How in the world did the government spending get so far off the tracks? In less than a month Elon will and his 20 year olds will pry 1 trillion dollars out of the politicians cold dead hands. will

[mspart]

What is the left's argument to not cut waste?  I'll bet it doesn't make much sense to the general public.

mspart

[1032004]

2 hours ago, Caveira said:

Unless the contract was set to renew for another 4/5 years +.   Do a lot of gov contracts get killed (pre doge)?

I have no idea.  I assume you’re implying they don’t normally get killed.  But if you look at it that way then DOGE could claim cancelling a $10 million annual contract was worth $1 billion over the next 100 years or something stupid 

[fishbane]

26 minutes ago, Caveira said:

Is it that they don’t have receipts or other nuggets….. or is it conveniently being withheld.   I’ve been through audits for a company.  Where unit a stonewalled unit b.   Depending on what dirt a had in this sort of contrived example.   Red tape is a thing.   A real thing.   I bet the gov is good at it too.    

It is often inconvenient to give receipts that don't match up with public statements. Musk pretended to be turned the homes on the desperate housewives set into solar powered homes back in 2018. Back in January he was pretended to be an elite Path of Exile 2 player.  Might he be pretending to cut $1 trillion from the budget now? 

I didn't say it was impossible for it to be true, just that it shouldn't be believed without receipts.  After all the public statements Musk has made that were later found to be either outright false or gross exaggerations, only someone that is incredibly gullible would take his claims at face value.

[Caveira]

1 minute ago, 1032004 said:

I have no idea.  I assume you’re implying they don’t normally get killed.  But if you look at it that way then DOGE could claim cancelling a $10 million annual contract was worth $1 billion over the next 100 years or something stupid 

I don’t care about the nuance or credit people are or are not taking.  Keep cancelling the fluff.   Fluff be gone.   

yes i Am implying gov stuff seems to go on forever.  

here is a good example.   Not spend per se but taxes.   It’s now been 50 years lol   

A popular phrase in Illinois a few decades ago was "Toll free in 1973." That was the year, 1973, that Illinois taxpayers had been promised their original 187 miles of tollways would be paid off and the roads would be turned into freeways.

[Caveira]

For the left leaners here.  Is this more transparency than “bidenomics is working”.   Or is it less transparency.  

Edited February 24 by Caveira

[1032004]

3 minutes ago, Caveira said:

I don’t care about the nuance or credit people are or are not taking.  Keep cancelling the fluff.   Fluff be gone.   

yes i Am implying gov stuff seems to go on forever.  

here is a good example.   Not spend per se but taxes.   It’s now been 50 years lol   

A popular phrase in Illinois a few decades ago was "Toll free in 1973." That was the year, 1973, that Illinois taxpayers had been promised their original 187 miles of tollways would be paid off and the roads would be turned into freeways.

I agree cut the fluff.  But we should care about how how much is actually being cut and if it is actually making a dent in reducing the debt, or on track to hit what IIRC was Musk’s stated goal of $2 trillion 

[Caveira]

1 minute ago, 1032004 said:

I agree cut the fluff.  But we should care about how how much is actually being cut and if it is actually making a dent in reducing the debt, or on track to hit what IIRC was Musk’s stated goal of $2 trillion 

Now comment on the tolls : taxes       Errrrr I refer them to teeny peeny little white lies where they knew they would keep robing us forever.  Ha.  

[Le duke]

I have no idea.  I assume you’re implying they don’t normally get killed.  But if you look at it that way then DOGE could claim cancelling a $10 million annual contract was worth $1 billion over the next 100 years or something stupid 

Well, they are doing similar to that, actually.

DOGE cancelled a $665M contract with USAID. It only had two years at $75M, each, left. But they counted it as ALL $665M being cancelled.

And then they counted it again. And another time.

So, they went from $150M to $2B.

Or, better yet, “cancel” hundreds of contracts that have already expired and count them towards the total.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pokemonster]

1 hour ago, Caveira said:

For the left leaners here.  Is this more transparency than “bidenomics is working”.   Or is it less transparency.  

idk about bidenomics but they're sure as hell not being transparent when they're straight up lying to get the entire nation worked up. they continue to say "massive fraud" - where is the fraud? yes, there's plenty of stupid ass spending in the budget, but it's not fraud. they are outright lying. all of their ridiculous claims are easily debunked immediately. $50 or $100M in condoms to Hamas? Get effing real. People are still saying that was a fact and same with the social security paying millions of dead people over the age of 150. it's straight up lies. "this might be the biggest fraud in history". they're stirring the pot to divide the nation even more and it's working. 

[Caveira]

“Some” transparency is better than your little padded bunker in the basement my friend.   Sleep well.  

[fishbane]

50 minutes ago, Caveira said:

“Some” transparency is better than your little padded bunker in the basement my friend.   Sleep well.  

Selective transparency can be just as misleading. 

[jross]

A dimly lit room is always better than a pitch black room.

[Caveira]

Keep up the transparency.   
 

 

[fishbane]

23 minutes ago, jross said:

A dimly lit room is always better than a pitch black room.

Not necessarily the most apt metaphor.  Could be more like a dark theater.  Shining a spotlight on what you want the audience to focus on allows things to happen that go unnoticed.   The contrast is the problem.  You only see what is illuminated allowing stagehands to shuffle around unnoticed in relative darkness.

[Caveira]

2 minutes ago, fishbane said:

Not necessarily the most apt metaphor.  Could be more like a dark theater.  Shining a spotlight on what you want the audience to focus on allows things to happen that go unnoticed.   The contrast is the problem.  You only see what is illuminated allowing stagehands to shuffle around unnoticed in relative darkness.

Light years better than trust me bidenomics is working and the president is a competent and super totally not a vegetable Winkie winkie  style of transparency    

 

does the left want 0 progress cutting government waste?  It’s hard to tell what y’all actually want.   

[fishbane]

Just now, Caveira said:

Light years better than trust me bidenomics is working and the president is a competent and super totally not a vegetable Winkie winkie  style of transparency    

 

does the left want 0 progress cutting government waste?  It’s hard to tell what y’all actually want.   

When Musk unveiled the Tesla Semi he spotlighted the great acceleration and 500mi all with a total weight of 81,000lbs.  He steered far away from publicly stating what portion of that number was cargo, which really is the most important weight number.  Why do you reckon he would do such a thing?  Could it be that the cargo capacity is embarrassingly low?

The only commercial user of the Tesla Semi that I am aware of is Pepsi Co and they use it to transport chips.  Pepsi Co says that when transporting a load of potato chips they get a range of around 450mi on a charge however a trailer full of soda only gets 100mi.  I think we know why he did it.

I don't think wanting to cut out waste and abuse is a left or right issue.  Waste, fraud, and abuse should be eliminated. The problem is that Elon Musk is a fraudster.  He's been on the supply side of fraud for years and now he is going to eliminate it?

[mspart]

So fishy, it's  not that you don't want waste reduced and/or eliminated, it's that it's not being done by someone acceptable to you.  So let them cut the waste and see about everything you are concerned about when it is over.  Then you can decide if it was enough for you. 

Right now, you are yelling at Johnny Appleseed because he's just throwing seeds all around rather then digging a hole and planting seeds.   Apple trees essentially just throw their seeds all around.  Now this is just an example. 

mspart

[Husker_Du]

i'll tell ya one way in which this type of stuff translates to our beloved wrestling....

there are too many cooks in the kitchen in almost every sector of business these days.

management, management, management. a management team to oversee the managers. an assistant management team. etc. etc. 

at UC Berkely, there's one administrator for every 4 students. no wonder tuition is high. no wonder they can't balance their books. no wonder sports get dropped. 

[Husker_Du]

1 minute ago, mspart said:

So fishy, it's  not that you don't want waste reduced and/or eliminated, it's that it's not being done by someone acceptable to you.  So let them cut the waste and see about everything you are concerned about when it is over.  Then you can decide if it was enough for you. 

Right now, you are yelling at Johnny Appleseed because he's just throwing seeds all around rather then digging a hole and planting seeds.   Apple trees essentially just throw their seeds all around.  Now this is just an example. 

mspart

that's the funny thing...

it don't matter who was put in that role, the left would hate them all just the same. 

i will say though, that Musks amplification of things and being incorrect several times, does him no favors. 

[red viking]

6 hours ago, mspart said:

What is the left's argument to not cut waste?  I'll bet it doesn't make much sense to the general public.

mspart

The problem is that this isn't about cutting waste. It's about making federal agencies unable to enforce regulations, and not going through congress. The actual cuts being made are jack squat. 

[fishbane]

4 hours ago, mspart said:

So fishy, it's  not that you don't want waste reduced and/or eliminated, it's that it's not being done by someone acceptable to you.  So let them cut the waste and see about everything you are concerned about when it is over.  Then you can decide if it was enough for you. 

Right now, you are yelling at Johnny Appleseed because he's just throwing seeds all around rather then digging a hole and planting seeds.   Apple trees essentially just throw their seeds all around.  Now this is just an example. 

mspart

Sparty its not just that the wrong person is doing it, but they are doing it in a disorganized and chaotic manner which in turn makes it less likely to realize the desired result.  The fact that Elon Musk was given the task all but guaranteed this is how things would play out.

I think your metaphor throws out the baby with the bath water.  Appleseed isn't just throwing around his seed, it's the US taxpayers' and at the same time he owns his own apple orchard and runs a shady roadside fruit stand.   Meanwhile Appleseed calls USAID's apples a ball of worms and shuts down the entire agency.  However USAID gets their apples by buying $2 billion annually in apple seed and other agricultural products from US farmers to distribute as aid across the globe.  So some of the people most hurt by the USAID cuts will be... American farmers.

[fishbane]

5 hours ago, Husker_Du said:

that's the funny thing...

it don't matter who was put in that role, the left would hate them all just the same. 

Conservatives have fewer complaints about overspending when it's a Republican in office doing it.  Liberals complain less about budget cuts when Democrats are carrying them out. 

[Husker_Du]

fair point.

but perhaps this is where we should stop saying 'left' and 'right' and doing what's best.

and you better wake up, because that's exactly what happened. Trump was elected to fight government corruption. poo poo that notion and spin it anyway that makes you sleep better, but that's exactly what happened...all the way down to massive reversals among black males.

so y'all stfu about 'left and right' and 'it's not making a dent (yet)'.

you're dense, and you're making a fool out of yourselves. 

you sound like mother hens a god damn knitting party. trying to add nuance to something that is as simple as removing fat.

there are mountains of government waste that we pay for. you dorks literally pay for it. and you're crying about trying to curb it. listen to your effing selves for five seconds and realize the utter nonsense you espouse for nothing more than party politics. 

if there's a project or 'aid' that's superfluous or excessive....slash it. that's the mandate.

none of us care if it's a line item from the left or the right. we care that our nation's elected officials can't balance a check book and spend like sailors on leave. it's not effing complicated. 

[fishbane]

The crack team at DOGE initially reported USAID spent $50MM on condoms sent to Gaza.  Trump and his officials thought it was wasteful to send this to Palestine and implied it was likely misappropriated by Hamas to buy bombs because they have no use for condoms.  The condoms were sent to Gaza, but it was Gaza the Providence in the country of Mozambique where over 10% of the adult population has HIV...

DOGE are cutting things they don't understand in a chaotic and disorganized manner.  That ain't efficiency.  

A bunch of workers in the Department of Energy were hastily let go.  Turns out many had important positions managing warheads and disposing of nuclear waste.  Now they are trying to hire them back.

https://apnews.com/article/nuclear-doge-firings-trump-federal-916e6819104f04f44c345b7dde4904d5

That isn't removing fat so much as cutting off your own foot only to then realize your folly and then have to try and reattach it.  No one is complaining about cancelling unnecessary WinZip licenses, superfluous subscriptions, or stopping payments to actually dead or nonexistant people.  Not many would complain about trimming the federal workforce in a well thought out and organized manner but why do it in a way that antagonizes those managing our nuclear weapons?

[headshuck]

On the positive side, there’s the uncovering USAid funding for media groups and journalists.