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

[pokemonster]

awesome stuff from Elon. What a complete POS. 

And here he is neglecting his children while he's throwing a hissy fit and calling the commander of the ISS a r*tard because he was proven to be a liar once again. 

[jross]

I would bet 100 pushups that both Andreas and Musk are correct, but Musk is the asshole.  Picking one is the suckers choice.

I wonder what sort of NDAs and contracts Musk has with his women about their children.  An absent father is a bad father.

[Offthemat]

 

[1032004]

I guess this is Musk’s response to the job cuts:

 

The downside IMO is that it likely creates more competition for the available jobs and potentially brings down wages.  I did see a few comments saying maybe companies shouldn’t need as many H1B visas then, but we know Musk’s opinion on those…

[Husker_Du]

idk why you keep posting about federal employee cuts affecting the economy.

that shouldn't be a concern. 

it's not the taxpayers' responsibility to fund unneeded jobs to artificial buoy wages. that's just a shell game (and what Biden did as soon as he got in office. check the data on jobs added under biden and then see what % of them were federal/government jobs. it was a sham.)

[1032004]

10 minutes ago, Husker_Du said:

idk why you keep posting about federal employee cuts affecting the economy.

that shouldn't be a concern. 

it's not the taxpayers' responsibility to fund unneeded jobs to artificial buoy wages. that's just a shell game (and what Biden did as soon as he got in office. check the data on jobs added under biden and then see what % of them were federal/government jobs. it was a sham.)

Two things can be true at once.

1) The jobs being cut are not needed.

2) The jobs being cut could have a negative impact to the economy, at least in the short-term

My biggest fear with DOGE is the job cuts (which would include private sector jobs that depended on now-cancelled government contracts), especially since the potential savings probably isn’t a big % of what can be cut.

Unemployment drives the economy IMO.   Biden’s economy was not great, but it was not a disaster due to strong employment numbers. If unemployment increases due to all these government workers getting fired, house prices go down.  If house prices go down (which I know many will claim is a good thing), that affects the many industries tied to housing and the cycle continues down the line.

[Husker_Du]

26 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Two things can be true at once.

1) The jobs being cut are not needed.

2) The jobs being cut could have a negative impact to the economy, at least in the short-term

True and true.

26 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

My biggest fear with DOGE is the job cuts (which would include private sector jobs that depended on now-cancelled government contracts),

true

26 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

especially since the potential savings probably isn’t a big % of what can be cut.

if it's superfluous, cut it. idgaf. 

26 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

Biden’s economy was not great, but it was not a disaster due to strong employment numbers.

strong employment numbers almost ENTIRELY because he hired a bazillion new federal employees. look it up.

not to mention the inevitable return of of workers/jobs following covid.

26 minutes ago, 1032004 said:

If unemployment increases due to all these government workers getting fired, house prices go down.  If house prices go down (which I know many will claim is a good thing), that affects the many industries tied to housing and the cycle continues down the line.

i don't care.

i don't care.

i don't care.

you don't have a bloated government full of superfluous jobs that the american taxpayers foot the bill for b/c you want to artificially inflate the economy. that's called socialism. 

the market / private sector will correct itself over time. (and yes i'm fully expecting the economy to slip a bit and then watch all the libtards play gotcha)

[1032004]

39 minutes ago, Husker_Du said:

True and true.

true

if it's superfluous, cut it. idgaf. 

strong employment numbers almost ENTIRELY because he hired a bazillion new federal employees. look it up.

not to mention the inevitable return of of workers/jobs following covid.

i don't care.

i don't care.

i don't care.

you don't have a bloated government full of superfluous jobs that the american taxpayers foot the bill for b/c you want to artificially inflate the economy. that's called socialism. 

the market / private sector will correct itself over time. (and yes i'm fully expecting the economy to slip a bit and then watch all the libtards play gotcha)

I believe you that Biden added a lot of federal jobs. But jobs in the private sector were strong also.

But yes, your last paragraph is pretty much all I’ve been saying.  Hopefully it’s just “a bit.”  But in addition to libtards trying to play gotcha there will also be Republicans that lost their jobs regretting their vote (but of course we don’t know if it would have been worse under Harris).

[headshuck]

[1032004]

16 hours ago, jross said:

Would you stop guessing and think critically?  What, When, Where, Who, Why, How.

There was a misplaced DOGE slam because of the "mistake" of $8B saved for a contract that was actually $8M.  I asked "how could this mistake have been made."  This led me to identify that the contract said $8 Billion from Sept 2022 through Jan 22 2025.  The mistake is not on DOGE for grabbing the available information.  The mistake is on whomever entered the wrong number in Sept 2022, and whatever process allowed that mistake to go unnoticed.  We'd then need to go think critically about how that occurred.  Then what and or should DOGE execute to prevent bad contract data from impacting them in the future?

Please review the language on the website.  What do you think it means?  I'm doing a lot of thinking for others...

It is correct that the original mistake was made in 2022, but according to the community note (hopefully Musk doesn’t delete it for speaking out against DOGE), the claim of $8 billion linked back to the already revised contract saying $8 million.

 

In addition, they apparently corrected other errors (and only those errors and not other things that were likely impacted by the same methodology flaws) called out by this anonymous x user, but did not change the overall $55 billion number.

 

 

Edited 16 hours ago by 1032004

[pokemonster]

Just now, 1032004 said:

It is correct that the original mistake was made in 2022, but according to the community note (hopefully Musk doesn’t delete it for speaking out against DOGE), the claim of $8 billion linked back the already revised contract saying $8 million.

 

In addition, they apparently corrected other errors (and only those errors and not other things that were likely impacted by the same methodology flaws) called out by this anonymous x user, but did not change the overall $55 billion number.

 

 

Exactly, it's either incompetence or straight up lying. And their leader, Musk, isn't very credible.

[1032004]

Serious question, what is the budget for DOGE salaries and expenses?  IIRC, Musk himself wasn’t being paid?

[jross]

33 minutes ago, pokemonster said:

Exactly, it's either incompetence or straight up lying. And their leader, Musk, isn't very credible.

 

Good job from folks on skepticism and the fact checking.

Consider this...

• A group was created to identify and advise on wasteful spending
• The group is proclaiming transparency, and has shown more transparency then I've seen in my lifetime
• It is actually the transparency that allowed the public to identify the mistake
• Some transparency is delayed as putting out fires is more important than documenting fires
• Pick 1 or 2 out of speed, scope, and quality.  DOGE has clearly picked speed and scope.  Classic.
• This administration is repeatedly communicating in favor of truth, directly counter to the lies form the media and previous administrations.  They are still going to lie... but they are making a big deal about transparency and truth in response to egregious gaslighting and lies..
• Self-generated public visibility has created pressure to find savings

Was it an honest mistake?

• Simplest answer; the original 8B was a clerical error that carried over into the work.

Was it deliberate inflation?

• No.  This runs counter to the principles that drew people to help.

Was it initially an honest mistake that was then exploited?

• Given a range of numbers, picking the highest is a natural tendency for this particular project.  But $8M vs $8B is too big a number to just "pick."  Was the worker fired for bad behavior?  No.  Most likely it is human error.  Copy / paste or programmatic.  How many errors do we posters make?  Another consideration is why they did not publicly talk about the mistake... but that doesn't strike me as unethical; it isn't something people do.  Who admits when they are wrong on this board?  Who apologizes?

[jross]

1 hour ago, 1032004 said:

Serious question, what is the budget for DOGE salaries and expenses?  IIRC, Musk himself wasn’t being paid?

DOGE is about $15M and its going to keep growing.  

There was an executive order that repurposed the United States Digital Service to DOGE, and mandated embedding "DOGE teams" in every federal agency. Each team has a team leader, engineer, HR specialist, and attorney.  Each will have salaries, travel, and so on. 50 agencies getting a four-person team at an average salary of $100,000 per person annually is $20 million a year just for personnel.  Let's say the price goes to $100M between now and its expiration next year.  Is it worth it?  Yep!  Spend money to make/save money!

USDS had been funded at $25M with an increase proposed to $30M before DOGE...

[Bigbrog]

Am I the only one who finds it absolutely laughable that people are hanging their hat as a gotcha over simple corrected mistake...how much crazier are people going to get after 3.75 more years of this??

[Scouts Honor]

so then maybe long term , these cuts are good for the economy.

just spitballin

[1032004]

53 minutes ago, Bigbrog said:

Am I the only one who finds it absolutely laughable that people are hanging their hat as a gotcha over simple corrected mistake...how much crazier are people going to get after 3.75 more years of this??

Well they technically didn’t correct it in the amount saved that they are claiming…