is like it's tech support. That's what Elon Musk calls it. You know, these are like the geek squad for the government.

We're going to bring them in and they're going to find examples of waste and inefficiency that other people hadn't. That's not really what we're seeing here. You know, we're starting to see patterns in the choices they're making.

We're going to bring them in and they're going to find examples of waste and inefficiency that other people hadn't. That's not really what we're seeing here. You know, we're starting to see patterns in the choices they're making.

So far, it seems like they're focused less on the really big federal contractors, the defense contractors, the health contractors that make up the huge portion of federal spending. Instead, they're going after larger numbers of smaller contracts with smaller firms, often owned by women or minorities.

So far, it seems like they're focused less on the really big federal contractors, the defense contractors, the health contractors that make up the huge portion of federal spending. Instead, they're going after larger numbers of smaller contracts with smaller firms, often owned by women or minorities.

Often, when the cuts are real, and there are many cuts that are real on this list, they're motivated by ideology. They're political decisions. They're cutting USAID not because they've found some great fraud or waste or ineffectiveness at USAID doing the mission it was supposed to do. They just don't like USAID. They think that mission, foreign aid, is not worthy of taxpayer money. Mm-hmm.

Often, when the cuts are real, and there are many cuts that are real on this list, they're motivated by ideology. They're political decisions. They're cutting USAID not because they've found some great fraud or waste or ineffectiveness at USAID doing the mission it was supposed to do. They just don't like USAID. They think that mission, foreign aid, is not worthy of taxpayer money. Mm-hmm.

That's a political view some people have, people in the government have. But to say that it is some sort of analysis that goes beyond or above politics, there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence of that kind of analysis in the data we've seen.

That's a political view some people have, people in the government have. But to say that it is some sort of analysis that goes beyond or above politics, there doesn't seem to be a lot of evidence of that kind of analysis in the data we've seen.

That's right. They've sent a lot of messages to that end that if you disagree with them, you could be a target. You could have your funding. You could have your job taken away. It's a very aggressive view of the way that a president imprints his ideology, his political goals on the government, but also on society at large.

That's right. They've sent a lot of messages to that end that if you disagree with them, you could be a target. You could have your funding. You could have your job taken away. It's a very aggressive view of the way that a president imprints his ideology, his political goals on the government, but also on society at large.

And I think that's the real impetus behind what Doge is doing, despite its name, efficiency, despite Elon Musk's characterization of it as sort of the government's geek squad. It's a political project, a very aggressive political project to carry out a political ideology, not some sort of analysis that's outside of politics.