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Quote from: Hobby on Feb 12, 2025, 02:28 AMAir Force One is always on standby by with a full crew ready for take off on minutes notice. So the only real cost is the fuel.  Are you saying the president can't go to public events has to change their life style because they are president?  Should the president just sit in the White House because it cost money to securely transport the president? I don't think so.  Yes there is cost enormous cost when the president goes somewhere. With all the fraud and waste the president is finding will probably pay for his super bowl trip 1000 times over

Maybe, but I'm still waiting for them to identify this fraud and waste beyond evidence-free claims on social media. I think Musk claimed a week or so ago that he's saving the government $1 billion/day, which doesn't make any sense considering the makeup of the federal budget.

Quote from: bats on Feb 12, 2025, 03:48 PMMaybe, but I'm still waiting for them to identify this fraud and waste beyond evidence-free claims on social media. I think Musk claimed a week or so ago that he's saving the government $1 billion/day, which doesn't make any sense considering the makeup of the federal budget.

Musk is probably finding money going out that should not be and put a hold on it.

In 2024 the US budget was $6.75 Trillion which is $18.75 Billion per day.  So Musk is right if he has cut about 5% of the budget which is not that much.  Alternatively he is just doing the calculation over a short number of days in which case the number is high when more cuts are done and may taper off later.  At a $1 B/day rate it would have taken 18.5 YEARS to cut the 2024 budget to zero.  So as high as $1B/day sounds it actually is a believable number says he (me) who know nothing and posts stupid shit.

Perhaps related to this topic remember the uproar about USAID spending $50M to send condoms to "Gaza" and then it was found out later that it was a Gaza in Mozambique and not the middle eastern Gaza?  Technically if one wants to play word games the Trump team was right.  Condoms were sent to Gaza (Mozambique) but not the Gaza that is on everyone's mind (in the Middle East) and what people will immediately conclude is what at they are talking about.

Anyway the results of that led me to wonder if what Musk and his geek squad are doing with massive databases they have access to is doing simple word searches with zero verification or follow up on the results.  The equivalent of the IRS claiming John Smith committed tax fraud when there are thousands of John Smiths and they do not bother to pinpoint which one committed tax fraud.

Quote from: dogwalker on Feb 12, 2025, 05:51 PMIn 2024 the US budget was $6.75 Trillion which is $18.75 Billion per day.  So Musk is right if he has cut about 5% of the budget which is not that much.  Alternatively he is just doing the calculation over a short number of days in which case the number is high when more cuts are done and may taper off later.  At a $1 B/day rate it would have taken 18.5 YEARS to cut the 2024 budget to zero.  So as high as $1B/day sounds it actually is a believable number says he (me) who know nothing and posts stupid shit.

A billion a day would be theoretically possible even considering that only about 14% of total spending can be categorized as non-defense discretionary. That's about 1 trillion.

But here's a chart by The Economist showing the most current data on expenditures compared with outlays over the same period in the two previous years. Doesn't seem like it's panning out the way Musk claims:
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Quote from: Hobby on Feb 12, 2025, 05:05 PMMusk is probably finding money going out that should not be and put a hold on it.

"Probably" Yeah probably lying about it. Which is why he cannot show what he is saving.

Quote from: HighStepper on Feb 12, 2025, 08:08 PM"Probably" Yeah probably lying about it. Which is why he cannot show what he is saving.

He isn't lying about anything.  Democrats can't say we are for wasteful spending so they fight Trump trying to put a stop to it.  Trump is driving Democrats  crazy! Why haven't Democrats came out and said we want to reduce wasteful spending? No they don't want to reduce anything they want the spending stay status quo.

Quote from: bats on Feb 12, 2025, 07:29 PMA billion a day would be theoretically possible even considering that only about 14% of total spending can be categorized as non-defense discretionary. That's about 1 trillion.

But here's a chart

Yeh true they may not cut defense by that much so that can probably be excluded or can it?

The labels on that Economist chart are terrible such that I can't see the daily expenditure rate
but I can do my own calculation-----
$1B a day is $365 B a year---so yes that's a big cut compared to current annual outlays
BUT what I'm seeing is some pretty drastic proposed cuts----
asking more than 10% of the federal workforce to quit,
cutting grants paid to support university research by something like 20-50%,
potentially eliminating some agencies completely.

I'd bet many think there's way more than 14% unnecessary spending ("waste") in federal expenditures.
I know plenty of people "working" that are useless....spend most of their day fucking around on Facebook etc. but are so entitled they think a paycheck should be given to them without earning it.  Those are the people that should be cut and from my observations it's more than 14%.....

Quote from: dogwalker on Feb 12, 2025, 08:49 PMYeh true they may not cut defense by that much so that can probably be excluded or can it?

The labels on that Economist chart are terrible such that I can't see the daily expenditure rate
but I can do my own calculation-----
$1B a day is $365 B a year---so yes that's a big cut compared to current annual outlays
BUT what I'm seeing is some pretty drastic proposed cuts----
asking more than 10% of the federal workforce to quit,
cutting grants paid to support university research by something like 20-50%,
potentially eliminating some agencies completely.

I'd bet many think there's way more than 14% unnecessary spending ("waste") in federal expenditures.
I know plenty of people "working" that are useless....spend most of their day fucking around on Facebook etc. but are so entitled they think a paycheck should be given to them without earning it.  Those are the people that should be cut and from my observations it's more than 14%.....

I'm assuming the Trump administration will want to increase defense spending, since Trump seems to think it's a proxy for the size of his dick.

But I should have been more clear. About 86% of the budget isn't going anywhere because it's either for defense or mandatory programs, mainly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So if Musk wants to cut and do it legally, all the "fat" would have to be trimmed from the remaining 14%.

Quote from: Hobby on Feb 12, 2025, 08:32 PMHe isn't lying about anything.  Democrats can't say we are for wasteful spending so they fight Trump trying to put a stop to it.  Trump is driving Democrats  crazy! Why haven't Democrats came out and said we want to reduce wasteful spending? No they don't want to reduce anything they want the spending stay status quo.

How do you know he's not lying? I think he's a smart guy but he's also a serial bullshitter. He probably has as very high IQ and he's obviously been successful in private business.

But did you watch any of that press event from the Oval Office yesterday? The guy thinks he knows everything. He seems to make snap judgments about things he couldn't possibly know much about, like how government functions.

Anyway, I like this quote from a couple of years ago, after he bought Twitter:
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"I should stay the hell away from his cars and rockets." ROTFL

Quote from: bats on Feb 12, 2025, 09:05 PMI'm assuming the Trump administration will want to increase defense spending, since Trump seems to think it's a proxy for the size of his dick.

But I should have been more clear. About 86% of the budget isn't going anywhere because it's either for defense or mandatory programs, mainly Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So if Musk wants to cut and do it legally, all the "fat" would have to be trimmed from the remaining 14%.

I missed this until now, but House Republicans are putting together their plans to implement massive tax cuts for the wealthy and to increase the debt ceiling by some $4 trillion to accommodate the cuts.

Reportedly, the plan calls for at least $4.5 trillion in additional tax cuts, mostly for the rich, and spending cuts of $1.5 trillion, which would likely impact Medicaid, the primary health insurance for the poor and disabled.

Promises made, promises kept?

The title of this thread HOSTILE TAKE OVER! Where is the hostility?  Musk nor Trump is Not being hostile. A judge gave the go ahead to layoff or fire federal workers. Yesterday deadline 78,000 workers resigned taking Trump's offer.  They read the writing on the wall.

$880 Billion cut to Medicaid, that is their entire budget. People in Assisted living going to be homeless

HID cuts will cause up to 300,000 people losing their jobs.
We are about to see the highest unemployment rate since Trump left office.

And Canada just signed a new oil deal with China, by passing the USA. The art of the deal guy is fucking up.

Canada put a 100% tariff on Tesla