There is much to be said for the new administration’s plan to have a nongovernmental organization investigate how well, or how badly, government agencies are currently handling the taxpayers’ money. But there is a limit to how much money can be recovered by simply cutting back on “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal spending.
There are, however, additional billions of dollars that could be tapped, from a source that not many people think about. That is the vast—almost unbelievable—amount of land owned by the federal government. Some of that land—such as military bases—is used to house the government’s own operations. But the great majority of that land is not.
The rest of this government-owned land is so vast that there is little to compare it with—except whole countries. And not small countries like Belgium or Portugal. The amount of land owned by the National Park Service alone is larger than Italy. The land owned by the Fish and Wildlife Service is larger than Germany. The land owned by the Forest Service is larger than Britain and Spain combined. The land owned by the Bureau of Land Management is larger than Japan, North Korea, South Korea and the Philippines combined.
The idea of selling huge amounts of government-owned land is not new. Before the federal income tax was created in the early 20th century, land sales were sometimes a significant source of federal government income in the preceding two centuries. The prospect of large-scale land sales was considered during the Reagan administration, but the political opposition was too strong.
As of 2015, government-owned lands were valued at $1.8 trillion by the Commerce Department. This is the kind of money that can make a real contribution to the government’s fiscal balance, at a time when so many government operations are urgently in need of support.
As for the current value of these lands to the government, that value is largely negative. The money that these lands bring in is often only a fraction of what it costs the government to take care of them. Wildfires on land managed by the federal government have been about five times the size of wildfires on “non-federal lands,” according to a 2022 study by the Congressional Budget Office.
Land transferred from federal ownership to the market economy can also contribute to more affordable housing. When the same kind of house costs several times more in one part of the country than elsewhere, it is often because the cost of the land is higher rather than because the house costs more to build. That in turn is often because the land is either more scarce or because of laws restricting the building of anything on that land. But, where more land is available to build on, the same kind of house can cost a fraction of what it costs elsewhere.
The federal government owns a little more than one-fourth of the total land area of the United States. The time is long overdue to consider whether that is the best economic arrangement. And reconsideration is especially needed at a time of urgent fiscal problems.
Souza
@soarathena
Here’s another cool thing I stumbled upon. Not as cool as yours, hah, but it sort of blew me away too.
This was written in 1973 - literally calls out this election as being consequential to eliminating corruption:
“We have noted that corruption appears to visit the White House in fifty-year cycles. This suggests that exposure and retribution inoculate the Presidency against its latent criminal impulses for about half a century. Around the year 2023 the American people would be well advised to go on the alert and start nailing down everything in sight.”
—Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., The Imperial Presidency
11:40 PM · Jan 9, 2025
·
Battleboy
@JohnMercer62573
·
Jan 10
Biden has been in DC for THE ENTIRE 50 YEAR CYCLE...
Representative Mike Waltz, President Trump's choice to lead the National Security Council, said in an interview published Thursday that all current civil service members of the NSC who are detailed from another agency are expected to be out of the building as soon as Trump is sworn in.
“Everybody is going to resign at 12:01 on January 20,” Waltz said. “We’re working through our process to get everybody their clearances and through the transition process now. Our folks know who we want out in the agencies, we’re putting those requests in, and in terms of the detailees they’re all going to go back.”
What Waltz, a retired Special Forces colonel, is reacting to is the obstruction and leaks from the NSC staff on loan from other agencies that damaged Trump's agenda in his first term. He plans to get rid of people who may have made a career as part of the "interagency process" and have more loyalty to that process than they do to Trump. //
Alexander S. Vindman 🇺🇸
@AVindman
·
Follow
Statement on National Security Staff Firings
Yesterday, President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz @michaelgwaltz , announced a sweeping directive to terminate all national security staffers loaned from other departments and agencies who serve in apolitical,… Show more
2:34 PM · Jan 10, 2025 //
Nah, you were fired for leaking a privileged conversation to a co-conspirator who then had himself labeled a "whistleblower" to create a fake fact case for impeaching President Trump. And also for being a treasonous oxygen thief. //
There is an admitted danger in groupthink. We can see that in the way the Biden NSC has coddled Iran, China, and Russia in the misguided view that in some bizarro universe, they would become useful members of the international community. Dissent doesn't need to be hashed out at the staff level. Also, I don't think anyone in the Trump administration is interested in "continuity of policy" with Biden because his foreign policy failures, both active and in terms of missed opportunities, are the stuff of legend. //
You have to admire how Vindman categorizes himself as a "talented professional" who was dismissed for taking "principled stances or offering objective advice." Actually, the role of making policy in civil service is the realm of political appointees. The career staff are supposed to serve every president loyally. The last thing needed in the NSC are staffers who are first and foremost loyal to "the way we've always done it," who are overly concerned about the agency "equities" at stake when decisions are made, and who see themselves as players in policy in their own right. //
John Q. Public
3 minutes ago
LOL at the tags…
Douchenozzle is correct.
Also, when he says, “tens of thousands of senior apolitical government officials” he is unintentionally letting slip how many actually need to be fired.
One of the primary drivers of the devastation has been a lack of water due to unfilled reservoirs in Los Angeles County and unmaintained, failing infrastructure that caused fire hydrants to run dry. As RedState reported, the Ynez Reservoir was taken offline for maintenance during wildfire season, a decision that has turned out to be catastrophic.
When three 1-million-gallon capacity water storage tanks in Pacific Palisades went dry Tuesday night, firefighters were forced to abandon efforts to save thousands of homes. LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones has repeatedly claimed during press conferences that her utility did everything it could to prepare for the forecasted wind event and support the Los Angeles Fire Department as it responded, but left out one key fact: The Santa Ynez Reservoir in the hills above Pacific Palisades, which holds 117 million gallons of water and normally feeds those tanks, had been drained and taken offline for repairs to its cover even though the state's brush fire season was ongoing. //
Is Quiñones a unique talent, though? She sure doesn't seem to be given how badly and quickly the infrastructure failed in this case. Not filling the Ynez Reservoir for wildfire season was bad enough, but clearly, the water pumping facilities and hydrant system were not prepared for what should have been treated as an inevitability. For context, the hydrant issue has been known about since at least 2021.
What Quiñones did do well, though, is push the preferred narratives of the far-left. When Bass hired her, the mayor touted the new "CEO" as a person who could shift the city to "100% clean energy," but take a wild guess what else Quiñones was really concerned with? If you said "equity" and "social justice," collect your winnings at the window: //
Bearsblow
8 hours ago
They're achieving equity! The rich and the poor are suddenly homeless!!
Well done Janisse Quiñones. You deserve a raise!
Here’s the reality: it is a battle zone. An existential fight over the future of America. Is this massive progressive failure the norm that we should just accept as the new American reality, or are we going to look to a new way forward, one that focuses on excellence, competence and innovation over identity politics, a lowering of our standards, and an acceptance of mediocrity (or worse)?
Many including myself have been writing for years about the decline of the Golden State—and Democrat-run cities in general—but the progressive assault continues in Chicago, St. Louis, Oakland, Seattle, New York, San Francisco… the list goes on. Could this disaster be the wake-up call to America that their warped priorities and policies simply aren’t working? //
The list of failures in this disaster could fill a lengthy tome—the decades of water mismanagement and the continued failure to adequately supply LA, though it’s well within our means to do so, the refusal to capture the billions of gallons of rainwater, opting to instead let it just flow out to the Pacific Ocean while we are told to let our lawns die, the focus at the LAFD on DEI and LGBTQ instead of actual firefighting, the billions thrown at the homeless-industrial complex with almost nothing to show for it except more homeless people…
Is this what the future of America looks like? In too many cities, it already does, with Third-World country conditions prevailing, but do we want to see that everywhere? //
Altadena and the Pacific Palisades in particular look like battlegrounds as of this writing—the images reveal a hellscape that looks like it’s been carpet-bombed by our enemies for months.
Los Angeles and the entire state of California have become a battleground for ideas. Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election shows very clearly that many Americans have woken up and are starting to reject the progressive worldview—but remember, it was just four, short years ago they voted in a man who turned out to be the most divisive, spite-filled president in our history. The battle is far from over.
LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP) CEO Janisse Quiñones has repeatedly claimed during press conferences that her utility did everything it could to prepare for the forecasted wind event and support the Los Angeles Fire Department as it responded, but left out one key fact: the Santa Ynez Reservoir in the hills above Pacific Palisades, which holds 117 million gallons of water and normally feeds those tanks, had been drained and taken offline for repairs to its cover even though the state's brush fire season was ongoing. //
A LADWP spokesperson said in a statement to the LA Times that the utility was "still evaluating the effect of the reservoir being placed offline, and that staffers were conducting a root-cause analysis." The spokesperson added, “Our primary focus is to provide water supply throughout the city. The system was never designed for a wildfire scenario that we are experiencing.”
Why not? The system, at least in the Palisades, is in an area where a suburban area adjoins rural, difficult-to-access mountains and canyons, and where wildfire risk is often high. //
Anon, good nurse!
10 hours ago
This all boils down to 117 million gallons of water to fight a raging wildfire rather than 3 million, right? Like, it seems like a lot of words to avoid the obvious fact that 117 is a lot more than 3....
Also, whatever happened to "if it saves one life...."? Are we not doing that anymore?
JohnV1787 Anon, good nurse!
9 hours ago
I was thinking that too. Maybe the water pressure, uphill pumping and other physics don't make it possible to keep those 3 tanks perfectly filled all of the time, but you could fill them 35 times with a full reservoir. That extra water could have done something...maybe not extinguish the raging fire completely but perhaps dampen areas enough that it couldn't spread farther and do more damage. The dismissive attitude that it wouldn't have mattered anyway must really grate on those poor people who just lost their homes and businesses and wish that the fire department at least had the chance to try.
This is because Newsom forgot — or likely never understood — what he is. He saw himself, not a servant of the people, but a king with the abiltiy to rule over the people as he pleases. You saw this from him quite a bit during the pandemic when he had rules for thee, but not for he. While you were locked down, he was having dinner at fancy restaurants.
I think it's funny that Newsom prioritized "Trump-proofing" his state enough to ignore the clear danger of out-of-control wildfires, because it's Trump that's actually demonstrating servitude.
Trump's goals are to reduce government waste, make it cheaper to operate, reduce the tax burden on the people, reduce their problems, and fix their economy. The man didn't have to do this. He was wealthy, well-loved, and didn't need the headache, but decided to take on the burden of fixing problems people like Newsom made because he is, at heart, a servant of the people. He doesn't look or sound like one, but he is. //
piscorman
4 hours ago
Another teachable moment may follow. These homes belonged to wealthy taxpayers who carry most of the burdens of Newscum's government. If they decide to leave rather than rebuild, California won't be able to pay its bills. It can't now but this compounds the problems.
piscorman 2020vision
3 hours ago
As you know, many didn't have insurance because Gov Hairdo's restrictions on rate increases caused State Farm to pull out of the state. Those who didn't have insurance likely owned the home outright, and will bear the full cost of the rebuild. My hunch is they will just leave rather than deal with California's dysfunctional government.
All of Manley’s 70 plus firearms were unerringly compliant with federal law and the strict firearms laws of Maryland.
When all was said and done, no arrests were made and no firearms or ammunition were seized. The only item taken was Manley’s cell phone.
The family’s home, however, was left in a shambles: front and rear doors shattered, windows broken, floors ruined from flashbang grenades, and dog excrement the family was left to clean up themselves.
Manley told Williams they had only lived in the house for three months when the raid occurred.
To date, the ATF has not issued an explanation for why the raid was conducted, much less publicly apologized for terrorizing the family. Mrs. Manley said the search warrant indicated her husband was a felon in possession of firearms. Manley, however, said he does not have a felony record, he does not sell guns, he does not have any machine guns, and he is still in the dark as to why he was targeted. “To this day we just don’t know,” he told Williams.
If, however, the government truly believed Manley was a felon (hardly a difficult matter for a federal law enforcement agency to investigate and substantiate), he presumably would have been arrested the moment he disclosed his possession of firearms to the agents. That obviously did not happen.
Did the government conduct its due diligence before conducting the raid? What evidence supposedly substantiated the sworn application for the raid? So far, ATF officials have had nothing to say on their own behalf.
The ATF’s actions extracted a heavy toll on the Manley family, who have been left with home repairs, legal bills, and the cost of therapy for their traumatized kids.
"Has no one ever told you about the law of Undulation?
Humans are amphibians—half spirit and half animal. …As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation—the repeated return to a level from which they repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your [human] patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life—his interest in his work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty. The dryness and dullness through which your patient is now going are not, as you fondly suppose, your workmanship; they are merely a natural phenomenon which will do us no good unless you make a good use of it.". //
At some point, this age will also come to an end. It's unclear how or why, but what we fought so hard to escape will call itself by a different name, and it will have fresh new causes that take advantage of the people's needs and desires of the time. Those leading that movement will cause the people to turn away from the lessons they learned previously, as the new age will seemingly render them obsolete, and the pendulum will swing back.
We are currently moving toward a peak. We will reach it. Then we will descend.
You cannot stop this, but what you can do is make sure that when the descent starts, that it's not one that will plunge as deeply as this previous age did. The key is to destroy government control over society to the greatest extent possible, put laws in place that will severely restrict it going forward, localize politics as much as possible, and then continue to be prosperous until the age ends.
We will hit a new valley, but in our diligence, we won't have as deep of one as last time.
We have a great opportunity to do this now. We shouldn't waste it, because bad times are coming, but if we're prepared enough, and the framework is in place to help, those bad times could be less of an issue than before. While the law of undulation is absolute, like any universal law, it can be used to your advantage. //
frylock234
10 hours ago edited
The other key to preventing as deep a descent is to not overreach as badly as the left did. The harder and farther the pendulum pushes, the worse the inevitable swing back will be. That does not mean we cannot push back and make considerable progress, but we need to push slowly and relentlessly, by increments rather than radically and suddenly. Heat the frogs slowly over time so they are more inclined to stay in the pot. //
C. S. P. Schofield
10 hours ago
This is one of the reasons I hope to see a shift toward sanity in the Democrat party. The mess we are in now is a consequence of a long period when both parties were Big Government Prigressive, and we only started to come back with the election of Reagan. The absence of an opposition isn’t good for ANY movement. Our system is built around two parties keeping each-other’s extremes in check.
I don’t know what excesses the Populist movement now ascendant will lean towards, but there will be some. If the self-destruction of the Democrats goes on too long, we’re likely to find out.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital. //
It's not a done deal yet; the rule has yet to be finalized. Fortunately, there is a process for these things, and this one is still in the works — and, presumably, open for a new presidential administration to point out that this doesn't pass the stupid test. //
The Biden administration appears to have learned nothing from Prohibition, or any other time the federal government has tried this kind of heavy-handed approach. The Mexican cartels, when they learn of this, will be rubbing their hands together in glee; another billion-dollar black market will soon be opening up, courtesy of the Biden administration, complete with turf wars and all that goes with it. //
anon-hllt
4 hours ago
This a plot. A plot for us smokers to smoke more to cope with lowered nicotine, and thus to pay even more taxes. It’s a hike of the sin tax clothed in another “see how the government cares about you?” lie. It will backfire spectacularly, just like everything else this administration has done under the guise of “caring.”. //
Watt stickdude90
5 hours ago
The process appears to have started during the first Trump administration.
https://natlawreview.com/article/ctp-advances-proposal-set-maximum-nicotine-level-cigarettes
In those early years of his post-presidency, the general agreement was that Carter meant well, and was just the poster child of the Peter Principle, having been promoted infinitely beyond his limited ability.
As the years went on, however, and as Carter continued his post-presidential activism, it became more and more difficult to make this argument.
During his presidency, the American people didn’t see a general worldview from Jimmy Carter. His support of nuclear weapons parity (favoring plans allowing Russia to build more while requiring the USA to reduce our stock), his support of giving away the Panama Canal that we built and paid for, his support of a new education bureaucracy at the federal level, and his capitulation to OPEC, are all just a few examples of the countless issues that may look like unrelated issues at first.
It is only with the advantage of hindsight that we see that, in fact, Jimmy Carter did have a coherent worldview: he worked constantly and intentionally toward increasing the general weakness of the United States of America and our allies.
Americans didn’t want to admit this, at the time. Many of us still don’t.
Americans are not a vindictive people; we were happy to see him out of the White House, and we preferred to give them the benefit of the doubt and just call him a dummy, for years and years.
But we can no longer deceive ourselves.
Between his writing, his speeches, and his endorsement of blatantly corrupt global elections, it has become undeniable that Carter long supported the prevailing Leftist theory, more commonly associated with Barack Obama today, that Americans and the West need to be brought down a few pegs.
Nowhere is this more evident than in his mishandling of the middle east.
As president, he convinced Israel to give a huge amount of land – the Sinai Peninsula – to Egypt, in return for nothing but a peace treaty. Israel has so little land, they could hardly spare so much; they should have demanded a solution to the problem of the arabs in Gaza, Judea and Samaria. But Carter talked them into giving up the Sinai for nothing, and now, here we are, 45 years later, and Israel still suffers from this problem.
Also as president, he refused to support our solid ally, Iran, when its Shah was sick, enabling the mullahs to take over the country and enslave what had been the happiest, most modern, most westernized country in the muslim world.
It is therefore undeniable today, with the advantage of hindsight, that Carter is responsible for most of the jihadist terrorism of the past 40 years. He supported the PLO over Israel, and he supported the mullahs over the Shah. //
This one-time Sunday school teacher became a supporter of abortion. This one-time Naval officer supervised the downgrading of our military preparedness and materiel. This one-time southern politician supported the massive expansion of federal bureaucracy. And this once-noble veteran supported the growth and empowerment of numerous foreign terrorist organizations, from the PLO on.
What does it tell us that the outgoing president believes simply meeting "more world leaders than any one of you" gives him credibility? It tells us that Washington is riddled with meaningless credentialism, whereby politicians are granted "expertise" simply by virtue of existing.
Biden has been around for a long time. Thus, in his mind, and the minds of many Democrats and the national press, he must know what he's talking about. Is that true, though? That's rhetorical because we all know it's not true. Biden is perhaps the worst foreign policy mind in American history when you consider the length of his tenure within the federal government. //
Credentialism has destroyed the federal government. It has turned it into a jobs program for mediocrities who leech off of taxpayers for decades at a time, never having to deliver anything positive for the American people. Joe Biden is the epitome of that culture, and it is somewhat poetic that he'll be leaving Washington as a disgrace.
the Amish of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, have risen like cream to the top. This is not even their region of the country, but a group of them with “Cabins for Christ” came down in October, created campsites for themselves away from the wreckage so that they would not disrupt the cleanup and assessment, and set themselves to build homes for the people who had lost theirs.
Matt Van Swol @matt_vanswol
·
🚨#BREAKING: Boone NC officials have confirmed that 62 members of the Pennsylvania Amish community have completed the construction of 12 tiny homes in under 48 hours.
The total cost of the project for #WNC was over $300,000, all of which was donated by the Amish community.
8:48 AM · Dec 31, 2024 //
Matt Van Swol @matt_vanswol
·
🚨#BREAKING: FEMA has officially confirmed that out of the 26 families that were told they would receive a temporary home before Christmas...
...only 3 families received one
You read that right. THREE.
9:39 PM · Dec 30, 2024. //
Twelve homes in 48 hours versus three homes over three months. Really awful optics for FEMA. Maybe all that disaster money should be given to Amish communities.
Dawn Buckingham @DrBuckinghamTX
·
Washington bureaucrats have had their chance, and they’ve failed. It’s time to let states lead the way. Local control means better schools, less red tape, and more opportunities for our kids. Eliminating the Department of Education is a step toward empowering states and communities to decide what’s best for their students.
2:24 PM · Dec 29, 2024. //
Robert Bortins @TheRobertBshow
·
Jimmy Carter - R.I.P. 2024
Department of Education - R.I.P. 2025
7:54 PM · Dec 30, 2024
Joe Biden spent the first half of his presidency enacting plans to steer at least $1.6 trillion to transform the economy and spur a clean-energy revolution — only to watch those programs become afterthoughts in the 2024 election.
Now the core of his domestic legacy stands unfinished, with hundreds of billions of dollars left to deploy, and imperiled as Donald Trump prepares to take office.
Keep in mind, essentially all the money mentioned above was appropriated back in 2021, with the rest coming via the Inflation Reduction Act of mid-2022. This wasn't a case of Biden simply running out of time because he passed an infrastructure bill six months before the election. The administration had years to expand broadband and build the electric vehicle charging stations it promised, but the actual results were disastrous. //
A $42 billion expansion made in November of 2021 to expand broadband has connected zero homes to the internet. Meanwhile, and this garnered several mentions during the 2024 campaign, $7.5 billion appropriated for EV chargers has produced just 47 stations nationwide. For context, the program promised 500,000 chargers.
What's so comical about this, though, is that the primary reason Biden's agenda fell flat is because of the very bureaucratic state he and his party created and protected. Much of the money was allocated to various government agencies that are staffed by far-left, career bureaucrats who wouldn't know efficiency if it punched them in the face. On the contrary, being as inefficient as possible represents job security for the bureaucracy. If they don't solve problems, then the money just keeps flowing.
Hilariously, in the case of the EV chargers, government DEI requirements played a role in stifling the program. //
There is an obvious lesson here, which is that the bureaucratic state is terrible for America and needs deep reforms to stop the waste and inefficiency that infests it. Will Democrats who are crying about Biden's agenda being hampered support that? Of course, they won't. Instead, they'll keep making excuses and protecting the bureaucracy as if it were one of their own children because it is currently their sole source of power. Still, it is deeply ironic that their sacred cow played a role in Democrats face-planting in 2024. It was well-deserved.
An intriguing video from Feb. 2018 went viral over the weekend and had a lot of folks on the right talking because of something that actress Claire Danes said to talk show host Stephen Colbert and how he immediately interjected and changed the subject. When you hear it, you'll understand why.
Danes was sharing about how her "Homeland" show went to something of a weeklong "spy camp" because they knew someone in the CIA. There in Georgetown, they met actual "spooks," people in the State Department, and journalists. Colbert asked her, what was the most surprising thing that she learned from that experience? //
Danes said every year it was different, but that year it was "all about the distrust between the [Trump] administration and the intelligence world, and the intelligence community was suddenly kind of allying itself with journalists, which usually they're not..."
It was at that point that Colbert interjected and deflected to another point about when they had started shooting the season's episodes. //
Now, this may have slipped by in 2018. But after everything that has happened in the meantime, it certainly had people talking about how Colbert seemed to cut her off and what exactly she was talking about when she said they were "allying with journalists?" What were they doing? //
This was after New York Democrat Sen. Chuck Schumer's comment in 2017, which even raised the hackles of the ACLU with what it intimated.
Western Lensman @WesternLensman
·
Replying to @WesternLensman
Shades of Chuck Schumer:
"You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you. Even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this."
9:31 PM · Dec 23, 2024 //
There's another point I think that's interesting about the Danes video. Danes is talking about how the "spy camp" gave them thoughts. Maybe the CIA folks realized they had the opportunity to feed what they wanted to the show, perhaps to get out information that they might have wanted to get out there? Not saying they did, but this could have given them the opportunity.
As Trump comes into office on Jan. 20, is this intel community that was unhappy before going to calm down this time around, especially now that they know Trump will be bringing big changes to their agencies?
I wouldn't bet on it. One can only wonder what might happen next, between now and then.
Despite receiving tens of billions of dollars for modernization under the Biden administration, the IRS claimed it didn’t have the resources to conduct necessary inspections. To be clear, The IRS, under the Inflation Reduction Act, received about $60 billion to rebuild its workforce and modernize its IT systems over the next decade.
"Officials cited a lack of resources as to why these on-site inspections are no longer conducted."
TIGTA’s findings are another major blow to an agency already struggling with data security. As this latest report reveals, the IRS is failing taxpayers in one of its most basic responsibilities: safeguarding private financial data.
The agency’s negligence goes beyond poor management—it mocks the very people it is meant to protect. Throwing documents into regular trash, failing to maintain secure bins, and ignoring security protocols sends a clear message: taxpayers are at risk, and the IRS doesn’t seem to care. The agency is not only putting your data in harm's way but also ripping you off with ineffective, wasteful practices.
President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian Chief of Government Omar Torrijos signed the Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty on September 7, 1977. This agreement relinquishes American control over the canal by the year 2000 and guarantees its neutrality. On May 4, 1904, Panama granted the United States the right to build and operate the canal and control the five miles of land on either side of the water passage in exchange for annual payments. For the history of the Panama Canal, visit the Library of Congress American Memory section.
Appendix B: Texts of the Panama Canal Treaties with United States Senate Modifications -- Panama
Javier Milei has shown what can be done. He's turned a deficit into a surplus for the first time in more than 100 years in their country, and in such a short time in office.
It may take a little longer for us, but how do you do it? With commitment, will and afuera! //
Musk cited remarks from Ronald Reagan from 1975, before he was president. But it's all kinds of sense when it comes to tax policy as he explains that even then the government was taking about half of what Americans earn. Reagan spoke out against taxes on businesses that the left pushes but then end up landing on the people. //
"We oughta have tax reform, and we oughta start by making it so simple you don't have to hire a lawyer to figure out how much you owe every year," Reagan said.
"We live in the only country in the world where it takes more brains to figure out your income tax than it does to earn the income," he quipped.
"There's very little that government can do as efficiently and economically that people can't do themselves. And If government would shut the doors and sneak away for three weeks, we'd never miss 'em." //
How much of a tangle is everything in? The Office of Management and Budget can't even tell you how many "boards, commissions, agencies, bureaus, and departments there are in the federal government."
We've been talking about this for almost 50 years. We're at a point where the words are more true than ever and where we now have a golden opportunity.
You finally have Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy with the force and the will. Now, they need to harness that same common sense and make it happen, despite the people who will try to stand in their way.
Shorter Scaramucci: That's a nice life you've built there. It'd be a real shame if something were to happen to it.
Look, I don't know exactly what the motivation behind the above excerpt was. Perhaps Scaramucci is genuinely concerned for Musk's safety and success, though I tend to doubt it. Either way, so much that is wrong with Washington is revealed in what is said. An American citizen should not have to fear the "enemies" he's making by demanding the government function with some level of sanity and efficiency. Yet, that's exactly the situation Musk (and others) find themselves in by daring to push back on the status quo.
That people in the government can "hurt you," as Scaramucci says, for crossing them is exactly why Washington must be reformed. Dismiss attempts to do so as "Potomac fever," but things will certainly never change if no attempt is made to change them. Americans are dealing with a corrupt, deeply entrenched behemoth, and it's not going to give up power quietly. That's why Musk should not "lay off the gas on politics." If anything, it's time to go even harder.