DOGE Spending Cuts

[ClydeR]

But there was also an elephant in the rooms they visited: An unspoken understanding that Musk’s stated goal of slashing federal spending by $2 trillion is already DOA.

The reason for this comes down to math.

In fiscal 2023, for example, the federal government spent a total of $6.1 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Of that $6.1 trillion, about $3.8 trillion was already off limits for cuts on day one, legally obligated to go toward mandatory spending programs like Social Security benefits for retired workers, Medicare coverage and veterans benefits.

After that, roughly $650 billion was set aside to pay the interest on the national debt.

This left $1.7 trillion for everything else, known as discretionary funding. $805 billion of this was spent on national defense, a largely untouchable pot of money. Finally, the remainder was divided up among the federal departments that perform much of the visible, daily work of government, agencies like FEMA, NASA, and Customs and Border Protection.

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Math makes DOGE impossible. How did Musk not recognize this simple problem in advance? I bet he got the $2 trillion idea from Grok.

Or am I overlooking something? Surely he wouldn't cut the $3.8 trillion of mandatory spending. If that's how he plans to do it, I predict he'll go after benefits for veterans first. They're politically less powerful.

[~Rocktar~]

A Thread For ClydeR

[ClydeR]

“Here’s how: if your [Social Security number] ends in an odd number, you’re fired,” he wrote.

“That downsizes government by half. Absolutely *nothing* will break as a result,” Ramaswamy claimed.

The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur argued that the plan would not violate civil service rules “because mass layoffs are exempt” and would prevent government employees from claiming their firings were politically motivated.

“Further firings can be executed with a chisel, but Step 1 needs to be an unrestrained chainsaw or else it just won’t happen,” Ramaswamy argued.

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Is Trump's SSN odd or even?

[~Rocktar~]

A Thread For ClydeR

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[ClydeR]

Despite Trump's campaign promises to the contrary, Republicans are already forcing votes on cutting Social Security, even though they do not yet control the Senate. When the GOP picks up a few more seats in January, that could be the tipping point.

“Came close,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) quipped after the presiding chair gaveled the end of the vote.

Paul offered the amendment to offset the cost of the Social Security Fairness Act, a bill to repeal two statutes that limit the payouts to police officers, firefighters, teachers and other state and local public sector workers.

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Paul explained his proposal would raise the retirement age by three months every year and argued Congress will have to raise it sooner or later to save the Social Security’s finances.

“What it does is actually pays for this $200 billion expansion and then some. It has to be done. It will be done at some point. I offered it 13 years ago, and every year we waited, we’ve gotten further behind the 8-ball and it is harder to dig out of this hole,” he said.

[~Rocktar~]

A Thread For ClydeR

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[ClydeR]

As co-chair of the DOGE committee, Vivek Ramaswamy says the U.S. should give more visas to engineers and computer programmers from other countries, because that's whom American companies should prioritize hiring. Americans are mediocre because they spent too much of their youth watching teevee and playing video games. Letting in more foreign nerds would make American great again. Do you agree?

Also, he's going to change the culture so that math olympiad champs are idolized more than prom queens and jocks. Good luck with that.

Vivek Ramaswamy
@VivekGRamaswamy
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:

Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.

A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.

A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.

(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).

More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”

Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.

Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.

“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.

This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.

That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it.

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[ClydeR]

Musk, the second of Trump's two co-chairs leading the DOGE committee is weighing in on the discussion of foreign workers. Musk is showing himself as unreceptive to being questioned. This is not a good omen DOGE's prospects of being able to reduce government spending, an effort that would definitely require being questioned.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1872860577057448306

Musk has reportedly even used his ownership of Twitter to punish conservatives who disagreed with his views on visas for foreign workers..

The online beef between Donald Trump’s Silicon Valley backers and the more traditionally conservative MAGA base has culminated in Elon Musk allegedly using X to censor his fellow Trump supporters.

Laura Loomer, Gavin Mario Wax, ConservativePAC, and Owen Shroyer all had their X verification badges removed Thursday night after criticizing Musk’s stances on labor and immigration earlier in the day.

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[ClydeR]

As co-chair of the DOGE committee, Vivek Ramaswamy says the U.S. should give more visas to engineers and computer programmers from other countries, because that's whom American companies should prioritize hiring. Americans are mediocre because they spent too much of their youth watching teevee and playing video games. Letting in more foreign nerds would make American great again.

I feel like I owe Mr. Ramaswamy an apology. I never meant to get him fired..

The Department of Government Efficiency’s first order of business was itself: It’s now down to one leader.

Vivek Ramaswamy is no longer part of the commission that President Donald Trump championed, officials confirmed hours after the Republican took office Monday, and that leaves billionaire Elon Musk to run the cost-cutting operation alone.

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[Furryrat]