DOGE Ball

 OK OK, I am trying really hard to stay out of the Trump complaint department (so many branches now, no need for me to open another one), but I wanted to talk about DOGE.

No, not the historical term for leaders of Italian city-states, but the recently formed Department of Government Efficiency.

Like many of us, I actually had some high hopes for this, because we all know the Fed is fattier than a bone-in ribeye. That said, the process was fast, furious...and in the end it was a scam to get people to pledge their eternal loyalty to Zod-I mean Trump to keep or regain their jobs.

One of the cuts I've seen is to public television, which at times I agree to a point...meaning I don't know what the viewership numbers are like anymore, and PBS is no longer the home of Sesame Street or any other childhood memories. Back in 1969 when there were maybe 4 or 5 channels on the dial and PBS was one of them, Mr. Fred Rogers himself testified before Congress to urge them to keep funding public television. PBS stations have been known to air educational shows for kids AND adults, expose us to British melodrama and comedy, and offer some locally-themed fare. Funding cuts just might be needed if viewership has significantly waned in the last decade or 2.

Another idea for "putting things to the states" (if you want a smaller central government, yeah, you give more rights and responsibility to the states): cede the national parks to the states and create departments that see to them. California, Utah, and Arizona could drum up some good revenue from that endeavor and as we see more and more people interested in preservation and protection of the land, what an idea!

And finally a huge bone of contention for many is the dissolution of the Department of Education. The contention comes with some of the programs like Title 1 and special education that address the needs of many of our students in a lower socio-economic status or special needs. Go with me on this one, I have been a teacher for quite some time and I think a properly run and funded education department in each state can handle this. Also, if you go back 23 years, that's when the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND bullshit began, which was a FEDERAL effort that sounded good in title, but fell flat and put education even further in the ground. No, education has for most of its U.S. history been a state matter, let it stay that way. If states find they are low in funding, it might be time to look at their bloat like overexpensive leanring materials and expensive standardized tests.

I am sure there are other ways that Washington D.C.'s bureaucratic tumor should be shrunk., but it should be done logically and EFFICIENTLY! Just throwing people out of their asses out of nowhere is not a positive move, and it does not cast us as a nation in a good way.