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Ramaswamy wants to defund unauthorized government programs - like veteran healthcare (www.independent.co.uk)

submitted 11 hours ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

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Summary

Vivek Ramaswamy, recently appointed to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has proposed defunding federal programs that lack current congressional authorization.

This could affect programs like veterans’ healthcare, NASA, and early education initiatives, which still receive funding despite expired authorizations.

Ramaswamy argues that cutting these programs could save billions, and he’s committed to targeting expenditures that “don’t advance the interests of American citizens.”

DOGE, co-led by Elon Musk, aims to curb government spending, with Musk estimating potential cuts of up to $2 trillion.

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[-] dan1101@lemm.ee 3 points 17 minutes ago

Any woman or veteran or union worker who voted for Trump is going to have a serious case of buyers remorse. I am none of those things but still voted for Harris because it seemed like the responsible thing to do, lesser of two evils. Way lesser it seems.

[-] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 19 minutes ago

Part of me, as an outsider looking in with abject horror, wants to see this happen just because I still hold out hope that it might finally wake up a not-insignificant part of rural and rust-belt America that live off these benefits (or ‘handouts’ according to the GOP) out of their political stupor.

But on the other hand, I know that once it’s gone, it’s very unlikely to be brought back in the immediate future by the current crop of Dems, who seemingly would rather keep dangling it as a carrot (along with restoring ablation access) in order to entice voter turnout.

[-] danc4498@lemmy.world 12 points 1 hour ago

Save billions on essentials while spending trillions in bullshit.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 16 points 1 hour ago

Remember when if you didn't "support our troops," Republicans would ask you why you hated America?

[-] FloppyFlounder8@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 hour ago

Not for millenia would I have realized that Department of Government Efficiency stood for DoGE. What a funny little boy Elon is.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 10 points 2 hours ago

they just want Russia to be the top superpower

[-] pineapple_pizza@lemmy.dexlit.xyz 16 points 5 hours ago

Okay I agree with the other comments here but I'm a bit confused on this.

How are we still spending money on these things if congress doesn't approve it? The legislature sets the budget, did they just forget to make it official and extend these? Also why even have a phase out period in the first place?

[-] dhork@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I think it's because there is a difference between the Budget and Appropriations in Congress. The budget is a plan, where programs are authorized and an overall budget is set. The appropriations process is what assigns particular dollars to particular discretionary programs. (Certain programs deemed "mandatory" by Congress, like Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt, get allocated money automatically and are not involved in appropriations)

If I had to guess, I would say that once a program is authorized once under a budget, it can continue as long as it (or the Federal department it is part of) is not specifically de-authorized, and as long as it continues to receive appropriations specifically for that program.

So, it is likely that this is all about Ramaswamy's total ignorance of how Congress works. Which tracks pretty well with what this DOGE is all about.

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 5 points 4 hours ago

I'm sure that'll be popular and there won't be any repercussions and that unicorns will poop free candy for everyone.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

Doesn't matter. Everyone enjoys their face being eaten. They can blame it on the damn (outgroup) and feel better about themselves. Rage and being better than some other tribe is all that matters anymore.

[-] MyOpinion@lemm.ee 14 points 6 hours ago

We can't be taking care of Veterans that is way to decent of a thing to do for Republicans.

[-] fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 7 hours ago

I am terrified at them defunding the VA. I've had a much easier time getting good medical care from VA doctors than I ever did going private and I'd be bankrupt without the VA. It's because of the VA that I have any savings at all

[-] USSEthernet@startrek.website 2 points 24 minutes ago

Agreed. They must have gotten better in the last decade too, because I don't see the horrible things that people have said about the VA. Yes there are long wait times for appointments, but that's happening in private care now as well.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 9 points 6 hours ago

I'm sure this will help with the dramatic drop in people willing to volunteer for the army.

[-] GoodEye8@lemm.ee 6 points 6 hours ago

Nice of you to assume you won't get mandatory military service.

[-] queermunist@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 hours ago

They stopped drafting people for a reason.

Maybe they forgot? Guess we'll have to remind them.

[-] knightly@pawb.social 2 points 44 minutes ago

90% of folks can't be trained to kill.

Half of the remainder would rather frag their own commanding officers than some poor foreign kid.

[-] Docus@lemmy.world 2 points 38 minutes ago

99% of stats are wrong.

[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 103 points 10 hours ago

As a US citizen, paying for veterans healthcare and early education programs advance my interests a whole fucking lot more than paying this jackass.

Stupid piece of shit, you don't speak for us.

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 32 points 9 hours ago

I know what you mean but he does, quite literally, speak for us now. This is what we asked for.

[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 45 points 9 hours ago

I sure as fuck didn't, I voted against every single fascist asshole on my balot. I'm just angry.

[-] krashmo@lemmy.world 13 points 8 hours ago

So did I but unfortunately we lost. That's democracy in action. The country we live in (the collective we) asked for this.

[-] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 16 points 9 hours ago

Right there with you

[-] Kalkaline@leminal.space 11 points 9 hours ago

Thanks for voting. You're justified in being angry. There's a lot to be angry about. Right now we need to focus on blocking every action of this government. We need to shine a light on candidates doing the right thing and bring them up to positions of leadership.

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[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 119 points 11 hours ago

As someone with just as much federal authority as the non-existent DOGE, I also propose defunding expenditures that “don’t advance the interests of American citizens.”

And I would like to start with fucking Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon fucking Musk.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 52 points 11 hours ago

as equal authority, I propose we just lock them up.

I'm sure we can find something to actually justify it. Like, you know, betraying classified secrets to the russians, as well as providing intelligence and military aid;

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 17 points 10 hours ago

If we're all just doing things without authority, why does it even need a legalized justification? Home Depot sells dog cages and padlocks.

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[-] Noite_Etion@lemmy.world 42 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

America: Our soldiers are heroes!

Also America: But they don't deserve a penny and should pay exorbitant prices for healthcare...

I know this isn't all Americans, but it's more than I thought.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 17 points 9 hours ago

I expected NASA to get screwed by DOGE. What I didn't expect was that it's at the behest of Ramaswamy instead of Elmo. 2024 is defying expectations yet again.

[-] valaramech@fedia.io 9 points 7 hours ago

NASA gives SpaceX fat government paychecks. He doesn't want anything to happen to them.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Not necessarily. He wouldn't want anything to happen to the funding that ends up going to himself. He would likely be thrilled if their funding for designing and building their own rockets dried up, though.

It's right in line with the purpose of DOGE and an easy sell to anybody that doesn't immediately see the conflict of interest: "Why are we spending $100 million annually to play catch-up with the private sector? Reallocate $80 million to get rockets that work today and save the taxpayers $20 million while doing it."

[-] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

I dunno I disagree. I think he'd like nothing more than if NASA just completely disappeared. I've thought that since the second they started talking about him guiding fiduciary spending. Once NASA is out of the picture, it's all SpaceX all the time. Trump is already most of the way there anyway. "His rocket company is the only reason we can now send American astronauts into space."

This is part of the plan I suspect.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Yep he doesn’t want NASA to steal his thunder with the first manned moon landing since the Apollo program. NASA’s Orion is competing directly with SpaceX

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I don't think he actually cares much about achieving anything spaceflight related. The guy has been hyping up his companies by holding big events for technologies ready in "X years" and consistently failing to deliver on either deadlines, tangible progress, quality, or sometimes all three of those.

I'm under the impression that E-con Musk sees a golden opportunity to use his undeserved status as a competent inventor and businessman as an opportunity to redirect government funds into his own pocket.

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 47 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Touching NASA very well might be the thing that finally pushes me to actual violence.

Scientific endeavors, but specifically research and exploration of space are pretty much the only things in life I really have a passion for.

[-] can_you_change_your_username@fedia.io 47 points 10 hours ago

NASA is definitely a target. Musk wants to make SpaceX America's privatized space agency.

[-] Asafum@feddit.nl 1 points 2 minutes ago

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 12 points 9 hours ago

you'll know nasa is doomed when space-lasers greene or flat earth boebert get tagged for nasa admin.

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[-] WashedOver@lemmy.ca 16 points 10 hours ago

The last conservative government silenced the government scientists from discussing climate change and destroyed decades of research as they didn't believe in it and it didn't fit their Alberta oil jobs first objectives.

We are looking at another Conservative government coming our way again in the next year and it's going to be a super shit storm when our Cons and the US Cons are firing on all cylinders destroy everything they don't like or believe in. I fear it's going to take decades again to come back on the science again.

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[-] Marleyinoc@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

They won't cut the funding that goes to the richest Americans and themselves of course.

The crazy thing is the amount of money donated to a Trump by people who work for the Dept of Defense. Or maybe that includes contractors, aka, the rich.

I've can only hope that they fuck things up so bad that... Oh who am I kidding. There are to many stupid Americans for anything they do to make a difference in the Trumpublican party.

[-] FoxyFerengi@lemm.ee 12 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

I'm a 100% disabled veteran. Two years ago I made the very stupid decision to change my gender identity with the VA, and my therapist just informed me on Friday that I can't change it back because it's part of a diagnosis. I'm really worried that either of those things, or the fact that I'm getting a degree through chapter 31 will end in a reduction or revocation of my benefits. In addition, I'm going through the process of getting diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder. I'm really expensive for the VA right now.

Fun fact: ALS is more common in the veteran population

[-] fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 7 hours ago

I'm also a trans veteran deeply worried about losing benefits. It's such a horrid situation

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[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 6 points 8 hours ago

These guys really seem to want a pissed off veteran to take them out.

[-] Grogon@lemmy.world 22 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

The clown is inviting more clowns and they are building up the circus, this could be funny if it wasn't so serious.

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this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024

361 points (99.7% liked)

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