Grumpa Joe's Place

Have you ever poked a stick into a hornet’s nest? That happened when Trump hired Elon Musk as his advisor to head the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE. Democrats and liberals all have their tails on fire about Musk, an unelected official, looking into the financial goings-on of the government. He may soon be able to answer my question: how do elected officials who earn $175,000 per year leave office as millionaires?

How quickly the public, especially Democrats, has forgotten that President Obama hired as many as thirty-two non-elected Czars to assist him with transforming America. I blogged about it in a post titled “If You Want To Be A Radical, Hang With Radicals.”

Musk’s latest question: Is there any gold in Fort Knox? The place seems so secret that no one can access it to learn about gold. I was surprised to learn that Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has submitted, but denied formal requests to visit Fort Knox, located in his home state. I have also wondered about the state of our gold reserves. It is hard to imagine what tons of gold looks like. A favorite TV program that I watch is Gold Rush. The effort required to remove ounces of gold from the ground is overwhelming. Since a small part of my engineering career was spent designing equipment that was used in the mining process I found it extremely interesting to watch how enterprising men use the machines to extract gold. All I can say is that there must be a huge vein of the shiny metal in the mountains of Alaska that erodes and washes down into the lower plains.

Somewhere in my family, there is a gold coin about the size of a shirt button. It belonged to my parents, who were allowed to hold up to five troy ounces when President Roosevelt declared the hoarding of gold forbidden in 1933. People who turned in their gold were compensated with paper money equal to the value of the gold. To my knowledge, the small coin was the only gold my parents owned. The only gold I own is in the wedding ring I wear.

I approve of the actions being taken by President Trump to “Drain the Swamp” by exposing and eliminating all government waste and fraud. Often, in the past, I have written about my frustration with the Federal Bureaucracy and wondered how we could rid ourselves of this anchor around our necks. The bureaus create too many regulations that cost us a fortune, and there is nothing we can do about it except vote for politicians who promise to cut costs. My experience is that voting on promises is a lost cause. Political promises are like smoke, they are active and visible during the campaign, but then dissipate and disappear.

My support for this new action to finally cut our debt is strong. The only objection I have to date is Trump’s suggestion that the money saved should be returned to the people. No money should be returned until our national debt is paid in full. We will all be prosperous beyond our wildest dreams when that is done.

Filed under: Conservative, Education, Government | Tagged: DOGE, Gold Standard, Musk, Trump | 2 Comments »