Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm w Leazy Boston
Speaker 1: News Radio.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back. I want to thank my guests,
Speaker 2: the Auditor of the come Wealth of Massachusetts, Diana de Zaglio,
Speaker 2: And again I would encourage those of you who know
Speaker 2: state representatives, who know state senators, you need to say
Speaker 2: to the look. Now, this is a law that was
Speaker 2: passed by seventy two percent of the voters of Massachusetts
Speaker 2: and initiative petition seventy two percent to authorize the auditor
Speaker 2: to audit the books of the state legislature. This is
Speaker 2: one that we'll talk about more frequently here on Night
Speaker 2: Side as time goes on. But this is just pure
Speaker 2: political bluster by the Speaker and the Senate to a
Speaker 2: lesser degree by the Senate President. But the Speaker who's
Speaker 2: never been on this program and probably never will be
Speaker 2: on this program, but he can come on this program
Speaker 2: any night, any night. Or Karen Spielkill come on this program,
Speaker 2: who has been on this program, She can come on
Speaker 2: any night and just to find their unwillingness to comply
Speaker 2: with the will of seventy two percent of the voters
Speaker 2: here in Massachusetts. Now, let's talk about Washington and let's
Speaker 2: talk about the Department of Government Efficiency, which is headed
Speaker 2: by Elon Musk. Put it in perspective, put it in perspective.
Speaker 2: At this point, about a third of the voters support
Speaker 2: what those is doing overall. Now, about a third of
Speaker 2: those voters also feel that this is not something that
Speaker 2: is legal. And we'll talk about this, but there's a
Speaker 2: really definitive split here. Seventy percent of Trump voters say
Speaker 2: it's great and seventy three percent of Harris voters say
Speaker 2: it's not so great. So there is now again to
Speaker 2: the Victor Golders spoils, to all of that, is there fraud?
Speaker 2: Is there waste within the federal government? You bet you.
Speaker 2: If we can eliminate the fraud and waste, that is
Speaker 2: a laudable goal. However, however, it came to my attention
Speaker 2: earlier this week that you know these letters that Elon
Speaker 2: Musk has been sending out, or he hasn't, but the
Speaker 2: government under it, with his instructions, has been sending out
Speaker 2: in which everybody has to list five things that they
Speaker 2: did last week. Okay. Musk commented on that during a
Speaker 2: recent cabinet meeting in which he was he held fourth
Speaker 2: for quite quite a while, and he was talking now
Speaker 2: about sending out these emails. I don't know if your
Speaker 2: boss ever sent you an email that said, hey, we
Speaker 2: want to make sure that you tell us five things
Speaker 2: you did last week. Okay, I could tell my boss
Speaker 2: five hundred things I did last week, and I'm sure
Speaker 2: you could as well, but I really don't want to
Speaker 2: have to waste my time telling my boss. Now, there
Speaker 2: is some concern that some federal workers have checked out
Speaker 2: because of the time that OVID, When COVID occurred and
Speaker 2: federal workers were given the opportunity to work from home
Speaker 2: or work remotely, and there's probably some abuse to that.
Speaker 2: And if Elon Musk can find that abuse, I say,
Speaker 2: go for it. But this was Musk in the Oval office.
Speaker 2: I believe it was some time. It was last week,
Speaker 2: and he was asked to talk about why he's sending
Speaker 2: out these and requesting emails from literally everyone who works.
Speaker 2: I don't know who's going to read them, but this
Speaker 2: is what his response was when he was prompted by
Speaker 2: the President to talk about the theory behind sending out
Speaker 2: emails and having legitimate federal employees as well as maybe
Speaker 2: people who have have zoned out. Maybe they're retired, maybe
Speaker 2: they're dead. I don't know. This is what muskt to say.
Speaker 2: Cut thirty three, rob President.
Speaker 3: Mister, are there about half of the government and employees
Speaker 3: so far up here to responded to your requests for
Speaker 3: what they've been doing over the past week? Is there
Speaker 3: a timeline in place for next moves for people being fired?
Speaker 4: You want to get in there to you will expect
Speaker 4: to see you think results, yes, well to like the
Speaker 4: I think that email as was best interpreted as a
Speaker 4: proponent's review, but actually.
Speaker 5: It was a plus check review.
Speaker 6: Do you have a.
Speaker 7: You have a pulse and two neurons?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 7: If you have a fulse in two neurons, you can
Speaker 7: replace me an email. This is you know, I think,
Speaker 7: not a high balk. That is what I'm saying. This
Speaker 7: is a should we anyone can accomplish this.
Speaker 5: But what we are trying to get to the bottom
Speaker 5: of it is we think there are a number of
Speaker 5: people on pair well who are dead, which is probably
Speaker 5: why they can't respond, and and some people who are
Speaker 5: not real people, like beneficially fictional individuals that are collecting paycheck.
Speaker 8: I think, well, some of these collecting paychecks are a
Speaker 8: fictional individual. Literally, Trump grant all these people real, are
Speaker 8: they alive and can their right event? Which I think
Speaker 8: is a reasonable expectation for there. You know, the American
Speaker 8: public would have to least that expectation of someone.
Speaker 2: In the public center. Okay, so he basically wants to know,
Speaker 2: are you alive, et cetera. Well, I think, and I've
Speaker 2: used this phrase before, that they need to be a
Speaker 2: little more careful in what they do. And it has
Speaker 2: come to my attention that there is an organization that
Speaker 2: some of you perhaps have heard of, perhaps you haven't
Speaker 2: heard of it. It's called the Trauma and Critical Trauma
Speaker 2: and Critical Care Teams. What these teams are? These these
Speaker 2: are teams of medical professionals who volunteer their time to
Speaker 2: respond to crises like nine to eleven, like Hurricane Katrina,
Speaker 2: like all the fires I'm sure in South Carolina, the
Speaker 2: fires in southern California. These are critical care physicians, surgeons,
Speaker 2: emergency medican medicine physicians, physicians, assistants so called pas, nurse practitioners,
Speaker 2: registered nurses, nurse anesthetists, paramedics, respiratory therapists, radiology technologists, surgical technologists,
Speaker 2: and pharmacists. Basically, these are people who are on a
Speaker 2: very very important list, short notice. They get a phone
Speaker 2: call because there's been a disaster and they need help.
Speaker 2: Some Americans need help. These people are volunteers. Think of
Speaker 2: them as a volunteer fire department. If you've ever lived
Speaker 2: in a volunteer in a town that was small, you
Speaker 2: don't have a full time fire department, but you have
Speaker 2: a group of people, men and women who when there's
Speaker 2: a fire, they race to the fire station and they
Speaker 2: jump in the truck and they do what the truck
Speaker 2: or trucks and they do what they can to help
Speaker 2: their neighbors. So think of it like that. Apparently these
Speaker 2: folks have received these letters. So you're a volunteer. You
Speaker 2: might go months or years without being called into action.
Speaker 2: You have your twenty four hour bag packed and ready
Speaker 2: to go. When you get the call. You don't say,
Speaker 2: you know, I think I'll run on a toothpaste. Let
Speaker 2: me hit to CVS and get myself some toothpaste. No,
Speaker 2: you have to. There's an assembly point, logan airport or wherever.
Speaker 2: That's where you go, and you get on a plane
Speaker 2: and you go and you help people. So I think
Speaker 2: that the Trump administration under the guidance, if not the
Speaker 2: leadership of Elon Musk as the head of DOGE is
Speaker 2: a little out over their skis here, and there have
Speaker 2: been a lot of things that they have requested and
Speaker 2: things that have been said that I think are hurtful
Speaker 2: to the cause of finding genuine fraud. There's no way
Speaker 2: that anyone who's looking for government deficiency should have sent
Speaker 2: an email to people who are medical volunteers and who
Speaker 2: are there to help their fellow countrymen in the time
Speaker 2: of crisis as stupid dumb email. Well, we need to
Speaker 2: have five things that you did for us last month. No,
Speaker 2: they didn't last week. They weren't volunteering. So I want
Speaker 2: to open this conversation, and I think that the Trump
Speaker 2: administration will be a lot small it to deal with
Speaker 2: something more like a scalpel than a jackhammer. We'll take
Speaker 2: a break if you'd like to join the conversation on this.
Speaker 2: And I know some of you are going to disagree
Speaker 2: with me. Some of this is not intended as a
Speaker 2: criticism of an effort to get rid of waste, fraud
Speaker 2: and abuse, but this is a criticism if you're going
Speaker 2: to be called the Department of Government Efficiency for God's sakes,
Speaker 2: be efficient in terms of what you request from government employees.
Speaker 2: Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty six one seven, nine, three,
Speaker 2: one ten thirty. My name's Dan Ray. Will be back
Speaker 2: starting with phone calls right after this quick break.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio Bell.
Speaker 2: I've used the metaphor that the Trump administration might be
Speaker 2: out over their skis here a little bit, because I
Speaker 2: think what's going to happen is if you threaten to
Speaker 2: UH in such a way that the public thinks that
Speaker 2: everybody is a federal employee, even doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical
Speaker 2: professionals who are volunteering their time, volunteering their time to
Speaker 2: help out any part of this country or even some
Speaker 2: parts of the world when there's a crisis, I think
Speaker 2: you'll lose the moral high ground. And that's what I'm
Speaker 2: concerned about. And I think that they need to be
Speaker 2: careful what they talk about, because the more they talk,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of people saying, you want to do
Speaker 2: what you want to close federal buildings. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: should can there be some federal buildings closed? Sure? But
Speaker 2: it's you can't do it tomorrow. Let's go to the phones.
Speaker 2: Let me go to Ron in Newton first first up
Speaker 2: this hour, Run and welcome back to Night's Side. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for calling. Hello, Hello, Hi, Ron, you're on ear. Okay,
Speaker 2: we're having problems with the phones again, Rob that we
Speaker 2: had had before. Okay, let's go to run now try
Speaker 2: that trick. Rob. Let's see if Ron's there. We just
Speaker 2: lost him. Ron, please call back. In the meantime, we're
Speaker 2: gonna take Matt in Franklin. We'ren callback at six one, seven,
Speaker 2: nine thirty. Let's go to Matt and Franklin. Matt next
Speaker 2: on first this hour, Nightside. Actually, hmm, can you move
Speaker 2: Matt over up? Are you able to do that for me? Please?
Speaker 2: Six six what Let's go to Matt and Franklin. Matt,
Speaker 2: you are next on Nightside. Go ahead, Matt.
Speaker 9: Is that am I in the air?
Speaker 2: Yes? You are, go right ahead? All right, right, but
Speaker 2: what's technical difficulties Matt and to run? Yeah.
Speaker 9: One of my biggest issues of the full Doge thing, yeah,
Speaker 9: is what they're focusing on is like next to like
Speaker 9: peanuts in the grand scheme of things like, oh, they
Speaker 9: spend eighty six thousand dollars on like some comic book
Speaker 9: in Peru. Well, it's like we're thirty seven trillion dollars
Speaker 9: in and it's like, that's that's your claimed the fan
Speaker 9: that you found this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me let me just ask you if you
Speaker 2: have ever heard the phrase tis better to light one
Speaker 2: candle than simply curse the darkness. I mean, they are
Speaker 2: using those examples, if they're true, and I assume that
Speaker 2: that's the one you just referred to is true. They're
Speaker 2: using that as an example to basically say, here's something
Speaker 2: that never should have been spent on. They're going to
Speaker 2: have to deal eventually with the big topics topics, which
Speaker 2: would be so Yeah.
Speaker 9: I know that Congress. Congress gave a blank check to
Speaker 9: these agencies and relied on the senior executives of these
Speaker 9: agencies to spend the money. And now they're upset how
Speaker 9: the money was spent. It's like, where was Congress all
Speaker 9: these years when the money was being spent.
Speaker 2: That's a good question, But so the question is do
Speaker 2: you do you want? I want those to look at everything,
Speaker 2: But what my concern is that they're looking in the
Speaker 2: wrong place right now. They'll they've sent this email out
Speaker 2: it's you know, just as you're focusing on an eighty
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars comic book. After a while, all those
Speaker 2: little items do run into big money.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and how much of the cost for all those
Speaker 9: employees to respond to a redundant email. It's like their
Speaker 9: managers should be aware of what they're doing. Not all
Speaker 9: of them have access to the computer, so they do
Speaker 9: have to get on it. But that's the whole thing.
Speaker 9: It's like, that's probably a fifteen million right there. Hold on,
Speaker 9: I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, Yeah, that's great. You're going to call us
Speaker 2: back and call the person back. I think we lost you.
Speaker 2: Thanks Matt let We do have run back Ron apologize.
Speaker 2: We've had some technical issues.
Speaker 10: All damn not at all. I'm glad that I got
Speaker 10: back and thank you so much for having this on.
Speaker 10: As you know, I'm a part of the Trauma Critical
Speaker 10: Care International Trauma Critical Care Team, having since nineteen ninety nine,
Speaker 10: go around twenty six years now. In some of my
Speaker 10: deployments had been the first on seeing at nine to
Speaker 10: eleven World Trade Center working with the New York Fire Department,
Speaker 10: Police Department, shortly thereafter Anthrax, where we went back to
Speaker 10: New York City and mass prophylacts seventy five hundred postal
Speaker 10: workers in seventy two hours. That's pretty efficient. To Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 10: Our team has also been to Guam, Haiti, Puerto Rico.
Speaker 10: I can tell you when I went to Hurricane Harvey
Speaker 10: and Houston, I hadn't even gotten deplaned from the plane
Speaker 10: returning back to Logan and they were queuing me up
Speaker 10: for the Ohio Ye team to go to Puerto Rico.
Speaker 2: Right now, Look, no one is questioning the work that
Speaker 2: is done by your organization, that the trauma and critical
Speaker 2: care teams. The question is your ind of it. Your
Speaker 2: volunteers have received an email, like every federal employee who
Speaker 2: are not volunteers, what have you done last week? What
Speaker 2: have you done last week? And look, you you worked
Speaker 2: in your regular job because you were not activated last week.
Speaker 2: You probably had when was the last time you activated?
Speaker 2: A few a few months ago or a couple of
Speaker 2: years ago.
Speaker 10: When was the last time a few years ago? But
Speaker 10: the the you know, we still we have We have
Speaker 10: a team, a roster I call every single month, so
Speaker 10: uh and I'm not on this month's roster, but I
Speaker 10: have during the past year have been on the roster
Speaker 10: a few times and uh, so I received this email.
Speaker 10: It was mandated that we respond, and I got I
Speaker 10: actually got a call from the team commander at about
Speaker 10: eight o'clock in the evening. I was at the hospital
Speaker 10: where I worked, and we talked about it and I said, well,
Speaker 10: can I do it tomorrow and he said no, it's
Speaker 10: the deadline is tonight at midnight. So I finished up
Speaker 10: at ten pm, punched out of my usual time, and
Speaker 10: then went back to the office and completed this by midnight.
Speaker 10: And that included you know what my title was. I
Speaker 10: had to indicate that I maintain readiness to deploy in
Speaker 10: the event of a disaster of public health emergency. You
Speaker 10: participate on the team's on call roster when available and
Speaker 10: received no compensation. When you're on call, you answer emails
Speaker 10: and other communications from your team commander without compensation. And
Speaker 10: so I did respond, and then subsequently that has been
Speaker 10: rescinded to a lower level, that is, we don't have
Speaker 10: to provide this at the moment unless we're deployed, but
Speaker 10: it's logistically impossible it deploys was argent without communication or
Speaker 10: electricity or water and working twelve hour shifts and if
Speaker 10: you get three hours of sleep, that's a good night.
Speaker 2: No, I understand that. But the point I'm trying to
Speaker 2: focus on is the name of this organization is the
Speaker 2: Department of Government Efficiency. If they are so inefficient that
Speaker 2: they are sending emails and demanding a response from people
Speaker 2: who were volunteers, and the question of the email essentially
Speaker 2: is tell us five things you did last week? You know,
Speaker 2: unless you had been activated, there was no there's nothing
Speaker 2: for you to answer.
Speaker 10: I mean, it'd be like, exactly, but I did any
Speaker 10: I complied?
Speaker 2: Well, you complied because you you're somebody who follows rules
Speaker 2: and regulations. It would be if they sent emails out
Speaker 2: to to every federal employee, Please answer this email. Were
Speaker 2: you in Paris at the Eiffel Tower last week? Now
Speaker 2: that might be interesting information and you certainly could could
Speaker 2: accomplish answer yes or no. If that's all that that
Speaker 2: that much wanted to do was to find out if
Speaker 2: people had a pulse. My understanding, ron is, as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: is that this has been this obligation now has fortunately
Speaker 2: been put on pause. But I think it shows that
Speaker 2: the those people need to be efficient themselves before they
Speaker 2: start demanding efficiency from the government.
Speaker 10: Can I can I say one thing before we closed in,
Speaker 10: I was, you know, I've been thinking about this, and
Speaker 10: it was somewhat insulting to receive this, to be honest
Speaker 10: with you, but I've been thinking, you know, if if
Speaker 10: our Congress could work as efficiently and as unified as
Speaker 10: a team as as we do, when they can use
Speaker 10: us as an example if they want, very easily. When
Speaker 10: we deployed to nine to eleven, we had promised the
Speaker 10: Mayor Giuliani and the fire Commissioner von Us and that
Speaker 10: we would have our site set up by oh seven
Speaker 10: hundred and take over care from Stuyvesant High School. We
Speaker 10: beat our timeline in spite of the fact there were
Speaker 10: no walkways.
Speaker 11: You know, it was.
Speaker 10: Still we were still in process for the Bucket Brigade
Speaker 10: at the time we beat it. We saw firefighter by
Speaker 10: six ten in the morning, and and we accomplished what
Speaker 10: in our nation's worst disasters.
Speaker 2: Run Yet without interrupting or with interrupting, I don't think
Speaker 2: anyone is questioning the work that you folks have done,
Speaker 2: and done it voluntarily, not not doing it to earn
Speaker 2: a federal pension or anything like that. I just think
Speaker 2: that that I'm using this as an example of where
Speaker 2: that those people basically have to learn how to be
Speaker 2: efficient themselves. They have to understand who they're sending these
Speaker 2: these requests for information to. And they made a mistake,
Speaker 2: they should they should admit they made a mistake, because
Speaker 2: if they don't admit they made a mistake, then they
Speaker 2: might make the mistake again. So I'm into my my
Speaker 2: ten thirty newscast by four minutes, so I got to
Speaker 2: let you go. Thank you, thank you for what you've done,
Speaker 2: and thank you for giving me a heads up on this,
Speaker 2: because again, the Trump administration will be their own worst
Speaker 2: enemy if they do not realize that this was an
Speaker 2: example of absolute inefficiency by an by agency that has
Speaker 2: inefficiency the word inefficiency in its title. Thanks Ron, we'll
Speaker 2: talk sooner.
Speaker 10: Thanks for helping us skip see you local.
Speaker 2: All right, take a break. Here's the news coming right
Speaker 2: back on Night's side. I just think that this is important.
Speaker 2: I hope you do as well. If you agree with me,
Speaker 2: feel free. If you disagree with me, you can even
Speaker 2: feel more free. Six one seven, two five, four ten
Speaker 2: thirty six one seven nine three one ten thirty. I
Speaker 2: want the Trump administration if there is. I want any
Speaker 2: administration to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse in government. But
Speaker 2: I don't think that this outreach to members of this
Speaker 2: this team that has done such great work over the years,
Speaker 2: is something that they can be proud of. They should
Speaker 2: be They should actually hang their heads and say we
Speaker 2: blew it. But see what you think. Coming back on Nightside.
Speaker 1: You're on night Side with Dan Ray on wz Boston's
Speaker 1: news radio.
Speaker 2: Okay, back to the phones, you go. Let me go
Speaker 2: to Bill and Danvers. Bill you are next on Nightside,
Speaker 2: and we'll get the mice Rich Itch on the air.
Speaker 2: Go ahead, Bill, welcome.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I believe. I don't know if you have the cut,
Speaker 11: dam but I did see some of that cabinet meeting
Speaker 11: that was one of the first ones the Musk was there,
Speaker 11: and must did acknowledge that they will be making the
Speaker 11: mistakes will be made, and they will try to be
Speaker 11: as quick as they can to fix them. And I
Speaker 11: think he gave an example, but I can't remember one
Speaker 11: hundred percent, but he did acknowledge that that you know, uh,
Speaker 11: you know, the size and scope and and and everything entailed,
Speaker 11: they will be mistakes.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, I mean one of the things.
Speaker 2: One of the things that that worries me, okay, is
Speaker 2: in the president's speech the other night, his addressed Congress,
Speaker 2: he listed off all of these numbers of people who
Speaker 2: are listed on Social Security. Who are you know, listed
Speaker 2: as being over the age of one hundred or one
Speaker 2: hundred and fifteen or one hundred and twenty. I forget
Speaker 2: the specifics. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, right.
Speaker 11: Yeah, I've read different stuff about that, to be honest
Speaker 11: with you. And I also read that a lot of
Speaker 11: the computer systems, and I'm not sure if Social Security
Speaker 11: Administration is one of them, but they spend more up
Speaker 11: keep these older systems to maintain them than if they
Speaker 11: had upgraded the technology, which will probably be more efficient
Speaker 11: to a degree.
Speaker 2: And that's that's all I want of reform. That's the
Speaker 2: sort of reform that I would hope everyone would support.
Speaker 2: But what I'm saying is I've read enough which indicates
Speaker 2: to me that the fact that there's somebody who's listed
Speaker 2: as being one hundred and fifty years old doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that that person exists. Now, if there's a check being
Speaker 2: mailed to an address associated with that name, I would
Speaker 2: think you want to find out who's where are those
Speaker 2: checks being cashed and who's cashing those checks? Because there's
Speaker 2: nobody on earth who's one hundred and fifty years old?
Speaker 2: And I just what what I'm afraid of is that
Speaker 2: the Trump administration will engage in this hyperbole about like that,
Speaker 2: which I see as hyperbole, which is good for a SoundBite,
Speaker 2: but people will lose confidence in their ability to actually
Speaker 2: find the problems that are to be corrected because you know,
Speaker 2: whoever that person is who's listened as one hundred and fifty,
Speaker 2: I want to know the answer be pretty simple, and
Speaker 2: I would assume that journalists would want to know the
Speaker 2: answer too. And I'm a journalist. Is there actually a
Speaker 2: person named Joe Smith who's listed as one hundred and fifty?
Speaker 2: Where's is he being sent to check? Every month? Where
Speaker 2: is that check being sent to? Who's cashing that check?
Speaker 2: That's all pretty easy to trace.
Speaker 11: Yeah, well, well you have a writer as a journal
Speaker 11: the uh you know, to request the information of freedom
Speaker 11: you know, and an address. Well, although I don't know
Speaker 11: if you could get the address, you know, just go
Speaker 11: to the guy's house. I don't know, you know what
Speaker 11: I mean, if there is an.
Speaker 2: Address, what I'm saying here. Look, what I'm saying is
Speaker 2: there's Washington is inundated with reporters. Uh. And if the
Speaker 2: Trump administration is smart as opposed to you know, reading
Speaker 2: off numbers as it's listed as thirty thousand people over
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty, well, what does that mean? Does
Speaker 2: it mean that there are thirty thousand people getting government
Speaker 2: checks that they shouldn't be getting. If that's true, that's
Speaker 2: an incredible story. If, on the other hand, some computer
Speaker 2: list hasn't been cleaned, like a voting list hasn't been
Speaker 2: cleaned as they should be cleaned periodically, that's less of
Speaker 2: a story. Still a story, but it's less of a story.
Speaker 11: But I think, I mean, there's Social Security is one thing,
Speaker 11: but I think some of that other stuff that goes down,
Speaker 11: I don't know how anyone can defend it. I mean,
Speaker 11: there's a lot of things that you know, and it
Speaker 11: adds up. I mean supposedly I've been reading. I mean,
Speaker 11: I don't know if it's one hundred billion or one
Speaker 11: hundred and fifty billion. And actually there's accounts that they found. Zelden, right,
Speaker 11: the EPA guy, he said there should be an investigation
Speaker 11: because the EPA. It was the grant money, and I
Speaker 11: went to certain groups that were it was very uh,
Speaker 11: and they're finding these accounts. I don't know if they
Speaker 11: forgot about them or they couldn't spend the money quick enough,
Speaker 11: or the slush funds. I mean, very sloppy, very sloppy.
Speaker 11: What's going on?
Speaker 2: All right? Okay, Well, again I wanted to root out waste, fraud,
Speaker 2: and inefficiency, but I also want to make sure that
Speaker 2: it's done legitimately and that you know, you know the
Speaker 2: old phrase bill it's always better to under promise and
Speaker 2: over deliver. And if if at the end of the
Speaker 2: day Elon Musk is over promising but underdeliver, that's not
Speaker 2: a good thing. Yeah, that's not a good thing.
Speaker 11: No, that's not but uh, you know, but in a
Speaker 11: way I look at it, I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 11: you can look at the last fifty years. I mean,
Speaker 11: there's been a lot of instances it hasn't been great.
Speaker 11: So this is something new. Kick the tie is and
Speaker 11: you know, see what happened, and if anything, yeah, let's
Speaker 11: see what happens.
Speaker 2: But be careful. That's That's all I'm saying, is that
Speaker 2: if people get their hopes up and they're going and
Speaker 2: talking to their friends and say, well, Donald Trump said,
Speaker 2: there some you know, thirty three thousand people in this
Speaker 2: country who are over one hundred and fifty years old,
Speaker 2: and they're getting so secrety checks. That's not real.
Speaker 11: They maybe, well, if you look at the big picture
Speaker 11: with Musk, I think he's kind of I mean he's
Speaker 11: in business to a degree. He's hurting himself long term
Speaker 11: think because you know he's oh, he's gonna be saying.
Speaker 2: Well, Tesla's save sit down. There's no question about that. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm not saying he's doing it for publicity of money.
Speaker 2: But whether you're doing it for publicity of money or
Speaker 2: you're doing it out of public service, do it right,
Speaker 2: do it right, don't over don't over promise, and under delivery.
Speaker 2: Thanks Belle, We've got to run.
Speaker 11: Yep. Thanks man by.
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon. Quick break coming right back only
Speaker 2: one line at six, one, seven, two, five, four thirty.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan ray Mine from the Window World
Speaker 1: Nice Sight Studios on WITBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: By the way, by the way, with all of the tariffs,
Speaker 2: uh uh and which is confusing people. Uh Donald Trump,
Speaker 2: President Trump loves tariffs. Look what the stock market is doing.
Speaker 2: You know that sort of girations in the stock market
Speaker 2: is not something that's going to instill a lot of
Speaker 2: confidence uh in the voters in the middle.
Speaker 11: Uh.
Speaker 2: And that can be you can you can lose your
Speaker 2: momentum very easily, Alison new Himshire, Al, welcome back to
Speaker 2: that night side.
Speaker 12: Right hit sir, Yes, sir, it's It's very rarely that
Speaker 12: I'm the skunk in the room, but I'm going to
Speaker 12: be it tonight.
Speaker 2: I might be the skunk in the room.
Speaker 12: Go ahead, well, we'll join each other together. I listened
Speaker 12: very intently to the team of people, to volunteers. He
Speaker 12: said something very interesting. He said that they're compensated for
Speaker 12: if I wrote it down correctly, compensated for on call.
Speaker 12: So it's a possibility that they're part of the government, uh,
Speaker 12: you know program where money is being paid, and they
Speaker 12: were asking them what they were doing.
Speaker 2: You say, when you say, just so, I understand, Al
Speaker 2: when you say, he said they're being compensated for all
Speaker 2: on call. Who who do you believe said that?
Speaker 12: No, are the gentlemen that called you and said and
Speaker 12: he thanked you for being part of the groupe. He said,
Speaker 12: I listened to him very intently. What in a wonderful man.
Speaker 11: But what he said is.
Speaker 12: We were compensated for being on call. My position, my
Speaker 12: question to you is that not him? I wish he
Speaker 12: could answer.
Speaker 2: And they're not. They're not compensated for being on call.
Speaker 2: I think you misheard him.
Speaker 12: I'm very familiar, Okai.
Speaker 2: The analogy I would use. The analogy al that I'd
Speaker 2: like to use is do you have a fire department
Speaker 2: in your town or do you have a volunteer fire department?
Speaker 12: A volunteer sir?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what happens in your town when when there's
Speaker 2: a house that gets on fire? The volunteer fire department. Uh,
Speaker 2: I've lived in a town like you. Was heads to
Speaker 2: the firehouse and they jump in the equipment in the
Speaker 2: trucks and they head to the to the fire right.
Speaker 11: Yep.
Speaker 2: And they may be compensated for their efforts that day.
Speaker 2: But that's or they may be compensated if they show
Speaker 2: up for a drill. But that's about it.
Speaker 12: No, No, I'm not disparaging. I'm not disparaging the team
Speaker 12: or the gentleman. I'm saying is I can understand how
Speaker 12: a government agency could could question something for people who
Speaker 12: are getting paid. That's all I'm not saying. I'm not
Speaker 12: questioning their integrity or.
Speaker 11: What they.
Speaker 2: Receive a stipend now as I understand.
Speaker 12: That when they are no, no, I don't, I hear
Speaker 12: you one thousand percent. But I'm saying is I can
Speaker 12: actually understand why emails would be going out asking them
Speaker 12: the question only because when people receive something, some funds,
Speaker 12: regardless of stipend or not. I'm sure the government is
Speaker 12: so big that no one knows exactly that the intent
Speaker 12: was not initially to cause disrespect to volunteers. I think
Speaker 12: the intent was to find out is money going to
Speaker 12: these people and what is it for? I don't I
Speaker 12: see it a little differently than you do it.
Speaker 2: Again, you know, l thank you for that that suggestion.
Speaker 2: I don't think that is what happened. And as you
Speaker 2: may have heard, the DOGE team has rescinded or paused
Speaker 2: the requirement that these volunteers fill out and return this email.
Speaker 2: So I think that they now understand they sent it
Speaker 2: to an inappropriate group. But but again, you have a
Speaker 2: different view of it, and I'm not going to persuade you,
Speaker 2: I think, and you probably aren't going to persuade me.
Speaker 2: So I think you made your case and to justify
Speaker 2: the email and I and I appreciate that you took
Speaker 2: the time to call.
Speaker 11: Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2: Thanks Al, talk soon. Okay, let's keep rolling, at least
Speaker 2: try to get one more in here. Let's go to
Speaker 2: Louis and Norwood. Louise. You were next, Alle nice, welcome,
Speaker 2: Thank you Dan.
Speaker 6: I want to tell you that I agree with the
Speaker 6: college just before me I E. I disagree with your perspective.
Speaker 6: And here's why. I didn't know anything about this particular
Speaker 6: volunteer group. But as you talked about it when you
Speaker 6: first introduced it, you said, these people are on call,
Speaker 6: they drop what they're doing. They may go to California,
Speaker 6: they may go to a hurricane site South Carolina. So
Speaker 6: while they are volunteering their time, I highly doubt that
Speaker 6: they're paying for their own airfare, hotel, or meals.
Speaker 2: So, first of all, you're absolutely correct that if all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, a physician at mass General Hospital, or
Speaker 2: a pharmacist or a nurse is on the list, and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden there's a crisis nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: for example, they are flown, they're told to assemble somewhere.
Speaker 2: Maybe they go to hanscom Field. They have to be
Speaker 2: there within a certain period of time. They get on
Speaker 2: a plane and they then are transported. I would hope
Speaker 2: that they're given some accommodation, and I would hope that
Speaker 2: they're fed. But these are doctors, nurses, anesthesiologists, others who
Speaker 2: are volunteering their time. They're not receiving any great amount
Speaker 2: of money. They receive some small stipend. And yes they
Speaker 2: don't have to pay for their airfare they're lodging or
Speaker 2: their meals.
Speaker 6: You're correct on that, Okay, So now let's take it
Speaker 6: from an audit perspective. If DOZE is truly going to
Speaker 6: do a trail on expense reimbursements for hotels and airlines,
Speaker 6: they need to start somewhere. So if they are sending
Speaker 6: out one hundred emails to one hundred volunteers and they
Speaker 6: get back one hundred responses that no one volunteered anything
Speaker 6: for two months, yet they have expense reimbursements to a
Speaker 6: million dollars, that is a pretty good opportunity for them
Speaker 6: to open up a real good auditive. Well, why are
Speaker 6: we spending money under this grant or under this program
Speaker 6: for people that haven't really done the volunteering.
Speaker 2: It's not a grant, it's a program. Okay, a program. Okay.
Speaker 2: If let us say in Norwood tomorrow there was a
Speaker 2: tornado and the Norwood Police department was overwhelmed. And let's
Speaker 2: say that the tornado hit not onlye Norwood, but it
Speaker 2: hit Walpole and Westwood, at Denham and most of the
Speaker 2: South Shore, similar to what happened, you know during Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 2: And they just weren't enough doctors, they weren't enough nurses,
Speaker 2: there weren't enough medical people. Uh, and we were overwhelmed.
Speaker 2: There would be some of these teams that have volunteered
Speaker 2: in other parts of the country who would come here.
Speaker 2: It's the same principle as a volunteer fire department. It's
Speaker 2: the same principle when we lose power in a snowstorm
Speaker 2: and you see the ever source is overwhelmed and they
Speaker 2: bring in utility trucks from other states. It's kind of
Speaker 2: the same principle. And uh, it's the last thing that
Speaker 2: I'm going to audit. If if I'm Doge and I
Speaker 2: just think they're out over their skis, I understand the
Speaker 2: point you're making. Would they get some hotels time, Yeah,
Speaker 2: would they get yeah, you would have some. But I
Speaker 2: just think it's crazy that that this is what the
Speaker 2: Doze team is doing. Well. The only the only I
Speaker 2: want to give you final word. I don't want to
Speaker 2: cut you off, go ahead.
Speaker 6: The only comment that they may have changed what they
Speaker 6: say said in their email. And I personally, I happen
Speaker 6: to be in a volunteer program myself, I would not
Speaker 6: be offended if anybody asked me how much time I
Speaker 6: spent on my program, because they have to know. But
Speaker 6: they could have rewarded their email and said to tip
Speaker 6: off an investigation or just to ensure that all of
Speaker 6: the money that's being spent in this program is spent correctly.
Speaker 6: We would like to know have you volunteered in the
Speaker 6: last X period of time, et cetera, et cetera. So
Speaker 6: maybe the email could have been rewarded. But I do
Speaker 6: think that they had the right to ask these people
Speaker 6: because they would have generated an expense of some sort,
Speaker 6: even though it's not going into their pocket.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, okay, thanks very much, I said, I'll respond
Speaker 2: on the other side of the eleven o'clock news. Thank
Speaker 2: you very much. Feel free, folks, if you want to
Speaker 2: fill up these lines here because this is razy. Doge
Speaker 2: is way out over their skis here and so I'm
Speaker 2: gonna take the gloves off on the other side. Feel free,
Speaker 2: coming back after the life