The Epidemic of Incompetence Within the U.S. Government

As DOGE relentlessly cuts federal  welfare, departmental, and staff spending, its supporters have cheered it on as an effective means to reduce spending. In reality, the so-called “department” has so far done next to nothing to save the U.S. money. Federal spending in Trump’s second term is over $200 billion more than it was at this point in Biden’s presidency- on track to top even Raegan’s catastrophic dent in the national debt. DOGE’s means are not justified for the ends. The means, things like cutting education budget, welfare programs, housing investment, labor reform. And the end; money simply redirected to much worse investments, more borrowing, and citizens left devastated. The Trump administration’s goal is not to save money as it’s perpetrators say it is, but to weaken the power of the nation’s people to dissent.

This second term is laced with malice, and this paper will cover one of its biggest: the republican party’s epidemic of ignorance. Work as a public servant entails the pursuit of knowledge, intellectual thought, and selflessness. More and more often, however, representatives and senators alike are attending sessions to get, to put it simply, schooled. It’s like a four-year-old preschooler running up to their teacher and saying “grass is blue” and by the time their teacher says “no the fuck it is not, we’re holding you back,” time has already been wasted that could have been used to teach everyone else. 

Take Kristi Noem for example, the Secretary of Homeland Security who incorrectly stated in a Congress session last week that Habeas Corpus was “the president’s right to remove anybody from the country,” as if we lived in fascism. Her definition is the exact opposite of what Habeas Corpus actually is-criminal justice. That precious and expensive time that Noem held the floor, with many paid congresspeople present, was spent solely on giving her a ninth grade civics lesson. Why waste time like this when it could be much better spent actually getting things done?

For many voters, qualification is becoming increasingly irrelevant. The expectation of politicians to be well-educated that was once cherished and, essentially, required to even be on the ballot has dissipated. Like Georgia’s 2022 senate race between Walker and Warnock, an incredibly close election between a football star, who more than likely has CTE, and, something just as impressive, a decorated and well-respected reverend with a degree in theology. It was an unbelievably close race between the two. Somehow Walker, who is almost completely unfamiliar with politics, nearly won. This could mean one of two things; voters care more about their party winning than actual logic, or, somehow, Walker brainwashed half of Georgia using a mind control device he built, which, if true, is so impressive maybe it does qualify for him to be a Senate candidate.

Besides the absence of qualification and lack of basic knowledge about U.S. government functions, most far-right politicians are just not even thinking for themselves. You couldn’t convince me that there is a THING going on in Marjorie Taylor Green’s mind during her town hall meeting last month.

Green, along with many other trump-backers, has faced Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” with an absolutely terrifying approach.

When considering a bill, a legislator should know and ponder three things: what the bills is about, it’s details, and the logistics. Regardless of party, affiliation, background, religion, or any other biasing factors, representatives of the people should always, always, read the bill being proposed. You could read a bill about allocating thirty million dollars to squirrels jet-skiing at the Mall of America and if you approve of it? That’s great! As long as we know you know about it. If you approved of it just by looking at the title “Jetskis for Squirrels Act?” Even better! I would too! If you voted yay without knowing shit about what is was or is? That would high-key be a disappointment.

To everyones surprise, she absolutely did not do either of those things. On June 3rd, she wrote “full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years.” In other words, she didn’t read shit. First, how does one just casually mention this? That’s like barreling past a stop sign, ramming into a family of five with your pickup truck, and then saying “full transparency, I didn’t realize there was a massive red fucking stop sign there. Nor did I recognize I was going sixty miles an hour in a neighborhood. My b.”

Green has her experience of being a conspiracy theorist under her belt and this is the one thing she chooses not to devote time and energy into reading. With her three passed bills this year having been to rename a post office, rename another post office, and unwind energy conservation method in water heaters, it’s more than likely she just wanted something to feel contributive to.

Green wasn’t the only one to blindly approve of this bill, however. Many other far-right politicians simply skimmed through it, and, surprisingly, it’s not even entirely their fault. The “Big Beautiful Bill” is still in the Senate, having passed the House. This act is over one-thousand pages long, covering an incredibly wide variety of topics mostly unseen by Republican representatives.

In his recent town hall, Nebraska Senator Mike Flood was pressed about page 562 of the bill, titled “Restriction on Enforcement.” As if that didn’t sound sketchy enough, in it is a severe weakening of the judicial branch. Essentially, if passed, Federal Courts significantly limits the tools available to them to force compliance of those convicted. Court orders lose their threat to violators, opening the door to further undermining of the law from white house administration. Flood, who wasn’t aware of any of that, ultimately apologized and said “when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern.”

Our leaders need to be knowledgeable, informed, and careful. Green and Flood learned a lesson that day that serves as an unbelievably damaging embarassment to themselves; do your job.

Without competent and careful representatives and senators, who’s going to hold the executive branch accountable? Trump is aware of his followers negligience, their blind support. Obviously, he is going to take advantage of that. The name “Restriction on Enforcement” itself is a red flag the size of the national debt. A piece written almost exclusively for Trump to dismiss him of his crimes.

To support does not mean to blindly follow. Healthy checks and balances require the critical attitude of all governmental branches and individuals within them, harshly shaping out one another to make them better. With the ignorant support of representatives and senators who, to put it bluntly, do not have a single original or constructive thought, Trump wins. The executive branch propels itself into full control, and nobody wins.

In local and state elections, vote for people who display knowledge. Vote for candidates who prove the ability to think for themselves, care for the matter at hand, and more than anything, put their country above their biases.

“Knowledge is wealth, wisdom is treasure, understanding is riches, and ignorance is poverty” – Matshona Dhliwayo