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[@ChrisWillx] Inside DOGE, The IRS & How to Scam the US Government - Sam Corcos

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@ChrisWillx - "Inside DOGE, The IRS & How to Scam the US Government - Sam Corcos"

Link: https://youtu.be/u4odAXoqRT8

Short Summary​

The speaker, now CIO of the Treasury Department, was recruited to help modernize the IRS, which is plagued by outdated technology and inefficient IT projects. He's focused on fixing systemic issues like poor leadership, broken procurement processes, and data integrity problems, aiming to bring the IRS's IT infrastructure up to modern standards. The work is challenging, involving navigating bureaucracy, working with limited resources, and advocating for long-term changes to government practices.

Key Quotes​

Here are five direct quotes from the provided YouTube transcript that represent valuable insights or surprising statements:

  1. "It's about $15 billion over budget. It was actually started right around the time I was born and it's still ongoing. It's still 5 years away. It was 5 years away in 1991. It's still 5 years away." (Highlights the staggering inefficiency and ongoing nature of the IRS modernization project.)

  2. "So, uh, I this would have been in April, so really peak tax season. I made the recommendation that we put effectively the entire leadership team of IRS IT, which was about 50 people on administrative leave...and we're replacing them with the people who are technical enough to do the job. And that requires a lot of courage. Nothing like that had ever been done before as far as I know." (Illustrates the drastic measures taken to address the lack of technical expertise within the IRS.)

  3. "So, some of these folks are really hardworking, good people. They're just put in a position where they could not be successful." (Expresses empathy for government employees trapped in roles they are not equipped for due to systemic issues like tenure-based promotions.)

  4. "Executive orders are not self-actualizing. Just having the policy is a very small part of the amount of work that actually needs to get done to get these things implemented." (Highlights the disconnect between policy creation and actual execution within government.)

  5. "If you fix the contractor problem, what would improve? Well, uh I'll give you another specific example of like the contract the the procurement process generally is we we have this big initiative for uh to eliminate paper processing at the IRS. We spend something ballpark with like labor and all this stuff ballpark a half a billion dollars a year on paper processing." (Illustrates how inefficient government policies cost money, and the IRS wastes money processing paper.)

Detailed Summary​

Here is a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript in bullet points, highlighting key topics, arguments, and information:

Key Topics & Arguments

  • New Role: The interviewee has taken on the role of Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Treasury Department, focusing primarily on IRS modernization.
  • IRS Modernization: The IRS modernization project is described as a severely mismanaged IT project, billions over budget, and perpetually "five years away" from completion.
  • Lack of Technical Expertise in Government IT Leadership: A significant problem identified is the lack of technical backgrounds among IT leadership within the IRS and government in general. This is attributed to outdated job standards and qualifications for CIO positions, historically rooted in a "librarian" role.
  • Courage to Implement Change: The current administration is portrayed as willing to make structural changes, including removing non-technical leaders, which previous administrations were hesitant to do.
  • Political vs. Career Civil Servant: The speaker is a political appointee, not a career civil servant. He acknowledges that political appointees are easier to fire.
  • Fixing Computers, Not Politics: He emphasizes that his focus is on improving IT systems and that this goal transcends political divisions.
  • National Debt Concerns: A major motivation for taking the role is concern about the growing national debt and a desire to improve government efficiency.
  • Bureaucracy and Inertia: The speaker discusses challenges in making changes, such as the IRS's continued reliance on fax machines and the difficulty in identifying the policy that mandates it.
  • Civil Service Protections: It's difficult to fire poor performers in the civil service. Promotion is often used to move underperforming employees to other departments.

Detailed Information & Examples

  • Initial Contact: The interviewee was brought in through the U.S. Digital Service (USDS), also known as Doge, but is now a direct employee of the Treasury.

  • Personal Background: He has over 10 years of experience as a software developer, including serving as a CEO.

  • Github Stats: Has contributed about one million lines of production code.

  • IRS IT Leadership Overhaul: Recommended and implemented the removal of the entire IT leadership team (around 50 people) at the IRS, replacing them with more technically competent individuals.

  • Tenure-Based Promotions: One of the issues within the government job structure is that promotions are largely tenure-based leading to people in positions that they are not qualified to do.

  • Dog Adjacent: The interviewee describes his relation to the U.S. Digital Service as Doge adjacent.

  • Empathy for Those Removed: He expresses empathy for those removed from their leadership positions, noting that many were aware of their lack of technical expertise and felt guilty about it.

  • Executive Order Role: The executive order related to U.S. Digital Service enables the creation of the office and the review of contracts.

  • Political Division: Everyone wants IT systems to work better across party lines.

  • Government Expenditure: Notes that the United States has one of the highest government expenditures per capita globally.

  • Us Debt Clock: The US Debt Clock shows a debt of about 37 trillion dollars.

  • Topline Number: Notes that the 37 trillion dollar number is the topline number to look at on the debt clock.

  • Government Inertia Example: Describes the frustration of trying to determine why the IRS continues to use fax machines to receive data, despite widespread recognition of its inefficiency and insecurity.

  • Limited Leverage to Change Staff: A key difference between government and private sector roles is the limited ability to fire or promote employees based on performance.

  • Spoil System: Prior to civil service reforms, government jobs were allocated to political supporters. The modern civil service system tries to avoid this.

  • Poor Performers: States that "the most common way to get a poor performer off your team is to promote them."

  • Excellent People in Government: Acknowledges that there are excellent and dedicated government employees, but they may be outnumbered by those who are less competent or motivated.

  • Engineer to Non-Engineer Ratio: Government IT typically has one engineer for every 10 non-engineers.

  • Difficulty in Achieving Change: Even with executive orders, implementing changes requires persistent follow-up and enforcement.

  • "Do Not Pay" example: "Do Not Pay", a 2013 initiative to prevent payments to fraudulent bank accounts, was found to be implemented inconsistently.

  • Dominic Cummings: Mentions speaking to Dominic Cummings might be useful based on similar IT and goverment administration issues in the UK.

  • Contractor Misalignment: Highlights the incentive misalignment with government contractors, who often exploit the lack of technical expertise and oversight to inflate prices.

  • Pilot Pricing: Contractors offer very low "pilot pricing" initially, and then drastically increase prices once they become embedded in the systems.

  • Nobody Says No: The lack of experienced people to say no is the reason this contractor pricing issue is unique to the goverment.

  • Limited Duration: The fact that these roles, with 10 billions of spend per year, are only temporary.

  • Low Salary: The CIO is being compensated a yearly salary of only 160k.

  • Industry Average: It would be more reasonable to base salaries closer to the industry average for these types of roles. Perhaps something like a VP of engineering at Walmart.

  • Value Added Resellers: Points out that these firms are hired for some services at a high cost.

  • Lack of Money: It is sometimes felt that there's a lack of money in government because they aren't allowed to spend it on the things that are needed.

  • Contracts Are Uncompetitive: For a lot of areas of software in technology where contracts must go to the lowest bidder, some companies can't competitively bid for the job.

  • What's Wrong with Government:

  • Negligence: Government is subject to negligence, fraud, incompetence, waste.

  • Not Using Licences: Licences that the government is paying for are not being used by anyone.

  • The 8A Program: The Small Business Association scam where large businesses take an almost 50% cut of the revenue just to move money.

  • Political Leadership: Technical talent is not the reason for system dysfunction in the government, but the main reason is leadership.

  • No Technical Interviews: The IRS historically does not conduct technical interviews during their hiring process.

  • Enigneering is for Engineers: Plans to release a memo stating that engineers should be qualified as engineers on the engineering teams.

  • 100 Engineer Roles: There are 100 roles for engineers that are currently open at the IRS.

  • The Hiring Process: The HR process is broken where HR people are screening applications before the engineers and in doing so disqualify qualified candidates who should be considered.

  • Office of Personnel Management: They are working with OPM and IRS HR to figure out how to fix the hiring process.

  • Pathways: Discusses what happens with the pathways programs, in terms of if things are not in the loop on this process.

  • Minimally Qualified: In a lot of these roles, you are specifically instructed to hire the minimally qualified candidate.

  • Direct Hire Authority: Very limited number of roles have direct hire authority.

  • Little Feedback Loop: There is little feedback loop within the government. So, the government won't just die.

  • No Balancing Force: There's no balancing force to the unions in the public sector.

  • Government's Budget: Executive orders are not self actualizing.

  • Dominc Cummings: Mentioning to speak to Dominic Cummings because he might be able to feel a little bit less about the situation,

  • It's All Computers:

  • BFS Bureau of the Fiscal Services does the payments.

  • IRS: is more like QuickBooks.

  • Edge Cases: It's difficult for these technologies to deliver with the edge cases that need to be accounted for. The computers have to be able to handle those edge cases.

  • How to Track ATO:

  • Authority To Operate: It is what gives someone security for what they are doing.

  • The ATO Process: The IRS has the worst ATO process in the entire government.

  • Element Drinks: Promoting drinks.

Dodge and Public Perception

  • Wired Magazine Article: Strategic planning session with best engineers at treasury has a wired magazine article saying that this was a hackathon

  • SpaceX affiliated: The media is suggesting there are people affiliated with this organization.

  • Security Systems When first Got In: Generally, a lot of the security has room to improve.

  • Security Clearance: States there is a security clearance.

  • Chester's Fence: The idea that there's some rules that need to exist for a reason and not just get by past because they aren't understood.

  • Reducation in Force: A mechanizm to have a sizable reduction.

  • Age Issues: With the average age not being representative with the rest of the country.

  • A Better Team, A Better Idea: How the better the team and leadership gets, the better everything will come out the other side.

This summary provides a comprehensive overview of the video's content, covering the main points and supporting details.