• Why has every administration, Democrat or Republican, pledged to reduce or eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, and nothing significant has occurred?

• Why do Republicans seem complacent when voting with their Democrat colleagues in Congress?

• Why does the Government Accounting Office issue adverse report after adverse report on the lack of financial controls, and no government official is held responsible?

Our political system is strategically governed by democratic principles but tactically by crony capitalism.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle seek to protect their cushy positions by protecting government money flowing into their districts--powering the special interests, such as unions and military contractors, that fund their campaigns and provide mass voter engagement.

It's an open secret...

The waste, fraud, and abuse being uncovered by Elon Musk's DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) was created by politicians on both sides of the aisle as "earmarks," provisions inserted into discretionary spending appropriations bills that direct funds to a specific cause or recipient, often circumventing merit-based or competitive bids.

Murkowski says Congress needs to assert its authority, to limit Trump

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, thinks President Trump and his designated spending-slasher, Elon Musk, are acting beyond the limits the Constitution places on executive power as they hack away at agencies and programs Congress enacted.

“To have the executive basically come in and dismantle something that was legislatively created — that’s outside the bounds of the executive,” she said Monday. “So it requires us, in the legislative branch, to then assert our responsibility, which is to not cede the authority.”<Source>

Just enough to give the appearance of action...

The situation is analogous to crime in America, where the law enforcement and judicial authorities must contain the most egregious acts lest they be replaced for non-performance, but not so much as to jeopardize their lucrative unionized jobs or legal revenue streams.

Likewise, the situation with the homeless seems to expand in proportion to the funding available. Special interest developers, landlords, property managers, and the government bureaucracy serving the homeless are in jeopardy of losing their respective revenue streams. 

The Republicans are complicit…

There’s a quiet, unspoken truth lurking behind the GOP’s outrage over the “waste, fraud, and abuse” that many conservative lawmakers claim to be fighting. While the headlines often focus on the familiar targets — woke programs, diversity and equity initiatives, or international grants for LGBTQ arts — the actual battle is not just about these obvious symbols of liberal excess. It's about something more profound: control over money and power, often wrapped in the language of fiscal responsibility.

The so-called “easy targets” are the low-hanging fruit in this fight, those elements of government spending that seem like an easy win for conservatives looking to shore up their credibility. They include diversity and equity contracts, grants for LGBTQ operas or comic books that conservatives like to decry as symbols of government overreach, vacant buildings that eat up taxpayer dollars without serving any real purpose, and expensive executive “coaching” contracts that seem like a bad joke when money is tight.

The real pushback from Republicans will come when the Trump administration decides to cap the overhead costs on research grants, impacting GOP congress members who represent large, well-funded academic institutions in their districts.

Republican lawmakers from agricultural-heavy states are concerned about removing lucrative international food-aid programs from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and struggling to relocate those same programs to the less controversial Agriculture Department to keep those valuable food aid dollars flowing into their home states. It’s not just about international generosity; it’s about preserving a crucial revenue stream that keeps farmers, processors, and local economies in cash.

Then there is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which funds programs such as the International Republican Institute (IRI), which, unsurprisingly, includes current and former GOP figures on its board.

Bottom line...

When waste, fraud, and abuse are removed from the system, everyone—Democrats, Republicans, and Independents—will sacrifice something. That sacrifice will be borne mainly by those in their districts. People will lose employment, homes, and perhaps their health. The key is examining the impacts before drastic measures are implemented.

It is time to confront corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle and their media propagandists. One can only hope that commonsense will prevail and that the result will benefit the majority of Americans rather than a small slice of the privileged, protected, and positioned special interests.

We are so screwed.

-- Steve