I WAS D.O.G.E BEFORE
D.O.G.E. WAS COOL!
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, May 2, 2025

The statute of limitations has long since expired; I feel safe sharing what I’m about to tell you.

It was the late 1970s. I was on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard, serving as a Chief Warrant Officer. That rank placed me in the middle of the hierarchy—on the higher end, but well below any level that influenced decisions beyond my own small section of the Personnel Division in a District Office.

Among my assigned duties I managed the District’s Morale Fund Program, if memory serves me. it was about $250,000 to $300,000. Every year, I submitted a morale budget to Coast Guard Headquarters, and every year I received more money than the previous year. That was the norm in the late 1970s—and I doubt much has changed, though I hope I’m wrong.

Here’s how the program worked—or didn’t. You decide.

Each year, I would notify all district units and commands to submit their funding requests for morale-related items: softball mitts, footballs, TVs, ping pong tables, pool tables, fishing gear—you name it. The sad reality was that some commanding officers or officers-in-charge were more skilled at writing proposals than others, which meant their units often received more than their “fair share.” I tried to be as fair as possible, but with over 50 units from southern New Jersey to as far north as Burlington, Vermont, equitable distribution was a real challenge. Still, this cycle repeated every year.

What frustrated me from day one was this: I was verbally instructed—never in writing—to ensure I spent 100% of the allocated funds. That way, when requesting the next year’s budget from Coast Guard Headquarters, I could ask for the same amount plus at least an additional 10%. This was the accepted practice, year after year.

Now, yes, the cost of goods increased over time, justifying higher budgets to some degree. But here’s the catch—if we fulfilled most requests one year, how much more could units really need the next? Sure, some gear wore out and needed replacing, but most units mirrored my approach locally, also asking for more funding annually.

It got worse.

If I didn’t spend every last dollar, my fitness report could reflect poorly, potentially harming future promotions. So, like those before me, I followed the routine: I spend it all. That was the expectation. That was the system.

Adding insult to injury, we were required to buy all morale items from the General Services Administration (GSA) catalog. The GSA prices were consistently higher than what you’d pay locally. A 25” color TV from GSA might cost $800–$1,000. At Sears or any appliance store in New York Cit, the same model might cost $450.

Common sense tells you:

Buying locally supports local economies.
Items were immediately available—no shipping delay.
Most importantly, local purchases stretched our dollars further.

But no—government rules required the opposite.

I swallowed hard and played along. My career was on the line.

Think about that the next time someone criticizes D.O.G.E. I was just one person in one small government office. Multiply that by every branch of the military, and every federal office—millions of people, following the same flawed process. Now imagine how much waste that adds up to.

Then came my accidental “workaround.”

One unit requested an item that didn’t quite match anything in the GSA catalog. On a whim, I submitted a note with the requisition stating: “GSA catalog items do not meet the unit’s specifications” and I attached a page torn out of a Sears and Roebuck catalog with the they wanted. To my surprise, I was told to find an alternative source. I did. I bought the item locally—on sale—for $400. GSA had listed it at $900. I saved $500 with one sentence.

That one workaround became my standard practice. Unless I had no choice, I rarely used the GSA catalog again. I bought locally, saved thousands, and no one ever questioned what I was doing on a routine basis.

As a result, not only did I fulfill nearly every morale request—I funded construction of a softball field (complete with backstop, fenced outfield, and bases), purchased canoes, and even funded an outdoor basketball court with lights. The savings were real, and the benefits were widespread.

Let me be clear: I’m not bragging. I’m explaining how federal budgets become bloated and abused. No one truly cares—it’s someone else’s money. Your tax dollars, to be precise.

Yes, some funds came from taxes. Others came from profits through military exchanges and commissaries sales. But all of it was treated like monopoly money.

In the grand scheme of federal operations, I was a pinhead—just one of millions. Ask yourself: can you NOW better appreciate what D.O.G.E. is trying to do? Can you value their mission?

More importantly—how can any elected official, Democrat or Republican, claim that the work of D.O.G.E. isn’t essential? And yet, what do we keep hearing? “Stop D.O.G.E.”!

I hope this “nugget” does two things:

Opens readers’ eyes, and
Encourages them to reconsider any negative opinions of D.O.G.E.

The sad truth is this: D.O.G.E. is doing the job Congress was REQUIRED to do—and has neglected—for decades. In my 80 years of life, I’ve never seen Congress take real action to stop this kind of systemic waste.

As a side note, the money I was responsible for to my knowledge, had never been audited during my tour of duty as the District’s Morale Officer. Once again, I beg of you to consider what that statement means. In my “opinion” very few if any government expenditures were audited on a regular basis by the Federal Government. We spent the money and no one to my knowledge ever followed up to ensure that the whatever the money was expected to do, was ever actually done! Think about that for just a second and you will understand just how deep this flawed system really is.

Disclaimer: This is not an attack on all federal employees. On the contrary—many of the finest people I’ve ever met served alongside me in the U.S. Coast Guard. My issue is with those who had the chance to do better and chose not to.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. That’s also an apt description of our federal government—until President Trump’s second term and the creation of the D.O.G.E. partnership with Elon Musk.

They are working hard to prevent America from going bankrupt. Most people don’t believe that’s possible—but it is. You can’t keep spending, printing money, and borrowing to cover the shortfall. It’s unsustainable. It’s insanity.

I don’t care what political party you support. You should believe in and support your country. You should DEMAND that your elected officials—and federal employees—serve We the People, not their own power and positions. You should also DEMAND that every dime is accounted for and that any person within the Federal Government who willfully is deceitful in the way they handle the “people’s money”, should be first FIRED and then PROSECUTED! As a voter, YOU should vet the candidates you vote for and if they refuse to do their job as defined by the U. S. Constitution, vote them out of office, regardless of which political party they may be affiliated with! PERIOD!

5/2/2025 UPDATE

I asked ChatGBT how much would a $200,000 annual budget be worth in 30 years if you increased the budget by 10% EVERY YEAR. Here is the answer and it explains how millions upon millions of dollars are not being budgeted within the over 500 Federal Agencies. ChatGBT: To find the value of a budget that grows by 10% every year for 30 years, starting with $200,000, you can use the compound interest formula:

Future Value≈200,000×17.4494≈3,489,880