From Yahoo News:
"As the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) looks to slash waste and correct inefficiencies, one DOGE advisor revealed it's "hard to really grasp the scale" of problems facing the IRS.
"A huge part of our government is collecting taxes. We cannot perform the basic functions of tax collection without paying a toll to all these contractors. We really have to figure out how to get out of this hole. We're in a really deep hole right now," DOGE representative Sam Corcos said Thursday on "The Ingraham Angle."
The "DOGE bro" shed light on his work within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to trim the federal government fat alongside Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent...
Bessent, who was recently confirmed as President Donald Trump's treasury secretary, added "one of the biggest surprises for me is just seeing how these entrenched interests, they just keep constricting themselves around the power, around the money, around the systems, and nobody cares."
"Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."
"The entrenched interests, the consultants, the Democrats, mainstream media, they just want to blow this project out of the water," Bessent told Ingraham. "This is the opposite of government efficiency, not elimination, not extinction. Sam and his crew are making it more efficient to work for the American people. So what's wrong with it working better, cheaper, faster, and with more privacy?"
Bessent said his top three priorities for the tax collecting bureau are "collections, privacy and customer service," and he argued, "None of those are being well served."
"We want people to feel satisfied that they are getting the service they deserve, that they're paying their fair share and not more, not less. And that it's done quickly, smartly and privately," he said."
From Yahoo News
From Money Wise:
“Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,” Bessent said during a speech at the Economic Club of New York on March 6. “The American Dream is rooted in the concept that any citizen can achieve prosperity, upward mobility, and economic security.”
His remarks come at a time when many Americans continue to grapple with high costs of living amid Trump’s threats to impose further tariffs, which experts believe will drive up prices in the short term.
Bessent was later pressed on the issue during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press.
“Are you saying that the Trump administration is comfortable to have consumers pay more for goods in America?” host Kristen Welker asked.
“Not at all,” Bessent replied. “What I’m saying is the American dream is not ‘let them eat flat screens.’ If American families aren't able to afford a home, don't believe that their children will do better than they are [doing], the American dream is not contingent on cheap baubles from China, it is more than that. And we are focused on affordability, but it's mortgages, it's cars, it's real wage gains.”
From Money Wise
Secretary Scott Bessent's line: "Many of the employees are fantastic. It's this consultant group. They're like a boa constrictor. They're like a python," he said. "They've constricted themselves around our government, and the costs are unbelievable. They're being passed on to the American taxpayer."
Reminds me of this expression: "The expression "you can never trust a snake" is a common idiom used to describe someone who is deceitful, untrustworthy, and potentially dangerous, often implying they are scheming or manipulative. It's rooted in the image of a snake, a creature often associated with stealth and danger."
I'm just wondering of the Secretary is speaking from personal experience here. And perhaps cluing in Laura Ingraham's viewers about his own trustworthiness.
Which would explain Fox News host Laura Ingraham less than enthusiastic expression and response to Secretary Bessent when the Secretary compared Federal workers to snakes.
I'm willing to cut Donald Trump's government officials some slack, in this sense: most of them weren't even politicians, or appointed officials before they got their current government jobs. Most of them are oligarchs or very hyper-partisan political activists and commentators from MAGA Land, with very little if any government experience before becoming secretary of this, that, or the other thing.
And because of the business and political backgrounds that these Trump officials have, that makes them very out-of-touch with even everyday MAGA voters who are paying President Trump's higher prices today, because of his tariffs and the retaliatory tariffs that these countries like in Europe are placing director on Donald Trump's own voters: people who live in small towns and rural communities, who can't afford to pay higher prices on their basic necessities of life.
I mean this would explain how a man who is worth 500 billion-dollars would make the statement: “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American dream,”. Because higher prices on basic necessities doesn't affect him.
Now, if Scott Bessent were looking to buy a new yacht, Rolls Royce, a new mansion in South Carolina or Virginia, etc, and interest rates were let's say 10%, that would affect him. He might decide not to buy those new luxury items until interest rates came down and perhaps inflation as well. But this man will never have to worry about how he's going to put groceries on the table, meet his mortgage payments... his kids probably already graduated college, etc. So he doesn't think about those things, which is why he doesn't mind making life harder for people who doesn't even think about.
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