Musk is now saying DOGE is cutting $150 billion, which is 15% of the $1 trillion he promised. Musk? Overpromising and underdelivering? Whouldathunkit.
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Incompetent to core.
$100,000? Good grief. I’m allowed to spend $30 million without asking anyone. And no one under cabinet level has DOA over $100K.
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Efficiency and autonomy are not the objective.
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That’s just a byproduct of the current times. Some agencies have top level approvals all the way down to $10K. It’s an intentional construct meant to micromanage all expenditures. You see this sometimes for a period during administration changes. And, also, out in the commercial space leading up to divestitures, M&A’s, pre-IPO’s and such. It’s pretty common.
The typical command authority in Gov is like $1M for a GS-15 (Colonel in the military), $50+M for lowest level SES and >$1B for top level SES and agency heads.
Fortunately no authority for Gentlemen Colonels.
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$10K is definitely micromanaging. Of course we have financial controls, audits and all the SOX stuff to account for, but the general rule is we don’t fuss over less than $10K. It’d cost us more to track at that level that than we could ever save doing so. And to be clear, I’m only allowed to spend $30 million. I can’t enter into contracts or commit the company to any contractual or legal obligation. That’s reserved for the equivalent of the colonel.
We did some back of the napkin math to assess the efficiency of such a play. Any transaction below nine or $10,000 is a money loser because of the cost of the overhead introduced by this micromanagement style. Plus, the massive friction associated with the obvious procurement lags. For procurement above around $500K, it is generating considerable savings. It nearly 100% ameliorates procurements that take the easiest (or most convenient or relationship sustainment) path and allows senior management to optimize for speed or price or strategy alignment. It’s a chore, but the benefits are undeniable.
“When people tell you who they are, believe them.”
— Adolf Hitler
We don’t get to that level. It’s basically “if you need something, go get it. If you fuck us over, you’re fired and probably going to prison.” It’s reasonably efficient.
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Call me old fashioned but whatever happened to managers being allowed to manage?
The pure stupidity of this amuses me: Texas Leg is trying to outlaw some native plants (mountain laurel, jimsonweed, morning glory, etc). I’m sure this will go over well.
https://www.chron.com/life/wildlife/article/texas-bill-native-plants-hallucinogen-20271377.php
Between morning glories and Texas mountain laurel, this bill is like half my yard.
Looks like I have more calls to make to idiot politicians.
So if a native wildflower happens to take root in your yard, you can go to jail? This is going to be great.
8-10 in Huntsville for possession of kudzu.
The party of limited government.
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Now that I could get behind.
The bill was primarily aimed at Kratom, which is nasty unregulated stuff sold at gas stations and such. They apparently decided to add a whole bunch of other plants to the bill that contain certain alkaloids/chemical compounds.
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They’re really working towards the Biblical prohibition on growing different crops side by side.
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They’re coming for the Texas shrimp/oyster/crawfish industries next.
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Where the longhorn cattle feed
On the lowly jimson weed
Back in the saddle again…
Not on my watch, buster.
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