“Notably, the views among DOGE supporters differ when it comes to where to draw the line: The first of the three people with knowledge of its work told Semafor the “entire federal government” is up for grabs. The second person suggested the line would be drawn at areas affecting national security and initiatives providing direct benefits.”

https://www.semafor.com/article/02/06/2025/inside-doges-marc...

I personally hope that it is more of the second

We've had since FDR to try and curb the post WW2 federal hyper expansion. Regulations keep growing, our prison population reaches one of the highest rates in world, and we get vanishingly little infrastructure or other benefits for the taxes the common man pays.

Patience has expired.

There was lots of time to use the scalpel. The doctor never showed up, so the pre med dropout showed up with a sledgehammer, dumb and self serving as he may be. Trump is the symptom of the disease not the main cause.

> Trump is the symptom of the disease not the main cause.

To this, we agree. To better understand a why so many are resisting, I encourage you to read up on Yarvin's Dark Enlightenment, then who has associated themselves with that movement. The overlap in the Executive branch and Trump's more outlandish ideas are substantial. Technofascism and neofeudalism are not acceptable solutions.

I disagree with social security not being waste. Just because some people find it useful, doesn’t inherently make it not wasteful.

I’ll be lucky if my generation will even be able to pull anything out of social security.

So I've been paying for social security my whole life and you think it's a waste and you have the right to take the program away from me? Will I be getting a refund?

FWIW, the US Supreme Court ruled[0] in a famous 1960 case that Social Security is an ordinary income tax and you are not entitled to receive any benefit of that payment, same as income tax. Whether we like it or not, that has been the law of the land for 65 years. Most Americans are simply ignorant of this reality.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemming_v._Nestor

I doubt it, but hey welcome to the club. Like 1/4 of everything I make goes to social security.

But just because I’ve been contributing my whole life doesn’t mean we should double down of a failing program.

> Like 1/4 of everything I make goes to social security.

If you want to be taken seriously, don't make false claims. It weakens your other arguments. Social Security is 6.2% (12.4% if self-employed since the employer takes care of half) on the first $176,100 of your net income (which for the median US taxpayer is on all their income). Medicare is 1.45% (2.9% if self-employed, same as Social Security).

So if you are self-employed, you pay at most 15.3% of your income below $176,100 in combined Social Security and Medicare. That's a lot, but it's not 25%. If you are not self-employed, you're paying 7.65% on income below $176,100 to both Social Security and Medicare which is very far from 25%.

If you're earning over $176,100 your effective Social Security tax rate will drop.

I agree, that was a striking claim to make. Perhaps the person you responded to puts a lot into their 401k thinking it is social security or thinks income tax is FICA?

Nope, I’m self-employed, so I pay 15%. I said, “Like 1/4”, indicating roughly.

As another commenter pointed out, social security is basically just income tax. If you combine my actual income tax with social security and Medicare, then I’m way north of 30% which is just ridiculous.

I was not claiming that social security is exactly 1/4 of my income, though I see how it could’ve been misconstrued that way.

15% is pretty far removed from 25%. I'll happily take the 10% you're willing to pay in to keep your estimate accurate!