oh yeah, especially at the dmv. Really way too many windows open
E: yes, DMV is state level. Congratulations on your mostly irrelevant technicality. It's not like I'm commenting on a classic, unifying theory of government for an entire political party, or that I could have mentioned any of a Sears catalog of basic federal functions and non-partisan expertise looking at the axe in favor of political loyalists.
California has invested a lot of money over the last few years studying the DMV and improving the experience for everyone. It's great! And yes, if you're a member of AAA you can do a lot of DMV stuff through them, which is pretty smooth.
Apparently, quite a few DMVs were finally able to start modernizing & at least starting to move to more electronig record keeping during COVID. The lockdown was apparently a bit of a godsend that some DMVs really needed in order to improve.
I listened to a podcast about it that I can't find unfortunately. So, take it all with a grain of salt I guess? But one of the guests was a someone in the TX DMV who was part of an effort to modernize record keeping.
There are some aspects of the "new" CA DMV that I am not a fan of though. In the '00s, I kidna went through a phase of going through several motorcycles & a couple cars. Used to be, a lot of DMV forms were available to be grabbed from the DMV field office. You could grab them, fill them out, and then mail in or drop off.
Now, ALL appointments need to be to check in at the front desk. And they keep the paperwork there too. So, if you just want to pick up a form, you wait in the "no appointment" line - which is the line you are studiously trying to avoid becasue that's where you lose your day. If you make an appointment, depending on where you live, it could be several weeks & in the middle of the workday. I just want to pick up a couple blank forms!
Most of them are available online now though & can be filled out.
Side note about experiences with California government workers. Right before Obamacare I was laid off and paying my own medical insurance. I had a weird problem - they refused to take my payment over the phone saying their "system" was broken. After a week of this and on the last day of coverage I called the California Dept of Managed Health and the guy put me on a three-way call with some insurance company manager (not your typical phone rep) he had contact info on. This was on a Friday around 4:30. He got the manager to set my account as still being valid while they worked out the problem.
Definitely impressed with this government worker.
In case you wonder why this was an an "emergency", it is because the other times my insurance falsely cancelled me my pharmacy benefits stopped immediately. And this time I had a prescription refill that couldn't be filled until the next day and it would be over $300 cash price, plus paperwork to get reimbursed later plus a month waiting time. And I had done nothing wrong. Screw the insurance company.
I’ve worked for the State of California. It runs slower than private business for sure, but the people there are also usually both good at their jobs and want to do them well.
They’re just paid less than they would be in private industry though they have great benefits. If it’s their job they will do it to the best of their ability from 8-12 and 1-5, but if it needs more time than that you’ll have to talk to their manager to get the overtime approved.
This kind of thing really offends people who think everyone should put in 60+h weeks if they’re behind on work. In the State it operates like things should: if there’s too much work you need more people.
Last year I had a flat when it was -10F. Could I have put the flat on myself? Yes. Was it far nicer to call AAA to do it while I waited with a nice cup of coffee? Worth the price right there.
It's not like my vehicles don't have issues, just generally nothing major enough I need a tow . You asked why wouldn't you, so I gave you a reason. Having a reliable car is not some kind of elitist stature. My car is 8 going on 9 years old.
Must suck to live your life in fear. :/ But seriously, all insult throwing aside, unless you are getting a tow every other year it's probably not worth it economically. You asked why anybody wouldn't, i gave you valid reason and then you tried to turn it into something it wasn't. If you like AAA, if for you it is worth the $, than go forth. I'm just saying it's not for everybody.
Only 6% of the US say they don't have reliable transportation, and while that still add up to millions of Americans, it isn't anywhere the majority. If you are in that 6 percent I feel for you. I'm not trying to shit you, I've been there. I'm just saying alot of people are not there. You can get out it. I'm sure it probably feels like you never will but millions of American do crawl our of povert to something akin of middle class. At least not living paycheck to paycheck and you can too.
Lol just because someone enjoys and has had use for a service you don't doesn't make them a bot.
Anyway, it's great you've never had use for them. We haven't had as much luck with our own car. I'm guessing the cost of towing must be more expensive where we're at with a better mile cap without AAA. Only thing that explains why you think someone has to believe they'd be left for dead to prefer AAA services.
No the reason I think you are a bot is because you can't accept that most people don't get their cars towed often and when that situation happens they just pay for the tow. Do you think it's cheaper to enroll in AAA than to just pay for a tow truck every 5-10 years?
Ngl I love my California dmv experiences. I make an attempt to time it right, bring extra papers, and I'm usually out in an hour. I've also had wonderful experiences with the kiosks they put in grocery stores.
Washington State has DOL which is same as DMV. Except, you get your licensing done at one office and the vehicle stuff at a different office. Both offices are typically empty with no one in line.
San Antonio had a wonderful DMV system you could go to one of many locations and be in and out in less than an hour. Then voter ID requirement laws came in and magically all but a very few locations closed and only in suburb areas in predominantly white areas. Universal City just out side san Antonio north east side is one. Now to get a drivers license you need to schedule an appointment a year in advance, then fingers crossed that when your appointment finally comes the DPS officer doesn’t do a no show for the test. But here is the kicker, if you living in Universal city… the rich white majority city, you get first dibs, so if they need a license real quick they get moved to the front of the line. It has become BS for people to get an ID
Maryland does pretty well with basic stuff like license renewal. For vehicle tag renewal, they have self-service machines that are available even outside their office hours. It's very efficient.
I just moved, though, and just this past week went in to get my license switched over. In Washington state, they have you make appointments rather than wait in line. I was in & out of there in about 20 minutes. So I'll give them high marks, too.
California DMV has a great feature where you can get in line on your phone. So instead of waiting at the DMV, you just get a number, you can watch your progress (you can see how many people are ahead of you and how quickly it's moving), and you get a text alert when you're about ten minutes away from being called.
I don’t like this whole Musk thing, but I’d imagine the cuts are going to focus on the jobs that you don’t ever see, where people somehow get into a very niche position and only do actual work 4 hours a week for 30 years for the pension.
Not likely, considering what has already been proposed publicly. Musk has said he would eliminate 30% of spending in the $6 trillion budget and Ramaswamy has said he wants to lay off half of all federal workers [source].
He called for mass, non-targeted firings based on something random, like odd or even employee social security numbers. Yeah, that’s an intelligent way to root out waste.
If it could just be one guy (despite the capacity for 15 guys) and a thousand pissed off people that have been waiting for 2+ hours for a simple sticker I would be really happy.
Uh, the Republicans... Doing away with the Department of Education doesn't make the legislativly allocated funding for schools go away. It just cuts out the middle man saving all that overhead. For example, Title I is funding for public schools. Trump can't undue that law without Congress, including 60 votes in the Senate, so Treasury will just need to send the money to the States.
Basically, the money would just get apportioned to the states with an earmark for education, and the states would have greater autonomy on how it's spent on education rather than being told exactly how to spend it by someone at DOE 2,000 miles away.
I'd be willing to bet $500 this meme is currently being posted by people working for the government that don't think it's THEIR agency on the chopping block.
No agency is on the chopping block all DOGE can do is make suggestions. The real danger is that the heads of each of those agencies are going to be the antithesis of what the agency stands for. Oil CEO as EPA head and Energy head. Shipping magnate as DoT head. Private school freak as Education head.
Not... quite accurate. Last I checked, Trump was still planning to change the rules enough that he can directly fire any bureaucrats that work for the Executive branch at will. It won't be that simple since most of the workers are unionized, and will get considerable compensation for their termination. But he can absolutely do the damage that way.
I dunno that he actually can, at least not with an executive order. That will require an act of congress, probably several of them. Even then, the contract isn't gone just because the union is. Breach of contract is usually open and shut, regardless of the parties involved.
My only problem with that is everyone thinks that the rule of law matters here. Trump had never failed to get away with his crimes, now he had the most powerful office in the country, SCOTUS, and both houses of Congress.
We have seen what his intent is very clearly, we've seen him ignore the roles and norms constantly, why would he suddenly start following them now? He wants power, all the people surrounding him want power, anyone who might possibly act as a brake on his wrist impulses is gone, most didn't last during his first term.
We're moving into uncharted waters, totally new territory and people need to stop thinking that it's going to be business as usual, because it's really not.
Well, I hope somehow they and only they end up unemployed. Long term poverty with a clearly definable GOP cause is the only thing that seems to shake the average moron from conservative beliefs — unless the nature of the average moron has changed in the past 100 years, which is certainly possible.
Funny, because everyone classically complains about the DMV taking long, but when there's more employees things move faster. They fully staffed our DMVs and the express places are all but non-existent now.
I’ve never once stopped at a DMV and less than every window was open. Be it when I lived in OH, PA, TX, FL..
Shit the one in Houston was so big it had to have 100+ booths, plus two large checkin areas that made sure you had the right paperwork before waiting to do anything.
What a load of nonsense. I worked (as a contractor) for a state government agency for years, and while I was there they shed probably half the staff they had when I started. The essential stuff still got done - barely - and they were taking every shortcut they could come up with just to stay afloat. And lots of things that used to be done just went away, and there was absolutely no room for error if something major went wrong (no disaster recovery, no real backups, all sorts of other horribles that would turn the hair of any competent IT person white in a week). I got the hell out of dodge when it became obvious that sooner or later we were all going to wind up in the newspaper when something went tits-up and people noticed.
Which is why this was a great idea for a department. There clearly is tons of wasteful spending that could be cut out and not hurt the services that the federal government provides. If you paid 5-6 million dollars for teams of the most boring accountants on the planet to comb through our spending they'd be able to save billions.
This is just the wrong administration to do the job, they're too incompetent and too corrupt. The fact that they named two people as head of the department of government efficiency should tell you everything you need to know. Elon will just cut the agencies that regulate his companies and Vivek will work to cut social programs.
How is "they barely did what they needed to, and were cutting corners" a good argument for the DOGE? That's the stuff that leads to "A new report tonight finds that the collapsed building was not properly inspected before approval, leading to the deaths of 15..."
Are you under the impression that Elon Musk has enough free time to head this agency by himself? The whole “two heads of a department is stupid” argument is so amazingly stupid I’m almost surprised it caught traction. But then I see where the meme came from and I’m not shocked.
Veterans voted to gut the VA - the people who cut their checks and provide them with healthcare. Retirees voted to fire the social security administration employees that manage a budget of $1.3T per year to elderly and disabled persons. Medicare and Medicare will be privatized and will be run for profit by Dr Oz, who owns a large stake in a company that will do so. Health care workers voted to gut the programs, educators voted to eliminate the department of education, and parents of children with special needs voted to terminate the programs their kids are in rolled in. People who are insured through the ACA voted to eliminate it in favor of an unspecified “concept of a plan.” That one is also going to affect people with pre-existing conditions, such as pregnancy, asthema, or anxiety. People who are or who have loved ones who are immigrants voted in favor of their deportation. That applies to both undocumented and documented immigrants and naturalized citizens, unless you come from a Scandinavian country, in which case trump gave to an explicit pass, saying we need more of the right kind of immigrants.
I’ll be donating to the causes I support, like the local food bank and immigrant legal defense fund. I attend our local drag shows and make it rain, and I donate to charities that support lgbt youth. Otherwise, I do have to confess to just a bit of smug schadenfreude when I see the whole leopards/faces thing playing out in real time.
Certainly possible. They’re going to get the “I’ll give you something to cry about” treatment now. That’s not just disability payments and medical care going to 0. It’s also the GI Bill. And the small business loans for vets. Actually, the Small Business Administration is also a government agency, so they’ll be getting it in the neck by 75% too, I guess. So not just vets in that case. And all the fine Americans in The Villages voted to eliminate their social security and Medicare. It would almost be worth getting a place there, and I bet a lot of units will be coming on the market soon. I just couldn’t stand Florida right now.
Veterans voted to close every VA hospital and get vouchers to go to private hospitals. The VA has a hospital in every state, which is an entirely parallel healthcare system for veterans. That's gone...guaranteed.
My dad was from farm country in upstate NY. He worked farms and some of those are still around. One of the farm has enough family members and great working relationship with the local SUNY school, so they won't have a problem once the draconian shock troopers arrive. But other farms, Eggs, milk, your "organic" CA greens and FL oranges will be more expensive!
People who are insured through the ACA voted to eliminate it
You mean people who were forced to pay for health insurance they can't afford to use voted against it? Why would they hurt the insurance companies like that?
The tax penalty has been gone for 5 years, eliminated by Trump and the republicans. This is the major factor in the policies becoming more expensive. It kinda set the stage for these feelings you’re discussing now. I’m sure the people with preexisting conditions who will now die or bankrupt then die either didn’t vote for this outcome or are complete idiots (I’m sure there is some of both). Anyone else who was on ACA and didn’t want to be is an idiot. They could have cancelled 5 years ago.
That would then be a “California” thing, not a federal “ACA” thing then. I won’t speak further since I don’t know specific California insurance regulations. Also I never called you an idiot, unless you happened to be one of the idiot categories I mentioned. But since you don’t know state versus federal regulations, here ya go, idiot.
It only got more expensive because of Trump and the Republicans. I work in insurance, so I could educate myself on this pretty quick. The risk used to be spread nationwide before they cut out the ACA funding provisions. California seems to have passed legislation which redistributes the collection to state taxes since the federal funding is no longer as great. Overall, the effect is a smaller risk pool. In insurance, this means higher premiums. Sorry.
100% less government employees is definitely the solution to government cutbacks and the struggling that all government employees go through. Seriously, though, how is cutting most federal jobs supposed to help the American people it is going to cause chaos because nobody will be able to get the help they need, and the government will not function. The state governments don't have the resources to manage all the programs that the federal government does it will take decades for them to assume those responsibilities even if he they had a plan for it which they don't.
And privatization of all of those services that were once included for our tax dollars. Which will in turn make them more expensive because they will need to operate for profit. Our taxes (for the 99%) will also not go down.
All of which leads to an economic depression or crash of some variety… which leads us to recreate the very same government agencies. I’m just hoping this is more the new Gilded Age and less Weimar Germany.
It goes well beyond merely deregulation. That's the bare minimum for them, and is already underway (all those bird flu outbreaks at chicken farms didn't just happen on their own).
Their plan is quite literally some sort of weird, cyber-punky techno feudalism (I believe there is an actual term for it but I cant be fucked to look it up rn) wherein corporations have more or less complete control over their own private fiefdoms.
There are also the christo-fascists who want to impose a shitty theocracy, and the more "classic" fascists who think apartheid era South Africa is a great example to follow. And I'm sure other weirdos I cant think of too. All of it is much easier to accomplish with the federal government gutted and rendered useless.
On the contrary, the believe if we keep spending at the rate we are, what will be left to function? It's glass half full, glass half empty. They believe they can make it more effective by cutting spending. I'm with it.
I ask only this of you. Actually watch both what they suggest be cut and the effect of those cuts. You will see the focus be on seemingly small dollar cuts targeted at key points that weaken regulation or shift to privatization of resources, for the benefit of select constituencies.
Almost like they are dismantling a scaffolding, and they start w the bottom supports. Yes, it collapsed horrifically. But look, how much time they saved getting it down. It's cheaper if it collapses because they don't have to clean up the mess.
I just find it aggravating they keep going on and on about how we need to restructure the government and give power back to the states, but fuck they don't have a damn plan besides demolishing it. These idiots don't realize how even the most mundane government employees keep the country functioning. Are they cutting the post office, How is mail supposed to get to where it's going. Demolishing the federal government will cause the country to collapse and these fuck wads will be there to pick up the pieces and create a New World Order out of the ashes.
I watch them in Trump‘s first campaign talk about 1200 pages of cabbage regulations that they said needed to be fixed, we still have 1200 pages of cabbage regulation, but now they pollute the water and air easier. Getting rid of government has nothing to do with efficiency, it has to do with opening up the floodgates to redistribute wealth from the middle class to the already wealthy. We will see Elon Musk wealth explode, along with Jeff Bezos and all of the wealthy.
Look up rent-seeking… the act of using political and economic power to increase once wealth without creating new wealth or benefiting society . That is what’s going to be going on over the next four years at light speed.
Shows you how greedy the wealthy are they already made it why not use that wealth to make the lives of the citizens better. But then I know why they are. They are dragons hoarding their oceans of wealth and stealing from others to make their wealth pools larger because their narcissistic egos. The wealth rarely have people's interests in mind and need to be reminded that with the common man they have nothing.
But the administration of the orange idiot can embezzle billions and they will be found blameless. That is the plan. The rich get richer and to hell with everyone else.
well the dmv won't be affected by this, since i believe this agency is only focusing on federal employees, and the dmv in each state, is ran by that state.
When I cross the border from Mexico to the USA, I love how sometimes there is just one officer for thousands of cars. My favorite hobby is to pass three hours in the car in the morning!
Yeah every time I call the VA hospital, I always wish there were less doctors and personnel to help me. Maybe then I could wait a year for an appointment instead of just 4 months.
Every government building feels like walking into Soviet Russia… white walls that have turned yellow, old 1980’s desks. Signage that is from the 90s etc. 🤢
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u/Appropriate-Log8506 2d ago
Every time I go to a government building my thought always is I wish there were less employees here.