The Wrong People are Silent
When Will Taxpayers Take to the Streets?
It is time to put feelings on hold and think. Does it make sense that seemingly pleasant middle age suburban women would incite violence against DOGE? Do they realize their signs essentially call for the death of DOGE managers, specifically Elon Musk? This behavior demonstrates how easy it is to manipulate otherwise good people to do bad things. Perhaps an injection of reality will clear the emotional fog.
Any debate about DOGE must be grounded in financial facts. A simple summary of key metrics and charts can be found on the US Debt Clock website. This and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) are the sources of the following data. Covid, extended lockdowns and unrestrained spending during the Biden administration accelerated already unhealthy trends. Therefore, 2019 data is compared to current. Note, a review of trends over time is highly recommended.
Total spending in 2019 was $4.4 trillion compared to $6.8 trillion for fiscal year 2024. The CBO estimated 2025 spending will be $7.0 trillion. The CBO figure reflects legislation up to January 6, 2025 and therefore does not include President Trump’s efforts to reduce spending.
When the government spends more money than it collects from taxpayers and other sources, the difference is referred to as the national deficit. At the end of fiscal year 2019 the deficit was $1.4 trillion compared to $1.8 trillion in 2024. As of January 6, 2025, the CBO estimated a 2025 deficit of $1.9 trillion .
The last time the federal government had a budget surplus (revenue exceeded spending) was 2001. When there is a deficit, the government must borrow money to cover the shortfall, i.e. the national debt.
The national debt “represents the total amount of money the US government owes to creditors, both domestic and international. This debt is accumulated over time due to various factors, such as funding government programs, managing economic crises, and covering deficits when government revenues fall short of expenditures.”
In 2019 the national debt was $22.7 trillion. Now it is 36.2 trillion, a 59% increase. Interest on this monumental debt was approximately $1 trillion of our tax dollars in 2024. This is greater than our national security budget. It is a ticking time bomb as Jodey Arrington, chairman of the House Budget Committee explained in this article.
The debt as a percent of gross national product (GDP) is one of many metrics used to evaluate the financial health of a country and the country’s ability to repay its debt. Our current debt to GDP ratio is 123%. In other words, we owe more than we produce. In 2019 it was 106%. In 2008 it was 69%. While economists disagree on how serious the immediate risk is, there appears to be general agreement that we must rein in spending to avoid serious negative consequences in the future.
Even without an economics degree, the solution is clear. To get out of this dangerous financial hole, we must cut spending and simultaneously spur economic growth which will in turn increase tax revenues. Since revenue will take time to adjust even with tax and regulation cuts, immediate efforts to curtail spending are critical. Inaction is not an option.
The House Budget Committee summarized the stakes: “If Congress does not act swiftly to confront the structural disconnect between reckless federal spending and incoming revenues, our nation will experience either slow and painful economic demise through sustained stagnation or a swift and catastrophic sovereign debt crisis whereby our creditors lose confidence in our ability to service and repay our debt. This distrust will jeopardize the dollar’s dominance as the world’s reserve currency and result in massive tax hikes and austere spending cuts. Both scenarios would imperil our Republic and our nation’s future.”
To complicate matters, DOGE’s efforts reveal staggering levels of incompetence, fraud, technological failure and waste throughout the federal government. This is the low hanging fruit for DOGE. The Department of Defense has failed every audit since audits began in 2018 because the “condition of the agency’s accounting is so poor that it is impossible to comprehensively assess the agency’s financial records”. Other agencies are in the same condition. Computer systems are so antiquated they invite fraud. 40% of calls to Social Security are fraudsters. For more details, please watch this interview of Musk and DOGE team members and visit the official DOGE website.
People seem to forget this is our hard-earned money that has been pilfered by a bevy of elected officials and unelected bureaucrats who were too gutless, incompetent and/or crooked to protect the fruits of our labor. Why aren’t the taxpayers on the streets protesting the government’s incredible breach of its fiduciary responsibility?
We need DOGE. Politicians alone are unable to do the job or they would have done it already. This is not a partisan issue nor should it be discounted simply because President Trump supports it. Even President Obama called for budget cuts for “things people care deeply about”. Too bad it was lip service. The debt to GDP ratio increased from 69% to 105% under his watch.
For the sake of our economic and national security, we should all hope Trump and Musk are serious and successful.
Instead, many clamor for DOGE to fail. With such a clear need for action, it behooves us to examine the anti-DOGE propaganda campaigns and “AstroTurf” protests launched by Democratic operatives and progressive groups such as Indivisible and MoveOn. More importantly, why are they doing it?
Their typical messages are 1) Musk and Trump are Nazis 2) Trump and Musk are “taking everything they can get their hands on and claiming anything standing in their way is illegal” 3) “Hurting Tesla is stopping Musk. Stopping Musk is saving lives and our democracy”. 4) Trump and Musk are attacking Medicare and Social Security. This empty rhetoric is designed to enflame the populace. It’s working.
Note how those fomenting anti-DOGE nationwide protests and violence never tell the real story about our financial situation and the mind-boggling level of fraud and waste. Nor do they tell their followers what they think will happen to the country’s economy if we maintain the status quo.
Are these groups running cover for the people who have been stealing our money? Or is it a strategy to thwart Trump to weaken Republicans for the upcoming midterms and 2028 election? Or is it a scheme to elicit donations now that the BLM scam has been revealed. Or is it a way to shift the divisive victim/oppressor narrative from race to class as this author suggests. Or do the progressive “oligarchs” want to weaken America for their own nefarious purposes? We may not know for sure “why”, but we do know what they are doing will harm America, perhaps grievously, if they succeed.
For those tempted to join efforts to kill DOGE, please think and rationally research the financial reasons DOGE was formed. Apply this information to your own household and consider if it is sustainable. Remember when you say “DEATH to DOGE” you show contempt for the relatively few hard-working taxpayers who finance the government.
Also please keep in mind that layoffs are not a reason to avoid financial sanity. It is unfortunate when anyone loses their job but sometimes it is necessary. Corporations often engage in massive layoffs to remain solvent. This is the real world. The good news is that those laid off from government can join the private sector and help increase economic output rather than consume it.
A highly functioning society and government would agree that DOGE is necessary and that cuts, big and small, must happen fast. They would also agree that we must simultaneously stimulate economic growth. These actions will ultimately help citizens who struggle financially. The politicians would apologize to the taxpayers for their abject failure to manage the government properly and get serious about fixing it. The debate would then be on how to do it, not if we should. There would be less theatrics and more long form interviews (aired by all media) that explain the realities. Together, we would openly examine how the cost of entitlements is increasing exponentially and seek win-win solutions.
Sadly, the above paragraph is a pipedream. Politicians will never admit they were wrong unless it is politically expedient for them to do so, especially those who have benefited from the fraud. Those voters screaming “DEATH to DOGE” provide excellent cover for them to hide their own complicity and avoid the political pitfalls of doing what is necessary.
On the other hand, if the taxpayers became vocal and demand fiscal responsibility it could provide the necessary political impetus for them to act. More politicians might get behind the movement to fix our broken federal government. It might also improve the quality of political candidates.
The wrong people are silent. Let’s change that.
DETAILS
There are many resources for those interested in educating themselves on DOGE, national spending, revenues and debt. In addition to information linked above, below are a few places to start.
The DOGE team interview is informative. Hopefully these interviews will be a regular occurrence and next time all media outlets will cover the interview without bias.
Considering reading various sources on our financial situation. Some suggestions include Heartland Institute’s article “Federal Deficits and the Iron Law of Federal Revenue”. The Hoover Institute is also a good resource. To understand how interest payments on the debt could impact the country please read Joshua Rauh’s “Playing with Fire: The Interest Coverage of US Federal Government Revenues”. Stacy Vanek Smith’s article about the national debt tries to make sense of the size of it.
These charts show the debt to GDP ratio from 1989 to 2022.
Thomas Sowell has many worthwhile books on economics. Basic Economics is a good starting point.
“Boom Times for Government Handouts” by the WSJ Editorial Board highlights a few examples of why entitlements need reform.
This video includes the images above of the woman and man smashing toy Teslas with hammers. This is almost as disturbing as those who set actual Tesla’s on fire.
As mentioned above, I pulled financial data from the US Debt Clock website. Curiously, their 2025 spending and deficit estimates changed dramatically lower yesterday. Because I have not yet obtained an explanation, I elected to use the CBO’s estimates released prior to January 6 for 2025 estimates. These numbers do not include recent efforts to cut spending. It will be interesting to compare 2025 actual to what the CBO projected under Biden.
To put this in perspective, let’s scale it to the family level. Suppose a family earns $75,000 ($4.9 trillion) and spends $104,082 ($6.8 trillion) in a given year. They are forced to borrow $29,082 to cover the shortfall. Assuming that occurs year after year, the debt piles up. The interest the family must pay on the debt will force them to reduce spending on basics for the family. If banks continue to lend (which in reality they would not), interest rates will increase. If the spending and debt continue unabated, most of their income will be dedicated to interest payments, not feeding their children. On it goes until no one will lend them money and they default on their loans. It’s reminiscent of a ponzi scheme.
“the Wrong People are Silent” for a reason, we have nothing to protest. We in spirit agree with what the Trump Administration, DOGE as part of the administration, Homeland Security and the rest. Do we need to counter protest the protesters? Which side will MSM take? for an answer just look at any Jewish groups that try to resist the pro-Hamas demonstrators. MSM is in the pocket of the Dems.
We don’t protest because we are too busy working (unlike paid protesters!)