this is a case where people's total ignorance of what we actually spend money on really hurts, and it is the job of anyone writing about it to inform people
total discretionary spending is 1.7T, about half of which is the military budget! this, by definition, would gut medicare and social security
total discretionary spending is 1.7T, about half of which is the military budget! this, by definition, would gut medicare and social security
Reposted from
Bloomberg News
Elon Musk said he thinks he can cut at least $2 trillion from the federal budget while at Donald Trump's rally in Madison Square Garden
Comments
If the budget was a dinner plate defense was the meat, social security the potatoes, etc. All the things Musk screams about is a single leaf on a bit of parsley at the edge of the plate. Easy to demonize but with no impact.
This guy has sooooo much power and sooooo little capacity.
But Trump is serious about placing him in a position of real power. It’s outrageous that there aren’t real questions being asked of Musk or the campaign about what this means. What power he will have?
Repeal the Trump tax cuts and you can fix it in a snap
entire global economy: *collapses*
Like, ok, yes, it is literally true that "Elon Musk said he can cut $2tn from budget", he did say that, but it is not true.
But yeah, good luck cancelling $2 trillion out of ~$6.5 trillion!
DO NOT @ ME ECONOMISTS I KNOW
good plan, no problems
I know people have a hard time telling billion from trillion cause most people don't do a lot of that sort of math, but million from trillion ?
that doesn't sound that hard
We did the nuclear bomb shelter version as 10 year olds
They never got to the second part
Either that or I was too traumatized to take that bit in
Dude has never met a deadline or estimate he couldn't just blow right past
"Cut it from WHERE, Elon."
people just assume that a huge portion of the federal budget is spent on shit they don't like because it is "full of waste" so they fill in the "waste" blank with things that annoy them
The National Endowment amounts to less than 1/100th of one percent of the total budget for the federal government. It costs taxpayers 39 cents a year. The arts budget for the US is equivalent to the arts budget of Sweden.
you're halfway there! good luck!
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/
You’re being taxed
It’s either direct spending or inflation
Your money is being wasted
The DOGE is going to fix that
We’re going to get the govt off your back
& out of your pocketbook
The idea is to give the wealthiest man in America, with tons at stake, a personal veto on programs.
It's just welfare for billionaires anymore anyway.
Let's not do that.
https://bsky.app/profile/illiteratehunk.bsky.social/post/3l7gaaxkrob2i
I mean, shame about all those out-of-work SpaceX employees, but...