Does this alarm you? Musk has been very busy?

[Anonymous]

"Musk has successfully infiltrated our most critical government agencies, and we literally have no idea what he is actually doing in them. So far, we know that he and his goons have infiltrated the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which houses records on 2.1 million federal workers, as well as anyone who as applied for a federal job. He has taken over the Treasury Department, where as of last last week, a 25 year-old intern with read-write access was actively rewriting the source code of the Bureau of Fiscal Services, which processes almost $5 trillion in federal payments on behalf of the U. S. government. He has barged into the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which tracks the weather. Why? We have no idea. He attempted to shut down funding for USAID, the United States program that provides humanitarian assistance throughout the world and which is a major source of our global soft power — and which Musk characterizes as “a criminal organization. (His team was also reportedly given access to classified information at USAID.) He has gained access to the Department of Labor, and potentially to the data underlying the economic statistics put out by the federal government. He also is seeking (and already has?) access to the Department of Education’s student loan database and has lackeys who are “advising” the acting director of the FBI."

Meanwhile, Trump has been playing golf and just appointed himself the chairman of the board of the Kennedy Center.

[purplepoppy]

He's putting a little * next to everyone who's not going to survive the purge.

Seriously though it's actually difficult to quantify waste. Imagine having to keep a hospital stocked with drugs, chemicals reagents etc. It's near impossible to predict exactly what you need but it's important not to run out before the next shipment, so you always buy a little extra. Thats waste on pen and paper, someone in a hospital would grasp that but not an accountant. Same with the army, they buy tonnes of bullets but hardly kill anyone, it's waste in Musks eyes.

[Asker]

Musk thinks he knows, as does every MAGA and Trump. Waste is anything they dislike.

[exitseven]

These agencies have layers of administrators that all make big salaries. Most "work from home". You could get rid of the whole thing and nobody would be effected but the people tht work there.

[lightbulb27]

He's hired to do a line item audit of the federal budget. That's what he's doing and making recommendations.

When he gets to the military budget and black ops it could get scary because they've not passed an audit in forever. That may have to be kept hush.

He will be the most knowledgeable person.

As it is, the decision is with the president, not him.

[DrPepper12]

You're deluded yourself. This is a MAGA crime spree.

[lightbulb27]

@DrPepper12 if Biden did his job, trump before that, and obama before that, we wouldn't be where we are at... unable to pass a budget, 37+ trillion in debt. Taking a hatchet to the tree is the right thing to do. Only way to do that is as a business does... audit it line item, cut cut cut til finances are in line.
Actually cutting the costs... now that might be illegal since congress appropriates the $. I'd have to hear the lawers arguments on that to figure what is legal. congress writes law/pres signs. whom gets to chop?:) Regan wanted line item veto... should have got.
Does President have right to shut down deparments of his branch of govt? I dunno...
What this shows is how corrupt congress is and has been for decades... and we all knew that.
What he said...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vatuJwovHw

[goaded]

You don't get rid of something you're auditing, an audit is to find out what's going on in order to inform a rational decision making process.

Thanks to Musk, USAID food aid, largely excess bought from US farmers, is rotting in ports around the world. 52,000 private sector jobs have been lost in the US because of the ill-considered actions regarding USAID.

[jshm2]

LOL, He's done nothing and saved nothing so far. The courts are catching up with both crooks Elon and Trump though...

[beefcakebradybatson]

And not a second too soon, jshm2 !!!

[Curmudgeon]

You on the Left have been caught red-handed using taxpayer foreign aid money for your domestic media and election campaigns. People at USAID shouldn't just be fired - they should spend at least a year in White Collar Clink.

[DrPepper12]

Ok Biff

[Asker]

So Curmudgeon do you have Evidence for that or is that just your opinion? If you do have some evidence, would you please link it here? Thank you.

[Fireguy17]

nope, not at all.
He has a job to do and is doing it well.
He could care less about me.
As for playing golf there are very few presidents that did not play golf.
Biden played golf, Obama played every 9.5 days, Clinton played golf, so are you just as disturbed by the fact that they played golf, or was it ok for them to play but not Trump?
Just like in business, a lot of things get accomplished on the golf course.

[CuriousKevin_]

Cue the Bond opening title sequence. Down down da down da down down…

[Pterodon]

Nope he’s just looking for waste and abuse and he’s found it and now you’re pissed

[DrPepper12]

False. He's defunding legislated policy & programs without authority.

[exitseven]

He is saving taxpayers billions of dollars aand its only week two. Wait until he does a deep dive at the Pentagon

[Asker]

Exit I think we both know that he isn't doing this to save the country. Any money. He is far too self-aggrandizing for that. He is doing it to enrich himself even further in some fashion.

[exitseven]

He is not doing this to enrich himself. He has lost millions of dollars since he got into politics. He doesn't even keep his salary.

[DrPepper12]

Saving? What savings?

[exitseven]

@DrPepper12 Just by shutting down USAID he is saving tens of billions of dollars. Granted it was low hanging fruit but Elon Musk is doing something that nobody has done before. He is making the government smaller. There are thousands of agencies in the US Government. Many are just hackaramas for connected democrats who want 6 figure salaries for "working from home" Every American should be pleased that we have a President that wants to cut waste and corruption. It makes me wonder about the people like Chuck Schumer that scream about this. What do they have to hide?
I am going out on a limb and say that as DOGE investigates more government agencies like the Pentagon there will begin the first round of resignations.

[Asker]

we will wind up with nothing but trouble from this.

[exitseven]

Yes, there will be trouble. The rats won't go down without a fight but the American people elected President Trump on a platform that included cutting the federal budget and purging our Federal agencies of members of the deep state.

[DrPepper12]

Power. Economic, military, diplomatic & cultural. It's the cultural soft powers that's most effective

[exitseven]

@DrPepper12 When they are all fired and having their security clearances revoked they can scream all they want. Nobody will care.

[Asker]

They will care when they are the subject of a court order and get sued. Neither Trump nor Musk can just do whatever the fuck they want. It may seem like that now, but soon it will not.

[dustybiker2]

Who did they vote for?

[Dargil]

And almost Ruling The World.

[Asker]

I think you might agree. That is a problem

[Dargil]

Not if it's "almost". That has been our role since WW2.

[Asker]

And the US has made a real hash of it, haven't they?

[Dargil]

Starting with Democrat rule in Vietnam, yes. Except Reagan, a convert, who did better.

[Asker]

Yeah, Lyndon Johnson was a real nightmare regarding Vietnam apparently.

[Dargil]

He was indeed. For race relations, too.

[Anonymous]

I'm so terrified I'm leaving for Canada tomorrow.