Bad Faith
When programs fail to deliver, one has to ask, did they ever intend to succeed?
$42 Billion Broadband Boondoggle Brought Internet to Zero Homes
This is a glaring example of government being unable to execute a task that nobody asked them to do, even as the private sector is making things happen very nicely, thank you.
‘The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program (BEAD) allocated $42 billion to extend broadband access to all homes nationwide. Nearly three years after passage, 16 states still lacked funding approval. In its first three years, the program connected precisely zero homes to the internet.
‘The expressed objective of BEAD is to bridge the so-called digital divide — the lower levels of access and affordability for some rural residents, minority groups, and lower-income earners. Yet, the private sector is doing quite well at bridging this so-called divide. While the federal government dithered on allotting the $42 billion of BEAD funding, the percentage of Americans using the internet rose from 80 percent in 2021 to 83 percent in 2023 — an additional 13 million users. High-income household use has remained virtually unchanged for a decade — at 87 percent — while usage in low-income households earning less than $25,000 steadily rose to 75 percent by 2023. Even in rural areas, 72 percent already have fixed broadband coverage.’
Trump Outsmarts China on Green Energy
The Administration’s moves to counter the green energy initiatives of the West make China the biggest loser here.
‘Call it brilliant Chinese planning or gross Western incompetence, but the only real winner from the green agenda that Western governments have done so much to impose on the world is Beijing. Solar power cells, wind turbines, electric vehicles and the batteries that keep them moving: China has swiftly established dominance in one critical industry and supply chain after another.’
How to Dismantle the Department of Education
The DOE is a money spigot that Democratic Presidents have used to push various ideological agendas.
Scrap the dogma and give money to the states without conditions, even as they privatize student loan collection.
‘What is the best way to proceed? The administration must first understand that the Department of Education administers three primary activities: college student loans and grants; K-12 funding; and ideological production, which includes an array of programs, grants, civil rights initiatives, and third-party NGOs that create left-wing content to push on local schools. It is not possible or desirable to shut down all three functions at the same time. Rather, Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon, in partnership with Musk and DOGE, should handle each separately.’
The CFPB didn’t want to disclose important information to their Congressional overseers. It’s not like they relied on them for funding given Warren’s too-cute-by-half maneuvering at its inception.
Now that the Fed isn’t making a profit, the money is gone. Or it would be if anyone is paying attention. And they are now.
‘My House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has tried unsuccessfully to gain greater visibility into the bureau’s budgetary planning process. I have repeatedly asked to review the bureau’s statutorily required financial operating plans and forecasts. These requests were denied.’
Trump’s Fight Against the Bureaucracy Has Been Wildly Successful — So Far
Personnel is policy.
‘For personnel policy, Trump’s directives actually restored Carter’s original CSRA. This means emphasizing career accountability, as taught to me by my graduate professor Alan Campbell, who became Carter’s OPM Director, and was a Democrat. The executive order titled “Restoring Accountability for Career Senior Executives” especially revives performance management principles by requiring actual plans from each top career senior executive, with executive resources and performance review boards all managed by non-career leaders. Failure to perform could lead to removal without any appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board, much as was the case in the CSRA and in Reagan’s first regulations.
‘Trump’s formal orders, also following the Carter/Reagan ones, attempted to make second-level career supervisors more responsible. There has been much confusion about Trump’s first term Schedule F requirements, now labeled “policy career” managers. These are mid-level careerists who have a major influence on agency policy. President Joe Biden had eliminated Schedule F by portraying it in the media as overruling the merit system. In fact, there is no general merit exam, and there has not been one since my day. All Schedule F did, and policy career does now, is restore Carter’s special responsibilities and oversight for mid-level career managers, which had been repealed after union pressure post-Reagan in the 1990s.’