This makes a good point — more than half of the fed workforce is in defense, homeland security, or the VA, which means there is no universe the Trump administration would ever cut it by half. But it misses what Vivek and Musk are really talking about. - ThreadSky

jhweissmann.bsky.social • 99 days ago

This makes a good point — more than half of the fed workforce is in defense, homeland security, or the VA, which means there is no universe the Trump administration would ever cut it by half.

But it misses what Vivek and Musk are really talking about.

Reposted from Dario Perkins

My guess is that Muskonomics will never happen. In fact, I'd be surprised if the whole bromance between Trump & Musk is still alive by inauguration.
This from @adamtooze.bsky.social

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jhweissmann.bsky.social•99 days ago

Vivek and Musk have talked about finding cost savings — but the reality is that there just isn't all that much money in the parts of the budget they want to slash. You see those agencies I've circled? That's the salary pool they'd be shrinking.

jhweissmann.bsky.social•99 days ago

What downsizing those agencies would do, however, is shrink the size of the regulatory state. And that really seems to be the main goal here. You see that when Musk says things like: "There are so many regulators that it’s like a sports game with more refs than players on the field!"

jhweissmann.bsky.social•99 days ago

Speaking of which: You might have caught this tweet from Elon. It is, you will be shocked to hear, deeply misleading. Why's that?

Turns out that the vast majority of the increase in the number of "regulators" the graphs show is actually due to the growth of the Department of Homeland Security.

jhweissmann.bsky.social•99 days ago

Since 1980, the total number of "economic" regulators has grown from 31k to 46k. The number of "social" regulators, minus DHS, has grown from 80k to 85k.

moxfyre.bsky.social•99 days ago

What's the breakdown of those rather Orwellian "social regulators"?

My guess is 60% TSA, 25% CBP and ICE, not sure about rest

pt007.bsky.social•99 days ago

📌

rimaregas.com•99 days ago

That, and having full access to see what is in the government inventory that they might get access to.

isaacerbele.bsky.social•98 days ago

I could see them targeting the VA. I hope they don't

stevetownsend0.bsky.social•98 days ago

I wonder if they have budgeted for the new Department of Internment and Forced Labour?

factory051.bsky.social•99 days ago

Why bite the hand that feeds you? Narrative is all ppl will now listen to. Stats don't land.

linelightcolor.bsky.social•99 days ago

I wouldn't put it past them to for all the VA healthcare workers and outsource to a private company that will hire them to do the same jobs, cut services and quality, and extract huge profits from the government contract.

pt007.bsky.social•99 days ago

📌

sevoris.bsky.social•99 days ago

📌

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