Comment on Im thinking we still have a deeper bottom
OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
Especially when the first things they do are start taking apart consumer and environmental protections, disband social safety nets, increase taxes (tariffs) on imported goods, attack FEMA, and stop farm subsidies, all of which hurt the working class.
Not only do people still believe the ridiculous lie, they believe it despite the mountain of evidence they don’t give a fuck about you.
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You hate the Republican party so much you support government waste over accountability for our tax dollars. That’s completely insane.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 1 week ago
You hate people who want to be genuinely free to the point that you support stripping freedoms from others.
I hate freedom-haters like you. If you don’t like it here, get out.
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I don’t hate anyone. You are free to be as angry as you like, no one cares.
RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Your ignorant speech and actions say otherwise. People do care, otherwise you wouldn’t be responding, limp jackass.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
Lmao you think what’s happening now is going to increase accountability?
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Explain how it hasn’t.
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 week ago
No, because you are clearly arguing in bad faith
Carrot@lemmy.today 1 week ago
Based on their reported numbers, DOGE has “saved” the US 55B so far. Based on actual receipts, it has “saved” 8B dollars.
Let’s say they aren’t lying, and they have in fact saved 55B in the last 4 months. Let’s also say for the sake of the argument that they are somehow able to keep up this pace for the entirety of the 4 year term.
That would be 660B dollars. It sounds like a lot, right? 660B in 4 years. However, basing off of this year’s budget, the military would have spent 3.2T dollars. This means we’ve only saved 20% of what the military spends in the same amount of time.
Currently, the DoD cannot account for 2.46T dollars. That means that doge will have “saved” only 26% of the DoD’s spending discrepancy. Remember, these numbers are based on the savings that Doge claims but have not proven.
If we use the number that they actually have receipts for, (8B) and still assume they will somehow keep their pace for the full 4 year term, they will have saved 96B. That would mean that they will have saved 4% of the DoD’s spending discrepancy, or 3% of the DoD’s budget for those 4 years, or 11% of the DoD’s yearly budget, which is actually expected to keep going up year over year.
Realistically, the amount of money “saved” by the DOGE will be somewhere between those two numbers, and given the track record of the government, as well as Musk, it’s likely closer to the 8B than the 55B.
Sorry, that was a lot of numbers to throw out there all at once, but my point is this: DOGE is going after the wrong places to find wasted money in the government. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut spending for departments that have such a long track record of aggregiously overspending? Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut funding from programs that would have less negative impact on the lives of normal US citizens?
Imagine that, instead of cutting all of these programs, ones that are helping the lives of millions of Americans, we instead gave the military somewhere between 80% and 97% of the money it was expecting, and had the exact same amount of savings of our taxes, while still putting money into the development of future generations.
crmsnbleyd@sopuli.xyz 1 week ago
Are consumer protections government waste?
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
They “are” for those people who are too stupid to understand that individual consumers don’t have the time, expertise, access to inside information on company processes and their own labs so that they don’t need to rely on regulators to make sure they’re not buying and consuming dangerous shit, and can do it all by themselves as individuals.
The “too stupid to understand regulators are there to do what individuals don’t have the time, expertise and power to do as individuals” neatly brings us around exactly to the point the OP was making.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Any system large enough is going to have waste and fraud. That doesn’t mean the system shouldn’t exist, and it certainly means that the system shouldn’t be handed over to the largest wasters and fraudsters on the planet.
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Are you talking about the ones that are actually reporting the waste and fraud, lmao.
I do agree that there is a huge opportunity for waste and fraud in a large system, that’s why most have third party auditing.
Denjin@lemmings.world 1 week ago
Why hasn’t DOGE cut spending on Tesla subsidies? Extremely wasteful to be spending billions on tax breaks for a company making nothing of use to the American public that’s ethos runs exactly opposite to the “drill drill drill” principal of this administration?
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Yeah. Why cut funding and staff for the IRS, which has like a 30/1 ROI? Why cut support for NASA which has ~10/1 ROI?
Because DOGE is a misnomer. It’s purely a tool to implement project 2025 goals.
FunkFakin420@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Our system
has/had accountability baked into it. Rather than rely on our separation of powers and independent inspectors general, you chuckle fucks, in your infinite lack of wisdom, decided to hand our government over to a Nazi billionaire with glaring conflicts of interest.Accountability? Puuuuuuhlease.
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Nazi billionaire…you really drank the Kool aid didn’t you.
Would you rather we continue to tax and spend? You sound extremely liberal, so I’ll assume yes.
FunkFakin420@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Nah, I’ll save the Kool aid for you cultists. I believe what my eyes tell me.
Colonel_Panic_@lemm.ee 1 week ago
Are you trying to tell us that the guy that has billions of dollars and also did Nazi salutes on stage where we all saw it clearly… somehow is actually NOT a Nazi billionaire?
If he acts like a Nazi, talks like a Nazi, salutes like a Nazi. He might just be a Nazi
And if he has billions of dollars he might just be a billionaire.
Doomsider@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Oh look, someone else to block.
Sanctus@lemmy.world 1 week ago
OBG stands for Ol’ Boy Gobbler
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Obviously Been Grifted.
Holyginz@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I don’t hate the republican party. But the current party isn’t the republican party. I disagreed with the republican party, which is different. The current iteration has people in charge who have literally no understanding or don’t actually care how the government works and what is needed. They aren’t reducing “waste”, they are just using that as an excuse to try and get rid of anything they don’t like or don’t agree with. The sooner you start to understand that the better. Because you don’t have enough understanding of what’s actually going on to have a legitimate discussion about it. It’s like someone who doesn’t understand algebra trying to have a discussion about calculus.
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world 1 week ago
How old are you? 'Cause the Republican party has been outright fascists for decades now. You’d have to go really far back to find an iteration of the party which was in any way reasonable.
Holyginz@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Early 30s. I’ve never agreed with the republican party, but it seemed to me that at one point they were at least trying to improve things, even if their ideas were stupid.
Colonel_Panic_@lemm.ee 1 week ago
The reason you are being down voted is because the current administration is not doing that. They SAY that’s what they are doing, but pay attention to their actual actions and who is benefitting. Look at the outcomes. It is the opposite of what you want.
Here is the crazy thing, I am very left wing, but I agree with you on the point of bringing down wasteful spending and that we should have accountability for government spending and such. But Trump and Elon are not at all doing those things. They are in this for their own selfish desires and agendas and they have convinced a lot of people otherwise. They are cutting the parts of government that oppose them or that they don’t like and none of that is going to have any significant impact on the budget. Go look up how much we spend on our defense budget or other big costs. Maybe we should stop sending bombs all over the world? Maybe we don’t need to spend more than half the other countries on earth combined? Maybe we shouldn’t have a system that allows a dozen people to have more wealth stolen and hoarded from the rest of the country? Maybe we need some fair wages for our hard work so that you and I can be a hard working American that gets fairly paid for our labors? The American Dream doesn’t work if you can work your whole life and still be in debt, while someone else can rake in billions without working at all, but simply because they own you and the company you work for.
I would wager that you and I want the same things. To be able to work and provide for ourselves and our family, to have enough to eat and have a home and hobbies and enjoy life. We want to feel like we contribute to our community. We want to create things and fix things and make things around us better for ourselves and others. We want to love and be loved. We want a government that REPRESENTS the people and invests in things that benefit us and help us and doesn’t waste it or tax us unfairly for it.
So why do you think the Republican party is helping you when they have a track record of voting for tax cuts to the billionaires and mega corporations and simultaneously raising your individual taxes? Why are they telling you to fear and hate immigrants when they are the backbone and the reason our country even started? Why are they telling you to fear and hate trans people that just want to exist and be who they are? Why are they NOT saying a word about the trillions of wasted money on military? The trillions stolen from us hard working Americans that goes into the pockets of the already rich like Elon? Could it be that they are lying to us?
Go look at the actions they make and look past the words they speak and tell me what you find.
oldbaldgrumpy@lemmy.world 6 days ago
Thanks for taking the time for such a thoughtful response. I do believe there is much more common ground between us all and it would be great if we focused on and built off of that.
As far as down votes…that’s what happens when you offer a conservative opinion on a liberal site. Maybe one day I’ll learn not to reply.
Denjin@lemmings.world 6 days ago
Good job building off that common ground.
GladiusB@lemmy.world 1 week ago
Way to sound stupid in under two sentences