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.

  • makyo@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Anyone who actually believed they would find $2 trillion was an idiot, the rest of us knew they’d just cut the things they hate, bump the subsidies that favor them and their friends, and call it a day.

    • Cypher@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Your comment will age poorly when Trump’s tarrifs lead to a collapsing economy and he prints money like mad to solve it, resulting in hyper-inflation letting President Musk keep his election promise.

    • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      I expect them to privatize and then somehow claim they cut the budget because they are paying a private company instead of running whole departments themselves (govt)

      • wjrii@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Not even there. DoD is ~$840B and DHS another sixty. Not even one trillion in the entire US security apparatus, but they were going to so easily find twice that. It was always pure nonsense.

  • pastaPersona@lemmy.world
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    3 months 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.

  • kautau@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

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

  • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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    3 months 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?

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

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

  • Treczoks@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Wherever he cut, you can safely assume it will only hit the people at the bottom, not those at the top.

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    i’m actually kind of shocked he admitted this. isn’t his usual strategy to promise super unrealistic things, not deliver, and then make the same promise the next year?

    • utopiah@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Indeed, but I bet he isn’t used to hide things in the public. This is a federal budget, not yet another of his corporations. I bet he knows the very best accountants but that’s just different.

  • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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    3 months 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.

  • 5in1k@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    If he cuts anything it’ll be support for middle class and poor people and itll be jack shit, it will fuck everything up and it will be touted by clowns as a success.

  • OldWoodFrame@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    $2 Trillion was more than the discretionary budget of the US. It literally couldn’t be done.

    Which is why it was a stupid promise and literally anyone with any expertise could tell you that. Which shows you how unserious Musk is about this.

    Now that he cut the promise in half and it’s still politically impossible but not literally impossible, I reiterate my request…say how you plan to do it. Give us a rough idea what programs are being cut, even the easiest 20%.

    By having the conversation about the number alone, we’re buying his political premise. The money is not there for no reason, these are democratically popular government programs, that’s why they exist. So which popular programs are you getting rid of to save this money?

  • Snapz@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    “Savings” they will find:

    • any agencies that monitor, counteract or release reports on Putin and Russian activity

    • agencies that regulate electric vehicle production or road safety

    • Agencies that regulate space flight and aerial pollution

    • The NLRB, OSHA and whichever agencies work to oppose child labor

    • agencies that regulate pharmaceutical pump and dump schemes

    • agencies that regulate emerald mines

    • The CFPB

    • agencies that monitor ethics among government employees

    • agencies that regulate recreational ketamine, ritalin and cocaine use

    • child protective services and agencies that intervene in spousal abuse

    • anecdotes that certify or otherwise support divorce attorneys

    • agencies that originate, maintain and enforce restraining orders

    • agencies that track and publish flight information to enable safer travel between all of the aircraft simultaneously in the sky.

    • agencies that allow for the creation, distribution and use of rape kits (yes, even though there’s a backlog. You’re very clever)

    • Agencies that keep a database of all people with small, odd shaped penises that no longer get hard…

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    3 months 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.

  • Whateley@lemm.ee
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    3 months ago

    Those two clowns couldn’t find their own asses in a dark room with both hands and a flashlight.