The DOGE Team Is Cluster Bombing Social Security
Over the last decade or so, the younger generations have expressed increasing resentment that Social Security will not be there for them when they reach retirement age, that the 6.2% deducted from their paychecks – double that for the self-employed who have to pay the employer’s 6.2% as well – would make it what Elon Musk is calling "the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time".
But their fear of losing out was only that Social Security would run short of funds when their time came and not be able to pay full benefits. 
What they nor current retirees hadn’t bargained for is the Trump administration’s multifaceted attempt to finally take great strides toward accomplishing the Republican dream of seeing Social Security destroyed altogether despite candidate Trump repeatedly telling us that he would not “touch” Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. “I will not cut one penny from Social Security”, he said.
What he did not say was that he intended to have Elon Musk lay hands on the agency for him. Musk and his acolytes have been doing so in several ways, starting with having acting commissioner Michele King and her chief of staff fired when they refused access to the agency’s data. Trump's replacement, Leland Dudek, threw open the doors despite a federal judge blocking access to personal data and accusing Musk of a "fishing expedition".
squeeze play
First announced, in February, were 7,000 job cuts at the already understaffed Social Security Administration (SSA) to bring the personnel count down to 50,000. Worse, The Washington Post ran a story that said its management had been told to swiftly produce plans to cut the agency’s staff by half. Neither has happened – yet – but firings are happening all over government, most notably this week…
Read More »
Trump and Musk Scheme to Destroy the IRS
On February 20th, termination letters were sent to 7,000 probationary employees at the IRS just as over 200 million tax returns were about to descend on the agency. In an e-mail sent this Wednesday, Acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause reinstated them. Why? ProPublica uncovered that a top IRS lawyer warned the administration the letter, which fired the employees for poor performance, was “a false statement” that amounted to a phony predicate the Trump administration would claim in court, "an anticipatory fraud on tribunals of jurisdiction over these employment actions” in attorney Joseph Rillotta's words.
The performance of those dismissed had never been considered. To the contrary, many had received laudatory reviews. 
Krause had to back down. The cohort would continue to be paid but were not to return to work, never mind tax season.
President Trump may have instructed Elon Musk to start using a scalpel rather than a chainsaw, to keep good people and eliminate the “bad ones”, but the 7,000 remain unchanged as an arbitrarily chosen group with no attention given to individual merit.
larcenyOn top of that, the "continuing resolution" passed by Congress a week ago — a Republican plan with deep cuts in social programs grudgingly acceded to by a few Democrats to avoid a government shutdown — contained a little noticed line item that docked the IRS $20 billion in funding. And it's not the first time.
Nothing so clearly illuminates the Republicans’ fiscal irresponsibility than their repeated actions to hobble the IRS. Nothing makes it more obvious that Republican policy is to convert the U.S. into an oligarchy, to create a billionaire class that rules the country, than their repeated actions to stymie the pursuit of tax cheats and tax collection in general.
resuscitationIt was salvation far too long in coming when the Democratically-controlled Congress passed in 2022 President Biden’s Inflation… Read More »
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat »
Mar 29 2024The United States faces no greater threat than China, which Donald Trump would have to face come 2027. Let's Fix This Country put together this series to show how vastly unprepared the U.S. is to confront China militarily compared to our leadership's blind assumption of U.S. invincibility. Click the titles to read each of the subsequent installments:
I. Our Focus Elsewhere, the U.S. Neglects the China Threat
II. What Would War With China Look Like?
III. War with China: Could America… Read More »
"I subscribe to Let's Fix This Country (http://letsfixthiscountry.org) for their reporting and think you might want to subscribe too."
We rely entirely on word of mouth. Yours would be greatly appreciated.
the law
We Are Veering Closer to the Constitutional Edge
Mar 25 2025
Immediately after the Supreme Court's ruling at the beginning of July last year, this page said,
"But now, this Court has bestowed immunity on the one potential president most likely to commit illegal acts."
Sure enough, Donald Trump has gone on to break so many laws it has become difficult to count. That this citizen, no law degree, writing the above from way west in North Carolina, foresaw what would obviously happen and the chief justice did not, makes him a fool. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion and engineered the 6-3 decision and now will reap what he has sown when Trump commits the ultimate crime of refusing to abide by a Court decision. The Court has tied its own hands by giving Trump the immunity to do so.
And Trump is grateful. After the joint session of Congress last month, he stepped off the stage to shake Roberts's hand saying, "Thank you , thank you, I won't forget it." (He later claimed that he was thanking Roberts for swearing him in on Inauguration Day. Sure. We're that dimwitted, he thinks).
It may be that it is dawning on the justices, who surely follow the lawless conduct of the new administration, that "they're not any safer from the chainsaw than the rest of us", as Heather Digby Parton writes at Salon.
challenging the court
D.C. District Court James Boasberg's requirement that the plane carrying members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and of MS-13 be returned to the U.S. and the Justice Department's refusal to cooperate is like to be the first case for the Supreme Court to deal with. The desirability of expelling immigrant gang members is undisputed, but our country prefers constitutional due process that at least determines that they are actual members of those gangs and not just people plucked off the street, identified only by tattoos. Donald Trump, who habitually creates a reality that suits his preconceptions, doesn't require proof. They are "criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the…
Read More »
Immediately after the Supreme Court's ruling at the beginning of July last year, this page said,
"But now, this Court has bestowed immunity on the one potential president most likely to commit illegal acts."
Sure enough, Donald Trump has gone on to break so many laws it has become difficult to count. That this citizen, no law degree, writing the above from way west in North Carolina, foresaw what would obviously happen and the chief justice did not, makes him a fool. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion and engineered the 6-3 decision and now will reap what he has sown when Trump commits the ultimate crime of refusing to abide by a Court decision. The Court has tied its own hands by giving Trump the immunity to do so.
And Trump is grateful. After the joint session of Congress last month, he stepped off the stage to shake Roberts's hand saying, "Thank you , thank you, I won't forget it." (He later claimed that he was thanking Roberts for swearing him in on Inauguration Day. Sure. We're that dimwitted, he thinks).
It may be that it is dawning on the justices, who surely follow the lawless conduct of the new administration, that "they're not any safer from the chainsaw than the rest of us", as Heather Digby Parton writes at Salon.
challenging the courtD.C. District Court James Boasberg's requirement that the plane carrying members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and of MS-13 be returned to the U.S. and the Justice Department's refusal to cooperate is like to be the first case for the Supreme Court to deal with. The desirability of expelling immigrant gang members is undisputed, but our country prefers constitutional due process that at least determines that they are actual members of those gangs and not just people plucked off the street, identified only by tattoos. Donald Trump, who habitually creates a reality that suits his preconceptions, doesn't require proof. They are "criminals, killers, murderers, horrible, the… Read More »
the presidency
America Has Switched Sides. Is That What You Voted For?
Mar 10 2025
Donald Trump is incessantly irate at Democrats and liberal media for probing his ties and flattering deference to Vladimir Putin, calling it a “Russia, Russia, Russia” obsession and a hoax. In office a little over a month, let’s see what transpired:
Vice President JD Vance went to the Munich Security Conference to tell European governments that their greatest threat was not Russia but “from within” – their migrant problem and curtailment of free speech that shuts out extremist rightwing parties such as AfD.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Brussels meeting of almost 50 of 
Rob Dobi, Washington Post.
Ukraine’s Western backers that a return to Ukraine’s pre-war borders was “unrealistic,” that NATO membership for Kyiv was off the table, and that…
"We're also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”
It was a thunderclap, a reversal of 80 years of American policy in a single stroke.
Hegseth further announced the halt of offensive cyberoperations against Russia by U.S. Cyber Command, notwithstanding Russia’s continuing cyber activity against the U.S.
Trump called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator” and said it was Ukraine that started the war.
The U.S. delegation to the United Nations followed up by voting against a resolution condemning Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. America thus took Russia’s side and joined North Korea, Belarus, Israel (yes, Israel), fourteen other countries in Russia’s orbit, and of course Russia.
In an Oval Office meeting that played like the ambush it surely was, Trump and Vance attacked Zelenskyy, accusing him of not being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support.
For Zelenskyy’s not being respectful enough, Trump “paused” any further shipments of weapons to Ukraine, creating an opening for Russia to gain more ground.
In a deadly betrayal, Trump then denied the intel we've always provided to help Ukraine down incoming Russian missiles, resulting in Putin going all out to kill the civilian population.
So it’s finally out in the open. In actions he has directed, Trump has confirmed that it really was and continues to be Russia, Russia, Russia. On his own, without any referendum or “mandate”…
Read More »
Donald Trump is incessantly irate at Democrats and liberal media for probing his ties and flattering deference to Vladimir Putin, calling it a “Russia, Russia, Russia” obsession and a hoax. In office a little over a month, let’s see what transpired:
Rob Dobi, Washington Post.
Ukraine’s Western backers that a return to Ukraine’s pre-war borders was “unrealistic,” that NATO membership for Kyiv was off the table, and that…"We're also here today to directly and unambiguously express that stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”
It was a thunderclap, a reversal of 80 years of American policy in a single stroke.
So it’s finally out in the open. In actions he has directed, Trump has confirmed that it really was and continues to be Russia, Russia, Russia. On his own, without any referendum or “mandate”… Read More »