Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years. One of the greatest things to happen to aging infrastructure of this country in the last 10 years as a lot of our systems are based on aging military systems.
We just need it, there’s no question of the benefits and there were no negatives to speak about.
Thank you President Barack Obama! A true leader and patriot.
ronbenton · 10h ago
>Hopefully these services can be restored in 3.5 years
I am not sure it works like that. Destruction is easy, building is hard.
zbentley · 1h ago
True, but software is slightly easier to restore service to than a razed physical building, for example. The support/staff/operations part still takes time and resources, but it is a little easier.
AStonesThrow · 6h ago
The Doge of Venice never liked swarthy people; George Bush din't like White People, and now the Orange Man is always trying to keep us down!!1
I mean, I liked what they made but its kinda sad that greatest thing to happen to our nation's infrastructure was some nice websites.
Meanwhile, healthcare housing and education got way more expensive and taxes for the wealthy went down.
itsdrewmiller · 7h ago
USDS was borne out of the healthcare.gov debacle, which resulted in providing affordable healthcare to millions of uninsured people. They may not have had an equivalent sized win yet but they have tremendous accomplishments for a tiny organization.
xp84 · 5h ago
That's what happens when parties govern by executive fiat instead of relying on legislation for things like that. Things rammed through by flimsy executive action are fragile and easy for the next administration to cancel.
We could have higher taxes on the wealthy and good healthcare. But to do that, the side that claims they want that and that they believe in "democracy" would have to not only post on Bluesky about it, they'd have to (A) vote, and (B) convince (rather than demonize) the moderates who are skeptical of them. We'll see in a while if they learned that lesson from 2024.
nemomarx · 13h ago
And a lot of bridges fell into disrepair, roads get worse, etc. Gridlock has made funding anything pretty hard in the last decade, and certain parties are so anti spending they won't try to fix it
Hikikomori · 12h ago
Anti spending? The deficit has increased under every republican president almost back to ww2. Their two Santa strategy seems to work well confusing people though.
nemomarx · 12h ago
Yeah but mostly tax cuts and MIC contributions, they're not paying for local development or education or so on
> The deficit is the difference between the money that the government makes and the money it spends. If the government spends more than it collects in revenues, then it’s running a deficit.
> The federal debt is the running total of the accumulated deficits. [Or surpluses]
Kudos to everyone involved in this, it made a huge difference for this country, your service will be remembered.
zbentley · 1h ago
The example they set, and the systems and processes they put in place, are still alive.
In peril? Sure, frequently.
But the USDS, and the work they started, goes on, even today.
Interestingly, the executive order which changed USDS's name seems to consider that work important: it tasks the renamed United States DOGE Service (which is separate from the DOGE temporary organization or the DOGE agency teams, created with separate charters in the same executive order) with:
> a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems.
Whatever else you might think about DOGE or that executive order, it's interesting to note that the government tech improvement goal of the original USDS appears to have been underlined/re-emphasized, rather than crossed out, in this case.
dr_dshiv · 14h ago
I really wish these people the best. It’s humble, meaningful, high-impact, high-integrity work.
stefan_ · 13h ago
Truly humble. Makes sense to record some museum pieces thou, put it next to the Ruby On Rails section.
adfm · 11h ago
Since we’re celebrating an obviously positive advancement in infrastructure attributed to one side, I’d like to know about the obviously positive advancements from the other side (in all fairness).
This is sweet. The USDS and 18F did a lot of good before they were gutted.
i80and · 12h ago
I'm not sure which group was behind it, but login.gov is a genuine delight and I'm always chuffed to run into a government website that uses it.
EDIT: It was a joint effort between the two!
ronbenton · 10h ago
I thought it was mostly 18F. Interesting to hear USDS was involved in that one as well.
krainboltgreene · 14h ago
I was a big fan of the USDSO at the origin, definitely it's previous iterations, but man was it so bad at getting their improvements any publicity. Then and now they (and Democrats) made the fatal mistake that the slow march of government would be enough for public support. This website too is from that same strategy: "If we simply show Americans the machine they'll understand what they've thrown away!" It's very Aaron Sorkin's West Wing.
The reality is that the average american doesn't give a shit about the machines. They want better lives and they haven't gotten that for a long time. Talk to some old guy at a diner about why they were a Democratic voter and you won't hear "The Social Security Administation got my checks on time." You'll hear about the New Deal, wage increases, and how they can retire.
pakyr · 14h ago
DirectFile was a material product that had a 94% satisfaction rate.[0] Within the remit of this organization, if making filing taxes free and easy doesn't count as making people's lives better, then I'm not sure what does.
I'm not sure how much control the USDS that developed DirectFile (or whatever was left of it) had over that given the reasons that article cites for the confusion
> The IRS deemphasized the program on its website, the report said, and the media coverage this filing season focused on the question of if the tool existed or would continue to in the future.
> Billionaire Elon Musk caused confusion in early February when he posted on X that the team powering Direct File was “deleted,” leading to headlines like “Elon Musk says he 'deleted' IRS Direct File. Can taxpayers still use the free service?” Direct File saw a drop in use after that.
To be honest, I'm impressed there was even a 16% traffic increase this year at all.
afavour · 11h ago
> It's very Aaron Sorkin's West Wing.
My completely unfounded theory is that the West Wing broke the brains of an entire generation of center left leaning Americans. Led them to believe that being noble and earnest brings you electoral rewards, that you should break bread with your opposition, who are fundamentally reasonable people capable of compromise.
I think Trump 2.0 might have finally finished that mindset off but good lord did it take a long time.
xp84 · 4h ago
> that you should break bread with your opposition
I was agreeing with you completely until I hit this phrase.
What Democrats have you seen "breaking bread with" their opposition? Most Democratic politicians and pundits (not saying voters) spend most of their effort on demonizing those they disagree with, on intentionally imputing the worst motives for their every opinion. If you don't support the most maximal definitions of every ideal they have, you're a bigot. If you didn't vote for Harris, you're a monster who must love Trump. etc.
The West Wing Dems could actually bring themselves to hold their noses and cut a deal with their Republicans that gave each side something important to them. To be fair, both parties now consider that practice to be basically treason.
This wasn't that long ago. And it was very active in public ways over the Obama administrations etc. Sure you can find numerous discussions about various site launches and initiatives around here over the years. Definitely were discussions and fervent attention over in the Design community as things progressed. Why is everyone treating it like some forgotten Atlantis project?
eddieroger · 9h ago
Don't underestimate how quickly things end up in the memory hole - it's better to preserve stuff while it's recent than try to recreate it when it's stale.
We just need it, there’s no question of the benefits and there were no negatives to speak about.
Thank you President Barack Obama! A true leader and patriot.
I am not sure it works like that. Destruction is easy, building is hard.
This is not an official US government website.
This one down below is, tho
https://www.usds.gov/
Meanwhile, healthcare housing and education got way more expensive and taxes for the wealthy went down.
We could have higher taxes on the wealthy and good healthcare. But to do that, the side that claims they want that and that they believe in "democracy" would have to not only post on Bluesky about it, they'd have to (A) vote, and (B) convince (rather than demonize) the moderates who are skeptical of them. We'll see in a while if they learned that lesson from 2024.
- History of the United States public debt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_p...
- https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/jul/29/tweets/rep... (2019) :
> The deficit is the difference between the money that the government makes and the money it spends. If the government spends more than it collects in revenues, then it’s running a deficit.
> The federal debt is the running total of the accumulated deficits. [Or surpluses]
"Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] (FYFSD)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD#
"Federal Surplus or Deficit [-] as Percent of Gross Domestic Product (FYFSGDA188S)" https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSGDA188S
Really appreciate the 14 mentions of GDS and acknowledgment of the inspiration.
(The older but poorer cousin gets ahead of the younger, richer cousin for a change ;)
[0] https://usdigitalserviceorigins.org/timeline/
In peril? Sure, frequently.
But the USDS, and the work they started, goes on, even today.
Interestingly, the executive order which changed USDS's name seems to consider that work important: it tasks the renamed United States DOGE Service (which is separate from the DOGE temporary organization or the DOGE agency teams, created with separate charters in the same executive order) with:
> a Software Modernization Initiative to improve the quality and efficiency of government-wide software, network infrastructure, and information technology (IT) systems.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/esta...
Whatever else you might think about DOGE or that executive order, it's interesting to note that the government tech improvement goal of the original USDS appears to have been underlined/re-emphasized, rather than crossed out, in this case.
EDIT: It was a joint effort between the two!
The reality is that the average american doesn't give a shit about the machines. They want better lives and they haven't gotten that for a long time. Talk to some old guy at a diner about why they were a Democratic voter and you won't hear "The Social Security Administation got my checks on time." You'll hear about the New Deal, wage increases, and how they can retire.
[0]https://www.nextgov.com/digital-government/2025/06/direct-fi...
> The IRS deemphasized the program on its website, the report said, and the media coverage this filing season focused on the question of if the tool existed or would continue to in the future.
> Billionaire Elon Musk caused confusion in early February when he posted on X that the team powering Direct File was “deleted,” leading to headlines like “Elon Musk says he 'deleted' IRS Direct File. Can taxpayers still use the free service?” Direct File saw a drop in use after that.
To be honest, I'm impressed there was even a 16% traffic increase this year at all.
My completely unfounded theory is that the West Wing broke the brains of an entire generation of center left leaning Americans. Led them to believe that being noble and earnest brings you electoral rewards, that you should break bread with your opposition, who are fundamentally reasonable people capable of compromise.
I think Trump 2.0 might have finally finished that mindset off but good lord did it take a long time.
I was agreeing with you completely until I hit this phrase.
What Democrats have you seen "breaking bread with" their opposition? Most Democratic politicians and pundits (not saying voters) spend most of their effort on demonizing those they disagree with, on intentionally imputing the worst motives for their every opinion. If you don't support the most maximal definitions of every ideal they have, you're a bigot. If you didn't vote for Harris, you're a monster who must love Trump. etc.
The West Wing Dems could actually bring themselves to hold their noses and cut a deal with their Republicans that gave each side something important to them. To be fair, both parties now consider that practice to be basically treason.
It's the parties that are killing us.
https://youtu.be/_rzQeDOGDxI?si=7tO2yhAlvoYsGqu6