Will Elon and Vivek succeed in cutting the deficit by 2 trillion dollars?

[coachTanthony]

Yes

Nah

[Anpu23]

Thats about 1/3rd of the federal budget. The easy target is social security with an annual budget of about 1.4T. If they eliminate SS they'd be well on their way...

Except that I would imagine that they would face a huge series of lawsuits as they have been collecting that tax from virtually every American. Hard to say "we just stole your money" and not face backlash. Next easy target is interest with an annual budget of 882B if we defaulted on our loans that could also get us close.

Except that when we talk about government loans we are talking about bonds and notes when you talk about defaulting you are saying that we will not honor treasury bonds you can imagine what that would do to many people who have saved for their retirement just to find out that their carefully set up bond payouts are worth crap. Next would be either health care programs or national defense. together they represent 1.8T. Everything else comes in together at just under 1.5T that includes prisons and domestic security...

Another way to do it would be just a general cut to all government agencies budget by roughly half and tell them to suck it up.

Is it possible? Sure, is it a bit ambitious probably.

[lightbulb27]

very exciting... yes. but how to do that without sending economy down the tubes...

most of those workers are not used to private industry. the cash cow where the $ is dropped out of trees into economy will be crushing to real estate. maybe thats a good thing for a while to reset.

tough to manage all that change.

[Kelley1]

Because of the Supreme Court ruling, the president can no longer withhold funds appropriated by Congress nor can the president Line Item Veto the items. Therefore, there is no way to reduce government spending by two trillion dollars.

Congress is bought and paid for. Therefore, they will pass the money bills and will not reduce spending.

[sage2021]

I believe they will!!

But then if the next president is a Democrat they'll start spending like crazy and run it right back up again. Like little children with their parents credit cards!!

[loveslongnails]

Vivek --- the guy who scammed his way to all his money? That guy?
You folks don't realize what cutting 80% of government staff would do this country... say these words "Great Depression". Can we be way more efficient? Sure. But you fail to understand something vital to role of government:
It's NOT supposed to be a FOR-PROFIT BUSINESS!!! It's supposed to break even while supplying a full range of services and necessary infrastructure for the PEOPLE who pay taxes. If it happens to have a surplus, then you're paying too much in taxes or more infrastructure could be fixed.

[coachTanthony]

lol.

[WindAtMyBack]

I think those guys vastly underestimate how big the government is, how entrenched it is, how bureaucratic it is, and how many others at all levels have tried to do the same thing and failed.

I'm sure they will cut some things, maybe a lot. But they won't get rid of the vast amounts of red tape, waste, government bullshit, strong personalities with even stronger opinions, etc etc.

There are so many layers of bureaucracy, that the people at the top have no clue what's happening with the people actually doing the work. Nor do the people doing the work care what the people at the top say or do. They will just keep doing their job like they always have... and nobody more than a couple layers up will know the difference.

[hahahmm]

I would go beyond that and make it law that government workers can't get any more job benefits or pension than the average non government worker. Without exception, whether you are a low level worker or a high level person. You're not getting a life long pension because you had a government management job for 4 years. Nah.

[NathanDavis]

what you actually hear from the guys at the stock markets and what they're preparing and investing on, today...

is that they do expect for the deficit to increase at the rate of something around one trillion every 100 days... or around 8 trillion dollars under the Trump term... nobody who actually knows about this stuff actually believes that the deficit can drastically or magically reversed...

[Surely]

I am sure the federal government is about the same as state governments. It totally baffles me. When during or a prediction of inclimate weather. It comes across the news. That all “Nonessential “ employees to stay home!
I wonder just how many people that includes?

[dragoblack]

If you ever seen the movie idiocracy, trumps trump's cabinet is same setup as in the movie. Don't trust this to get better, none of his cabinet is qualified for their positions and follows the project 2025 plan of getting rid of and weakening those departments of government for companies to do whatever they want from firing over a whim, to paying slave wages, to working people to death with no repercussions, to not giving insurance of any kind, to not paying unemployment, to heavily polluting the environment.

[saraupstairs]

Yes. And, Coach, remember when they told that ant that he couldn't move a rubber tree plant?

[phraseology]

If you look at all the ways Democrats embezzle tax payer money to their socialist cronies so that they don't ever have to work, it sounds pretty easy. Here are just a few Democrat projects to promote LGBTQ, communist collectivism, to undermine christianity, etc.

https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1856538155211526300

[molonski2]

Whereas I kinda agree with him on Twitter , not sure the deficit is going to be quite that easy.

[AviatorTom]

I give them a better chance to do it than Joe and Kamala had.

[Anonymous]

I'm really interested to see what the highly motivated and capable class of 2025 get up to. Moving institutions around the country, reducing their size, disbanding covens, identifying bad actors, all sound very interesting ideas.
They may just teach the world a thing or two.

[Lynx122]

Twitter has literally lost 80% of its value since Musk bought it so if you wanna do that with the country too then go for it. I'm sure other countries will love the chance to take over some of your business :)

[DrPepper12]

You think Twitter is working fine? JFC how long have you been on Twitter? It's a algorithm ruled cesspool of fun house mirrors, bigotry and other assorted detrius of humanity.

And 2 TRILLION dollars? In a 4 year term? I want what your smoking!

[Daniela1982]

Especially if Trump carries out all the things he wants to, and promised to do. And that will take lots of money.

[sawno]

No idea but i'm going to enjoy watching them try.

[slatyb]

Trump and the Republicans will pass further tax cuts for the rich and blow up the deficit.

[Anonymous]

I'm expecting a lot of people to be fired over the coming month

quality >>>>>>>>>>> quantity

[RedInnocent69]

Nope. They may reduce the deficit slightly in year one, but the impact of tax cuts will substantially increase the deficit and debt in years two to four.

[FunkyMonkee]

It's possible! Considering some of the incredibly STUPID shit the money's getting spent on

[Anonymous]

They will idenify that much to cut, congress won't cut it thou

[BetaBucks]

My money's on this answer. It's easy to point to the waste, it's hard to cut it off. At best, budgets might be frozen while agencies are told to be more responsible with what they have. But Congress still needs to be on board. Zero chance Congress tells an agency to cut 25%+ of their staffing or to find cheaper contracts for external expenses. People will literally be assassinated for trying something like that.

[Opinion Owner]

@BetaBucks If they were serous they would use the existing deficit and fail to authorize more dept (what the media calls "shutting down the goverment"). Then simply refuse to pay theses people until such time that they quit or the law that allows thier position to be abolished after soo much time goes into effect.

That would get rid of a good fraction of the federal employees.

[Anonymous]

Anyone can say anything. Doing is a whole other matter.

[Likes2drive]

Better chance a business man like Trump and Musk doing it than a politician

[BCRanger10]

I certainly hope so.

[Ladsin2]

I was expecting more like 69 trillion, but whatever.

[Dongie]

🎱 all signs point to yes

[captain_voidwalker]

Well they can't do any worse than we are right now

[noohair]

Swamp monsters are hard to kill.

[WatchedPot]

If he donates. A lot.

[beefcakebradybatson]

SCREW MUSKY AND 'SWAMY !!!

[msc545]

Of course not. It doesn't matter anyway.

[katiesmuff]

I have my doubts!

[exitseven]

Yes, by 2027.

[Dargil]

Maybe more.

[Dargil]

Federal government waste and fraud is rampant. The Drunkies and the Druggies have been milking it for 50+years. Maybe Really Rich Guys can do something about it. Add Musk and Vivek to the Candidates For Assassination list with Trump and Vance.

[Fireguy17]

time will tell.