DOGE attacking waste not government

To the Editor:

This is a rebuttal to a letter from the last issue.

President Trump was inaugurated on January 20 of this year after a resounding victory in the swing states and Electoral College.

Part of his campaign was a promise to attack waste, fraud and inefficiencies in the federal government, a/k/a DOGE.

Since that time, under the guidance of Elon Musk, many programs have been reviewed and found to have spent American taxpayer dollars on things that may be regarded as questionable, unnecessary, or even corrupt/fraudulent. DOGE has been very transparent in revealing their findings. The website is doge.gov. You will be able to see all of the taxpayer dollars that are being saved.

Some examples of federal largesse: $59 million to house illegal immigrants in NYC luxury hotels; $2 billion spent by the EPA in a rush before the inauguration; Social Security making improper payments of $71.8 billion between 2015 and 2022; $4.7 TRILLION in untraceable payments due to the lack of a code; multiple programs in other countries supported by USAID, such as $20 million for a Sesame Street program in Iraq. I am one of those with the opinion that if our government is spending money like that in other countries, then our taxes are too high. This is just a smattering of the shocking waste that was found.

However, we are supposed to believe that a cudgel has been taken to our government and that it is an attack upon our constitutional republic (we are not a democracy).

We are only four months into the President’s term. The stock market is up, foreign companies have committed to investing in the U.S., deals are being made to avoid tariffs, the border is closed, criminals are being deported, and job numbers are up.

Paul Ertel

Warwick