#thomtillis

Jul 18, 2026 #DOGE#ThomTillis#RussVoughtDuring a fiery Senate Banking Committee hearing, Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina , a twenty-nine-year corporate veteran who built efficiency programs at PricewaterhouseCoopers and IBM, unloaded on OMB Director Russell Vought in one of the most devastating exchanges of the year. Tillis demanded something simple: name one DOGE initiative where the savings were actually documented, verified, and booked into the federal budget baseline. Just one agency. Just one real number. What he got back was evasion, word salad, and a budget proposal, not a single confirmed example.

Vought’s inability to answer a basic accounting question exposes the entire DOGE operation for what it was: a political stunt dressed up as fiscal discipline. DOGE dissolved on July 4th, 2026, without a closing report, without an audit, and without a single verified before-and-after savings figure. Tillis made clear that in the real corporate world, the kind of amateur, chaotic execution DOGE delivered, firing scientists with the wrong email addresses, cutting the most experienced staff, then watching agencies quietly rehire, would have gotten anyone fired in their first week on the job.

Christian Kunz 

This is Thom Tillis.

He is the Senior Republican Senator from North Carolina.

This is what he posted yesterday on social media:

"A sycophant is more than just a "yes-man."

It refers to someone who acts excessively servile toward someone important in order to gain an advantage. They aren't just being nice, they are using excessive flattery, often insincerely, to get what they want, whether that's a promotion, social status or favor.

Some characteristics: The motive is self-interest. They aren't praising you because they like you; they're doing it because you have something they want. The behavior is over the top fawning, or constant agreement (including when you're wrong).

Common Synonyms: toady, flunky, bootlicker.

Some parallels for movie buffs:

Grima Wormtongue (the Stephen Miller of Lord of the Rings) is an advisor to King Theoden. He uses whispers and false flattery to control the King’s decisions, all while secretly serving Saruman. He is a classic example of a sycophant who uses his position to poison a leader's standing for his own benefit.

Dolores Umbridge (the Kristi Noem of Harry Potter) is an example of a bureaucratic sycophant. She is terrifyingly sweet while she is around those she considers her superiors and she sucks up to authority to gain the power she needs to bully those "beneath" her."