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Summary

Elon Musk, co-head of the Department of Government Efficiency under Donald Trump’s advisory team, revised his claim of finding $2 trillion in federal budget cuts to a “best-case outcome” of $1 trillion.

Musk’s earlier target, dismissed as unrealistic by experts, had included the entire discretionary budget of $1.7 trillion.

While Musk and co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy plan to recommend cuts, specifics remain unclear.

Experts warn savings may require targeting mandatory programs like Medicaid, potentially causing hardships.

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[-] kautau@lemmy.world 44 points 1 day ago

Sounds like they’re not an efficient use of government resources and should be cut

[-] pastaPersona@lemmy.world 47 points 1 day ago

Man, it’s almost like he has no idea what he’s talking about or something. Definitely a good candidate to be making policy decisions affecting millions of people.

[-] Tyfud@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago
[-] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 24 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

If allowed, Elon will find trillions to funnel to himself and Trump's cronies however.

[-] d00phy@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

Oh make no mistake, his goal is to be the world's first trillionaire within the next 4-years. Why else would he so publicly be going full fascist unless he was ready to fully embrace the concept of "fuck everyone and everything ever to be" money.

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 16 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Never fear rich people and corporations - Trump is still going to do another $2T tax cut regardless.

[-] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 41 points 1 day ago

Oh? The places he's looking at actually work fairly efficiently already? Or the inefficiencies are outside their control? The inefficient sections are the places he can't go, like the DOD?

[-] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 40 points 1 day ago

Any inefficiency likely comes from private industry bending the government over and stealing our wallet. I've been paid obscenely better as a contractor than my government counterparts, and I'm probably only seeing half of what my company charges. Entire departments are twenty contractors at a cost of $5 million per year and two actual government employees making a grand total of $60k each. Maybe double that at most by the time you include all the benefits.

But if you try to trim that, you're cutting into the profits of private industry, and we sure as fuck can't have that, can we?

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[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago

Or they've already had their budgets slashed so much that there's nothing left to slash. Which is pretty common unfortunately.

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

But those things actually help poor people. Can't have that, can we?

[-] MapleEngineer@lemmy.world 18 points 1 day ago

Ya, so, we're not going to do any of the things we promised. We're just going to try to punish our political enemies and fuck shit up while looting every last penny that we can and running away while the country burns.

[-] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 6 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

It's because they were told they can't cut VA, SSI or Medicare, I promise.

The rich assholes always think they can just cut healthcare and retirement payouts but politicians know they will never get re-elected if it happens on their watch. The old people who rely on this shit are the only ones voting anyway.

[-] mctoasterson@reddthat.com 4 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

We did this exercise as a civic learning experience in 9th year government/social studies classes. The teacher had us go through a mock (simplified) Federal budget and decide which line items to cut to achieve a "balanced budget" with debt reduction.

The problem is largely intractable for reasons that become obvious even to middleschool kids. Do you completely cut popular things like the space program? Gut entitlement spending? Massively increase taxes across all brackets? Reduce the military or infrastructure spending to laughable levels? All of those things are very unpopular but that is what it would really take to tackle the problem.

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[-] Buffalox@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

If RFK is crazy because a worm ate part of his brain, it seems like Enron Musk may have had drugs that are the equivalent of 2 worms.

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

He's been known to, shall we say, "macrodose" ketamine at parties.

[-] LittleBorat3@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I have macro dosed ketamine and I know that there are no 2 trillion to cut in the government of the US.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Yes, but how often have you done it and were you stupid to begin with?

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 1 day ago

Yeah a lot of people who know nothing about ketamine love to blame it for Musk's idiocy.

Dude is just a moron no matter what drugs he takes.

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 day ago

Not to mention overdosing on money and ego. That stuff makes a person crazy.

[-] jlh@lemmy.jlh.name 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

next year they'll raise the deficit by $2T and start saying that they saved $2T off of a $4T raise to the budget

[-] d00phy@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Ahh, his administration hasn't even officially begun and already we have the Memberberry shadow president. I think someone should have t-shirts made up.

The next 4-years are going to be.... I honestly have NFC.

[-] sp3tr4l@lemmy.zip 1 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The second trillion will be found when DOGE Block 3 rolls out, and Elon's gonna need ... $5 billion dollars for DOGE Block 2 and 3.

(DOGE Block 2 will find the first trillion, after DOGE Block 1 is later revised down to 750 billion)

[-] PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 1 day ago

Richest man in the world can't afford the time and expense to shave?

That scruff looks bad at all levels.

[-] 31337@sh.itjust.works 3 points 22 hours ago

Too busy becoming the top-ranked Diablo player.

[-] BlazarNGC@lemm.ee 5 points 1 day ago

MF’ing d-bag backs down on his B.S.

Now that’s news!

[-] DudeImMacGyver@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 day ago

You don't say...

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this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025
381 points (97.0% liked)

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